Wow!  What a Convention!  If you missed it, you missed a great one, one of the best we have had in years, the most vendors in years, the most CE credits we have ever had, a wonderful resort, right on the beach, a golf outing without rain, lots of new faces and lots of new vendors.  For the first time we conducted a survey after the convention to get peoples thoughts and to see how we can improve for the future.  The results are posted later in this newsletter.  The overwhelming response was positive.  Thank you to Tressa Bullard, the Executive Committee and the other committees for making this year's convention a great success and one of the best, if not the best, that I have ever attended.   A big thanks to our sponsors & vendors for their help as well.  Without Sponsors, Vendors and a great membership, these conventions are not possible.  The Monday night reception was held at Daytona International Speedway at the Daytona 500 Club Lounge.  The club is located in the infield with a fantastic view of the grandstands and front straight (really not a straight).  Thank you to Coastal Adjustment for sponsoring that event.  All who attended had a great time; in fact, we had to extend the event by an hour because people just would not leave. Johnny Rutherford, Oscar Koveleski and JJ O'Malley made guest appearances.  The dinner reception with our Guest of Honor, Johnny Rutherford was a lot of fun.  He was the perfect gentlemen and stayed as long as folks wanted autographs or to engage in conversation.  It was the largest (most) attended reception in many years.  We had to add three tables for people that showed up the day of the event. Again, thank you to my partners and the rest of the AP family for helping and sponsoring this event.  And of course the vendor show.  We were filled to capacity with vendors and the race theme was a favorite.  ServiceMaster brought their NASCAR Racer and a simulator (it humbled me), there was slot car racing provided by The Race Place, and even book signings by JJ O'Malley, the Director of Communications for International Speedway Corp., and author of numerous racing books.  The CE classes were well attended.  The format this year was perhaps the best ever in my opinion.  We will continue to learn from each past convention and make the next one even better.  I would be remiss if I did not thank Oscar for all of his help and Lori and Mike for theirs.  Oscar was instrumental with securing the reception at the speedway, JJ O'Malley, the slot cars and Johnny Rutherford.  He is a world class promoter.

If you missed this year, make sure to plan on 2012.  We are back in Vegas and that is always a popular convention.  Your board and the committees have already started preparing for it.

"NACA... A SURE BET" is our theme for 2012.  Many of the vendors that attended this year have already committed to participate in the 2012 convention.  We are expecting the largest vendor display ever!  Lori is working on a top notch venue and we are planning more interesting speakers, receptions and other events to make it a "SURE BET".  We are also working on a pricing schedule that will help to reduce the costs for our members. Those details will be announced within the next few months.

We also need your help.  The last few years have been lean ones.  We are all feeling the pinch.  These are maintenance years, not moving ahead years.  If we can hold on a little longer things will get better, cycles always end or change.  A storm will come!  That being said, NACA is stronger and more fiscally viable than it has been in years.  We need your help in attacking new members, attending the convention, supporting the organization.  You can do that in several ways.  Introduce new people to the organization.  If each member would just bring one new member this year, we can double our size, double in size means doubling the revenue, and doubling the revenue means we can lower fees and costs for all.  You can help by staying at the host hotel during the convention.  Many of you probably don't know, but NACA has to guarantee a certain amount of rooms and dollars to be spent at the hotels.  You can also help by attending the vendor show and supporting the vendors and sponsors that support your organization.

Now, what can we do to help you?  I want to hear from you with your positive suggestions.  Email me with your thoughts.  We have several things planned in an attempt to help our members this year.  As I mentioned, we are thinking of ways to reduce the costs of the convention for you.  We are also working on the introduction of a membership card and a private logon area for members on the website.  We are attempting to secure discounts for our members from various vendors that you use every day in the CAT business.  We are updating the website once again to show more of the things that benefit you.  We have already added a "Calendar of Events" for claims conferences, etc. that will be of interest to you.  We want your membership to have a value to it in addition to the obvious benefits that we already enjoy.

There will be four newsletters this year, Please forward items of interest or items you would like to see addressed in the newsletters.  We will introduce a new column this year written by a member, "Tales from the Road".  Please forward your articles to Lori so that the board can act on them for approval.  We would also like some interesting photos submitted to be placed on the website.  This is your organization, be a part of it!  Make it your Sure Bet!

To our old members, sponsors and vendors, we want you back!

NACA is a SURE BET!

Looking forward to seeing you in Vegas in 2012 

Warren Aplin

Your 2011 president

[email protected]

NACA 2012......A SURE BET!