A message from your regional director

March 14, 2023

Robert Copley, CERP

Hello American Rental Association (ARA) Region Five members.

As your new ARA Region Five director, I would like to extend a warm welcome and thank you for allowing me to represent you on ARA’s national board. I am very excited to be taking on this new role and look forward to attending state chapter meetings and visiting as many rental operators as I can in our region. I want to thank my friend, Dean Miller, CERP, who did a fantastic job in this role. I, like him, feel it is a real honor to represent our region in this way.

I am still going through all my notes gathered at The ARA Show™. It was such a wonderful show. I have to give huge kudos to the ARA staff. They do a fantastic job in putting all of this together for us. The show is vital to each member’s success, so thank you ARA for another year of great education, vendor support and buying opportunities on the trade show floor, plus valuable networking events that offered everyone a super time. I also would like to offer my congratulations to John Bibbo, CERP, and Dan Fielitz, who were honored at the show. You both give so much to our association.

Overall, I heard only positives on both the show floor and at the educational sessions. Those I spoke with had a sense that some sort of normalcy is returning to our industry. I couldn’t be happier to hear that. If you didn’t get to attend the show this year, I strongly encourage you to mark your calendar for next year’s show. It can offer so much for you, your team and your business.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my goals is to get out and visit members — be the boots on the ground, visit stores and see how others in our region are operating. I want to understand what your needs are and report back to national to see what we can do to assist. Remember that I am here to serve you.

Another goal of mine is to show our members all the resources already available to them through their ARA membership. ARA national is doing a fantastic job of offering valuable education, providing certificate programs for both the equipment and event sides. Here’s just a sampling of some of the latest offerings:

The redesigned Certified Event Rental Professional (CERP) program. This 23-course, ARA-exclusive program for event rental operations focuses on front-of-the-house topics: fundamentals of the industry, customer service, sales, tabletop, inventory and marketing. The new program takes a deep dive into all these areas. If you sign up before the end of March, you can receive 20 percent off the price. Use promo code CERP2023. Click here to learn more about the program.
The new Safe Tenting program. This includes the new tent ballasting tool that was created in partnership with the Advanced Textiles Association (ATA) Tent Rental Division. This tool is designed to quickly and easily determine the minimum weight requirements to safely anchor or ballast non-engineered tents. There’s also a new tent ballasting video series and other offerings. Read the story in this newsletter and then click here to learn more.
The new Introduction to Rental courses for the event segment and the equipment segment. This six-course certificate program, which is tailored for each rental segment, offers a comprehensive overview for new employees: an introduction to event rental, safety, business profitability, customer service, soft skills and working and learning in the industry. Click here to learn more.
The new ARA Certified Sales & Service training. The Certified Sales program provides knowledge through training courses such as customer service, digital marketing, sales skills and more. The Certified Service program educates users in electrical systems, diesel engines, gas engines, hydraulics and other topics pertinent to maintaining rental equipment. Click here for more information.
The new monthly ARA Prioritize Safety videos. Available in English and Spanish, these two-minute animated videos focus on essential safety tips for the rental industry, from personal protective equipment (PPE) and chemical safety to defensive driving. Each video is accompanied by two questions to test the viewer’s knowledge. Click here to learn more.