Members of ABPA meet twice each year. However, in the Year 2003, the schedule will be changed. The industry convention and trade show was previously held in the September-October period of the year. This will be temporarily changed beginning in 2004 when the Fall meeting will be tied into the National Autobody Congress & Exposition (NACE) and held in early December. The former Midyear Management & Marketing Seminar, usually held in April, will now become the time period for the Annual Convention. The first change under this new schedule takes place in early April, 2003, when the Association will meet in Scottsdale, Az. In 2004, a spring convention is planned for Canada, although most likely in the latter part of May because weather is a factor. Over the years, ABPA has met in many diverse locations including Las Vegas, where the third annual meeting started with 20 tabletop displays. By the late '80s, the annual convention was drawing more than 375 in attendance and trade show booths replaced the tabletop displays. ABPA meetings have been held in such locations as Nashville, Orlando, Dallas, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Seattle, Lake Buena Vista, Fl., Scottsdale, San Antonio, Denver, Boston, Chicago and Hershey, Pa., The 2002 annual meeting will be held, in late September, in St. Augustine, Fl. Annual conventions usually focus on the state of the industrythe challenges of change. There is also one special day in which education and technical seminars are conducted. These are smaller, breakout meetings in which convention participants have an excellent opportunity to look at a few industry, business and/or management issues in depth and to learn from the experiences of one another.

The Midyear meeting has experienced consistent good support from the membership. The first, in 1983 in Anaheim, Ca., drew only 35 people and there were no displays. In 1988, the Midyear seminar in Dearborn, Mi., drew more than 200 and there were 15 tabletop displays. In 1998, the Conference in Pittsburgh drew more than 400 people and there were 36 tabletop displays. In 1992 and again in 1997, the Association began a series of meetings in Hawaii, which it billed as an International Body Parts Conference. Those meetings attracted more than 175 people representing as many as 65 companies from a half dozen countries. The next Hawaii meeting was held in April, 2002, on the Big Island at the Hapuna Beach Resort. Also, in 1992, 1995 and 1997, the Association conducted meetings in Toronto. In the summer of 1999, a Montreal meeting was held. The next Canadian meeting will be in the spring of 2004 at a site to be determined. Other Midyear sites included Chicago, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Sarasota, Fl., and Troy, Mi. The Midyear meeting is always built around tours of manufacturing facilities, warehouse locations and/or technical related subjects.

The Association uses its two annual meetings as a bridge to the Taiwan Auto Body Parts Association (TABPA), an organization in which it helped to establish in 1986. That was the same year in which ABPA took the lead in initiating an industry product certification program. By 1987, recognizing that the Association had no where near the type of funds necessary to continue on this path, the program was sold to an entity which became CAPAthe Certified Automotive Parts Association.

As a matter of policy, ABPA moves its convention and meeting sites around the countryand some parts of the worldso as to expose as many of its members to one or both of the annual events and to insure the broadest base of participation. Future meetings will take place in Texas, Canada, Las Vegas, central Florida and, in 2003, tentatively in Anchorage, Alaska.