2003 - President's Award of Distinction

Four members were honored with the President's Award of Distinction July 9, 2003 during the 54th International Auctioneers Confernce and Show.

Tom McInnis, CAI, AARE; Kurt Aumann, CAI; Tom Saturley, CAI; and Charles P. Dunning, CAI were all cited for their work in the merger of the National Auctioneers Association and the Auction Marketing Institute. All four were members of the exploratory committee that first examined the merger of the two organizations.

The NAA and AMI announced their merger plans in November and completed the process recently. The move will strengthen the educational offerings provided by the NAA.

"We had the right people working on this and they have done an outstanding job," said NAA President Larry Theurer, CAI, GPPA.

The merger provides the NAA a foundation for improving education for its member auctioneers, Tom Saturley said. "I believe all NAA members, whether they currently have designations or plan to get them in the future, will see that this merger will be a very positive movement for our profession."

"With this merger, we will now appear to the public as one unified body. It's easy for the public to get confused when two groups are talking about auction education, but now we will have one voice," Aumann added.

Tom McInnis, CAI, AARE of Rockingham, N.C. and Tom Saturley, CAI, of Portland, Maine are both serving as members of NAA Board of Directors.

Kurt Aumann, CAI of Nokomis, Ill. recently served as president-elect of the Auction Marketing Institute.

Charles P. Dunning, CAI, of Elgin, Ill., served as president of the National Auctioneers Association in 1975-76 and was inducted into the Auctioneer's Hall of Fame in 1981. He also served as the treasurer of the Auction Marketing Institute.