SEMA, Politics, Washington DC & Hot Rods

Those of you that know me know that I am a straight shooter. It’s either black or white. Shades of gray tend to get a business person in trouble sooner or later. Politics has never interested me much. Too many shades of gray! But, this year I had the honor of going to Washington DC as a representative for small business of SEMA. It was so interesting; I wish each one of you could go. We visited the offices of our two Senators and our Representative. Our Michigan group of three hot rod companies, and a large motor company spent 30 minutes talking to these elected officials (or their representatives if they were voting). Of course I was nervous! I had some background statistics and a thumb sketch of our company in hand so when we left them, they would have something in black and white to remember us with. Did you know that they take appointments every 30 minutes! Can you imagine sorting their thoughts out at the end of the day? We shared our concerns of the rising cost of health insurance, intellectual property issues, and café standards. All this in 30 minutes! Is that half hour of concerns going to make a change in the decision making? I don’t know. But if we don’t let our opinion be heard, someone else will make decisions without us. Is that what we want, to sit around and complain but do nothing?

SEMA gave us the guidelines of protocol, which I really needed to understand! Then we were given a schedule for our meetings. It is certainly different to sit down with a representative and have him or her listening and asking questions about your business, than just complaining to a friend! We all need to make our voices heard through proper channels. We experienced government at work, hard work. Later that evening, SEMA had a reception for all those officials which helped support our industry. There were Senators and Representatives dropping in all evening. One Senator had seven other receptions to appear at before he was finished with his day! I would be a little tired after the first session! I think I like the life style I have at the moment, thank you.

For those of you that would like to do more than be a tourist in DC, my experience was gratifying and not like anything I have ever done! For the record, I am not a Democrat or Republican, I have to be convinced!

This is one more item off my “bucket list”!