The blog entry below was written while our organization was operating as ASA-Midwest. Effective September 14, 2018, ASA-Midwest became the Midwest Auto Care Alliance.”

Quick, who is the one person in our industry that you can refer to by only his first name and nearly everyone will know to whom you are referring? If you know, great. If you don’t, you should have been reading trade magazines and attending industry functions for the last 20-30 years.

Ok, if you can’t come up with the name, it is “Mitch”.  I recently attended the R+W Conference in Chicago, and one of the highlights of my trip was a one-on-one visit for the better part of an hour with one of my heroes, Mitch Schneider. I have been reading Mitch’s columns as long as I can remember, and he never pulled any punches when he had a bone to pick with suppliers, customers, manufacturers, governments, and even other shop owners and technicians. Through the years, when I received my copy of the magazine he was writing for, I took it home, made myself comfortable, and enjoyed discovering what Mitch was commenting on for that particular month. Mitch has also been an instructor at VISION several times.

The R+W Conference was designed as an event to increase opportunities for networking, and it hit a home run there. The majority of classes were one hour long with a 15 minute break between classes. There was a trade show right in the hallway that fed the classrooms. If you didn’t get in a discussion during those breaks or at any of the other opportunities, you must have been trying not to. I extend my compliments to the staff of Ratchet+Wrench magazine for putting on such a great event! One of the more memorable parts of the event was our trip to Pinstripes, where we enjoyed bowling, bocce ball, food and beverages, and even a live band. Not expecting it, I was amazed when Mitch got up on the dance floor and started dancing. My hero Mitch was tripping the light fantastic! Dancing with the stars, look out for Mitch.

My next message will be a report on ASA-Pennsylvania’s Super Saturday training conference.

URGENT!!  The VISION class schedule has been released. Don’t delay and get signed up today. We area already experiencing record-breaking numbers with registrations from 30 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Africa and Italy! In fact, 79 first-timers have already registered. What are you waiting for?  Hurry up and take advantage of early registration to ensure you and your shop staff get the classes they want.