The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/484540
New HampsHire action request from OHCNH executive Director robert J. sculley Senate Bill 100 (SB100) is proposed legis- lation introduced by Senator Dan Feltes. If SB100 were to pass it would make the failure to deliver heating fuel in the win- ter, after the customer pays an arrearage or enters into a reasonable repayment plan, a violation of the consumer pro- tection act. Kim Wieland of Dead River Company and Joe Trefethen of Palmer Gas met with me and Senator Feltes back in January to share our concerns with his legislation. Joe Rose was also in atten- dance from PGANE. There are multiple problems with SB100 for our industry. This is where you come in. SB100 has not been scheduled for a hearing at this time. It is impor- tant that you contact these five Senators and explain to them why SB100 does not work for your company. It is time that the committee members hear from you. We will expand the contact list to the full Senate after the hearing. STATE BY STATE N e w s 10 april 2015 | FUel Oil News | www.fueloilnews.com Changes at NeFi FON Interviews the New COO, Marsha Leshine By Keith Reid In January, the New England Fuel Institute announced that Michael Trunzo had established Northeast Public Affairs, LLC, a government affairs, lobbying and asso- ciation management firm. NEFI noted it would be among his first clients and that Trunzo will serve as NEFI's Director of Public Policy and Industry Relations. He will continue to be the external face of NEFI, focusing his role on leading NEFI's policy development, and as liaison to the New England state associations and all allied regional and national associations, and the media. Trunzo will continue to work closely with Jim Collura, vice president of legisla- tive affairs, and Mark Morgan, regulatory counsel, keeping the public policy team intact and ready to serve NEFI members 24/7/365 for their legislative and business compliance needs. NEFI also announced it has hired a new Chief O p e r a t i n g O f f i c e r , M a r t h a L e s h i n e , t o manage the day-to-day a d m i n i s t r a t i o n a n d operations of the association, as well as to coordinate the NEFI Energy Expo and NEFI Visions Conference. She comes from Matairie, La., and worked with NEFI during the 2014 Visions Conference and has been serving as the NEFI expo coor- dinator until her recent appointment. Leshine has a Master's Degree in Business Administration and previously operated a not-for-profit organization in Louisiana. FON: How did the current management change come about? Leshine: Some people have expressed concern about the changeover, and I think it's important to point out that by no means was Michael let go from his position. He chose to become a contract employee. He's currently conducting the legislative side in lobbying along with Jim Collura and that is what makes him happy. So he came to an agreement with NEFI where he would take another role within the organization and in return I was hired to come on and do more of the day-to-day administrative functions. Michael and I have been working together for the past couple of months, and he is defi- nitely very much involved. He is also taking on other clients as well. At the end of the day I think we're actu- ally using everybody's strengths within the organization more effectively and mak- ing NEFI a better serving association. The people who are in the roles that we are in now are all excited because we're all doing things we like to do. FON: How does this work out with Jim Collura? Leshine: Jim Collura is our vice president for government affairs and he still handles the legislative side directly, and Michael is working with Jim. FON: What are some of the areas you will be working to enhance? Leshine: I want to work on bringing more affinity programs to the members. We've also hired Sean Cota as a consultant to help us with our education programs. We don't have the brick-and-mortar school any- more, but were going to start bringing back certification classes and other educational initiatives. Sean was very excited to get started and we talked about a lot of opportunities. I am a firm believer that if people are in a service industry, they need to be willing to always be a work in progress. Nothing is right for everyone, so what works for one person might not work for the next, so we have to offer a range of opportunities tou our members. My philosophy is that once people know who I am, if there is something out there that you want from NEFI let me know. And, if it's doable we will do it. I do not want it to be a matter of somebody saying they've tried that and it never works, or that we've always done it this way. Let's tweak things and see if it works. FON: You have an established meeting planning background; what can we expect from the Expo? Leshine:First, we are doing an online, live portal for registration for both the exhib- itors and the attendees. So far we have sold more than 50% of the booths, and we've only been live for six weeks which I think is great. We've also enhanced things for our exhibitors. They can go onto a map and can click and choose their booth location. There are three pricing tiers involved for both the truck spaces and the regular booth spaces, but the system retains flexibility for them to be creative at the individual level.