Oil Prophets

Summer 2014

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10 Oil Prophets PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE As most of you know, much of my working life has been spent with the association and its members. From 1986 to 1989 I was a wholesale sales representative with Koch Refining Company, and then in June 1989 I joined AOA and remained here through the merger creating AOA/ AACS and finally the creation of P&CMA. Many of you knew Christy and me before our children came along, Austin the week of my first AOA convention in 1990, and Mary Kathryn two and one-half years later in 1992. You've seen our family grow and grow up, and I have watched many of your children (and now their children) do the same. I am writing this column on July 21st which happens to be Austin's 24th birthday. It is also two days after his wedding to Ms. Lauren Levant (whom you all will meet soon), so I am now officially a "Father-in-Law." Finally, it is 7-years and one day after Mary Kathryn was diagnosed with her brain tumor and 3-days short of the seven year anniversary of her surgery. There is a lot of Fletcher history around these few days in July. So often, it's about this time in my column where many of you begin to wonder, "where in the world is this going?" Let me see if I can tie it all together for you. When I came to Alabama with Koch in 1986, the Alabama Motor Fuel Marketing Act had already been passed and enacted. I can tell you many stores about the Below Cost Sales Law and how effective it has been, but I wasn't in the trenches with those who fought the battle to get it passed. I never worked on the strategy, never talked to a Legislator about the need for the law, never spent money out of my own pocket for the advancement of the industry. I am more like the reporter from the History Channel.... I can report to you how difficult the war was, but I base my reporting on what I have learned from those who were actually there. Likewise, the Alabama Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund had already passed when I joined the association in 1989. We would still have some regulations that would become effective in the years following, but the actual law itself was already on the books. Again, I cannot give a first- hand account of the countless hours that were given by so many for the betterment of the whole. Like my children mentioned earlier, many of the "next generation" of family members are now beginning to take larger roles within our member companies. None of them have ever known this business without the Below Cost Sales Law or the UST Trust Fund. Many of them were not even born when their fathers and/ or grandfathers worked so hard to achieve these legislative successes, and they don't realize that it was the comradery formed through the association that made these successes possible. In one of my previous columns I quoted Barnett Lawley from his Hall of Fame acceptance speech last year, but I think his remarks bear repeating: "I think anybody, especially the younger people here, can see the love from all of us (fellow inductees) that we have for this association. I don't think any of us would be where we are without this association." "When we merged the Independent Oilmen's Association with the Oil Marketers association, I guess you could say we didn't get along very well. It was mainly because nobody really knew each other that well. We put together golf tournaments all across the state and with that we became an association where people knew the person when they talked to them on the phone. A lot of our problems went away." P&CMA's Legacy to the Next Generation J. Bart Fletcher, CAE P&CMA President

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