ORADO COL
AUCTIONEERS AS
SOCIATION
Board of50Directors Years of
Excellence
President • Doug Carpenter, CAI, AARE 1610 Hwy 50 • Grand Junction, CO 81503 Phone: 970-245-1185 • Cell: 970-623-6999 doug@theauctionteam.com Vice President / Treasurer • Lance Nichols 38241 WCR 23 • Eaton, CO 80615 Phone: 970-686-2361 • Home: 970-686-2361 lanichols@thinairnet.com 2nd Vice President • Richard Schur 1042 West Baptist Road, #175 Colorado Springs, CO 80921 Phone: 866-290-2243 • Cell: 719-210-6230 rich@success-auctions.com Chairman of the Board • David Whitley 24 Oak Street • Eaton, CO 80615 Phone: 970-454-1010 • Fax: 970- 539-1269 david@whitleyauction.com
Directors John Schaffner 36470 County Road Z • Wray, CO 80758 Phone: 970-332-5196 jschaffner@plains.net Mike Heitmann 27275 Mid Jones Road • Calhan, CO 80808 Phone: 406-450-2051 • Fax: 719-683-7235 mhbar@earthlink.net Dax Gillium 4981 W. Tufts Avenue • Denver, CO 80236 Phone: 303-730-2623 dgillium@msn.com Dayton Roller 7500n York Street • Denver, CO 80229 Phone: 303-289-1600 dayton@rollerauction.com Courtney Ostblom 825 E. 6th Street • Loveland, CO 80537 Phone: 970-581-9079 courtneyostblom@hotmail.com Bill Neal 109 S. Sierra Madre St. • Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Phone: 719-632-6693 bill@rossauction.com Butch Haglestrom Buckhorn Auction Services P. O. Box 306 • Fort Lupton, Co 80621 (C) 303-827-5157 buckhornauctions@earthlink.net OJ Pratt Pacific Auction Companies 1270 Boston Avenue • Longmont, CO 80501 (O) 303-772-7676 (C) 303-598-8585 ojpratt@pacificauction.com
Executive Director Kathy Humphries 15300 FM 1825, Bldg. B, Suite 116 • Pflugerville, TX 78660 Phone: 512-671-3637 • Fax: 512-671-3638 coaa@att.net
SECOND QUARTER • 2010
THE COLORADO
AUCTIONEER
The Quarterly Newsletter of the Colorado Auctioneers Association
From the President Doug Carpenter • CAA President Greetings CAA Members: The calendar says its almost Summer, however, if we had to rely on the weather to tell us what season it is we would all be confused. I am happy to see the weather warming up and everyone becoming more active. Your Board of Directors has been very busy the past few months. I am very proud to be working with such a great group of people. One of those Board members is OJ Pratt. OJ is the Chairman of the Legislative Committee. He was responsible for organizing the “Day at the Legislature” on April 16. If you missed this great day please read about it on page 5 of this newsletter. Thank you OJ for all your efforts in organizing this great day for our members. I also want to thank Rich Schur for his efforts in getting a logo revision to present to the members in this newsletter. The comments provided by the members present at the Annual Meeting in January were heard and put into the new logo revision. Please see Rich’s article on page 3. Thank you Rich for the time you spent making this happen. As we look forward to summer, please look at the upcoming member events scheduled for your benefit. Your Board has worked hard to put these events together, and they are for the benefit of you, the member, so please take advantage of these great programs and networking opportunities. I have spent some time during the first 5 months of this year responding to some complaints brought to the Association. Not all complaints received by your Association are complaints about members. Some complaints come to us about non-members as well. And, just because a complaint is received does not necessarily mean that a member has done something wrong. We are living in a time and an economy where business practice of two years ago may not be the business practice we should be using today. Those of you who have not reviewed your contracts, your verbal promises to clients and basically your total interaction with clients - now may be a great time to do so. To be honest, there may not be anything wrong with any of it, however, you may want to tighten it up. Ask yourself the question, “what if I had to go to court?” Would your contract stand up? Clients are expecting more now than they ever have. Values of most goods and services have declined and your clients need to know that. Even when you tell them, they do not hear what you are saying. Everyone thinks their “stuff” is worth more than the “stuff” you sold last week, just because it is theirs. That has been the way it has always been and probably will always be, however, if you stress that point to the client you may not end up in a complaint or court room situation. I had a mentor demonstrate to me on a daily basis that caution is the best road to take. It may take longer, it may take steps that you may feel are unnecessary, but when you are faced with a situation that requires good documentation, you will be the one standing tall in the end. I urge you all to take another look at your best practices and see if they really are the “best” practice. ❖ In Your Service,
Doug Carpenter President, Colorado Auctioneers Association