Recently, 2023-2024 NCDA Chairman Chris George and a few of the NCDA Board members had lunch with Senator Toni Atkins. The Senator asked the group a refreshing question, “What are we doing in Sacramento that drives you crazy?” The resounding answer was that California’s laws and regulations, and the OEM’s overreach of both, create opposition instead of the support that dealers need.

As Chairman, Chris is ready to address these issues. When asked about his plans, he said, “I’m going to work on relationships to find common ground for all the stakeholders. The Government and the manufacturers are stepping more and more into operations with good intentions, but adverse results affect the environment at the store level. Dealers want to be good partners for the OEM; we need each other. The objective should be mutually the protection and promotion of free enterprise and a partnership promoting the welfare of each other. Win-win.”

“All the laws and regulations in California are an attack on small businesses,” Chris stated. He believes that as the State increasingly gets out of its lane and drifts into the business community, the State’s bubble of power gets bigger and the dealer’s ability to conduct efficient business shrinks. “There is a tendency for humans to want to expand beyond our roles; it’s the same for businesses, organizations and government.”

Abraham Kuyper, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands and philosopher, has had a major influence on Chris’s beliefs toward the roles of State, family, church, business and education. Kuyper taught that we all live and exist in different spheres and that the spheres can interact and stay separate — there are different areas of responsibility given to govern in the home, church, business and government. Kuyper’s vision was that all arenas are responsible for their own flourishing; without exerting power over other spheres in their core responsibilities. He labeled this Sphere Sovereignty.

Chris plans on building relationships, communicating options where we are more aligned, yet providing solutions for working together instead of adhering to party lines without proper vetting. Sharing principles of Sphere Sovereignty, in his position as NCDA Chairman, during the upcoming year for the betterment of dealers and the association. “NCDA and its members exist to protect businesses, provide jobs and be a resource and partner in our communities.” He continued, “As the State government grows in power and control, and factories continue to expand their jurisdiction from production and support, wanting to control operations and retailing jeopardizes the free enterprise system; it breaks down the other spheres despite best intentions.”

When asked about NCDA membership, Chris posed the question, “Are you conservative or progressive? Then what are you conserving or advancing? I hope it to be the preservation of what each of us has been given by God: Life, Liberty and Property.”

As a proponent of private business, small government and individual rights, Chris wants members to help make change: “We need to be a ‘Bright Light,’ and we need engaged members who will come alongside. I am of the opinion, as written many years ago in the Declaration of Independence if we preserve life, liberty and property, economics will naturally begin to right-size itself.”

“NCDA offers invaluable resources to its members; being engaged helps to make strong relationships in business, provides opportunities to meet with elected officials and helps strengthen the community,” Chris stated and went on to pose the question, “How effective will members be in five years? How engaged will the dealer body be in the next five years around the issues that affect our industry?” He continued, “If we treat our situation like it is currently being treated, or we treat it like our political system, we’re in trouble. As a country, state, community, city, or industry, we get exactly what we vote for. Unless we change, the results will not.”

In his own words, Chris is a show me, don’t tell me kind of guy. He leads by example and is hopeful that his views on private business, small government and individual rights will guide his Chairmanship and the association to a better tomorrow. A place where the norm between industry and State is one of communication, cooperation and mutual understanding, as opposed to the current day where cultural power is wielded for its own sake.