ILTA Holds Annual Membership Meeting in Memphis
ILTA held its 2024 annual membership meeting on October 24 at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis Tennessee. At the meeting, members voted to renew the current slate of board members for another year in their current roles on the ILTA Board.
Chair Pratt Summers of Colonial Group, Inc. and ILTA President Leakhena Swett kicked off the meeting with their vision for ILTA heading into the next election cycle. In 2024, ILTA worked diligently to cut expenses where possible while maintaining the association’s robust set of member benefits. Similarly, Treasurer Josh Etzel of Kinder Morgan and ILTA Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Levitt overviewed ILTA’s fiscal health for the 2024 calendar year, as well as how ILTA intends to budget itself for 2025.
ILTA Senior Director of Marketing & Member Relations Loren Eisenlohr discussed the association’s rebranding efforts, foundationally through rewording its mission, vision, and core values. Ms. Eisenlohr then highlighted her work to strengthen membership communication efforts on ILTA happenings through various newsletters, e-blasts, social media channels, and targeted ads. ILTA is currently undergoing a rebranding initiative, redesigning its logo and implementing a more defined marketing and branding guideline.
Finally, ILTA Senior Director of Government Affairs & Communications Jay Cruz overviewed the association’s advocacy work from the last twelve months. Mr. Cruz discussed ILTA’s various regulatory comment efforts, focusing largely on ILTA’s ongoing response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) gasoline distribution rules. ILTA has been heavily engaged on this issue since its inception two years ago, filing comments on the proposed rule, both a petition for reconsideration and petition for judicial review on the final rule, and held several in-person meetings with EPA. After the association’s most recent September 11 meeting with EPA, ILTA is currently waiting for the agency’s response to ILTA’s reconsideration petition.
On legislative advocacy, ILTA continues to explore ways to secure an industry-wide exemption for PFAS liability and remediation costs in the event of a Superfund site designation under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Of note, ILTA has moved to support Senator Lummis’s s.1432, “the Fire Suppression PFAS Liability Protection Act.” In the event the bill does not become law by the end of 2024, ILTA has already received commitment from the bill’s various co-sponsors that they will move to reintroduce it early in the 119th Congress.