Newsletter
OVBTA Newsletter 
President's Report
Good Morning,
We have had an unprecedented 3 months in the travel industry. COVID19 has touched us all in many ways. We stand behind you our members in supporting our government on social distancing. Your health and safety are our number one priority. It is because of this the OVBTA Executive Board has made the very difficult decision to cancel the upcoming May meeting.
We appreciate your patience as these temporary changes are affecting our industry, we are currently working on other means of communication to reach our members. We truly appreciate your support and camaraderie over the years, and we want to continue to support you!
Membership Extensions:
In an effort to support our members and keep everyone engaged, OVBTA will be offering a 6 month extension to members who have lost their jobs or who were laid off through this crisis.
1. If not expired but now laid off please go to OVBTA member site under My Account and change your primary email address to a personal email.
2. Email [email protected] and request the 6 month extension, be strategic and wait until you receive your renewal notice.
3. If your memebership has already expired since March 1 and you have been laid off, contact [email protected] to obtain sign on credentials. Be sure to use an working email address when filing out your profile.
Our hope is of course that this will carry members through to a time when OVBTA membership will once again be reimbursable
We are all in this Together!
As we navigate thru these uncertain times we are adjusting our environments and our workplaces and how we socialize with each other.
Take care & be safe
Renee Huff, OVBTA President
Welcome New Members
We welcome all our new members and look forward to interacting with you when this crisis is over.
Membership Minute
Share pictures of your new work environment or positive outcomes of this new way we do business and interact with each other.
Send photos to [email protected] to share your photos
GBTA Updates – Stay on top the latest Covid News
Visit the OVBTA Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook pages and post your thoughts during this Pandemic crisis. We would love to hear the positive stories to motivate others.
Real ID Update:
As most of you know the REAL ID enforcement deadline was October 1, 2020. There has been a lot of information floating around about this but yesterday the US Department of Homeland Security, Acting Secretary, Chad Wolf issued an official statement advising that the new deadline will be October 1, 2021. Below is a link to the official statement:
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHS/bulletins/28351c3#.Xn4NM4yFaAA.email
OVBTA wants to make sure you don’t miss any important updates or information so please take a moment to ensure that your OVBTA profile is current and also includes a secondary e-mail address.
Calendar of Events
The September Meeting is our annual Education Day, Join us for valuable updates
Click Here for September Meeting Details
Classified Job Listing
OVBTA: Click here to view or post positions
GBTA: Click here to view or post positions
Member Articles
Working at Home by JoHannah Greene Fox World Travel
For the last four and a half years I’ve worked full time from home after 20 years of working full time in an office environment.
The change was welcome but foreign and took some true adjustment. Knowing that a lot of you may have been thrown into a similar situation, I talked to my fellow work-at-home colleagues and put together a list of some tips and insights on how to make the most (and enjoy) working from home!
Keeping a routine.
“I can’t just wake up and walk to my desk. Most days I still need to take a shower, get dressed (something other than PJ’s), eat breakfast and then log in to work.”
“Prep as if I’m truly leaving for my office. I make my coffee, put my purse over my shoulder and walk down to my home office. Just as if I’m leaving the house.”
“Meal prep! I put dinner in the crockpot before I log into work in the morning. That way I can focus 100% on work and not what I am going to feed my family for dinner.
“Try the best I can to keep my regular schedule which includes taking a lunch break.”
“If you are supposed to be done working at five, then stop working at five. Don’t make an excuse that ‘since you’re already home’ you’ll finish a project that isn’t a deadline. This is an easy trap to fall into and you’ll burn out quickly on working from home. Work hard to quit working at your normal time and physically walk away.”
Take advantage of suddenly having more time.
“Pre-COVID19 outbreak, working at home allowed me to take my daughter to school each day. That’s something I was never able to do with a 30-minute commute to the office.”
“I’m home for my kids more than I’ve been in the past”
“Working from home allowed me to finally get dogs again! They have a great life, always having a human around and they sometimes get to say hello to my co-workers when we have our video conference calls. And let’s be honest, that makes everyone a little happier.”
“These days my favorite part of working at home is being able to go for a run immediately after work. In the past I needed 30 minutes to get home, 15 or so to change and then go out. The kids didn’t like that because it pushed dinner so much later”.
“I take my lunch every day to go to the gym, or now workout at home and/or take the dog for a walk.”
“I love having the ability to make more of my own meals than before, it’s healthier and it’s saving me money!”
Keep work and home separate.
“Number one, you have to have a separate workspace from your living area. Even if it is in a guest room. This isn’t even so much as focusing on work as it is NOT focusing on work in your off hours. If you have somewhere you can physically shut the door and walk away at quitting time, it’s a must to keep balanced and not work too much.”
“Make your office space your own, remember you’re now in charge of the thermostat and if you want to open a window, you can!”
“Hang up art or pictures from your kids, things you would surround yourself with in an office building cubicle”
“Thanks to Microsoft Teams and Zoom we can still socialize with co-workers like we did in an office! I instant message, conference call and video chat with mine regularly to share jokes, new shows we’re binging and of course super important work stuff. Doing it the first couple of times was strange but the more I did it the easier it became and now it’s first nature. But remember, before you do your first video chat ALWAYS check the background to see exactly what your coworkers will be seeing!”
Remember the perks.
“You get to now play whatever music YOU want, for background noise! You finally don’t have to hear the crap music from the girl 2 cubicles down.”
“Yoga pants and slippers. Need I say more?”
“More time with my family, it might seem like 40 minutes at night isn’t that much, but when you have little ones it’s huge.”
“No office distractions, less ‘talk by the watercooler’ has meant I’m accomplishing more than I ever have”.
“Yes, we all throw a load of laundry in at some point and that’s OK!”
“Phone calls are so much easier to concentrate on without wondering if the other person can hear all the background office noise.”
“It’s shocking how much money I have saved; not just from fewer lunches out, but from ‘killing time’ while on my lunch hour and doing mindless shopping! Now, I truly am buying things on a need-to basis.”
“Your social life won’t change, still go on lunch dates with friends and after work cocktails. Just enlist a few good friends to still hold you to it because it is hard some days to change out of those yoga pants.”
“NO MORE COMMUTE! I went from driving an hour each direction, each day to getting 10 HOURS back in my week! Not to mention how much money I’m saving on gas and not having to white knuckle those rough winter days on the road.”
“If my kid is sick, it’s not as stressful as it once was.”
“More time to spend on my hobbies like writing and cooking because I have no more commute time!”
“Did I mention I was able to get dogs again?!”
JoHannah Greene
Client Solutions Manager
