The Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association (AFLA) Board of Directors voted to retain Ewald Consulting to manage the day-to-day affairs of AFLA effective Feb.16. The new contact address for AFLA is: AFLA 26 East Exchange Street St. Paul, MN 55101 Phone: (651) 203-7247 Fax: (651) 290-2266 E-mail address: davide@ewald.com “On behalf of AFLA, I want to thank everyone at Bobit Publishing for their hard work, contributions and support of AFLA in the daily operations of our Association. We especially want to thank Ed Bobit for his unselfish commitment to the industry. Ed will continue as Executive Director (Emeritus) and participate as an active member of the Board,” said Jim Anselmi, president of AFLA. Anselmi is director, fleet operations & travel for Lorillard Tobacco Company in Greensboro, NC. Ewald Consulting is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota and has been in business for nearly 22 years. The firm has 25 employees and its CEO, David Ewald, will serve as executive director. The decision to hire a management firm was made because of the board¹s interest in increasing the value of AFLA membership. “We believe that hiring a firm with broad capabilities in event management, communications, finance, technology and membership development will help us toward this goal,” added Anselmi. Ewald has been with Ewald Consulting since August 1986. He served as vice president and managing partner of the firm since 1988 and became president and CEO in 1998. He has a bachelor¹s degree in microbiology from the University of Minnesota and a masters degree in business administration from the Carlson School of Management. He is a certified association executive (CAE) which is a designation awarded by the American Society of Association Executives recognizing competence and achievement in the field of association management. “You will begin to notice some changes immediately. One of the first is the way we are communicating with you now, via a member's only list serve. In the near future, we will be publishing an electronic newsletter to improve communications with you. We will also be developing smaller list serves that can be used as discussion vehicles for specialized segments of our membership (such as vendors, fleet managers, etc). Ewald Consulting staff is already working to improve our member databases, develop membership materials and other activities that will help us serve you better,” said Anselmi.