IRVING, Texas -

Along with an update from the president about the organization’s industry scorecard, the American Recovery Association revealed more of its agenda for the 2012 North American Repossessors Summit, including the event’s keynote speaker.

Headlining the two-day training and networking event will be Mike Goins, senior manager and head of loss recovery at TD Auto Finance, who was also a key speaker at the Re3 event during last fall’s Used Car Week held by Auto Remarketing.

Goins’ presentation is titled, “Déjà vu: Is This the Future?” Goins will take the stage on March 24, a day after ARA will hold several training sessions and a panel discussion of leaders from all of the major repossession organizations.

The summit contains a special session on March 23 exclusively for repo agents. The panel discussion titled, “Acting on the Challenges of Our Industry — From Talk to Action,” is scheduled to include:

—Patrick Altes, Time Finance Adjusters
—Jennifer McDaniel, National Finance Adjusters
—Ed Marcum, Recovery Specialist Insurance Group
—George Badeen, Allied Finance Adjusters
—Les McCook, American Recovery Association

This same group is set to gather again on the second day of the event for another panel discussion dubbed, “What Should You Expect from An Association?”

Other featured speakers are to include:

—Michael Dougherty, partner at Weltman, Weinberg & Reis
—Jack Tracey, executive director of the National Automotive Finance Association
—Bill Butterfield, of TD Auto Finance
—Steve Norwood, chief executive officer of Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems
—Chris Metaxas, chief executive officer of Digital Recognition Network
—Zach Hallowell, business line director at OPENLANE
—Scott Jackson, chief executive officer of MVTRAC

“NARS provides attendees with a full program of insightful, forward-looking and industry-impacting discussions lead by key industry leaders. Recovery and remarketing professionals from around the country, clients from lending companies, and many other industry leaders will attend and participate at NARS 2012,” ARA leadership declared.

The event is set to take place at the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.

The entire agenda and registration information can be found online at www.reposummit.com.

Update on ARA Industry Scorecard

ARA president Mary Jane Hogan said in a memo to association members that the organization’s Industry Scorecard now is available as a tool to promote an agency’s successes and more.

“It has taken nine months and a concerted effort by our committee members and Subprime Analytics to get it right,” Hogan acknowledged. “We are very proud of what we built and realize it is only a beginning. Our goal is to establish an industry benchmark that lenders and recovery agencies of all sizes may benefit from.”

Hogan indicated,“Now that we have gotten this aspect right,” the association intends to reach out to the lending community again at the North American Repossessors Summit and ask for increased level of participation in the project.

“We believe the next steps will be to establish a regional subset of analytics as well as a set that allows our industry to compare the success of lender strategies and agency operations models,” Hogan explained.

“The end product should produce a premier value proposition that drives increased success for the clients and agencies,” she continued. “We also believe that it can become a great loss mitigation tool for our industry and everyone realizes in today’s legal environment this is a growing concern for all of us.

“This is a lofty goal and we are aware it is only attainable with the help of the lenders and a broad spectrum of agencies both within and outside of the ARA,” Hogan concluded.