Matthew Marks
IARA Executive Director
April 24, 2007
Greetings:
Hello again and best wishes for a strong spring and summer sales season. The Alliance has been busier than ever with many accomplishments and new initiatives since our last newsletter. Thanks are presented once again to all the committee members and board members who contribute so much to the programs of the alliance. Committee participation is always open to members. We welcome anyone who wishes to join a committee.
1. First of all, a warm welcome to our newest board members; Bob Graham, ARI Fleet; Jay Hinchman, Center One Financial; Nick Peluso, Manheim; and Dave Sutton, VW Credit. We are pleased to have them on board and look forward to their participation.
We also wish a hearty thank you to those board members leaving at the end of their second terms in 2006. Both Stuart Angert and John Possumato each served for a total of five years and the alliance is much stronger thanks to their contributions. Well done.
2. The IARA has also recently approved filling a second vice- president position. We are fortunate to have Carl Scandura, Toyota Financial Services, come forward to assume the duties of this position. Congratulations and thank you Carl. In addition, Don Fowler, Data Scan Field Services, and IARA board member has become the IARA membership committee chairperson. We wish both a great deal of success with their new positions.
3. The IARA is proud to announce that effective February 23rd, 2007, the IARA UK chapter was finalized and activated. Founder members are; Ontime Automotive; Cap; Dent Wizard Int’l; Inchcape Automotive; Motability Finance; Manheim; Lombard Vehicle Management; Lloyds TSB Autolease; Honda Motor Europe; Peugeot; First Fleet; RAC; VW; Bobit Business Media, and Auto Intelligence. We plan to have reciprocal meeting events in the future to share best practices. Our thanks to David Tomes, Auto Intelligence, for spearheading this initiative.
4. The winter roundtable meeting in conjunction with Car2007, in Las Vegas, was one of the best according to attendees. We honored Warren Young with the IARA Circle of Excellence award for his pioneering work with the Manheim organization. Dave Alfonso, awards committee chairperson, did his usual outstanding presentation.
Jim Hallet, industry leader, was our keynote speaker informing us why we have to do a better job with the auto dealers of America. Jim challenged all of us, as usual, to seek more meaningful and comprehensive customer services for the dealer body. The IARA afternoon roundtable topics presented were salvage vehicles, and reconditioning. Chuck Nix, now with Columbus Fair Auto Auction, lead the recon panel and Steve Houston, Wachovia Dealer Services, lead the salvage panel discussion. It was interesting to hear how certain parts of salvaged vehicles are worth more than the vehicle’s total salvaged value. We plan to explore the salvage topic more in depth at our July summer roundtable meeting.
Also at the car 2007 conference, Steve Houston, presented the results of the IARA industry performance metrics survey. Thirty-two remarketing consignors participated in the survey. The survey results can be requested on the IARA website at www.IARAonline.org.
5. Our summer roundtable series meeting will be held July 24-26th at the Cincinnati Marriott Rivercenter hotel in Covington, KY. Mark your calendar now. Registration will be on the IARA website soon at www.IARAonline.org. The remarketing industry panels and roundtable topics will include the following; salvage vehicles; dealer centric; performance metrics; inspection and grading scales; data mining; and specialty auctions with RVs, power boats, and power sports. A dinner cruise on the Ohio River with music will set sail on Thursday evening. In addition, a recognized industry speaker will keynote the opening day luncheon.
6. The first part of the IARA certification program will be available soon. We plan to have at least four courses focused on remarketing channels ready by mid-June for candidates. The courses will be available as education courses firstly, then, if candidates desire to also pursue the car certification program, a separate application to be tested on those courses will be available on the IARA website.
Testing will be arranged at various locations and dates so that candidates will have the opportunity to be tested in-person on the courses they select. The first testing session will take place immediately after the summer roundtable meeting, July 26th, Thursday at the Marriott Rivercenter hotel at 1:15 pm. Certification candidates will have three years to complete all the tests on the courses once they begin. The cost will be $50 per course for members and $100 for nonmembers. A testing session will be $195. Information will be on the IARA website soon.
We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Cincinnati July 24-26th. Contact me any time for information and details.
Best regards,
Matthew Marks
Executive Director
International Automotive Remarketers Alliance