Rent-to-own News - ARDA elects new board members, seeks executive director

The Arkansas Rental Dealers Association annual meeting went off without a hitch, but the association is still absent an executive director -- a void board members hope to fill in coming weeks.

Around 35 attending dealers representing 10 companies attended the recent meeting at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The ARDA Board of Directors gained two new members, both of whom were elected to fill vacant seats.

ARDA speaker Jim Corter of Corter Consulting.

ARDA President Alan Frazier of Rent-A-Center welcomed Jose Palacios, regional manager for Aaron's, and Wally Moon, sales manager for Woodson-Bozeman to the board. Palacios was elected to the board member-at-large seat and Woodson-Bozeman was elected to the vendor representative seat.

All board officers maintained their current positions per the executive committee's two-year rotation schedule. Current officers include: president: Frazier; vice president: Geron Vail of FAN Sales & Leasing; secretary: Rhonda Weatherford of Don’s E-Z Pay and treasurer: Enos Barger also of FAN Sales & Leasing.

The board continued discussing two finalists for the association's executive director position -- a position left vacant when Jill Crews left the position to pursue her career in real estate. The board agreed to conduct some background research on the remaining finalists before making a final decision in coming weeks.

"We had lots of interest at this meeting and, as always, strong support from our membership," said ARDA vice president Geron Vail. "Getting an executive director in place is extremely important. Things just flow so much more smoothly with an executive director and the association would certainly benefit."

Jim Corter, with Corter Consulting, rounded out the meeting with a human resources talk covering the topics of recruiting, the interview process, and sexual harassment. Using a PowerPoint presentation and combining humor with real world experiences, Corter provided a very informative and memorable seminar, according to Vail.

ARDA Lobbyist Mark Lowry.

"One thing he said that makes perfect sense," Vail said, "is 'trying to adjust the job to fit the person is rarely successful. Instead, determine what talents and skills the job demands and recruit candidates that most closely match the job.'"

After lunch, ARDA Lobbyist  Mark Lowry updated attendees on the state of the industry as it related to the Arkansas Legislature. He provided details on some conversations he has had over the past year with various lawmakers and aides and presented some ideas on how to engage the legislature in the coming months.

Arkansas is home to 187 rent-to-own stores which employe 1,122 and pay $6,695,000 in annual payroll taxes and generate $130,152,000 in annual revenues.

mevans@rtohq.org