As this past year closed, you couldn’t turn around without seeing another retrospective on 2014. Websites, magazines, news and entertainment programs, and even radio shows get in on the action. They cover everything: The 10 best movies, the 20 best video games, the most memorable quotes, and, of course, the person of the year.

Taking a look back can be fun, and I certainly enjoy pieces like this one in FirstUp. But, like most dealers, I would always rather look forward than back. And we certainly have a lot to look forward to in 2015.

First on the agenda: AIADA’s 45th annual meeting and luncheon in San Francisco on Jan. 25. The theme of the meeting is, appropriately enough, Facing Forward. We’ll use our time together to lay out our goals as an association in 2015 and to honor one of the industry greats with the David F. Mungenast Lifetime Achievement Award.

One of the most forward thinking executives in the industry, Audi of America president Scott Keogh, will provide keynote remarks, and I will pass the chairman’s gavel on to our 2015 chairman, Bradley Hoffman of Connecticut.

I am truly looking forward to inducting Bradley as chairman of AIADA. Those who know him know he is a good friend, a great dealer, and possesses a keen understanding of how and why politics and the automotive industry intersect. He brings with him boundless energy and fresh ideas: two things that will certainly help advance our association in what is shaping up to be a busy year.

In 2015, with a united Congress and a Republican majority in the Senate for the first time in eight years, dealers can look forward to some cracks in Washington’s legendary gridlock. Trade has been tagged to be a hot button item in the first half of the year, with the president’s Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) hanging in the balance. International nameplate dealers will need to unite behind AIADA’s one voice and one message in order to promote TPA, and the pending trade agreements with Asia and Europe.

Dealers can also anticipate new moves by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Labor Relations Board, and other agencies that seek to further regulate our already HIGHLY regulated industry. We may not look forward to their actions, but we can look forward to our own robust response. In the face of unbalanced, unreasonable regulation in 2014, dealers have rallied together to defend our businesses, our employees, and our reputations in 2015.

That’s a fight I look forward to.

I also look forward to seeing you all in San Francisco this month.

Larry Kull is the AIADA (American International Automotive Dealers Association) chairman. See this post and more at the Chairman’s Blog.