PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

By Jesse Jacobson, AASP-MN President

Spread the Word and Work Together

I’m impressed by the Alliance staff and membership just about every day. The honor of being President makes you aware of most of the big issues the Alliance is facing. A couple of events this summer really triggered an organic push to work together to accomplish big tasks.

Alliance member Brian Gerhart (Brownsdale Auto Body, Brownsdale, MN) organized a webinar outside of the Alliance about prevailing rates that was extremely informative and thought provoking. The Alliance needed more of that type of training, so we got Brian to hold another webinar and pushed it out to the membership with a huge turnout. That created a large amount of energy and momentum between Alliance staff, our lobbyists, and a bunch of members to create best practices to collect on insurance short-pays. It didn’t take long for Alliance staff to organize a meeting with the Department of Commerce and 10 members to provide detailed short-pay examples. We’ve met with Commerce before, but not with that many energized members from across the state. We feel we made good progress and opened some great avenues for communication in the future. This momentum started from one member who greatly cares about this industry and wanted to help educate other people.

The second event was a large group of shops, vendors and educators in northern MN who wanted more training on vehicle technology, technical resources, employee development and state laws. Some were members, but many were not. They got together, and they continue to get together once a month to make each other more successful. We lend support to this monthly endeavor by building awareness of the Alliance and what resources it can offer. At one of the most recent meetings, AASP-MN Executive Director Linden Wicklund covered the applicable state laws. I’ve attended two of the meetings so far and the appreciation, collaboration, commitment, connection and focus of the group is amazing.

These two examples are proof that a little effort by everyone can really make big steps to improve the industry as a whole. I encourage you, member or not, collision or mechanical, to join a group that already gets together or start your own with fellow shop owners on a regular basis. We understand that it isn’t always feasible to attend meetings in the metro, but the Alliance is here to support you with materials and resources to grow your business. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.