Technicians, shop managers, and owners living near or visiting Ontario, California, on February 5 can take advantage of in-person AGSC certification and training.
Live training to become an AGSC-certified replacement technician will be held in the morning, and training to become a certified repair technician will be held in the afternoon. Attendees at the training sessions can take the certification test online at no charge.
Owners and managers are invited to a special session on future-proofing your business, dealing with ADAS, new BAR regulations, insurance issues, and out-of-the-box ways to find employees later in the day.
The technician certification boot camps provide the knowledge needed to take the certification exams plus access to the exams.
There is no charge for AGSC members to attend, but we hope you will register in advance so we may plan for the correct number of people. SIKA has graciously offered to provide lunch for those attending, and we want to ensure we order the right amount.
The boot camps and managers/owners meetings are held in conjunction with Glass Expo West 2025, an architectural glass show next door, and round out several days’ worth of in-person AGSC education in Ontario.
Members are welcome to attend any and all sessions. The Technician Boot Camp: AGSC Certification Training will be held from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Ontario Convention Center. The Repair Boot Camp: NWRD Technician Certification Training is held 1:15 p.m. to 4:15. The managers/owners meetings are held 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. in room 100 AB.To register, click HERE.
From the opening session to the end of the event, AGSC left its mark at Auto Glass Week™ (AGW) 2024. In case you missed it, here’s a look back at just some of what happened during the week.
Meetings
Before AGW officially began, multiple AGSC and National Windshield Replacement Division (NWRD) committees met in person at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. In order of occurrence, these are the committees that met:
AGSC Member Benefits Committee Meeting
AGSC Education Committee Meeting
AGSC Credentialing Committee
AGSC AGRSS Standard Review Subcommittee Meeting
AGSC Board of Directors
AGSC/NWRD Marketing Committee Meeting
AGSC ADAS Committee Meeting
AGSC AGRSS Standards Committee Meeting
AGSC Public Affairs Committee Meeting
NWRD ROLAGS 2 Standards Committee Meeting
NWRD Executive Committee Meeting
The AGRSS Standards Committee is one of the largest of AGSC’s committees.
The yearly member meeting became a Member Mixer this year, hosted at ICEBAR Orlando on the evening of Thursday, September 19. Read more about the mixer HERE.
Opening Session
AGSC’s president, Jacques Navant, led the opening session. He introduced himself and shared his hopes for the organization’s future.
“I am probably the strangest choice for [AGSC’s] president,” Navant said. “I am not a politician; I am not a public speaker … I think I was chosen as the president because I am still in the field and understand what a technician deals with.”
AGSC’s vice president Peter Brown, chair of the Repair of Laminated Auto Glass Standard (ROLAGS) 2 Committee Linda Rollinson and AGSC chair Deb Levy joined Navant on stage to discuss the organization’s future. They discussed some of the AGSC’s upcoming initiatives, including regional auto glass events to be held next year and multiple certification programs in the works.
“With the AGSC, you’ll always have someone in your corner,” Navant said. “We’re going to expand this year and get some forward momentum going.”
Seth Maiman, AGSC’s director of public affairs, Rollinson and Brown finished the first day’s educational sessions with a panel titled “Regulation & Legislation.” Maiman recapped the recent legislation regulating the auto glass industry that passed in Kentucky and added that legislation is currently underway in Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York and South Carolina.
AGSC – Your ADAS Resource and Business Partner
Next, Navant, who is also the technical director of Don’s Mobile Glass and the AGSC’s ADAS Committee chair, led a panel of experts from AGSC member companies.
The panel included Chris Goff of Ultimate Auto Glass, Jeff Olive of the AGSC, Chuck Olsen of AirPro Diagnostics, Paul Whitman of Equalizer Industries Inc., Garry Willmott of The Calibration People (NSG) and Richard Zenteno of Autel.
Eight experts from different companies lent their ADAS insights during the session.
“As the Auto Glass Safety Council … we are here to help you develop your business and move forward into the future,” Olive said.
The panel discussed the importance and definition of a controlled environment and the many factors that could hinder a correct calibration if the environment isn’t properly controlled.
“The problem we come across with calibration is we don’t know what the camera is identifying as a target sometimes,” Zenteno said.
