SCRS Welcomes AASP Illinois as Newest Affiliate Association in 2020

Mechanicsville, Virginia, February 19, 2020 – The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) is pleased to announce the addition of the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Illinois (AASPI) as the first association to join SCRS in 2020 as an Affiliate Association.

AASPI was originally formed in the early 1960s as a Chicago area repair association for both mechanical and collision. While the name a structure of the organization has taken different forms over the decades the association has maintained its independent status as the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Illinois in since 1997. Today, AASPI continues to represent both mechanical and collision shops throughout Illinois, and with the recent start to the state legislative session, the association will be renewing its efforts to provide statutory codification of best practices regarding original equipment manufacturer (OEM) procedures.

SCRS has long recognized that if a vehicle manufacturer documents a repair procedure as required, recommended or otherwise necessary as a result of damage or repair, that those published procedures would be the standard of repair. The association has routinely positioned itself in supporting the notion that disregarding a documented procedure that is made available to the industry creates undue and avoidable exposure to the consumer’s safety and liability to the repair facility performing the repair.

This type of positioning, in part, led to increased interest in Affiliation from AASPI.

According to AASPI President Bob Gottfred of Erie LaSalle Body Shop in Chicago, “AASPI is proud to join the ranks of the SCRS Affiliate Association network. In part our willingness to partner with SCRS centers on their principle statement that through working together, collision repair facilities could inspire positive advancement in our industry. AASPI is a strong advocate for the collision industry in Illinois and we believe this cooperative spirit between AASPI and SCRS will further enable our Association to advance the work we have started in this state and the work SCRS does nationally.”

That information exchange and collaboration is a key part of SCRS’ views on the Affiliate network.

“It’s always very rewarding to us all to welcome in new states associations, especially those as tenured as AASPI,” added SCRS Vice Chairman, Bruce Halcro. “We want to work in tandem with trade associations or societies whose objectives are parallel with those of SCRS, and this was an easy decision for approval by the SCRS Board of Directors. AASPI has been a champion of repairers in IL for many years, and has an impressive list of resources and support that they extend to their membership.”
“Over the past year we have actually used SCRS’ news service a lot for reference and postings on our OEM resource section,” added AASPI Executive Director Brian Wojcicki. “We built the member resource in 2019 and intend to continue to rely on information from SCRS and the other Affiliates as we keep it updated.”

Halcro added, “We look forward to AASPI’s participation in the network, feedback into association matters and to supporting them in return through our nationally focused initiatives. We believe a lot of goodwill comes of the affiliation for repairers in IL!”

For more information about SCRS, or to join, please visit the website at www.scrs.com.

To be notified as more content is released, subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/SCRSCollision

For more information about SCRS, or to join as a member, please visit www.scrs.com, call 1-877-841-0660 or email info@scrs.com.

####

About SCRS: Through its direct members and 40 affiliate associations, SCRS is comprised of 6,000 collision repair businesses and 58,500 specialized professionals who work with consumers and insurance companies to repair collision-damaged vehicles. Additional information about SCRS including other news releases is available at the SCRS Web site: www.scrs.com. You can e-mail SCRS at the following address: info@scrs.com.