Letter - Exec Dir - Jan 2011

Matthew Marks
IARA Executive Director

Greetings members:
1. Best wishes for success in 2011. 2010 was a busy year for the Alliance and 2011 will be even busier. The Alliance continues to work on several issues and I wanted to take a moment to update you on our events and activities.

2. The March 9/10th IARA/CAR/NAAA Conference is just around the corner and in our morning session we will have a breakfast presentation by Charlie Vogelheim, Intellichoice, on vehicle trends. This will be followed by two concurrent roundtable sessions. One on brainstorming industry issues and one on vehicle history reporting. Our Circle of Excellence Award Luncheon speaker is industry veteran Mike Hockett, who will present a historical overview of the remarketing industry titled “Cowboys to Cubicles”.

3. Our IARA Certification Program is undergoing an intensive review by the Certification Committee with course material updates by blue ribbon panel members and a questions review for accuracy. Seventeen members are now certified with several others very close. In 2011, the first four IARA Certified Automotive Remarketing graduates will be recertified.

4. The Standards and Technology Committee continues to work on remote rep technology. In addition, we would like to have you submit any and all remarketing industry apps that are currently being used on various devices. We intend to catalog these and be the depository for the industry apps listings. Send them to me at matthew@iara.biz. Thanks.

5. 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the IARA and we will be making plans for an appropriate recognition of this event at our Summer meeting in Dallas, August 16/17, at the Westin Galleria. We will be gathering as much history as we can, so if anyone has any historical information about IARA , we’d appreciate receiving it. We intend to interview as many of the founders as we can locate. Should be a fun project.

6. The Board of Directors will hold a strategic planning meeting while at CAR to strengthen the Alliance and its role in the remarketing industry. If you have a suggestion as to how the Alliance can be even more effective, please forward to me.

Thanks for your continuing support and safe travels.

Best personal regards,
Matthew Marks
Executive Director
International Automotive Remarketers Alliance

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