Hello everyone,

Like most of the world, the iATN staff has been watching the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and our hearts go out to all those affected. I'm sure most of us here in the US know someone affected by the disaster, either personally or through contact on iATN over the years. We estimate that over 500 members are directly impacted, and that number is sure to grow in the coming weeks. Now as we write this, Hurricane Irma is making windfall in the Caribbean, and may be headed for landfall soon in the southern US.

Disaster Recovery Forum

Many people have been using social media to communicate among family and friends during the Harvey crisis, and we are interested in using iATN in a similar way to help those in the automotive industry with industry-specific needs. We have created this new Disaster Recovery Forum for this purpose. Discussions in this forum could range from dealing with flood-related repairs, shop safety issues, status updates from those in affected areas, recovery help, and even personal issues.

We will soon have a way for everyone to subscribe to this forum so they receive notifications when new posts are made, either by email or mobile app, or both. Note: this forum has been created using a newer technology that is still in beta testing for us, so please bare with us if there are any kinks in how it works at first.

Donations

We feel that guiding donations to specific charities is probably best left to experts in the field, but we urge everyone to seek out charities that are effective at helping the victims of Harvey and other natural disasters. A good starting point would be Charity Navigator.

For Those Impacted

Currently we are including those in the Texas counties of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Jefferson, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller, but please contact us at [...] if you think other counties or countries are impacted, or if you have been impacted outside the areas listed above.

Retroactive to Friday, August 25, those in affected areas with premium memberships are having their monthly fees waived for six months, and those that are currently basic members will be given six months of premium access for free. If your card had been charged on or after August 25, you should see a refund soon.

Those in affected areas have been given several free job postings in Auto Pro Careers. We're not sure of the needs in this department, but presumably some repair shops may have a hard time finding employees after some have been displaced from the area, and we want to make sure you can use the service if you need to. If you need more free job postings, please contact us. As always, for those looking for a job, it's free to post your profile.

Our parent company, Solera, operates a service called Enservio, which is offering a way to inventory your assets, free of charge. This could be useful moving forward as you begin to work with your insurance companies.

We welcome any other feedback as to how iATN or its members may be able to help. You can reply here, email us at [...], or call us toll-free at (866) 428-6428.

Scott Brown
Administrator
iATN
Claremont, California, USA