Last week I saw a booklet that showcased the impact COVID 19 has had as seen through the eyes of women leaders in the motorcoach industry. I was so impressed that I reached out to see how I could help amplify the message. Three of the women who were involved in the initiative: Liz Hall, Mimi Velder, and Sandy Borowsky, along with Pete Pantuso of ABA graciously agreed to participate in a Zoom interview. You can watch the video here, or read the transcript below. Either way, take the action steps at the end of the post! [The transcript has been edited for clarity]
Sally: I’d like to start by introducing everyone and having them tell a little bit about themselves. Sandy – can we start with you?
Sandy: Thank you, Sally, so much for having me. My name is Sandy Borowsky, I am 3rd generation family owners of Starr Tours in central New Jersey. We normally operate 40 motor coaches and employ over a hundred staff: drivers, mechanics, office staff, and others. I’m pleased to be here.
Sally: Mimi can I call upon you next give us a little background about yourself.
Mimi: Sure I am Mimi Vielhauer and I am with MCA transportation in Orlando Florida and I handle the Sales and Marketing.
Sally: Thank you and Liz, a little bit about you? Liz is our early riser this morning!
Liz:  I am Elizabeth Hall and I’m with a company called John Hall’s Alaska which my family owns and operates out of Lake City Minnesota just south of Minneapolis and Anchorage Alaska, which is where I am. I am also the chair of Women in Buses as well.
Sally:Â Women in Buses Council is part of the American Bus Association. I know many of you are familiar with Pete Pantuso but Pete if you’d like to introduce yourself and give us a little background.
Pete: Sure, good morning Sally, I’m Pete Pantuso. I’m the CEO of the American Bus Association. We’re a trade association in Washington DC. We had almost 4,000 members at the end of last year. I don’t know what we’re going to look like at the end of this year.
Sally: Â Â For those of you who are long time readers of my blog, Pete and Sandy were both gracious enough to be interviewed for my Tourism Pro Talks. [Here is Pete’s interview and here is Sandy’s interview]
Our beloved industry is really challenged right now and everyone is asking” What can we do? How do we get this started again?”
Liz and Mimi, I’d love for you to talk a little bit about this project that you took on that is a powerful tool we can use.
Mimi: Well it all started because Women in Buses decided to contact all of its members. I was making phone calls to my list and I called Judi Victor with Bus Ride and said I’m going to have all of my drivers send letters to their elected officials and that started the whole ball rolling.
We decided to put a book together which has drivers and mechanics, owners, and people who are interested in sharing their stories. That’s what started the entire ball rolling.
Liz: That’s a great explanation, Mimi. Mimi was the individual who brought it forward and I give her a huge kudos for it for her and Judi into bringing the project forward and making it happen. There were a lot of passionate and heartfelt stories that came out of it of how people were impacted.
Sandys’ was a prime example. The first time I read Sandy’s letter it brought me to tears because it was so emotional with how much we put into our businesses. A lot of us are small family businesses and where it’s gone in the past 4.5 months and where we hope it will go on the future.
Women in Buses is a fantastic council that’s come together over the past 4.5 months and asked how can we be a better resource for the industry. How can we lean on each other, what can we do to support each other, how can we be positive. We all know this is one of the worst situations we could imagine and we just wanted to come out of it together and figure out how we could be positive and this is one of the items that stem from it.
Sally: Talk a little bit about this booklet and how it all came together and what how you’re using it as a tool
Liz: I’ll answer the first part of it and then I’d like to turn it over to Pete. ABA is handling much of it. We reached out directly to our membership of Women in Buses. We did chase down some specific letters and Mimi did a great job herself finding some drivers and a few mechanics that we were able to reach as well too.
Sally: Pete what are some of the uses you’re going to pursue with this resource?
Pete: It’s a great, great booklet as it’s already been said. It tells an amazing story about so many incredible individuals in the industry, owners of companies, family members, and companies people that are working for. It includes every aspect of the industry not only motor coach but suppliers to the industry and some people from the travel industry so it is a great compilation.
But what we’re going to do with it in Washington is make sure that everybody gets to see it and understand the impact that COVID-19 is having on this industry and especially the many women who have told their stories.
We’ve got a bill moving through the Senate right now and the lead sponsor is a woman, Senator Susan Collins from Maine.
I know we’ve got at least two other co-sponsors that are female Senators. Senator Murkowski from Alaska as well as Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota and I’m sure there will be others especially after they see this book and read those stories. It’s a great, great tool for us not only to tell the story but make sure Congress understands. Make sure their female members of Congress understand what their peers are going through right now during this difficult time in the industry
Sally: So there’s a specific bill- one in the House and one in the Senate that you would like this attached to that’s currently going through discussions?
