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CAA's annual state-wide meeting, which this year was renamed from "expo" to "convention and industry conference", opened to light attendance at the Disneyland Hotel on June 28-29. Approximately 100 industry suppliers had booths in the exhibit hall, and several reported good sales despite the fact that exhibit floor seldom seemed busy. "We sold two systems on Friday night," said Ron Peters of Island Clean Air. "I'm happy." The AMI classes were sold out, according to AMI California Director Fred Sullivan. "I have 200 people in classes here" said Sullivan.
At Saturday's industry luncheon John Garamendi, Democratic candidate for Insurance Commissioner, told shop owners that if elected he would put the teeth back into the Unfair Claims Practices Act. Garamendi wrote the law when he was Insurance Commissioner in the early 90's, but said that his successor, Chuck Quackenbush, had "dismembered it." He called CAA's efforts to stop insurance company ownership of body shops through support for SB 1648 "a wonderful example of grass roots politics." CAA member Mike Santana, owner of Santana's Autobody in Ontario, was part of that grass roots effort. He was in Sacramento on June 26 with other CAA members to push SB 1648 through the Insurance Committee of the California Assembly. "It was really inspiring to see government at work," said Santana. "I've never been part of anything like this before and you saw first-hand how laws are really made. It was an incredible education." CAA's member of the year award was presented at the luncheon to Nancy Dye, the office manager at Inland Empire Collision in Riverside. "Everybody at CAA meetings thinks I'm a shop owner, but I'm not," said Dye, who 11 years ago "just took the job to see if it would work out. I love my work. It's a great industry, and I look forward to the next 11 years." Other awards included the Associate Member of the Year - Fred Gebert; oldest active member shop - Bistagne Brothers Auto Body in Glendale; Corporate Sponsor of the Year - 3M Company. |
