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Orlando 2001: Above & Beyond
05/01/2001
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Awards
A.R.A.’s Rental Excellence Awards were presented by 2000 President Frank Wilson during the Opening General Session. These awards encourage excellence in the rental industry by recognizing those who have achieved it. Here are the winners:
Party and Event Services Category
Best Business Promotion (tie):
Canton Chair Rental, Canton, Ohio,
and Celebration Party Rentals, Flemington, N.J.
Best Customer Service: Panache Party Rentals, Pompano Beach, Fla.
Best Store Design: Panache Party Rentals, Pompano Beach, Fla.
Construction and Industrial Equipment Services Category
Best Store Design: ABC Equipment Rental & Sales, Brunswick Hills, Ohio.
Best Customer Service: Midwest Tool & Equipment Center, Waterford, Mich.
General Tool and Equipment Services Category
Best Store Design: Quality Rental Centers, Pawtucket, R.I.
Pam McKenney of Bluffton, S.C., received A.R.A.’s highest award for 2000: the Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes continuing service to the rental industry at the national, state and local levels.
McKenney has served in various capacities on several committees of the American Rental Association. She has held all executive offices in the A.R.A., from vice president to chairman of the board, and was A.R.A. president in 1997. She also has been active in A.R.A. at both the local and state levels and served on A.R.A.’s board of directors, representing members in Region Three.
She was honored in 1994 with A.R.A.’s Meritorious Service Award for work in a special area. That area was to recognize A.R.A.’s need to provide new services for younger people who will someday take responsibility for the family rental business. Through her commitment, the Next Generation Special Interest Group was formed to provide services for the future leaders of the industry.
McKenney chaired the A.R.A. Executive Vice President Search Committee last year, and is currently chairperson of the Rental Equipment Industry Foundation Board of Trustees.
The 2000 A.R.A. Outstanding State Association President’s Award went to Eugene Lapierre of Taylor Rental Center, Holyoke, Mass., president of the A.R.A. of Massachusetts. This award recognizes outstanding association leadership at the state level.
Lapierre spearheaded the development of the traveling seminars that the A.R.A. of Massachusetts coordinates for local rental companies.
Joey Adams of A-Team Rentals and Party Palace by A-Team, Amarillo, Texas, and president of the Panhandle Area Rental Association, received the Outstanding Local Association President’s Award. Adams was instrumental in organizing the Panhandle association three years ago.
The regional directors named their Person of the Year recipients during the convention. They are:
Region One — Jane Gillespie, Rental Service, Woburn, Mass., and Peter Johnson of Peter Johnson Sales Co., Durham, N.H. Region Two — Larry Norton, Modern Equipment Sales & Rental Co., West Chester, Pa.
Region Three — Kelly Murphy, Panache Party Rental, Pompano Beach, Fla. Region Four — Joey Adams,
A-Team Rentals, Amarillo, Texas. Region Five — John McKibben, Universal Rent All, Georgetown, Ky. Region Six — Stan Crumbaugh, Independence Rent-All, Independence, Mo. Region Seven — Cathy DeBusk,
Party People Rentals & Sales, Phoenix. Region Eight — Clyde Funk, High Country Rental, Livingston, Mont. Region 10 — Andrew Paquette, Bravo Party, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada.
Larry Kaye, SCRIPT International, Jacksonville, Fla., received A.R.A.’s 2000 Special Service Award. The award recognizes someone who is not in the business of renting, but who has made an outstanding contribution to the rental industry.
Kaye joined the A.R.A. as a rental dealer in the early 1990s and joined A.R.A.’s board of directors in 1997 as the chairperson of the Construction and Industrial Services Special Interest Group — a position he resigned when he officially sold his business.
During the 1990s, he was the president of the A.R.A. of Jacksonville. He has served on A.R.A.’s Education and Rental Excellence Awards Committees. He received a Rental Person of the Year Award in 1995 and was a member of the National Legislative Caucus in 1999.
After selling his rental business and becoming a senior consultant for Caterpillar’s International Rental Services Network, Kaye offered valuable perspectives about the direction of the rental industry from both the manufacturers’ and rental dealers’ standpoints during Construction University 2000.
The 2000 Meritorious Service Awards went to Andy Cooke , Cooke Rentals, Cornelius, N.C., and Debra Shipper (right), Chicago Party Rental, Countryside, Ill. This award recognizes exemplary leadership in a defined area of service, such as work on a national committee or on a special project or service activity.
Both recipients have chaired the Next Generation Special Interest Group and helped build it into an active segment of members who fully participate in A.R.A. volunteer leadership.
Both were panelists at the 1999 Events and Tents seminar and have represented the interests of the rental industry at the National Legislative Caucus. Both have served in leadership roles in their respective local and state associations.
Cooke has represented the interests of the next generation as a member of A.R.A.’s Business Development Committee. In addition, he received the 1999 Next Generation Outstanding Leadership Award.
Shipper has represented her SIG on the Advertising and Marketing, Membership and the Party and Events Ad Hoc Committees. During this year’s convention, she also received the 2000 Next Generation Outstanding Leadership Award,
pictured at right, presented by 2000 A.R.A. President Frank Wilson.
Seminars
The third Construction University, held on Feb. 25, drew a crowd of 141 participants for a full day of tracks aimed at asset management in construction rental.
Seminar speakers included Steven Abercrombie, Business Resource Services, Seattle; Josh Patrick, The Patrick Group, South Burlington, Vt.; Richard Paquette, Pyramide Rental Centers, Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada; Travis Burch, Associated Equipment Distributors (AED); Bob Vermeer, Equipment Manufacturers Institute (EMI) and CEO of Vermeer Manufacturing; and Jeff Wearing, Ready Rent-All, Decatur, Ga., A.R.A.’s Construction and Industrial Services Special Interest Group chairperson.
Optional hands-on computer training sessions were led by Jack Shea, Solutions by Computer, Springfield, Mass., and Bill Veneris and Rob Ross, Alert Computer Systems, Colorado Springs, Colo.
This year’s show featured five tracks of rental-specific education with topics that included preventing equipment theft, using the Web effectively, using digital cameras and scanners, estate planning, hiring, managing difficult work situations, advertising and marketing, communication and business performance. |
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