Thursday, September 9 marked the first meeting of the newly formed standard's committee for the creation of a windshield repair standard. A joint effort of the National Windshield Repair Association (NWRA), and the National Glass Association (NGA), the NWRA/NGA Repair of Automotive Glass Standards Committee met to work on the administrative aspect of the planned standard and get started on the language to be used in writing the standard.

"It's a very good, diverse group. We have representation from Pilkington, LYNX Services, IGA and many windshield manufacturers, distributors and repair providers," said Peg Stroka, of the NWRA. "It couldn't have gone better."

Officers were elected and other administrative procedures were handled before the committee got into definitions-defining the windshield repair language to be used.

"It was the basic place to start, with those definitions," Stroka said.

She further explained that insurance companies, government agencies, NADA, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and other associations, such as AAA, were solicited to join, but many declined, saying that though interested in the standard, they felt it was something the auto glass industry had to create on their own.

The next meeting of the committee will be sometime in the first part of November, before the SEMA and NACE shows in Las Vegas. Stroka stressed that the committee is still open and people who are still interested in getting involved with the committee should contact her via e-mail at nwra@netrax.net or by phone at 717/985-1501.