It is a great day here in Orem, Utah. I feel revitalized and invigorated. I am currently on a westbound Delta flight returning from Atlanta, Georgia. The event was a unique gathering of Home Inspectors from around the nation at a small property near Cartersville, Georgia, nicknamed "The Catfish Palace." The home is owned by the world-renowned EIFS specialist, Mr. Charlie Wood. Charlie and his wife, Mrs. Janet, were willing to let this group of 11 overrun the grounds for 3 days of relaxing fun and intense inspecting conversations.
The participants in this group included the following: Walter Jowers, Rick Cozby, Larry Hoytt, Larry Cerro, Brian Davidenko, Ken Salvo, Pete Engle, Noel McShane, Charlie Wood, Bill Loden, and Michael Leavitt. This was the most eclectic group of Inspectors that I have ever spent any time with. One of the guest was once a member of the British Special Forces who stormed the Iranian Embassy helping to wipe out 12 terrorists within 3 minutes. Another works for NASA in the space safety program and helps rockets to leave our atmosphere. While yet another was a Rocket Scientist developing smart missile technology geared on mortal destruction. Rubbing shoulders with these great minds helps to put the world back into perspective. It also greatly helped to make me appreciate the blessings that I have.
They say that it doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to be a Home Inspector, yet I was in the midst of two of them and they add a very interesting perspective to our Industry. By the way, Bill Loden can put up a very high arching three point shot to quickly get himself back into a game played with a round ball and a Georgia peach bucket mounted on a pole.
The sacrifice to attend this gathering was another weekend away from my family. I think that I will postpone another weekend away for quite a while. It was difficult to leave as my lovely wife Shelly and our kids expressed how much they were going to miss me. The feelings were mutual and I can't wait to see them here in a couple more hours...... I predict some big hugs and multiple rounds of "Hop on Pop."
I wanted to take up some of the valuable MMM space to post a short (?) review/personal perspective on the Northwest Conference. Now that it is over, I can look back with that "unbiased professional perspective" that we all call on in our home inspection businesses. Putting the Summary first, I am very happy for the way it came off, we had a great group of people attend, our intentions were met, and our expectations were surpassed in some areas. It was very important to the Association that this event succeed, and the consensus is that it did.
When you put together something like this you never quite know if what you planned for will actually be what happens. There are a lot of details that can either come together in a great way - or not.
We scored well with the venue. The Holiday Inn met our needs just fine. The food and service were great.
Even when the power went out in the first hour of Michael's 3D Software Training because of all the computers draining the one circuit for the room - they had things back in order within minutes, stringing power cords to outlets in other rooms.
Even when the door to the room for Michael's training got jammed shut when the class broke for lunch - they used a crow bar to jimmy the door open before the class resumed, and stood guard outside to secure all the expensive hardware inside.
(Hard to say why, but the only snafus occurred during Michael's training. Very curious).
We scored big on most of the presentations. I'd say this is the most difficult aspect of a conference to gauge ahead of time. You can put together a schedule that looks really good on paper, but not know until 10 minutes into the presentation if you are getting what you had hoped. I have been to a lot of conferences over the years, and I can honestly say that this line-up was about as consistently good as you can get. I came away with lots of good knowledge that I will directly apply to my business practices and inspection methods.
As the guy who called the presenters to put the schedule together, I was very impressed and grateful that each one of them was more than willing to take time out of their own busy schedules, (not to mention their weekend), because they each saw the value of helping our cause - recognizing that we all wanted to get better at what we do. Not one of the speakers asked for compensation.
The Association meeting we held Saturday evening was a revelation. With Brent Foster chairing the meeting with his customary control and brevity, the agenda moved swiftly through several items, including:
* NEW CHAPTERS - Two new Chapters were recognized for Southern Oregon and Northern Washington. (Before the weekend was out Steve Jordan was organizing a Northern Oregon Chapter!).
* OREGON ACCEPTS A.I.I. EDUCATION - Recognition was made of the efforts by Steve Bradley, Betty Buckley, and Ron Cloyd that succeeded in having the A.I.I.™ educational programs accepted by the state of Oregon for their home inspector continuing education requirements.
* MEMBERSHIP - A change in the membership requirements was discussed that would allow well-qualified Home Inspectors who are already in business to be admitted to A.I.I.™ without going through the entire A.I.I.™ training curriculum. Other adjustments to membership classifications are likely. That proposal will be fine tuned and presented before the full board.
* NEW OFFICERS - Pending ratification by the full Board, the results of the A.I.I.™ election were announced. The shift in leadership of this Association is pretty evident. The next President will be Bill Schwahn, from Montana. Vice President - Jim Corbin, from Washington. The new Treasurer will be Sylvan Stenge from the original home turf of this association, Sacramento. And Rick DeBoard remains as the Secretary, (For the fourth time?), while Ron Cloyd and Michael Leavitt also will occupy Board seats. It is exciting to see that our association will get the benefit of fresh energy and new ideas from the three new officers, anchored by the experience and historical perspective of Rick, Michael, and Ron. The election of these people broadens the base of leadership of this association in a way that will reap great benefits for A.I.I.™, and will hopefully encourage others to take on leadership positions in the future.
* EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. The only paid position in A.I.I.™ is the Executive Director. We are very fortunate to have Betty Buckley step forward to accept our invitation to fill that position after several months of the position being vacant. The discussion in the room boiled down to: Yes, we need to get the job filled. Yes, it can only be someone who knows this business. Yes, it is a big job that is underpaid and under appreciated. Yes, let's give Betty the reins on her terms. Betty resides in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She has built her own inspection company into a huge success with the help of her son, Nathan. Fortunately for us, Nathan's ability to take some of the inspection load off Betty will allow her to take on the Executive Director responsibilities. It will take some time to sort through what's what, but expect Betty to have a major positive impact on this association.
When we proposed this convention be held in Portland, our objective was to attract membership and influence in the Northwest. That process is started.
We wanted to make a little money so we could plan our future with more certainty. We made some money.
We wanted to get good people in positions of influence to help give direction to this association. We have done that.
We wanted to re-establish a positive atmosphere that reinforces the best attributes of A.I.I.™ It looks like we put a stamp on that goal.
I remember an Annual Meeting in the early-1990's, (1994?), where the founder of this Association told a story about the day when he heard a Realtor say that she didn't care who did the home inspection for her client, as long as it was an A.I.I.™ Certified Inspector. To Bill Ball, that was a threshold that represented growth, recognition, and a signal that the Association was becoming more than him. It was a Great Day.
The just concluded Conference represents another Great Day; another milestone in the "de-Balling" of this Association, if you will. Think of raising an Association as analogous to raising a child: As a parent/founder you are responsible for the healthy start of the child/association, and you have dreams of what will result from your efforts. Much like parenting, association rearing presents challenges and the child/association goes through periods of misbehavior and growing pains, and doesn't quite match what you had in mind in some respects. But the day comes when the child moves out of the house, and the parent must trust that the tools that were bestowed upon him will be used to his best advantage.
Among the tools that we get as A.I.I.™ members, the most valuable tool we have as Home Inspectors, in my estimation, was included in the registration handout at the conference - the Umbrella Philosophy that was first spelled out by Bill when he founded this Association. The administration of this Association has now passed on to others, but that underlying philosophy is the glue that will always set this group of home inspectors apart from the rest. To continue with the analogy, we've moved out of the house, and I hope Bill feels as good about that as he should.
A couple of days after the convention Brent and I talked on the phone, and the thing that came up was, "You know, I think every person in that room approached me to say thank you at some point during the weekend." "Yeah, me too. That was cool."
It was.
Steve Dansby also had a few words to share......
I hope those of you who did not attend the Portland Conference visits Michael's MMM for an update, which is dedicated to a small portion of the events that were made available. I, personally, want to thank Scott Merritt for the giving of himself to this conference. It was truly a successful event. Michael Leavitt and Brent Foster earn High Praise for their accomplishments, too. Jon Gudnason, Ron Cloyd, and Shelly Leavitt deserve a hardy round of applause for their contributions as well. A.I.I.™ is very fortunate to have such dedicated individuals in their midst. I do not want to overlook all those who spent time attending this conference. You should be proud that you honored those, who through their hard work and efforts made this conference a possibility, with your attendance. Again, Thank You!
Steve E. Dansby - Portola, CA
Thanks so much for the thoughts shared by both Scott and Steve about the Portland Conference. Portland was a great success even with all of the SNAFUS, as Scott so kindly shared. All of the glitches occurred during my 3D Inspection System Proficiency course. This means that only about 17 people were exposed to this technology crisis. The logistics were incredible.... Let's have 14 Inspectors all bring their own hardware to a tiny little conference room and have the day run smoothly... This is impossible. If anything could have gone wrong, it did. The glitches allowed the group to be exposed to real-life challenges as well as how to overcome them.
I talked with 3D's Carl Fowler the following day about all of the unexpected trials of the day and he sat in silent amazement that the training day was still such a success. This is a tribute in part to the make-up of the class. AII™ Inspectors are a cut above in both knowledge and patience. When Carl asked how closely I followed the curriculum I said ..... "After crashing my 3D system at 7 am by installing the training disk, it was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experience from then on. The training participants were exposed to much more in our day full of mini-crisis than they ever would have been in the structured course outline.
We should also give thanks to the audio visual specialist from the Holiday Inn. Shortly after setting up the wonderful computer projector we realized that Gary Holzbauer had left one of his power cords in another part of the State. This meant that he could either plug in his computer's CPU or monitor, but not both at the same time. As he realized this dilemma the AV specialist said... "I think I have an extra one down in my AV room." Sure enough, he did and Gary was back in business. Each challenge we encountered was overcome one by one. When you put great thinkers in the same room you can overcome almost any crisis.
This week's AII™ Photo Challenge comes from Atlanta, Georgia via Mr. Noel McShane. I was surprised to learn that many of the houses in Georgia are constructed slab on grade. I rarely encounter homes built slab on grade and have never encountered the situation shown in this photo....... Therefore I call upon those of you with slab on grade experience to identify: 1) What is wrong in this photo 2) What you do on your inspections to verify the presence of this construction flaw 3) What exactly would you include in your report. I look forward to your replies because I do encounter the occasional enclosed patio built off the slab. "What do ya think?"
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