
Accomplishments to Date
Establishment
of "Reunion Friendly" SM
as a TRN Service Mark, and establishment of TRN as the definitive
source for reunion planners and for those seeking reunion business.
Training
more than 8,000 reunion planners at more than 149 educational
conferences and FAMs (by the end of 2005) conducted in cooperation
with Convention & Visitors Bureaus, from California to Florida
to Massachusetts. Additional conferences are scheduled through
2006. Every conference to date has generated business for the
host and exhibitors. Many locations repeat the program regularly.
Training
more than 1,500 hotel, CVB and Travel Agency sales personnel.
TRNEWS,
a quarterly newsletter, started in 1992, is distributed free to
volunteer planners and to TRN Member CVBs and hotels. This popular
publication was changed to a full color magazine in 1998. In 1999,
the first issue of the year was a special CVB Annual. The 8th
Annual CVB Issue was distributed in January 2005 to the entire
TRN planner database, which has grown from 600 in 1991 to more
than 14,000 as of January 1, 2005.
The
Summer Issue, 2005, will be the 14th edition of TRN's Annual Directory
of
"Reunion Friendly" SM
Properties & Locations.
TRN
Membership for hotels and CVBs was initiated at the end of 1997,
and now includes private web sites (attached to TRN's Web Site)
plus discounts at Conference exhibits, free matching advertorials
with advertisements in TRNews, and other special member
pricing.
Frequent
and extensive publicity in trade publications, newspapers, radio
and television.
Numerous
speaking engagements at trade shows and conferences, including
4 times at HSMAI's annual Affordable Meetings Conference.
Creation
and publication of TRNEWS Update, a bi-monthly newsletter
specifically for TRN Member Hotels, CVBs and vendors.
Publication
of the results of three statistical analyses, based on planner
supplied information of more than 15,000 reunions, the first of
its type for the military reunion market, in 1997, 2001 and 2004.
Results and interpretations are published in TRNEWS Update.
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TRN
Founder, CEO, Editor TRNews
PAUL J SPIEWAK
Paul
has been a professional communicator most of his life. An active
Toastmaster since 1991, he served six terms as Education VP and
two terms as President of his local club, as an Area 23 Governor
in 1998-1999, and was the Broward/Bahamas Division Governor in
1999-2000.
Starting in 1958, his professional communication experience was
mostly between business people and the then new machines called
computers. As a systems analyst, programmer and consultant he
listened to the needs of business people and communicated those
needs into workable computer systems. He pioneered, and is noted,
particularly for his systems work in sales forecasting and inventory
control and for legal accounting applications. He retired from
this field in 1991. After 1 day of retirement. he began a new
career by establishing THE Reunion Network, Inc., a communications
organization for Military Reunion Planners. The company publishes
TRNews, a quarterly-color magazine, for more than 14,000
military reunion planners and TRNews Update, a bi-monthly
newsletter for 5,500 hotels and Convention & Visitors Bureaus
in its network. Paul is the Chief Executive Officer and Editor
of the magazine and newsletter. The company also conducts fifteen
training conferences each year, combined with FAMiliarization
tours, throughout the country. A typical conference lasts 3-4
days, during which time, Paul, Charlene and Harold Wilson make
presentations spanning the range of reunion activities.
Paul is a leader in many organizations including: Life member
of the United States Power Squadrons and a Past Commander of the
Miami Beach Power Squadron, Past Master of his Masonic Lodge,
and a Past President of the South Florida Navigators Club. Due
to physical limitations, he has given up water skiing, sailing,
acrobatic flying and roller blading, but he is an active Master
Scuba Diver and has won many prizes for his underwater photography.
Photography, he notes, is just another form of communication. |
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Vice President Sales
RON
COHEN
Ron
Cohen affiliated with The Reunion Network in March 2001, having
spent 17 years in the hospitality industry. He managed a number
of hotels in southeastern Connecticut and served in a sales capacity
as well, earning a certificate as a Certified Hotel Sales Executive.
Prior to 1985, Ron had a distinguished career in the publishing
industry. He was the New England book sales representative for
New American Library for 5 years. Subsequently, he entered into
newspaper circulation and distribution, working for such prestigious
publications as The New York Herald Tribune and Dow Jones, Inc.,
publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and The National
Observer. Later, he became VP and General Manger of the Holyoke
News Company, a wholesale distributor of books, magazines and
newspapers in western Massachusetts.
Ron's military career spans some 18 years (active and Reserve)
with all of his assignments as the administrative and personnel
officer (S-1) for Army battalions/groups. He retired April 1974
as a major.
He served with distinction as a Board member of the South East
Connecticut Tourism District for 17 years, holding the position
as vice chairman for 2 years. He was a founding member of Mystic
Coast & Country and was a representative on the Governor's
Tourism Commission. Ron participated in several sales and marketing
missions with and for the State of Connecticut.
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VP
of Marketing
CHARLENE ADAMSON
With
twenty-five years in the hospitality industry, Charlene
joined THE Reunion Network in March 2004. A native Tennessean,
Charlene has nearly twenty years in the hotel industry both
in the United States and internationally. Since 1999 she
has worked for the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau,
primarily as Military Reunion Sales Manager focusing on
increasing successful military reunions for the Chattanooga
area, a great part of which she attributes to working with
THE Reunion Network.
As owner of her hospitality consulting business, WLP, Inc.
she has been a public speaker and seminar lecturer for civic
organizations, tourism councils, and for the Appalachian
Development Center for Women at Morehead State University
in Morehead, Kentucky.
She has served on the State Board of Directors for the Kentucky
Hotel/Motel Association, Greater Cincinnati Convention and
Visitors Bureau, Maysville Kentucky Chamber of Commerce,
The Dance Theatre Workshop of Chattanooga, and numerous
local organizations in areas where she has worked, as well
as Director for the Chattanooga Hotel/Motel Association.
She brings to The Reunion Network a broad scope of industry
knowledge and experience and is looking forward to this
new phase of her career. |
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Presenting .......... Gale Helser
Gale
Helser originally hails from Wisconsin, graduating from
Beloit Memorial High School. After a tour in Vietnam, he
came back to Wisconsin, graduating from the University of
Wisconsin at Whitewater.
His
experience includes many years in the printing industry,
both owning and managing various printing operations. Gale
began selling fine paper and paper products to printers
and government-related printing operations in the tri-state
area and retired from Georgia-Pacific in 2005 after twenty
years with that company.
Gale
has planned and taken friends to various vacation locations,
including Washington, D.C. even before the Vietnam Wall
was built. As a direct result of this experience Gale became
a meeting planner nearly ten years ago and began providing
vacation tours for the veterans in the southern Wisconsin
area. In addition to other meetings, Gale is also the reunion
planner for the 39th Engineers.
He is
a Life Member of the VFW and the American Legion. He maintains
memberships in Viet Now, Friends of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial and various veteran-related organizations.
He brings
his expertise in military reunion planning to the TRN ConFAMs,
as well as his experience as a sales presenter in his former
occupation.
Gale
now resides in Rio Hondo, Texas with his wife, Diane.
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