My name is Doug Ruschman. I am the In House Counsel for the McNational, Inc. family of marine businesses that includes McGinnis, Inc., the named member of CORBA. I am humbled to be the new Chairman of CORBA and quite frankly a little concerned. The concern comes from knowing all the past Chairmen and what they accomplished in bringing this Association to the respected place it now occupies. Like those before me, I have been part of the Association from the beginning, either as a Board member or a consultant. My hat is off to outgoing Chairman, Scott James. He will be another tough act to follow.

     First, thank you for your ongoing support of CORBA. What started as about eight companies seated around one table has now grown to an impressive membership of 73 companies and agencies. My hope is to continue to grow and bring value to our membership. We will be reaching out to Industrial Development departments of businesses and to Trade Associations to show them what is available in our system and the significant cost benefits of locating on the inland waterway system. Our entire membership will reap the benefits if we can attract companies to the region that utilize the river as a major source in their supply chain.

      My other initiative is to have our membership help us by bringing new faces to the table of the organization. Many of us on the Board have been here for years. New faces and new ideas can only assist us in our mission. Please look at yourself or put forth a member of your organization to act on the Board or assist the current Board members with their tasks. 

     I herein appoint each member of CORBA as an adjunct representative of the membership committee. Surely you know of and do business with other companies who have an interest in a thriving river business community. Invite them to be a part of this group. Let us know if we can help in any way. For your information, a copy of our current membership list is attached.

     So as not to lose track of incoming information concerning CORBA, as opposed to my work email, I ask that if you have any questions, comments, membership leads or business opportunities that you address them to me at corba.chair@yahoo.com. I hope to hear from you; the Good, the Bad or the Ugly. If anything falls into the Bad or Ugly, I will work with the Board to try and resolve any issues. Feel free to call me anytime at 606-922-1423. If I do not answer, please leave me a message.  I promise to get back with you as soon as possible.

     Let’s grow CORBA and work with industry leaders. It seems like this might be a great time to find out if container on barge through New Orleans might be the answer to the bottlenecks for shippers on the west coast. Let’s see what we can do together. Thanks.