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Letter from IARA's Executive Director Winter Roundtable Meeting at CAR2006 Emercent Solutions Annual Remarketing Survey Performance Measurements—Standards Committee IARA Initiative—UK Chapter Highlights—July 2006 Roundtable--San Diego

Letter from IARA's Executive Director


Matthew Marks IARA Executive Director

Greetings:

Spring Greetings from the Executive Director of the Alliance. I am pleased to report that the Alliance has been very active on several issues. The dedication of the IARA Board members and Committee Chairs continues to be the strength of the Alliance. The activities of the IARA are all focused on the primary mission of improving the vehicle remarketing process through education. Worthwhile hours on the part of many people have gone into this effort. Please note the following highlights of our recent activities.

This Summer’s Roundtable Series Meeting is shaping up to be one of our strongest yet thanks to the hard work of the members of Education and Conference Management Committee. Website registration will be available soon, but please mark your calendars now. Through out this summer and fall, I will be attending and exhibiting at several industry conferences. As always, I enjoy seeing IARA members at these events. Have a safe summer and I look forward to seeing everyone in San Diego.

Best regards,

signature graphic

Matthew Marks
Executive Director
International Automotive Remarketers Alliance

Winter Roundtable Meeting at CAR2006

Over 175 attendees were on hand for the IARA Circle of Excellence Award Luncheon honoring Jim Franks, CEO, Wheels, Inc, for his remarkable career in the automotive and fleet remarketing industry. In addition, his numerous contributions and dedication to various charities in the community were also noted. Jim Franks is truly one of the industry’s pioneers.
Jim Hallet, President, Columbus Fair Auto Auction, was the featured luncheon keynote speaker. Jim presented a “not your usual” luncheon talk. His points of challenge for the Auto Auction Industry included thinking of ways that auctions need to consider for enhanced customer service. He stressed that auctions need to be more creative and forward thinking or their future revenue opportunities will shrink.
The Certification Roundtable was co-moderated by Jill Tarallo, COO, NetworkRemarketing, and Mike Antich, Senior Editor, Bobit Business Media. They are both members of the IARA Certification Task Force Committee. They presented a comprehensive outline of the proposed Certification Program. Over 90% of the attendees who submitted a feedback assessment, agreed with the proposed program and recommended that the Alliance complete the details of the program as soon as possible.
Charlie Vogelheim, Vice President, J D Powers and Associates, and Raj Sundaram, President, ALG, co-moderated the Roundtable session on vehicle values. The session highlighted the fact that not all vehicle models’ values can be accurately represented in the guidebooks or auction sales reports. This is due to models that have many variations in equipment without a corresponding VIN differentiation or model designation differentiation. No definitive conclusion was reached about solving this industry anomaly, but there was agreement that by presenting this topic the educational mission of the Alliance was fulfilled.
A Six Sigma, Introduction to Process Management session, was the final panel of the day. Bill Vermillyea, SSEG Consulting, presented an introduction to the fundamentals of process management. The presentation highlighted the necessity of examining the root causes of events in order to formulate an effective solution. To illustrate, Bill used the example of the National Park Service’s problem with pigeons soiling the roof of the Jefferson Memorial. The process management approach focuses on what causes the pigeons to be there in the first place rather than on getting rid of them. Investigation found they were there to eat the spiders; which were there because of a certain insect; which were there because of the pre sunset spot lighting of the Memorial. By adjusting the time of day the spotlights were turned on and off, it caused a significant decrease in the insects; thus less spiders; thus less pigeons.

Emercent Solutions Annual Remarketing Survey

Emercent Solutions again presented their fine work with our joint annual survey of remarketers and the trends in upstream remarketing. Some shifts have occurred in the way some remarketers are now viewing what are the most important items for them to be concentrating on in the future. All IARA members will receive a copy direct from Emercent Solutions, so if you have not received a copy please contact Matt Marks.

Performance Measurements—Standards Committee

The Standards Committee has begun focusing on gathering industry information already available from various information companies to discern if certain remarketing performance measures can be extrapolated from existing data. The committee plans to develop ranges of performance measures for ten measuring points so industry members will be able to gage their own performance. Some information may be presented at the July meeting.

IARA Initiative—UK Chapter

Plans for an IARA Chapter in the UK are still proceeding. We are gaining support from remarketing companies and are working on plans to hold an initial founders meeting later this spring or early summer. In order to keep our costs at a minimum, a UK remarketing consultant, David Tomes, Auto Intelligence, has volunteered to head up our organizational efforts in the greater London area. David attended the CAR2005 and CAR2006 Conferences where strategic discussions were held with Board members. If any IARA members have counterparts in the UK, please let us hear from you.

Highlights—July 2006 Roundtable--San Diego

July 26 to 28th, Downtown Omni Hotel, San Diego
Election of Officers and Directors
Annual Meeting with Reports
Six Sigma Yellow Belt Training with Certificates of Completion
Nationally Known Motivational Luncheon Speaker
NAAA Arbitration Panel Session
Reconditioning and Transportation Roundtables
Dealer Centric Panel on Why I Buy (or not) Your Vehicles
Wednesday Evening Networking Cocktail Reception

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