Dear friends, Happy New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day! Wow, what an exciting year we have ahead in 2018! This is a very special year for me and my wife Bodi as we celebrate our 51st anniversary on Valentine’s Day and begin making plans to move from our beloved state of Louisiana to our new home in League City, Texas. Like many of us in the energy and construction sectors from Louisiana, Texas and across the Gulf Coast, we and our families have loved ones and friends in several states and we also have multiple offices across this region and, in many cases, across America and globally.
In fact, many of us from Louisiana and Texas think of the other state as our second home because of our families and our business, industry and community connections. This is also why the name of our company is Business & Industry Communication (BIC) Alliance and the name of our magazine is Business & Industry Connection (BIC) Magazine.
As we begin sharing some exciting news about the coming year in this issue of BIC, let’s take a few moments to reflect on and review some of the highlights of 2017. Of course, among our greatest highlights for those of us reading this issue is that we are still alive, and this means we still have some exciting times ahead to share our blessings and resources with others and to make our world a better place!
On New Year’s Eve, as we have done for decades, my wife, Bodi, and I said a prayer of Thanksgiving for our blessings and looked back on some of the memories we made during our lives and especially in the past few years. Even though she and I have both faced several health-related challenges during 2016 and 2017, we are blessed to have a greater love for God and one another, plus a wonderful relationship with our family and those in our BIC Alliance family, which includes our amazing staff, over 300 marketing partners, and more than 120,000 readers between our print and digital editions.
For those familiar with our first inspirational book, “It’s What We Do Together That Counts: The BIC Alliance Story,” you may also remember that 35 years ago on New Year’s Eve of 1983, I was driving a limo along with my friends Bobby Davis and Mike Conners as a way to supplement my income as we prepared to launch BIC Magazine in April 1984. Now, as we fast-forward to look at 2017 and 2018, let us begin by pausing a moment to thank those past and present, living and deceased, who helped us achieve the success we enjoy today. Also, let us remember there are those today who are where we were years ago, and there is no greater joy than to lend a helping hand and a word of kindness to those less fortunate.
Recently, I had opportunities to visit with two men in need of guidance. They are using our BIC Media Solutions book “Rock Bottom & Back” as a guide to their restoration. I refer to myself and others as “retreads,” a term associated with those who are facing adversity or rebounding from it. When I visited with these individuals, I offered suggestions on how to rebuild relationships on their road to more spiritual and meaningful lives. As a member of the “Army of Retreads,” it brought me great joy to share my experience with them. I hope you will find an opportunity to do the same with someone in need.
Now let’s think about and share a few of our most exciting personal and business-related events from 2017 that will help guide us in 2018 and beyond. On a personal note for Bodi and me, these include taking a cruise to celebrate our 50th anniversary, our granddaughter Hannah graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, and being able to share more time and resources sharing our faith and making memories with family, loved ones and friends.
On a business note, thanks to many of you, BIC Magazine, IVS Investment Banking, BIC Recruiting and BIC Media Solutions had the most successful year in our 34-year history. This enabled us to help connect more of our readers and BIC Alliance marketing partners with each other for mutual benefit through our BIC Magazine print and digital editions, as well as networking events like our industry appreciation event in April and our BIC Alliance and partners networking event during the AFPM Reliability & Maintenance Conference and Exhibition. We were also able to enhance more lives and create better relationships through our BIC Media Solutions publications, films and videos and our speakers bureau. Another 2017 highlight for our company was being recognized by the Association of Chemical Industry of Texas (ACIT) with its first-ever ACIT Leadership Award. The award was given to BIC Alliance for its outstanding involvement and support of ACIT and the petrochemical industry.
Now let’s take a look at some of the interesting articles and interviews in this issue of BIC Magazine. We include leadership insight from Lubrizol Bayport Plant Manager Anh-Thy Tran, LyondellBasell Channelview Site Manager Kim Foley, JV Driver Group President Todd Robinson and Lifting Gear Hire Business Sales Manager Dan Pittman.
We also include an array of topics to help jumpstart your year, including features on safety compliance, personal accountability, production competitiveness, effective safety management and more.
In closing, let us all remember happiness is a choice, whether it is in our personal or professional lives, and the better we treat others, the better we will be treated. Let us also remember an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so that also means learning, training, safety and mentoring should always be among our top priorities, along with kindness and mutual respect. As my friend and mentor Dr. Shirley White reminds us, “Today is the first day in the rest of our lives,” so let’s make it and every day to come special!
