CED

October 2013

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Tribute Toby added. "You need to take a deep, deep dive into what your members are thinking; what are their needs, challenges, threats and opportunities; where are they coming from, and combine that with overall industry trend data and forecasts." So, to complement and really guide the Board's strategic planning work, Toby launched an extensive research process to gage member priorities. And when AED began taking the pulse of the membership, a clear and consistent message was heard, strongly signaling what would be a chief legacy achievement for the association: an expanded role in public policy advocacy. The Necessity of Advocacy By the late '90s, it became increasingly evident that AED members were gravely concerned about regulation and government policy, particularly with infrastructure investment. For a few decades, Tony Obadal had been "AED's guy in Washington," but with limited assets to truly affect outcomes in Washington on behalf of equipment dealers. That was to change dramatically. Obadal had hired young law-school grad Christian Klein, and when the senior attorney retired in 2000, Toby saw Christian as a natural successor with the skills, energy and effectiveness around which AED could significantly raise its game in Washington. "So we gave him the ball and Christian became the AED's 'boots' in the capital. Christian is good at his craft. He delivered some critical early results, and we started building a track record, a reputation for effectiveness, and a highly respected voice." Driven by continuous member demand for more emphasis on public policy, as well as growing prospects in 2008 that new and greater challenges would likely be coming from a new occupant in the White House, Toby and Christian recognized, "We'd better raise our game," Toby recalled. "We've got a whole lot more coming at us and we'd better get ready." Another round of strategic planning and member research yielded more of the recurrent call for greater AED focus on impacting highway and regulatory policy, tax policy, and other issues vexing dealer businesses. Although the Great Recession was still smothering the industry, the AED Board decided to double down on AED's lobbying muscle. The DC team needed more manpower and Klein hired Daniel Fisher in 2009. Swimming Upstream "In that period when we were both resource-constrained and trying to ramp up our policy apparatus," Toby reflected, "and the rest of our world was struggling, AED members were fighting for survival – and right in the middle of all that, the flood hit!" Pounded over the decades by an increasing number of "100-year" floods, the AED headquarters finally succumbed to foot-high waters that overtook the offices in July of 2010. Toby married Marti DeGraff in January 1981, and it was a match made in association heaven. While Toby was building his career as an association executive he met his bride-to-be while she was executive director at a residential facility for emotionally disturbed teens. Marti founded the Illinois Association of Childcare Workers, and went on to become CEO for the National Association of Nurse Recruiters and CEO for the Marketing Research Association. But Toby saw the silver lining even in that devastating storm cloud. Relocating the staff to the second story of an office building next door, Toby realized significant savings for the association, as renting proved to be far less costly than upkeep of a 40-plus-year-old, flood-weary building. He saw an opportunity to redirect those savings for further advocacy advantage. "I came to the Board with a proposal on how to increase our public policy footprint," Toby explained. "So I said, 'I think we can gain more leverage by having me spend much more of my time in Washington.'" The Board agreed, and Toby set up a small office on Pennsylvania Ave., joining a host of DC-based association CEO peers at the coalition table, and significantly magnifying AED's presence and voice on Capitol Hill. Shale Energy and Powering Up the Equipment Industry Over the past 12 months, with the Board's encouragement, Toby has spearheaded the formation of the Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), of which AED is a founding member. The purpose of the organization is to provide research-based and federal and community-level advocacy in support of the shale oil and gas industry, which has proved to be a life-boat for construction equipment distributors in geographies where shale oil and gas development has been thriving and energy infrastructure is being built. "EEIA has a unique voice advocating for good energy policy from the vantage of the economic contributions of the supply chain – equipment dealers and manufacturers, contractors and materials suppliers," Toby said. Representing the wide base of suppliers and workforce that support the shale energy industry, EEIA, under Toby's (continued on next page) October 2013 | Construction Equipment Distribution | www.cedmag.com | 29 28_Toby_Mack_Feature_KP.indd 29 9/27/13 12:24 PM

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