CAM’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

CAM’s Board of Directors met at the end of February to discuss membership, members’ concerns expressed about CAM’s relationship with the Better Business Bureau and the 2005 Annual Conference.

Membership remains a priority activity. CAM has engaged Alana Orazietti from Aurora Moving on a part-time basis to sell memberships. CAM’s priorities remain the identification of reputable professional movers to the consumer and providing our members with the means of validating their status as such through the Certified Canadian Mover Program. We could use your help in recruiting members. Nominate a fellow mover as a member. You can only help yourself, your company and the moving industry by having a strong association, one in which reputable movers are members.

The Board reaffirmed its position that CAM’s relationship with the BBB would remain unchanged as the BBB serves to help identify reputable movers, arbitrate when required and validate the Certified Canadian Mover Program to the consumer.

Mark your Calendars! CAM’s 2005 Annual Conference will be combined with the annual golf tournament and is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, September 19 and 20, 2005, in Toronto. The conference and awards dinner will be held on Monday and the golf tournament on Tuesday. The theme will include topics that movers can use to improve their operations and their bottom lines.

MARKETING SEMINAR

CAM just held a seminar in Toronto on marketing titled “Everything You've Ever Been Told, Sold, or Learned About Marketing is WRONG.” The speaker, Dave Harrington, lived up to the challenge presented in the title. Advertising is one of the largest expenses movers have. Dave demonstrated to the group a few techniques to make advertising more effective. He scored 4.6 on CAM’s standard 5-point scale.

A few of the comments were:

• It gave you the insight on how branded our ads are. We claim to be different – but ads don’t reflect that.
• After this, I will immediately re-evaluate our advertising.
• I think we will be able to promote our business much more effectively as of today.
• Really will get me to think about my next ad.
• Speaker was well prepared and professional. Information was interesting and applicable to my job.

Where numbers warrant, CAM will offer the seminar in other centres.

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SEMINAR

Greg Sathmary, one of the highly rated speakers at CAM’s 2004 Annual Conference, will be conducting a seminar on managing the workers’ compensation process. Workers’ compensation claims costs are often a major cost and risk for movers. Proper management of the process can save you big bucks on your bottom line.

Watch for announcements about this seminar in a centre near you.

ONTARIO’S WORKPLACE SAFETY & INSURANCE BOARD POLICY CHANGE

CAM was contacted by Ontario’s Workplace Safety & Insurance Board about some policy changes that will affect movers. Movers are obliged by WSIB regulations to pay the trucking rate for their warehouse employees. Preliminary indications are that if you can separate your warehouse operations from your trucking operations, you will be allowed to pay the warehouse rate for your warehouse workers.

The Board will send out a notification shortly with a response deadline of May 31. CAM will provide you with the contact information as soon as we receive it.

VISA AND MASTERCARD

CAM’s Visa and MasterCard program has been moving ahead with enthusiastic response from members. If you are not already getting a 2% discount rate from your credit-card supplier, contact CAM and we’ll put you in touch with one of Canada’s largest credit-card service companies.