March 18, 2014—The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) announced Tuesday that the Louisiana Collision Industry Association (LaCIA) has become an SCRS Affiliate Association.
The LaCIA was established in late 2013, as the first association of its kind in Louisiana. It already has 70 member, consisting of collision repairers and non-voting associate members that include industry suppliers and vendors.
"Toward the end of last year we spread the message through a grassroots word of mouth and e-mail campaign that we were thinking of forming an association, and the news spread as if it had a life of its own," said LaCIA executive director Alysia Hanks, who was instrumental in organizing the formation of the group. "Hundreds of collision repairers turned out in December for a meeting to gauge initial interest, which was far beyond what we were expecting. Repairers understood the importance of standing together for our future survival. The response has been great to see."
In a statement released Tuesday, Hanks credited the SCRS with helping her organization get off the ground.
“SCRS leadership was very generous with their time when we were in the preliminary steps of establishing ourselves,” added Hanks. “This was new territory for us and we were hungry for information. They shared a lot that helped in our formation-examples of by-laws, sample documents, and of course, the experience of SCRS' board and network of other affiliates. It allowed us to model ourselves after the best, and get started in the right direction. SCRS provides an important national perspective for our members and they'll be a group we proudly work closely with as we continue to grow and evolve.”
