NJ ARA  Minutes of the March meeting-

Held at Taylor Rental Berkeley Heights

 Meeting called to order @ 8pm by President Brian Higgins

 NJ ARA Vice President Brian Kreger, Manager of Taylor Rental of Berkeley Heights, spoke briefly about the history of the Mattheiss/Neuwirth owned store, gave an overview of their business, and thanked the members for coming.

 Associate members spoke about new items and/or specials running. Maywood table informed us they are manufacturing a samsonite look-alike chair available for 11.95 (with quantity breaks available) Brian Clevin, CPA, after working with his father, Wayne Clevin (who specializes in accounting for rental stores) announced he is accepting new clients.

 Tom Lade gave the treasurer’s report . We currently have a balance of $******.**

 John Futcher briefly recapped the success of the casino night social.  He announced the date for the Night at the Races will be May 10^th, 2000 and we are going to be having a tailgate party & Somerset Patriots baseball game in August (ONLY $10)!

John also thanked all the vendors for contributing prizes for the casino night.

 Steve Kohn gave us a report on the upcoming Certification Program by the ARA for party rental professionals.  Those completing the program will be a CERP-Certified Event Rental Professional. Steve urged all those who rent party equipment to look into this program as it will give those who become certified a raised level of credibility in their field.  It is expected to start in the next 3 months or so. 

 The next meeting (TUESDAY April 18^th) will be at Miller’s Rental’s in Edison-Steve Kohn urged everyone to come & see his new Office/Costume room/Warehouse addition to his building.  That’s TUESDAY, April 18^th. *******YES, TUESDAY*********

 Steve Kohn asked that any members that have an email address that is not listed on the ARA/NJ website to please contact him so he can add it to the website so members and other interested parties can contact you. (C’mon, folks-join the 21^st century)

 Demo Day will be September 10^th at the Lebanon Fairgrounds, Lebanon, PA

Joe Mihalko gave us a report on a proposed bill in the Senate that prohibits the charging of late fees by rental stores, and the requiring the posting of the establishment’s policies.

Our position on this proposed legislation is that, although no one in our type of rental operations (we feel this is aimed at the video rental guys) charges late penalties, we don’t think we need more regulation of our daily operations and it puts rentals in general in a bad light. Insiders have indicated to Joe that the bill is probably going to die in committee.

 The floor was then turned over to Bob Ash, our speaker for the Customer Service seminar held before the meeting.  Personally, I cannot think of enough superlatives to describe Bob.  His outlook on life in general, and his ideas about how to motivate your employees as well as yourself were Fantastic!  Those members that attended the seminar were energized by Mr. Ash, and those who didn’t attend the seminar wish they had! 

 The meeting was adjourned at 9:30