Pete: There are two bills moving through Congress. Senate Bill 4150 that was sponsored by Senator Collins and Senator Reed and now we’ve got about 15 other co-sponsors on that bill from all over the country, and we continue to get more every day and that’s our lead bill.
We also had a bill introduced in the House the other day and that’s gotten again about 15 co-sponsors on it right now. Our goal is to get as many co-sponsors as we can to make sure that legislation is in those two bills in both the House and the Senate are picked up and included in the next Stimulus package that moves through Congress and that Stimulus package is moving through literally as we speak.
Sally: That’s one of the reasons why I reached out to all of you because I thought my readers can help.  This is a time-sensitive topic. So what would you like my readers to do? What is the best action we can take to help move these bills through so we can get the bus industry back up and running?
Pete: I’ll start off and say so many of the members of the association and members of our industry from every segment have been great so far in terms of getting the message out and telling the story about the Motorcoach Industries and how it’s been impacted almost like no other segments out of business in the country.
And so to keep those messages going, to pick up the phone, call members of Congress and tell them to support the legislation. Both the House and the Senate. It’s critical that these bills get as many co-sponsors as possible as soon as possible. If you get enough co-sponsors, to get enough attention, that we have a really good chance of getting language put in the stimulus bills.
Sally: You said to pick up the phone. Is it more effective to pick up the phone than to send an email?
Pete: It is always more effective if you can pick up the phone and get to the right person in the house or in the congressman’s office. Either in the House or the Senate side, of a specialist who is working on these issues all the time and to be able to have that conversation with them and tell them firsthand.
How you as an individual, how your company, how your friends, other people in the industry, have been impacted. When they hear those stories they can’t help but be moved in some fashion. Emails are great if that’s the only option you have or you don’t have time to make that call, but understand that they get literally thousands and thousands of emails every day. And especially now, everybody wants to be in the Stimulus package going through. So we’ve got to take it to the next level and that phone calls the best way to do it.
Sally;Â Many years ago I was in a legislative breakfast and the legislator that was speaking said something that always stuck with me. She said anytime you want to speak to me, speak to me in terms of jobs and taxes, because that’s what I need to hear.
I always think of that piece of advice when I reach out to someone because that’s what tends to move the needle. We’re going to have everyone, whether they’re ABA members or not, reach out to their elected officials. Any other actions we should take?
Pete: We need to get the message out as quickly as possible. We’ve done a great job across the board as an industry and all the folks on the phone have done a great job in terms of getting a message with the media as well We had a great bus rally that took place back in the middle of May and we generated so much local media by so many companies.
Getting this booklet out to the local media and letting them know this is a story about women in the industry, and its a story about the industry and how devastated it is and will continue to be without some federal assistance. As many people as you can tell that story to, not just members of congress which are critical first and foremost, but the media and everybody else will be a great advantage as we move forward.
Sally: Everyone’s going to take at least one action because we all want to be busy. Thank you for your time this morning. We’ll be better and stronger than ever, and we are here to all work through this together. Thank you for putting the booklet together and giving us some action we can take today.
How COVID 19Â Has Killed our Industry Booklet
Watch the video interview here
Action Steps to Take Today
Contact your elected officials ( be brave and call them!) and ask them to support:
Not sure who to contact?
How can I help you in July 2020?
Our industry is all over the place right now. Some of you are back to your office, some are still home, some furloughed and some exploring next steps. How can I help you this month?
How is your Linkedin Profile?
Joined Linkedin Expert (and my friend) Louise Brogan and me for a Free virtual training on how to improve your Linkedin profile and build your network. Is your profile doing all it can for you right now? Louise and I will host this information-packed training on Thursday August 6th at 8 am PST, 11 am EST. Click here to register. Space is limited to 100 people.
DMOs/Tourism Organizations: Are you looking for a way to provide value to your partners during this challenging time? Check out the Online Tourism Training Program with this link. I can help you provide monthly virtual training for you to offer to your partners/members. My team and I do all the work and you reap the benefits.
Have my blog posts been helpful to you?
I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my weekly posts. My goal is always to inform, inspire, and help everyone become a better-informed tourism professional. Groups Today is looking for nominations for their annual Readers Choice awards. This year is a bit different and they are looking for people who have shown ” Tenacity in Travel”. Here is the link to nominate people and if you would consider nominating me, I would be grateful! (My email is sally@sallydavisberry.com and my office phone is 585-229-7030).