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Letter from 2024-2025 ADTSEA President Jen Sletten

Hello, ADTSEA friends and family. Thank you for trusting me to lead you as your president this year.  I am excited for the year ahead and look forward to helping you in any way I can. As I think about the coming year it brings to mind the conference we just attended. I want to reflect on it and recognize all the work that was put into it. If you were able to make it, I think you can agree it was a great time. For those that were unable, you missed a great conference and I hope that next year will allow you to join us. 

I would like to thank everyone who attended and/or helped this year with the conference in Albany, NY.  I thought it was a fabulous conference due to all the hard work that was put into the planning and execution of it. My first thank you is to Joe Barch who was the planning chair of this conference. I want to recognize his work and that of his planning committee. In addition, I want to thank all the committees for finding fabulous speakers for our conference. Without all this hard work we would not have had the excellent program that we had.

To our first-time attendees, welcome to our family. As I was told when I went to my first conference, these people will become family.  I hope that you were able to engage with some of the members, learn something new, and enjoy yourself.  I know that I was able to talk to quite a few new attendees. I had such a great time meeting you and talking about the differences in driver education throughout different states. I hope to see you in Billings, MT next year.

As I walked out of Wichita, KS last year I was so impressed with the number of exhibitors we had.  I didn't think we could top that number, but I was wrong. We not only beat that number but hit it out of the park. A big thank you to Maria Herbert and David Reich for all their work in helping us obtain these exhibitors and sponsors. With 27 exhibitors at the conference in Albany, no one had a shortage of products and services to find and learn about. Please remember to thank those who were there and especially those who sponsored an item, break, or meal.  Reach out and let them know we appreciate them. These exhibitors provide a wealth of knowledge to help us in our field.

All of the NSSP students and advisors provided a fabulous showcase for their "It's Our Time to Shine." I hope everyone was able to get out and talk to our teens, as they are the future.  In recent years the number of students has been dwindling, mostly due to funding. If you have any ideas on how to enhance this program feel free to reach out and let me know.  This is such an important program and we want to see it continue to succeed and grow.

I also would like to thank all those behind the scenes who help, organize, and lead our ADTSEA group. The staff for ADTSEA put in so much work and are dedicated to helping us continue to grow and learn and for that I am thankful. I would also be remiss in not thanking Harold Fleming for all the behind-the-scenes work he did for this conference and his guidance this last year.

As I look forward to this coming year, I have many hopes for this organization and each of you. Please remember what we do MATTERS! As Dr. Palmer alluded to, we all need to stand up for what we do and continue to fight for traffic safety education. While we might not always win, we know we are doing everything we can for our students.  Each of you is important in so many ways not only for the youth, but all of those that they continue to have contact with throughout their lives. While it may feel like we only reach a few, we in fact reach so many.  

I look forward to seeing every one of you in Billings next year. I hope we can top this year's conference and leave having learned something new, met someone new, and will reach someone new in our lives.

Thank you for your valuable time,

Jen Sletten, ADTSEA President