There is a woman performing pretty much every role in today's accident repair facilities. From owners to managers, accounts and payroll, marketing, business strategy, estimating, customer liaison, work provider relationships, working on the shop floor - many of these are carried out by women and many women carry out all of these roles.
Yet the spotlight rarely shined on women in smash repair - that is until the Paint & Panel/NRMA Women in Smash Awards began in 2014. In that time we have recived nearly 150 nominations and recognised 10 women in the industry.
Each nominee will be asked to tell the judging panel about themselves in a Survery Monkey form. The judging panel is made up of last year's five finalists who were: Kristie Pate from KIngswood Smash Repairs, NSW; Samantha Leonard from Forbes Smash Repairs, NSW; Donna Robson, The River Group, QLD; Sharon McHugh, Miami Smash, QLD and Ruth Barnard, Smithfield Collision, SA.
Over the next five issues of Paint & Panel magazine we will be featuring the five finalists from whom an overall winner will be selected.
We have had so many great entries but there can only be five finalists. If you have nominated a team member or self-nominated in the past but haven't been selected as a finalist please try again. You can nominate here.
Women in Smash Seminar
The women who have attended the Women in Smash Awards lunch so enjoyed talking to others who faced the same challenges as them that the idea of a Women in Smash half day seminar in Sydney in November has been floated, followed by a networking lunch. Paint & Panel would love to make this happen but we need an idea of how many women would want to attend. The format would be a keynote speaker and then a couple of speakers on useful topics identified by you. Please tell us if you are interested in atteding and answer a couple of questions on what subjects interest you and whether a Friday or a Saturday would be better. Click here to let us know.