He explained that sometimes, if a wall or background looks like one of the targets, the camera will identify that as the target and calibrate accordingly, causing the vehicle’s ADAS systems to work improperly and not perform their safety functions.
Technician Boot Camp: AGSC Certification Training
On the final day of AGW, Jeff Olive led a session designed to provide technicians with the knowledge they’d need to take the AGSC technician certification exam. Around 82 technicians and shop owners attended.
“Our goal is to become the authority in our region for what we do,” said Trey Black of Glass Express Inc. in Beaufort, South Carolina. “Nobody in our region has any certifications other than adhesive certifications. We’re becoming a little larger and developing a social media presence and educating the community on consumer information regarding safety with their vehicles. And we felt this was an important part to add to our repertoire and bring in business.”
Attendee Wins Prize from Associate Member
On the last day of AGW, Kristina Finn, co-owner of J & K Auto Glass in Pueblo, Colorado, won a brand new calibration equipment system from Autel worth more than $20,000. Autel, an AGSC Associate Member, had donated its IA800 LDW Calibration System as a prize for one lucky AGW attendee.
Join the AGSC again at AGW 2025 in Reno, Nevada, September 9-11. The event will take place at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
Several committees of the Auto Glass Safety Council™ (AGSC) will hold meetings at Auto Glass Week™ 2018 in San Antonio, Texas, in September.
The brand-new AGSC ADAS Committee will meet on Tuesday, September 25, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The AGSC AGRSS™ Standards Committee will meet on Wednesday, September 26, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. The meeting is open to the industry.
The Education Committee will meet on Tuesday, September 25, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Marketing Committee will meet on Tuesday, September 25, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Both the Education Committee meeting and Marketing Committee meeting are open to AGSC members only.
Additionally, the AGSC board of directors will meet from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, September 26.
All of the meetings will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
The AGSC will also hold an Insurers’ CEU Forum on Wednesday, September 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., open to all AGSC members and insurer company representatives.
A lunch for both AGSC members and insurers will follow from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and then the AGSC Member Meeting will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
AGSC also will hold its annual Silent Charity Auction on Friday, September 28, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The auction will be available online prior to the show.
“We have a number of events scheduled for Auto Glass Week and hope to see many of our members there,” says AGSC director of operations Kathy Bimber.
The Auto Glass Safety Council™ (AGSC) held several committee meetings in March in Irvine, Calif. Among these were the AGSC ANSI/AGSC/AGRSS™ Standard Committee, Marketing Committee and Education-Credentialing Committee. All committees are scheduled to meet again during Auto Glass Week™ this fall.
The Education-Credentialing Committee, chaired by Jeff Olive of Glasspro Inc., currently is working to develop new questions for the technician certification exams. A number of questions have been submitted and each committee member was asked to submit ten more questions each by August 1. Committee members were asked to develop questions specific to those areas in which they have expertise as well as to develop questions relating to the AGRSS™ Standard and the validation audit.
The Marketing Committee meeting was led by Debra Levy, president of the AGSC, who introduced Peter Brown of Tiny & Sons Auto Glass as its new chair. As chair, he said he hopes to see AGSC become even more recognizable, assist members in marketing themselves and to increase the number of AGSC Registered Member Companies.
Additionally, the Marketing Committee is leading the efforts for this year’s Member Meeting, to be held on September 29 at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nev., from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., before Auto Glass Week™ gets underway. Mike Schenian of City Auto Glass is chairing a subcommittee for the meeting.
The committee also is working to develop a brochure for members to use to market to consumers and insurers with the ability for AGSC Registered Member Companies to add their own logos and pictures. The Marketing Committee also is finalizing a CSR script for AGSC Registered Member Companies, which will be available on the AGSC website. Additionally, the group is exploring the possibility of providing training for CSRs in the future.
The AGRSS™ Standard Committee, chaired by Bob Beranek of Automotive Glass Consultants, discussed proposed revisions to the Standard related to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Beranek told the committee that the revisions need to be addressed quickly. (Click here for related story.)
The AGSC will again hold committee meetings in the fall in Reno, Nev. Click here for the full schedule.
