St. John’s, Newfoundland — June 7, 2017 — The Automotive Recyclers of Atlantic Canada (ARAAC) held its annual meeting last weekend in St. John’s Newfoundland, where good cheer and weather helped create a memorable experience for all attendees. As always, the event balanced entertainment, business and learning in order to make things more personal as well as enjoyable. This year’s meeting was attended by 55 people altogether, which is a great turnout for the event. Overall, the meeting was filled with innovative solutions as well as a unique learning opportunity with a field trip to a local auto recycling facility. Canadian Auto Recyclers magazine reached out to Steve Fletcher, Executive Director at Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association/Automotive Recyclers of Canada, for further details and input on the meeting’s proceedings.
The meeting began smoothly on Friday evening as the Board of Directors met to plot the course of the association. During the annual meeting, Andrew MacDonald from Maritime Auto Parts and Dalbert Livingstone from Island Auto Parts, were re-elected to their respective positions within the association – President and Vice President. Next, the Members reviewed the financials of the association, heard committee reports and discussed the confidential portions of the agenda. One noteworthy decision was the creation of an ARAAC Employee Bursary Program. This program will provide a bursary for the post-secondary education of the children of ARAAC Direct M embers.
The group was then joined by the ARAAC Associate Members and vendors for the rest of the program. Each Associate had an opportunity to address the crowd with an update on their activity in Atlantic Canada. This dialogue-driven portion of the meeting was extremely beneficial as it allowed for personal inputs from each associate. “These dialogue portions give the event the personal touch it needs in order to make the next events even bigger,” said Steven Fletcher. Indeed the focus is to get more people to attend the annual meeting and get everyone involved in discussions. This is made easier when everyone is given the chance to weight in his or her inputs in a personal way.
Next came the education sessions with seminars and updates meant to help Members navigate the fluctuating world of the auto recycling industry. These seminars included updates from Power-DB by Philippe Clermont from SolexD, Monidex Distribution by Sal Poletta, Car-Part by Luke Gamm as well as from the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) by Dalbert Livingstone. Seminars also featured exciting new initiatives such as Hollander’s upcoming launch of Powerlink 3.0, which is a comprehensive system that helps manage inventory, orders and operations specifically for automotive recycling facilities, presented by Marc Morin and Jonathon Wells.
The formal portion of the meeting was then wrapped up with an update to the ARAAC strategic planning process, started in 2016, along with a lively open-mic session on the Top 5 Challenges and Opportunities facing auto recyclers. This was another great way to get everyone involved on a more personal level.
The next potion of the meeting was especially interesting as the entire group was taken out to Vatcher’s Auto Parts, a local auto recycling facility, for tours and a reception. The 15-acre yard was tidy and well laid out. This was an exciting opportunity, said Steven Fletcher as “Members thoroughly enjoy visiting their fellow auto recyclers with many claiming that they learn something every time they make a visit. Auto recyclers are unique in that they welcome visits from other auto recyclers as it is this sharing that allows the industry to grow, prosper and learn.” There is indeed great value in seeing how other auto recyclers operate and this is also a good reminder that joining forces and exchanging inputs make a great deal of difference in the long run.
This field trip concluded the events of the meeting as everyone was brought back to the hotel. Many extended their stay in order to take in the beautiful landscapes of Newfoundland. The meeting was an overall fruitful gathering of thoughts, inputs and solutions. The personal touch brought forth by discussion panels predict an even bigger turnout for next year’s meeting, which will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 8-10, 2018.
