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Page 1 of 2 Dozens of technical clinics and a panel discussion with five of the auto manufacturers were among the agenda highlights as I-CAR held its 24th annual meeting in Hollywood, Florida, in late July.
About 650 people attended the event, marking the first time the organization's annual meeting was "sold out" and had to close registration. The jump from last year's attendance of about 500 was due in no small part to Allstate Insurance, which for the second year in a row sent its field staff to the meeting if they qualified for I-CAR's Platinum Individual program. Nearly 250 Allstate employees earned the Platinum designation, which recognizes those who have received a specified number (that varies by job description) of Gold Class credits by completing I-CAR or Industry Training Alliance courses. Time with the automakers Attendees at the meeting had more than an hour to fire questions at representatives of Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Toyota and Daimler-Chrysler. Topics during the session included access to repair information; the use of aluminum, new steels or other materials; and proper uses of weld-through primers, structural foam and adhesive bonding. Many of these automakers also held technical clinics during the annual meeting for more in-depth and specific information about new vehicle models. Other sessions about current and future technology were led by paint and equipment manufacturers. Past year's performance Having completed his first full year as I-CAR CEO this past spring, Tom McGee reported that the organization had a successful year - down from the preceding year in terms of revenue and number of students taught, but still profitable and not too disappointing given the nation's economic struggles. During its recently completed fiscal year, I-CAR taught about 118,000 student units (one unit equals one student in one 4-hour I-CAR class), down from last year's 146,000, but slightly higher than the year prior to that. McGee said more than 90 percent of the training I-CAR now offers falls under the "enhanced delivery" designation, a total of almost 50 I-CAR training programs. He said by the end of this coming year, all courses - a total of about 70 - will fall into the "enhanced delivery" designation, including post-course testing. The number of subscribers to I-CAR's electronic newsletter, which includes I-CAR news and technical information, has grown dramatically, and now stands at 7,900, up almost 3,000 from a year ago. About 2,300 students took I-CAR's "Welding Qualification Test" (WQT) at nearly 100 test sites this past year, McGee said. The "passing rate" for the past 12 months is 63 percent, up sharply from a passing rate that has hovered around 40 percent for a number of years. (The passing rate for written exams following I-CAR's other courses is about 84 percent, a statistic held down somewhat, McGee believes, by language and literacy issues.) He said those who have criticized I-CAR's requirement for those who have passed the WQT to recertify every five years underestimate the importance of the test. Only 72 percent of those who attempt to requalify pass the first time. "We are welding a car back together, and putting someone else's family in that car, he said. "We have an obligation to ensure that our repairs are as good as they can be."
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