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INTERVIEW
situation,” he commented. “We are continuing to work with the Government on this.”
As far as plans for the future are concerned, TIA is looking closely at member services, and in particular health insurance. With that in mind TIA has launched a new health insurance programme, which is being marketed to members now.
The Association is also looking at developing more education
programmes and other services to help small independent dealers compete more effectively against the big retail chains.
Littlefield also points out the importance of supporting regional and state associations. “Social media has helped national associations significantly,” says Littlefield. “Members often want to support both regional and national associations, but often
state groups are more expensive than national groups. We have to work on this, otherwise we’re going to lose state groups. It is vital that members have a voice on state level too, as it is often easier to pass or impact a bill at state level than on federal level, and if a bill passes in one state, its impact will be felt in other states too.” Finally, a word about TIA’s centenary activities, many of which have been delayed by the pandemic. There will be some activities at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas in November including a gala dinner, a keynote speaker sponsored by Goodyear and entertainment sponsored by Bridgestone, but unfortunately much of what was planned will be affected by the restrictions of foreign travellers.
According to Littlefield, registrations from the domestic market are up on three years ago, but overseas exhibitors and visitors stand to be significantly affected, particularly plans for
an international conference. Says Littlefield; “The idea for an international summit came as a result of our connection with BIPAVER. We realized that many issues arfaced by tyre dealers and retreaders are the same the world over. Our idea was to pick a number of key topics and put together panels from around the world, for example on topics such as tyre ageing. We then planned to put together a year-long work group on each topic before reporting back to the conference the following. Unfortunately, though, this will be delayed by a year also.
In addition to international plans TIA had also been planning another Lobby Day in Washington DC as well as an Environmental Summit in conjunction with the EPA, but with many offices on Capitol Hill still closed, these events are now planned for Spring 2022.