CALENDAR OF EVENTS

CAR Annual Meeting
Saturday, January 26, 2008

PPA Event Center at 2105 Decatur St
9:00 - 5:00 pm

Please click here for agenda           Please click here for exhibitor form

Please click here for meeting flyer

CAR Annual Meeting & Social Event
January 20, 2007

The 2007 year’s event was again held at the PPA Event Center but this year we added twenty five percent more room to accommodate our members and our exhibitors. This was a good plan as turn out was above expectations.

Some seventy Auto Recyclers representing 40 facilities from around Colorado, some as far away as Salida and Grand Junction, showed up on January 20 for the annual meeting of the Colorado Automotive Recyclers.

Our morning session had several round table discussion groups (pictured above) and the afternoon our mandatory safety presentation from Pinnacle Assurance. These round table discussion groups covered topics like “How to milk the Scrap Cow”, “How to read your business matrix”, “Is eBay an option”, and Hollander power link system. Especially informative was the one hosted by Kirk Mills of the Colorado State Department of Health on tips on being EPA compliant. These round tables seemed to be a great way to inform and educate our members because they were allowed active participation in the discussions.

The Annual meeting is a required safety meeting is for those recyclers with Pinnacol Workman’s Comp through the CAR Association. Those in attendance got an opportunity to learn about how to spend more time in sorting through the hiring process in a presentation given by Rick Jenkins of Flood and Peterson. Rick showed the group that many accidents happen by not deeply investigating the potential new hires abilities to operate the equipment in the salvage yard. As a result many accidents happen in the first few days on the job.

Rick said those yards involved in 2005-2006 workmen’s comp program would once again be getting a substantial dividend.

Attendees also heard Mark J McMillan from CDPHE and some received their 2006 Environmental Achievement awards (pictured below). The Colorado Automotive Recyclers in cooperation with the State Dept. of Health are the first group in the US to volunteer to remove these switches from end of life vehicles. This has been a great test program and now other States are seeing the need for cooperating in this important cause.

The CAR board for the third year did a special Life Time Achievement Award. This very special award is something that we chose to give to people in our industry that during their lifetime had made positive contributions to the growth, betterment, and leadership of the Colorado Automotive Recyclers.

The first one went to Norm Sample of Colorado Auto Parts and the second one went to Larry Silver of Central Foreign. This year’s award went very deservingly to Norman Wright of Stadium Auto Parts because of his lifetime commitment to betterment of the Automotive Recyclers in Colorado and also the whole United States. Norman has been a past president of not only the CAR but also the national ARA group. He now serves as active board member and our long time treasurer.

Elections were held and Doug Ruppel of Chevy Truck Parts in Denver will continue to be the CAR president for 2007. The board members stayed the same as last year except Chip Jansma of Loveland Auto Salvage was added mid-year to the board of directors.

This year’s plan of an hour lunch and 15 minute breaks through out the day for our members gave everyone time to visit our exhibitor’s displays. We were grateful to have on hand a diverse group of thirteen vendors. Included in these were Katherine Hedges from Hollander, Mike Lambert from Buddy Automotive Innovations (Computer Consulting), and Chuck Starr from Harry’s Transmission (Rebuilder), Dan & Miriam from Frontier Distributors (Glass), Roger Schroder of Car-Part.com, and Patrick Mathews of Eagle Industries (Aftermarket parts), Don Davis from Actual Systems, Betsy from Hotlines, Ray from Performance Radiator, Tommy Hornburg of USA Surveillance and NEW this year Mark Skau with Heartland Payments and Earl Farr with Flexfunds. They all offered items related to the auto recycler. Many donated door prizes to the membership, which were drawn for after the meeting ended.

A big thank you to our event sponsors: Pinnacol Assurance, Flood & Peterson, Klode’s Salvage Distribution Center, Hollander and The Meeting Edge. Your generous contributions make this event a huge success.

After the meeting many of the group met at The Witt’s End comedy club for dinner and entertainment. Although it made along day everyone enjoyed the camaraderie and the laughter.

CAR Fun Event at Bandimere Speedway
September 16, 2006

The weather was gorgeous on Saturday morning.  Six CAR member yards and their families showed up at Bandimere Speedway for our summer fun event sponsored by Flood and Peterson Insurance and the Colorado Auto Recyclers. The thirty five people in attendance got an opportunity to learn about drag racing and eight individuals actually got to race each other for the 3rd Annual CAR Top Eliminator award.  Since only seven racers had signed up, the eighth spot was raffled off to lucky winner Tony Mall. Everyone got one time run to get familiar with the 2000 Z28 Camaro's. This year’s winner was none other than last year’s winner, Adam Corn from Colorado Auto Parts.  He used consistent quick reaction times to get by the other drivers that were paired up with him. The final had him paired against his older brother, Eric.  As good as Eric’s reactions were he had to settle for the runner-up spot. The TREE CHOPPER Award went to the worst reaction time during compaction; the winner was none other than Tony Mall from Harris Auto. Both winners took home very nice trophies.  

Very special thanks to Rick Jenkins from the Flood and Peterson Insurance agency.  Rick represents Pinnacol Assurance who writes workman’s compensation policies for qualifying CAR members. He was not the only the event sponsor, as Big Joe from All Recycling sponsored the FREE ice cream which was a big hit with the group. Doug Ruppel and Joe got Snap on Tools to give away a bunch of nice door prizes including a coveted leather jacket. Everyone who attended won a door prize of some sort.  A very special thanks to all who helped in putting this event on.

