Web Site, Database Key to ‘Virtual’ Association
When Bob Rast joined American Trucking Associations as senior vice president of information services in the summer of 1998, it seemed a perfect fit.
Nearly a decade ago, Rast had a vision of technology as an information resource that would revolutionize communications as much as photography did newspapers. As a top editor at Traffic World magazine, Rast created a World Wide Web presence for the freight transportation publication. Soon thereafter he moved to its parent organization, the Journal of Commerce, as vice president of new media.
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 |  Michael James - Transport Topics |
| Bob Rast |
At the same time, ATA was going through changes of its own under Walter B. McCormick Jr., who became president of the association in October 1997. McCormick marveled that many ATA newsletters, reports and other information products were being given away.
An internal review of ATA’s operations in 1998 found that in many cases information was provided to nonmembers at no charge. ATA’s strategic plan calls for providing members with access to information services and publications through the Internet and other electronic means and for limiting access to nonmembers.
