APRO kicked off the new year with the first quarterly State President Meetup of 2025, where leaders from state rental dealer associations (RDAs) gathered via video conference – including the Carolinas, Illinois, Iowa/Nebraska, Missouri, New York, Northeast, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
The meeting began with an advocacy presentation by Upbound Group General Counsel and APRO Board Member Bryan Pechersky, who provided an update of national and state legislative activity. Pechersky discussed the implications of the recent election results on the business community as it relates to regulatory issues. He highlighted the changes in the Senate and House committees – with Senator Tim Scott becoming the new chair of Senate Banking and Representative French Hill taking over as chair of House Financial Services. Pechersky also discussed the potential changes at regulatory agencies where new chairs are expected to take over soon.
APRO CEO Charles Smitherman shared the latest information about APRO’s upcoming Legislative Conference on April 8-10, 2025, and encouraged all to attend. The desire to continue expanding the Legislative Fellows program in partnership with the state RDAs was a key point of conversation; the goal is to increase the program from its 2024 inaugural class of 11 to a total of 20 Fellows next year, with involvement from as many RDAs as possible. States were asked to submit their commitments to the program by the end of the month.
The group discussed an upcoming advocacy opportunity that will bring together RTO lobbyists from across the country to share key updates and agendas as legislative sessions begin. The goal is to align industry messaging and success stories that can be shared at all levels.
One tool that APRO is adding to the arsenal for state association advocacy is newly revamped state association web pages that will be housed on APRO’s website. The pages will provide an opportunity to showcase the work and leadership of our state rental dealer associations. The hope is that all states will participate so their information can be accessed and shared easily.
The state presidents also reviewed the new events calendar, and RDAs were encouraged to share 2025 event dates with us as soon as possible. The calendar includes APRO’s monthly webinar series, state association meetings, franchise meetings, and national events like RTO World. The new events calendar can be accessed online at https://www.rtohq.org/all-events/.
The next quarterly meeting will be held on April 17, 2025.
