By Bruce Knudsen, Executive Vice President Government Relations
If you feel the same way we do, you want to retire the word “unprecedented” and all the unexpected events of 2020. Our dealerships are open and selling, online and in person, and we are taking every opportunity we have to provide for our families and strengthen our communities.
Some people talk about life sometimes changing on a dime. That poor dime got dizzy this year. We had our hands full implementing the mandates that keep our employees and our customers safe. What didn’t change was the importance of serving our communities, so we continue to look for ways to help our neighbors and friends.
Throughout Montana, I have seen our dealers do the seemingly impossible. The work hasn’t been easy, but our safety record is admirable. We are still selling cars, and we are doing it while reasonably managing risk. That is an accomplishment.
We have been impressed by our association’s leadership in our communities, and we know our dealer members will continue to do great work. Now that we know the basics of preventing the coronavirus from spreading, it’s time to look for the opportunities we have to solve our challenges. That means using the fundamentals that always sell cars. But it also means relying on longstanding relationships and working with the most sophisticated and effective technology we can find.
MTADA is committed to protecting dealer members, but the not-so-secret path to success is our need for all of you to be involved. Without that, we would not be able to accomplish much. We are always doing what we can to protect your businesses and foster strong relationships so that when you have a problem to solve, you also have good friends to support and advise you.
MTADA has an impressive reputation of working successfully with state legislators to influence the legislature to act in pro-dealer and pro-business ways. We do this for you, and we can’t do it without you.
We believe that every dealer should support the dealership-friendly candidates of your choice. No one likes to talk about money and politics, but candidates need money to fund their campaigns and pay their staff while running for office.
Election results matter. Elected officials will ultimately vote on laws that dictate how you operate your business.
Nationally, some dealers see a growing trend of dealers doing less on the legislative front. Are you proactively reaching out to our elected leaders to engage on important matters concerning how our industry operates in Montana? If you don’t know who represents you, it’s past time to introduce yourself.
As an association, we want to remind you that previous generations knew their local legislators and invested time to develop relationships. Why? These are the people that are impacting your life and livelihood. They have the potential to harm your business if we don’t advocate for ourselves.
Being involved has never mattered more, and your contributions to MONCAR and NADA PAC are the most important things you can do.
We are also very proud of our health trust, the creation of which speaks directly toward the ability of some of our smaller dealerships to offer quality benefits to their dealership employees. We’re happy to provide additional information about the health trust in this copy of our magazine. As always, we are here to answer any questions that you may have.
Finally, I want to draw your attention to our upcoming 107th Family Convention, it is June 18th-June 20th in Helena. We are all looking forward to the opportunity to connect with all of you once again. Our lineup of speakers is exceptional, and we know that there will be something for everyone during the weekend. As always, please call me anytime 24/7 on my cell if I can ever be of service. See you soon!
