AUTOINC. ONLINE - Around ASA

Chandler teaches his students by offering hands-on training.

Thomas B. Chandler Sr., AAM - who was president of ASA-South Carolina from 1993 to 1995 - has been named District Teacher of the Year at Laurens 55 High School in Laurens, S.C.

Chandler, an ASA Mechanical Division Operations Committee member from 1995 to 1998, is the owner of Professional Automotive Services Inc. in Greenwood, S.C.

He began teaching automotive technology at Lauren's District 55 High School in 2004.

Chandler set up his classroom to run just like a real repair shop. "My curriculum teaches students not only how to properly repair cars," said Chandler, "but also helps them develop appropriate work ethics and employee relations and customer relations skills, as well as other expectations of today's quality employers."

In addition to transforming the antiquated automobile repair facility into a top-notch repair lab, Chandler got the program nationally certified by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation in December 2005.

Darrell Amberson, AAM, accepts the 2007 Russ Verona Memorial IBIS Scholarship from Denise Caspersen, ASA Collision Division Manager.

Darrell Amberson, AAM, director of ASA's Collision Division, and president of Lehman's Garage, Bloomington, Minn., received the Russ Verona Memorial IBIS Scholarship Nov. 2 at the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE) in Las Vegas.

The scholarship is named after the late Russ Verona, AAM, a longtime ASA member and leader, and former NACE chairman, who died last year. In honor of Verona and his efforts to join together the worldwide network of collision repair professionals, ASA and the International Bodyshop Industry Symposium (IBIS) established the Russ Verona Memorial IBIS Scholarship in 2006. Verona owned East Rockford Collision Center in Rockford, Ill., for 41 years. He was known industrywide as the "Godfather of Collision Repair." He unofficially served as an ASA ambassador at worldwide collision events, including IBIS.

"Russ was a friend to everyone he met. He was a progressive and innovative thinker," said Denise Caspersen, manager of the collision division, in her presentation of the award to Amberson, who was this year's chairman at NACE.

The scholarship covers the expenses for Amberson to attend the IBIS 2008 event, which will be held in June at the Montreux Palace Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland.

"Darrell is deserving of this scholarship for his leadership and efforts on behalf of the Collision Division of ASA," said Ron Pyle, ASA president and chief staff executive. "In these challenging times for the collision industry, he has demonstrated a serious commitment in seeking solutions and improvements to important issues. He will represent us well at IBIS."

ASA announced the winner of its 2007 Chairman's Club Award at the Congress of Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) Luncheon Nov. 3 in Las Vegas. This year's recipient was Danny Guido, AAM, owner of Tony's Service Center Inc. in Phoenix. The award honors ASA members who recruited or provided leads for prospective shops to become members of the association.

Guido recruited 59 new members to ASA, which earned him an expense-paid trip to one of ASA's two annual trade shows - CARS or the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE). Guido, who had already planned to attend this year, decided to donate his award to others.

"Danny did something very unique," said B.J. Johnson, director of membership and affiliate relations at ASA. "Instead of accepting the expense-paid trip, he asked if he could use the money to assist other ASA members with their expenses to attend either CARS or NACE, and we agreed."

Guido's thoughtful and generous gesture enabled three additional ASA members to attend ASA's CARS and NACE events that week. The award value for the trip was $1,000 and the Automotive Management Institute (AMI) contributed another $500. Each of the three members received $500 to apply toward their expenses to attend the events. The members are Michael Mazzarela, Airport Collision Center, Phoenix; Robert E. Schmidgall, Smitty's Body Shop, Yuma, Ariz.; and Tony Tokin, Ric's Body & Paint Inc., Phoenix.

"The Chairman's Club Award is such an honor," said Guido, on receiving the award. "I am more excited about the new members than I am about the award! The new members who were signed up have already signed up other new members. Strength is the key. I believe Frank Beemer of Virginia Tech said it best, 'one of us is not as strong as all of us.'"

In addition to recruiting members for ASA, Guido is a general director on ASA's board of directors. He also serves on the ASA-Arizona board of directors, and is president of the ASA-Phoenix chapter.

Reminder of the Month: Exercise Your Membership Rights

As an ASA member, you have the right to elect members to the national board of directors. The ASA board elections will be held Jan. 2-Feb. 29, 2008. All regular members in good standing with ASA are eligible to cast their vote for the single position of general director, the single position of mechanical division director and the single position of collision division director. The collision and mechanical division directors are each elected by their respective division. (A member is assigned to the appropriate division based on information provided by the member when he or she joins the association.)

The voting process will guide each member through the necessary steps to vote for general director and the appropriate division director. When voting opens, the entire process will be conducted electronically using a toll-free telephone number or by logging onto a secured Web site.

Once a member has phoned-in or entered the Web site, he or she will vote by entering their member number plus a three-digit security code number and following the prompts.

These numbers can be found on the mailing labels of this issue and the January and February 2008 issues of AutoInc. The member number and security code are directly above the addressee's full name and enclosed by parentheses ( ). Example: (123456 789).