How to Submit Suggestions, Ideas, Issues to ASA

As a member-driven organization, ASA values your opinion, input and participation. If you have suggestions, ideas or issues you would like the national board of directors, the division operations committees or the Affiliate Assembly to address, please follow these guidelines. Contact information for the ASA board of directors can be found on page 2 of this issue of AutoInc.:

National Board of Directors: Contact any member of the national board of directors via telephone, e-mail or postal mail with your input. Your board of directors' listing can be found on the ASA Web site, in AutoInc. magazine or ASA OnDemand. You may also contact the ASA Membership Department to request the current contact information for the board.

Mechanical and Collision Division Operations Committees: Contact the current division director via telephone, e-mail or postal mail with your input. Division directors hold a seat on the board of directors, and their contact information can be found on the ASA Web site, in AutoInc. magazine or ASA OnDemand. You may also contact the national office to speak with the division managers.

Affiliate Assembly: Every January there is a "formal" call for issues to be submitted to the national office for the agenda of the Affiliate Assembly meeting held during ASA's annual business meeting. Agenda items to be considered for the Affiliate Assembly meeting should be sent to your affiliate delegate, affiliate executive director or the administrative assistant to the ASA president.

If an issue surfaces after the annual business meeting, the best approach is to provide the information to a board member or the manager of either the Collision or Mechanical Division.

All members are also welcome to contact any ASA national staff person at (800) 272-7467, and their comments or suggestions will be directed to the appropriate group.

ASA Conducts Annual Member Business Survey

The annual "How's Your Business?" survey was mailed in August to 1,500 randomly selected mechanical and collision ASA members. The survey results will be reported in the December issue of AutoInc. The survey enables ASA to track, record and report the state of the independent automotive service industry. All answers will remain anonymous. For those who have received the survey, we ask that you complete it at your earliest convenience and return it to ASA. Your participation is crucial to the validity of this annual survey. To thank you for your time and participation, your name will be entered into a drawing for a free registration to the Congress of Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) and the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE). A winner from each division will be selected. Please note that the free registration does not include transportation, hotel or other incidentals.

Association Launches 2007 Edition of
ASA's Ultimate Buyers Guide for Service Professionals

ASA has launched the third edition of ASA's Ultimate Buyers Guide for Service Professionals, a Web-based buyers guide providing shop owners and industry professionals worldwide immediate access to products and services catered specifically to their needs. The guide can be accessed through the association's home page (www.ASAshop.org) or through a direct link at www.ASAUltimateBuyersGuide.com.

Within the Ultimate Buyers Guide for Service Professionals, two different methods of searching for products and services are available. Users have the option of performing keyword-driven searches that mirror traditional search engines, or category-specific searches. Both methods produce the most relevant search results unique to the automotive repair industry while cutting through the clutter of a general Internet search.

The 2007 edition includes Request for Information (RFI) functionality. This new feature allows users to contact participating suppliers with a click of a button. The guide also includes a desktop search mechanism, allowing visitors to download a free application that makes the information on ASA's Ultimate Buyers Guide for Service Professionals accessible from a user's computer desktop.

ASA has partnered with MultiView Inc., a leading publisher of online supplier directories for associations, to bring ASA's Ultimate Buyers Guide for Service Professionals to the industry.

NATIONAL NEWS

• ASA welcomes Cynthia Pruitt who is the new assistant for the Collision and Mechanical Divisions. Pruitt is originally from Oklahoma and has lived in Texas since 1998. She has two sons, Allen and Anthony.

  In addition to providing assistance to the mechanical and collision division managers, she also maintains the ASA Information Center. Pruitt is looking forward to working with ASA members and can be reached at cynthiap@asashop.org or (800) 272-7467, ext. 226.

• Robert Stephens, a longtime ASA member who is now retired after 53 years in the automotive service industry, stopped by ASA's national headquarters recently to share some of his ASA experiences and stories from his many years of involvement in our industry. He brought with him a scrapbook that his wife, Wilma, had put together. Stephens, who lives in Rockwall, Texas, a Dallas suburb, owned Stephens Garage in Dallas before his retirement. The ASA scrapbook included a variety of ASA historical items including news clippings, photos and ASA memorabilia.