Jared Medaris, CERP, president, Expo Party Rentals, Fresno, Calif., has been named president of the ARA of California. He succeeds Alberto Pianelli, general manager, F & B Rentals, Santa Ana, Calif., who was elected to serve as the new Region Nine director beginning in March.
Medaris says he feels “honored” to follow those who have gone before him in this role. “I want to do my part for the association and try to continue the effort of service those before me have offered,” he says.
He still remembers how Ron Holbert, recently retired owner, JoRonCo Rentals, Bakersfield, Calif., encouraged him to take an active role with the American Rental Association (ARA). “I first became involved with ARA by watching Ron, who was serving as ARA of California president at the time. He helped me become an active member of the association. It is cool to now be volunteering in this way,” Medaris says.
In addition to his state chapter service, Medaris has volunteered at the national level, first by serving with ARA’s Party & Event Services Shared Interest Group and now by joining ARA’s Event Rental Advocacy Work Group.
Medaris brings a lot of experience to his new role as well as the skills of “thinking out of the box and considering everyone’s point of view,” he says. “I am on the event rental side, yet I realize there are a lot of issues in our state that affect the equipment side. As I take on this role, I want to make sure the board is considering everyone’s point of view when we are looking at the objectives for the state. One issue is that the state of California wants all small, off-road engines to become electric. That directly impacts our tool and equipment members. That will be something we, as a state chapter, will look at addressing.”
Running an event rental company during a pandemic and dealing with all the challenges that shutdowns and changing restrictions have created has taught him the necessity of adapting his business to survive.
“I think being able to pivot in the changing market has been an important part of our ability to survive the pandemic. Our business has changed quite a bit over the last two years. Now, we, like almost every rental operation, have a lot less staff than we had previously,” he says.
For instance, at the beginning of 2019, Medaris thought his company was headed for a very successful period. “We purchased two new warehouses and were ready to fill them with equipment, and then events started canceling in March 2020. Instead of having an empty warehouse, we turned one into an event venue. We now have a warehouse that we are using to host events. We never thought we would do this. We had to make some quick decisions on how to use our resources. We found a market for it. It is being used a lot for events — almost every weekend. With that, it changed the focus of the business. Before, we were more focused on the wedding side and now we are more focused on large events. It is a great place to have corporate events and meetings. That move changed our business. Pre-COVID, about half of our business came through tradeshows. That business is still struggling. There are not large in-person events going on. I was grateful that the ARA was able to have its show. Not all tradeshows are taking place right now. That market might have changed forever,” he says.
Living through all of this has taught him the value of connections. That is why Medaris would like the state to offer more in-person events this year. “In 2020, we did a lot of virtual events. The virtual is good, but we feel that the networking that can happen when you are face-to-face with someone is very valuable. Last year we had a few in-person events. One of my goals is to continue in-person events and offer more educational opportunities for our members, including holding meetings in other parts of the state. We have a very large state. I know I am four hours away from the Bay Area and four hours away from the L.A. area. I would like to see us offering additional events in the San Diego area or here in the Central Valley area,” he says.
In addition, Medaris wants to increase member involvement in the state chapter. “I want to reach out to any new members as well as other members in the state who haven’t been involved in the ARA of California,” he says. “The networking — being able to talk with other professionals in the industry who have an understanding of what your business is going through — is so valuable. That is especially true now as we are coming out of the pandemic.”