SAN ANTONIO – The latest Pickup Lines segment features Pam Crail, the president of the San Antonio Auto Dealers Association.
She is especially busy with the annual San Antonio Auto Show running Nov. 21-23.
Crail was born in Kansas but moved to San Antonio as a young girl. She eventually settled in Schertz and graduated from Clemens High School. Then, it was off to Austin and the Texas Capitol.
“It’s just so fascinating,” Crail said. “I mean, I was fascinated with just the part-time work that I was doing, kind of gave me just a taste of the whole atmosphere inside the Capitol. And I decided I sort of wanted to pursue that.”
Crail spent more than a decade working for various state senators and committees.
“It’s sort of another world and especially during the legislative session, you’re working 17-hour days and you’re just blinded, right? That’s all you know. You’re in your zone. Your outside life doesn’t exist,” Crail said.
“And through all of the committee hearings and hearing from all of the different people, from interest groups who were trying to get bills passed, and I was interested, I saw how it worked from the side of the Capitol,” Crail said. “I sort of wanted to see how it works from the other side, how these interest groups moved their issues forward and how they created the relationships that they created with elected officials.”
In 1995, Crail went to work for the Texas Auto Dealers Association and later returned to San Antonio to run the local chapter.
“You know that I learned something new about the dealer business like every day,” Crail said. “It is so complex, and there are so many rules and regulations and things that they have to keep in mind as they’re doing their business.”
“But the other thing about our dealers here is, you know, in some of the other larger metro associations, there are a lot of public companies that own dealerships,” Crail said. “Here in San Antonio, the majority of the dealerships here are privately owned or family-owned businesses, so they’re generational. Some of them are fourth generation and they’ve been in the community for forever and they love the community; they give back to the community. They’re amazing. They’re just a bunch of amazing people.”
Watch the full Pickup Lines with Pam Crail in the video player above.
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Ernie Zuniga started Pickup Lines, a digital talk show, straight from his vehicle. The segments feature a diverse range of guests, including executives, small business owners, and everyday individuals, as they share personal journeys, news, and stories.
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