the last day of summer

New School Year

This is it, teacher meetings all week starting tomorrow and students show up on the 17th. I guess we can officially say that the summer is over and the new school year begins. We will be cranking out new blogs about what we’re up to in the classroom and in the lab. Jon, a returning student already committed to be a blogger for us. Look forward to blogs from Jon as we get this school year started. Classes are full and it looks like we are off to a good start.

Wichita ASA Chapter

I encourage anyone in the collision industry to become part of the new Collision Repair ASA Chapter in Wichita. If you didn’t make it to the meeting on Tuesday 8/3/09, you missed out. We had a guest speaker, Tony Molla, who gave a presentation to our chapter. He is the Vice President of Communications of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). How many times do we have people of is caliber right here in Wichita, Kansas. Tony come to ASE with many years in the auto related industry. He shared with us that he was the Chief Editor of Auto Body Repair News (ABRN), before joining the team at ASE. ABRN is one of the largest publications for the collision repair industry.

Tony expressed why technicians should be ASE certified. With proof of studies, he showed us that ASE Certified Technicians: earned more income, stayed at their jobs longer, and many other reasons to be ASE certified. ASE Certified Shops also give customers the peace of mind that the technicians employed at the shops are qualified to work on their vehicles. If you were going to have a heart transplant, I’m sure that you would not go to the lowest bidder. You’d probably want the most qualified doctor to perform the operation. Well, if your car is not repaired properly, it could put you, your entire family and others at risk. Therefore, I believe the same amount or even more consideration should be taken when having your car repaired.

I appreciate Tony taking the time to visit us here in Kansas. I liked what Tony said about the importance of training. He said, “The only thing worse then investing money in training and the employee leaving, is not investing in an employee that stays. ” With today’s high-tech vehicles ongoing training is a must. When looking for a job, be sure to look for a shop that offers training.

What To Look For

If you’re a a customer looking for a shop to have your car repaired or a new technician looking for a shop to work at, here are a few of the things you want to look for.

Is The Shop:

All of these affiliations are signs that the business is concerned about training their employees and producing quality work for the customer.

New Website and Social Network

I just finished working on a new website. In fact, it still needs to be tweaked a little. I guess you’re never really finished with a website. I have several things going on and it made sense for me to put it all together on one site at DonnieSmith.org Once there, click on the collision repair link to find this blog, our videos and many other resources and groups. There are several different collision repair social networks listed, but I have found one to be the best fit for my students and myself. The CollisionHub.com We have a lot of support from I-CAR, 3M, and many others willing to offer us their assistance to producing champions in the collision industry. We plan to do a few webinars with the students to take collision repair to the next level. It’s going to be an exciting year!

Buckle your seat belts and get ready for a new exciting year at Butler Community College.