Rod Enlow joked that in mid-2005 as he became chairman of I-CAR's board of directors, it looked like it was going to be a fairly smooth and calm year for the training organization. The destructive forces of hurricanes Katrina and Rita turned out to be just one of the issues that ended up buffeting I-CAR during what Enlow now calls a challenging but successful year. 

Rod Enlow

His comments came as he wrapped up his year as chairman at I-CAR's annual meeting, held in San Jose, California, in August. Although he and Tom McGee, president and CEO of I-CAR, did not avoid discussing the less positive aspects of the past year during their presentations to meeting attendees, they also focused on some key accomplishments as well as future ventures in which I-CAR is involved.

Student enrollment in I-CAR classes was up this past year, for example, and even though it was still nearly 25 percent below its most recent peak in 2002, additional sources of revenue - such as welding qualification tests, online training, and training development for automakers - boosted fiscal revenues to about $14.6 million, the highest ever.

This occurred in a fiscal year, McGee and Enlow pointed out, when last fall's hurricanes and resulting flooding challenged a region of the country that has in recent years been among the most active for I-CAR.

Trademark battle distracts

Enlow also said the past year included "a very serious threat to the I-CAR trademark." Although it was discussed in only vague terms at the meeting, I-CAR and Clemson University were recently involved in a legal skirmish over the school's use of the acronym "ICAR" for its "International Center for Automotive Research" in South Carolina.

"This took quite a large effort to fully explore, prepare, discuss and defend," Enlow said. "As our trademark becomes more valuable, the potential for others to try to use look-alike, sound-alike names…is a clear and present danger. For this reason, it was the recommendation of the I-CAR Executive Committee and then the full International Board of Directors, that I-CAR vigorously defend our trademark to the fullest extent of our capabilities and available resources. I'm happy to report to this body that I-CAR prevailed in the litigation taken against us, and we have built several safeguards to more fully reinforce our organization's ability to better defend the I-CAR trademark against potential future action."

Clemson is now calling its research center "CU-ICAR," but the distraction and resulting legal fees for I-CAR this past year were what another board member termed "greater than anticipated."

McGee, too, said that I-CAR's shift this past year to a new database and a move to its newly-built headquarters building in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, resulted in some glitches in customer service.

"We failed in a lot of ways while this transition was going on and we were distracted with some of these other things," McGee said. "But I tell you, the support we got from the volunteers and instructors was fabulous. And the staff did their best; I was proud of the staff.

"So my apologies to those who called and had some issues with our service. Please bear with us. Customer service will get better in this organization. Our promise for fiscal 2007 will be to increase service and support. We will become more service-oriented. We have customers. We need to take care of our customers and treat them like we want to be treated."