Jeff Bly Is ASA's Top Recruiter, Chairman's Club Winner for 2009

Jeff Bly

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) has announced the winner of its 2009 Chairman's Club Award, the association's grassroots member recruitment program. This year's recipient is Jeff Bly of Maywood Transmission Inc., an ASA member-business in Independence, Mo. The Chairman's Club award honors ASA members who recruited or provided leads for prospective shops to become members of the association.

Bly earned more member recruitment points than any other ASA member between the close of last year's competition through Sept. 15, 2009. The accomplishment earns Bly an expense-paid trip to one of ASA's two annual trade shows - The Congress of Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) or the International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE) - both of which will be held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas Nov. 4-7.

"I'm very honored to accept this prestigious award," said Bly. "I would like to personally thank Todd Mehalko, ASA membership recruiter, who taught me that recruiting is mainly about 'excitement.' He told me that if you're truly enthusiastic about a particular feature, or benefit of ASA membership, then that's what you should talk about when you approach a prospective member. As it turns out, excitement has proved to be contagious in ASA-Missouri/Kansas (ASA-Mo/Kan). I enjoy being part of an association that is truly amazing. I look forward to seeing many of my ASA friends at CARS."

Bly is a full-time technician at Maywood Transmission. In addition to recruiting members for ASA, he is an active member of ASA-Mo/Kan who serves as state secretary for the affiliate, is the ASA-Kansas City chapter president, and also serves as the ASA-Mo/Kan newsletter chairman.

"Jeff has an incredible enthusiasm for ASA and the automotive service industry. He is well-respected in the industry and has done an amazing job growing the Kansas City chapter, as well as inspiring members to become leaders and get more involved," said Sheri Hamilton, AAM, executive director, ASA-Mo/Kan.

The Chairman's Club program is based on a point system: five or more points are earned for each new member a current member recruits. The member with the most points by a specified date is awarded the grand prize - an expense-paid trip to ASA's CARS or NACE events.

Reminder of the month
Voting Begins Jan. 4 for Board of Directors Elections

For the 2010 ASA board of directors elections, ASA members will have the opportunity to cast their votes for candidates either by telephone or on the Internet from Jan. 4-Feb. 28, 2010.

Members can access the electronic ballots by calling a toll-free telephone number or by logging in on a secured Web site. Once members have phoned in or entered the Web site, they will vote by entering their member number plus a three-digit security code number following the prompts. These numbers can be found on the mailing labels of the December 2009, January and February 2010 issues of AutoInc. The member number and security code are directly above the addressee's full name and enclosed by parentheses ( ). Example: (123456 789).

All regular members in good standing with ASA are eligible to cast their vote for the three positions - general director; mechanical division director; collision division director, open. Click here for candidate profiles.

Associate Members Show Support for ASA Shops

The Automotive Service Association has announced that five new associate members have recently joined the association, and there are two renewing members.

The decision to become an associate member displays a strong commitment to ASA and its efforts to serve the automotive service and repair industry - including its many dedicated independent repair professionals.

New associate members joining ASA during the third quarter of 2009 include: Automotive Franchise Systems, Blackburn Hubcap & Wheel Inc., Redline Detection LLC, RepairPal Inc. and Yodel Inc.

The two renewing ASA associate members are National Alliance of Paintless Dent Repair and PH2 Solutions Inc.

The associate category of ASA membership is designed for companies or groups that supply goods, services or equipment to the industry, especially to ASA's regular category of membership - businesses that perform automotive repair services. ASA's full list of associate members can be found on the ASA Web site, www.ASAshop.org. The associate member list is categorized according to the products or services the member provides to the industry. From air systems and tools to wheel alignment systems, associate member categories run the gamut in the automotive service and collision repair industry.

"It's a sincere pleasure to welcome ASA's newest associate members and welcome back our renewing associates," said B.J. Johnson, ASA's vice president of membership services. "These businesses serve our shop-level members on a day-to-day basis and creating opportunities for these two segments to come together is mutually beneficial to all parties, especially in these economic times."

RepairPal Inc. is also one of ASA's newest sponsored benefit providers and offers a 10 percent discount on AppointmentsPlus products to eligible ASA member businesses.