The following is the text of Jeannie Houser's presentation of the TCIA Chair's Award during Winter Management Conference in Aruba in February.

As I began to think about who to honor this year with the Chair's Award, I realized that we are almost halfway through the journey together that we have called the Transformation of the Industry. We began in the summer of 2003, and here we are already in 2008!

It made me think about the foundation that our Board had been fortunate to build upon in order to take on big risks. There was one person whose gift of experience and willingness to help us find a new way who put our Boards on the road to create our new future together today.

Back in the late '90's, before I was on the Board, this individual came to an NAA Board meeting and introduced the concept of strategic planning and what it could do for our organization. He personally invested in the leadership of this industry; contributing his expertise and encouragement to us to dream big. This Board meeting was the catalyst for TCIA's first strategic plan almost a decade ago.

Had we not followed that plan, we would not have been ready to create the Transformation of the Industry and embark upon the work we have done together as an industry the last five years.

As our industry has continued to mature, this individual has been a cheerleader and a direct supporter of our work. When we wrote the Five Outcomes and the messaging around them, he was one of the first people to point out that we had created a living plan that was tangible - that everyone was speaking the language of where we were going.

As we began to change the way that we interacted with the segment of the membership he belonged to, he, along with his team, were huge supporters of the vision we had with our PACT program. They immediately stepped up to the plate and became a Crown partner - supporting EVERY program of the transformation. In addition, they continued as long-time exhibitors and advertisers, helping us to create what is now the world's largest trade show and conference for arboriculture.

Always willing to share expertise, time from HIS team was contributed to our volunteer needs as well. Consistent with his encouragement to help us dream big, he launched an annual Green Industry event. He brings together the Boards of leading green industry associations like PLANET, ANLA, and TCIA to encourage regular conversation, cross-pollination of ideas, and provides stimulating education for the leadership.

Always a grand host and never failing to be supportive of ground-breaking initiatives, TCIA has been the fortunate recipient of the generosity of Husqvarna CEO, Dave Zerfoss, for many years.

Unfortunately, Dave was not able to be with us today, because PLANET beat us to it and has him speaking at their meeting. We all know a good thing when we see it – and Dave is it. Husqvarna is represented today by our good friend, John Marchionda. John, would you please come forward? John, I know we can count on you to take back our deepest thanks and good wishes to Dave for his support of TCIA's development.