AGRSS News
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State Farm Donates Gift of $20,000 to AGRSS Council

State Farm Insurance has provided a monetary gift of $20,000 to the Automotive Glass Replacement Safety Standards (AGRSS) Council Inc. for use in developing its Consumer Awareness Program.

“State Farm’s support of AGRSS, through [its] time and monetary commitment, makes a clear statement to the auto glass industry that it is necessary to follow the Standard of installation to ensure the protection of our mutual customer involved in an auto accident,” says Cindy Ketcherside, president of the AGRSS Council. The funding will be used to develop and further advance the AGRSS Consumer Awareness Programs (CAPs) taking place around the country.

“As the insurance industry leaders, we at State Farm stand committed to supporting the highest quality auto glass safety standard available,” says Bob Bischoff, national glass manager with State Farm. “We’re committed to educating our consumers about safety standards and why they are so critical to auto glass safety. We proudly support AGRSS in its efforts to continue to raise the bar on the safety standards and to educate the public through its CAP.”

“A donation of this size will not only help AGRSS educate the consumer on the safety issues of an auto glass installation, it will help us communicate the importance of implementing this Standard into each and every auto glass company,” Ketcherside adds. AGRSS Elects Four to Board of Directors, Welcomes New Members At the AGRSS Standards Committee meeting in late October, the group held elections to its board of directors, with board members Bob Birkhauser of AEGIS Tools International and Debra Levy, publisher of AGRR magazine/glassBYTEs.com™, being re-elected to the board and new board members being added. 

Elected to the board were: Dan Mock, vice president of operations for Glass Doctor; Charles Turiello, who currently serves as director of quality assurance and safety with Diamond Glass Inc. in Kingston, Pa.; Joel Timmons of Profitable Glass Solutions and Jeff Bull of J. Bull & Associates.

New members also joined the Standards Committee this year. Sherri Stallings of Binswanger Glass, who had served as an alternate previously officially became a member, replacing Steve Pierick. Other new members are Steve Coyle, who joined as an individual member; Brian Yarborough of Glass Doctor in Tampa, representing the Independent Glass Association; Gene Nichols of Guardian Industries; Mike Schmaltz of the Minnesota Glass Association; Dave Zoldowski of Auto One in Brighton, Mich.; Jim Coleman of Glasspro in Charleston, S.C.; Tom Lance of Leading Edge Auto Refinishers; Jim Gagin of Sommer & Maca; Scott Riddel of Bostik; and Tim O’Neil of ADCO.

New AGRSS Marketing Tools Available
The AGRSS marketing committee has added three new items to its growing list of promotional materials for sale to assist shops in making the most of their AGRSS registrations and educating consumers.

Two new brochures are available; one explains the Consumer Awareness Program (CAP) and how to host a local CAP event and the other is written for members of the insurance industry, supplying them with information about AGRSS specific to their needs as insurance providers.

Additionally, mirror tags are now available with an explanation of safe drive-away times and the importance thereof. 

Mark Your Calendars for the AGRSS Conference
The dates for the fourth annual AGRSS Conference have been set. The conference will be held November 5-6, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. 

AGRR
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