NBTA Grows Four Chapters

<B> NBTA Grows Four Chapters</B>

By Sarah Welt

The National Business Travel Association has added four new chapters in the past 18 months, in Sacramento, South Carolina, San Antonio and the Inland Northwest.

The newest, in Sacramento, in March attracted about 80 people to its first meeting. President Bill Amaral of Level One Communications said he started the process because he felt a lot of smaller companies in the area "weren't involved in or aware of the national organization," or didn't have the budgets to attend national conferences.

Meanwhile, the South Carolina chapter has been alternating meetings in Columbia and Greenville since January, with Janet Leapard, manager of general services at Policy Management Systems Corp., serving as president. The group has about 60 members.

The San Antonio chapter, begun last August, has 60 members. "I had gone to Austin meetings, but many people here were not educated on the fast-moving trends and technology," said president Lacretia Bachhofer, area sales manager for La Quinta Inns Inc.

The Inland Northwest BTA, begun in April 1998, has 45 members from Idaho, Washington and Western Montana. Dave Vahala, manager of travel services for Itron Inc. of Spokane, is president.