The TAM Hall of Fame recognizes extraordinary contributions to the association at the discretion of our volunteer Board of Directors, who broadly represent the statewide community transportation industry – public, non-profit, and vendors.
Our first Hall of Fame Inductee, Roy Cool was a founding member of TAM and served as treasurer of the association for 25 years. During that time, TAM grew from an informal gathering of like-minded transit professionals into a fully-staffed professional trade association encompassing over 80 member organizations. One of the true 'Founding Fathers' of TAM, Roy was instrumental in placing our association on a sustainable footing that has enabled us to serve Maryland community transportation ever since. Our second inductee, Jim Raszewski was the founding chairman and first president of TAM, and was instrumental in welding a loose coalition of state and local agencies into the statewide presence TAM is today. His work promoting TAM throughout the years, both as a TAM director and as the director of the Office of Local Transit Support at the MTA have been invaluable in our continued growth.
Our third inductee Santo Grande served for over 14 years on our Board of Directors, including 6 as President. His tenure saw TAM hire our first full time staff and acquisition of permanent office space, as well as continued growth for our association. Santo has continued to be a pillar of strength for the transit community, giving invaluable assistance to TAM in our legislative advocacy efforts Our fourth inductee, Kevin Cerrone was more responsible than any one else for the rising professionalism, size, and profitability of our annual conference events. During his 10 years as Conference Chair, TAM went from 96 total attendees to over 250, with concurrent increases in revenue, prestige, and improvements to the brand of the Transportation Association of Maryland. His contributions went beyond the conference, and he served with distinction as Vice President for 5 years in which he took an active roll in all TAM committee work. Our fifth and most recent inductee, Gary Blazinsky has served on our Board of Directors since 2013, both as at-large director, vice-president, and President of our association. His tenure coincided with a move to our first standalone offices, the hiring of a new executive director, 35% growth in membership, an 80% growth in revenue, and a 100% increase in our association's reserve accounts. His work as President went above and beyond the call of duty, and his service on multiple committees and his willingness to volunteer himself and his organization at TAM's request helped to enable many of our events to achive the level of success they enjoy today.
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