P.S. They say in journalism a picture is worth a thousand words so please check out the photo stories on this event. Centerfold poster was prepared by West Imaging (303-452-1536) and is available in a full color version. All of these images from the race can be viewed and purchased if any one would like. They have can have their photos mailed or pick them up at their local Target. All of the images are high quality for top quality printing ordering, not guaranteed for downloading.

Instructions for accessing, viewing and order prints:

• Just click on http://photos.yahoo.com/westimaging and you will be directed to these images.

• Click on the button below the album you want to review.

• You can then either double click on an individual image and it will be enlarged or select “view slideshow” to review the whole album.

• Ordering is straight forward from that point by selecting the desired image button

• The rest of the instructions are very simple.

Annual Meeting
January 28th, 2006

Colorado Automotive Recyclers (CAR) members had a full day at their annual meeting on Jan. 28. As the complexity and demands increase on owners of vehicle salvage the association has made it a goal to help its members keep current and informed. Steve Chinn, police office from Aurora Police Department, discussed various steps owners can take to secure their businesses against employee theft, burglary and fraud. One of his suggestions was to increase exterior lighting because, “thieves are like cockroaches, they scatter when the lights come on.” Another topic of concern is the escalating incidents of credit card theft and fraudulent checks. Because there are many methods of stealing people’s identities to create false documents, he emphasized the need to secure all information that contains this type of data and to shred all discarded paper.

One of the owners concerns’ is the preservation, transfer or selling of their valued business at the time of retirement, disability or death. A symposium was paneled by Ronda Palsulich, accountant, Kathleen Bowen, financial planner, and Peter Scott, business attorney. They pointed out that: “At some point every owner leaves his or her business—voluntarily or otherwise.”

Ronda said “The best way to ensure a solid plan that meets your goals is to have a Team of Advisors who listen to your wants and coordinate a package to handle all these complexities into one answer.” This can best be accomplished by having an accountant, lawyer and financial advisor working together to develop the “package” that works for you. Peter said, “Coordinating your Estate Plan and your Financial Plan with your Business Plan lets you, the owner, give what you have to whom you want when you want and the way you want at the lowest overall cost and expense to you and your family. “

Flood & Peterson Insurance/Pinnacol Assurance were represented by Rick Jenkins and Tom Levy to discuss the procedure for handling an investigation and information gathering following an accident. The value of knowing the correct questions to ask the injured party was illustrated by having the audience participate by asking the questions as the interviewer. The main points were to gather the information from the injured employee and witnesses as soon as possible for accuracy and thoroughness, to ascertain if company procedures and policies were being followed, and to determine what could be done in the future to prevent it. This type of awareness presentation has been one of the reasons that CAR members have experienced below average workmen’s compensation claims over the past five years.

RJ Hicks, CAR’s Colorado lobbyist, had an update on bills of interest before the House of Representatives. He discussed 10 steps that businessmen can take to protect their rights via exercising political clout: 1. Donations—personal or association, 2. Relationships—build and maintain, 3. Honesty—know both sides of issues, 4. Presentation--be prepare and considerate of time constraints, 5. Public Relations--interaction with your community, 6. Personal Communications--use all methods of direct and indirect contact, 7. Courtesy----interact in a professional, courteous manner, 8. All Legislators Matter--work with both sides of issues, 9. Start Early--address issues early in the “legislation season,” and 10. Campaign Involvement--to get things done get involved in campaign issues.

CAR received an award, from the Environmental Protection Agency for its ongoing participation in the removal of mercury switches from end-of-life vehicles. A three-year team effort between CAR members, Colorado Department of Public Health & Education, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has resulted in the capture of over 75 pounds of mercury. The award was presented by Stephen Tuber to Jim Goodwin, Phil Tolley and Norman Wright for their leadership in this unique voluntary program.

Larry Silver of Central Foreign Auto Parts was this year’s recipient of CAR’s special Life Time Achievement Award which recognizes an individual who contributed positively to the growth, betterment and leadership of our industry. Sadly, Larry lost his battle with leukemia on August 24, 2005. He built up a very successful auto recycling business and was very active in CAR having spent years on the board and served as president in 2001 and 2002. Accepting this years award was his wife Becky and oldest son Ben Silver.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the talk by returning guest speaker, Ike Isenhart, on Building Customer Relations. Ike had us all pull up our chairs in a close circle and got right down to what our threats are in this industry. He encouraged members to set up their businesses with NON-NEGOTIABLE standards rather than rules. By working as a team and leaving your ego’s at the door, you can cultivate the needed environment that produces great customer relations.

On hand at lunch and during the breaks were several venders. Included in these were Katherine Hedges from ADP Hollander, Mike Lambert from Buddy Automotive Innovations (Computer Consulting), Chuck Starr of Harry’s Transmission (Rebuilder), Don Davis from Actual Systems of America (Pinnacle Computer), Ray Sharp of Performance Radiator (Auto Parts), Roger Schroeder of Car-Part.com, Patrick Matthews of Eagle Industries (Aftermarket parts), Ira Kaplan of USA Surveillance and Dena Wojtach from Colorado Department of Public Health & Education. They all offered items related to the auto recycler. Many donated door prizes to the membership, which were drawn for after the meeting ended.