It has been my honor to serve as Chairman of the Coalition of Franchisee Associations for the past six years. I want to thank the Board of Directors for entrusting me with this responsibility, and for all their support, this is really a great group of leaders. Franchisees are fortunate to have such a group representing them.
I especially want to thank my Vice Chair, Rob Branca. He has always been there for me, offering advice, support, and friendship. I was fortunate to have a strong association management company, Elevanta, and Executive Director, Misty Chally, taking care of the administrative and other duties for me. I must also thank the many franchisee lawyers and consultants, who over the years, have always been available to give me support, advice, and guidance. Lastly, I need to thank my wife. Anyone who has taken on a similar position knows the burden it places on their spouse, at home and in their business.
My predecessor, David Gladowski, took over an organization that was on life support. During his term, he was able to stabilize the CFA. As I look at my six years, I feel the CFA has been solidified, and is now broadly recognized in the industry. I look forward to working with new Chairman, John Motta, to elevate the CFA during his term. I will do whatever necessary to continue my support of CFA, and support his, and future Chairs’ and Directors’, visions for the CFA. My commitment and passion on behalf of franchisees has not, and will not, change.
We can never forget our constituents and why we are here. Refer to the Universal Franchisee Bill of Rights as our guidance, and make updates to it as needed. It is our job to always protect franchisees’ investments, and to maximize the equity in their franchises. We must resist becoming just another probusiness organization without differentiation towards our unique constituents.
We represent franchisees, and franchisees only. And we must always remind the industry, and our elected representatives, that franchisees, as a class, are by far the biggest investor in the franchise industry. I will always remain proud of the legislative progress we have made, highlighted by the passage of AB-525 in California in 2015. This was an accomplishment that we were told would never be done. For those in opposition to our legislative efforts to protect franchisee investments, I’m not going away. In fact, stepping back will give me more time to dedicate to these legislative efforts.
CFA is still a young organization. I hope history will judge the last six years as a building period to an organization that becomes a powerhouse. We still have so much work to do to fully engage franchisees. That is our ultimate strength, the raw numbers of franchisees in every Congressional district in the country. When we harness that, we will only then realize our full potential.
Thank you all for your support and dedication to franchisees.