THE APRO BOARD ISN’T JUST A PANEL OF FIGUREHEADS – YOUR DIRECTORS WORK HARD TO KEEP THE RTO INDUSTRY STRONG, SUSTAINABLE, & VITALLY VALUABLE
It was a typically balmy fall day in Austin, Texas, when the APRO Board of Directors gathered for its final scheduled meeting of 2022. This year’s annual two-day work session began with a catch-up lunch before launching into a sum-up of APRO’s activities and performance, a board orientation and training by an association expert, and a deep dive into the APRO Strategic Plan.
And if all that sounds like a grownup in a Charlie Brown special (the droning wanh waaanh wanh wanhwanh wanh) to you, then it’s time put on your listening ears so you can hear the encouraging sound of your (volunteer!) industry leaders bolstering, tending, and standing up for rent-to-own to ensure its long and prosperous existence.
In attendance at the late-October meeting were board members Dennis Adams [Full-O-Pep Appliances Inc., dba American Rental], Treasurer Trent Agin [SKC Enterprises Inc., dba Rent One], President Michael Bennett [Buddy’s Newco LLC, dba Buddy’s Home Furnishings], Mark Connelly, [Arona Corp., dba Arona Home Essentials], Past President David P. David [Full-O-Pep Appliances, dba American Rental], Daniel Fisher [Majik Enterprises International Inc.], Chad Fosdick [CR Fosdick Ent. Inc., dba Premier Rental-Purchase], Vendor Liaison Bill French, [O’Rourke Sales Company], Rachel George [Aaron’s LLC], David Harrison [Rental Concepts LLC, dba RNR Tire Express], Vendor Liaison Mike Helton [Rivero, Gordimer & Company P. A], Christine Hesse [PROG Holdings Inc.], 2nd Vice President Shirin Kanji [Impact RTO Holdings, dba Rent-A-Center], Jerry Marshall [KAPPA Investments LLC, dba Buddy’s Home Furnishings], Bryan Pechersky [Rent-A-Center Inc.], Gopal Reddy [Action Development Corp., dba Aaron’s], Secretary Jonathan Rose [RNR of Virginia LLC, dba RNR Tire Express], and 1st Vice President Adam Sutton [RNR Tire Express].
APRO Chief Executive Officer Jill Mc- Clure, having now led the organization for five-and-a-half years, provided a brief overview of APRO’s evolution under her leadership [please see “Five Years of Flourishing,” page 12], as well as a 2022 review.
“Despite lingering COVID-related challenges and a looming recession, this has been another successful year for APRO as it serves our industry,” says APRO Board President Michael Bennett. “With Jill’s vision and guidance, the APRO staff continues to streamline costs, simplify processes, and update technologies, always working to give members the greatest value possible.”
“We work very hard to be faithful stewards of this industry,” McClure affirms. “The APRO team is laser-focused on providing member value – including developing additional membership benefits designed to advance the industry as a whole, while helping our individual members outpace the rising costs of doing business.”
THE APRO Strategic Plan – a three-year initiative created in spring 2021 and currently halfway through its duration – includes key SMART [Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound] goals, as well as priorities and strategies for reaching each of them. In addition to traditional standing committees, the Board of Directors has formed four workgroups to ensure progress on these agreed-upon objectives.
The Value workgroup – led by Sutton, with David, Fosdick, Helton, and Reddy as members – focuses on tangible benefits for APRO members, like member content, info, and news, as well as the Legal Hotline, which received 86 inquiries over the past year. This group is continuously in search of new ways to serve, and new products and services to offer to the APRO membership.
The Virtual Rent-to-Own (VRTO) workgroup – led by Pechersky, with members Fisher, George, Hesse, and APRO General Counsel Ed Winn – works on connecting with VRTO businesses, and exploring commonalities and potential collaborations between them and traditional brick-and-mortar stores. APRO currently has seven VRTO members, including newly elected board member Christine Hesse’s company, Progressive Holdings Inc. With expertise in government relations, Hesse is now playing a key role in this workgroup, exploring APRO’s value proposition and how to incorporate VRTO businesses into its advocacy strategy.
The State Network workgroup – led by Connelly, with members Adams, French, and Rose – continues to strengthen the network of state rental- dealer associations by supporting active groups and reactivating groups that have gone dormant. Currently, there are 20 active state associations representing 27 states, and 16 inactive state associations covering 21 states nationwide, as well as two states that have never had a state RTO group. Active state associations are crucial to APRO’s industry advocacy – they are RTO’s grassroots superpower, helping coordinate efforts across the country, and providing boots-on-the-ground constituents to work with elected officials on any issues that might arise.
Last, but definitely not least, the Resources workgroup – led by Agin, with members Bennett, Harrison, Kanji, and Marshall – acts as the steward of APRO’s finances, history, and data. The group works with APRO Data Analyst Eddie Flores to help the association serve as a data hub for the whole industry – collecting info through the annual Industry Health Survey, as well as via occasional Fast Five surveys gathering input on current challenges, issues, and trends.
A longside the Board of Directors workgroups is APRO’s all-important advocacy work. Spearheaded by Winn, APRO advocacy includes daily legislative and regulatory monitoring, legislative alerts (16 have been sent to members this year), informational webinars, Winn’s annual Legislative Update at RTO World, and the APRO Legislative Conference – which the board voted to revive as an in-person event in 2023.
“APRO’s greatest value to our members is as the watchdog for our industry,” notes Bennett. “After three years of being absent from Capitol Hill due to COVID, our presence is necessary in Washington, DC – not only as a way to reestablish ourselves and our business in lawmakers’ minds, but also as an ideal way to build unity and teamwork among our membership.”
The APRO Vendor Advisory Committee (VAC) also met in Austin and – in addition to mixing and mingling with the Board of Directors over dinner and drinks – stressed the success of RTO World as the industry’s biggest event of the year.
“We can’t wait to bring rent-to-own together again next summer in San Antonio, Texas,” Bennett concludes. “When it comes to networking, sharing, learning, selling, buying, Tex-Mex-ing, and River-walking, we hope everyone will remember the Alamo City!”
‘22 TOO TERRIFIC
Here’s just a sampling of stats illustrating some of APRO’s successes this year:
15 member surveys
94% member retention
29 APRO Scholarships awarded
Association revenue 7% over budget
Association expenses 3% under budget
$62,000 total scholarship funding awarded
71 participants at the APRO Cybersecurity Webinar
$18,000 in RTO Employee Disaster Relief granted
Over 35% of rental dealers responded to the Industry Health Survey
22 State Association Presidents attended APRO state leadership meetups
Kristen Card has been a contributing writer for RTOHQ: The Magazine for more than 15 years.
