AIA Canada Holds Annual General Meeting in Toronto

On December 3, 2008, the Automotive Industries Association of Canada held its annual general meeting at the Old Mill Inn in Etobicoke. The event was attended by more than fifty representatives including automotive aftermarket and service members, board members, related affiliates and sponsors, as well as members of the trade associated press.

Brad Morris, AIA’s second vice chair, referred to the association as “healthy and strong” in a speech addressing the crowd, summarizing the achievements of the past year. Among them a 160-page in-depth governance review, on the guidance of 30 hours worth of one-on-one interviews of almost a dozen past board directors.

“Governance is the outcome of looking at your strategy,” addressed Marc Brazeau, in a recap of recent activities. The review is an initiative meant to identity the association’s strategic value to its members as well as ways to improve awareness and operations of the association itself. The meeting concluded with John Watt being sworn in as the new chair of the board, replacing Larry Raymond as the incumbent head of AIA Canada.

The changes, which are set to be implemented this fall, call for several adjustments. Among them smaller, more-focused boards, an amendment to either remove or intensify the executive branch, a lean towards ad-hoc boards, increased accountability, the use of outside board advisors as well as increased funding from Natural Resources Canada.

According to its audited financial report, AIA’s total revenue increased 6.6% from $1,880,763 in 2007 to $2,004,526 with a total of $159,878 set aside in 2007 for the Right to Repair Campaign. Over 7,000 service outlets in Canada are associated with AIA Canada. The financial reports were administered and overseen by Welch & Company LLP.