ASHI inspector survey.

[Terence McCann]

Well, having said that Mike I don't think ASHI is a bad thing. In the world we live in we need folks, like the leadership in ASHI, to push the agenda in front of government (I need not get into the whole other discussion about law). Out of all the HI organizations I still think ASHI is the best. Do they still get a cock-eyed? - Yes.

Having said that though the reason I like being a HI is that fact that I'm on my own. I've always been a lone wolf and will always be. I dig this gig and in a way I owe a part of this to ASHI.

Make sense (in some distorted way)?

btw, I still get a rash....

[Les]

I want to be perfectly clear that I am still a loyal ASHI member. I am also a perfectly pissed member that is not informed. Could be my fault, but not likely my fault.

I have worked with Scott P for hundreds of hours, as a volunteer, on various committees. I continue to be semi-active. I was around when NAHI formed. Remember Everett? Jeff the tool man?

My concern is for the hundreds of other ASHI "inspectors" that do not inter-act and have no idea what is going on in their society. Thousands do not participate in the forums, read journals, mingle at the coffee shop, etc. How do we communicate with them? I understand Jim M's stance, however one must remember his unique background in this business.

Mike O is not an association participant and yet he seems to have found a way to give to and take from other inspectors. There are exceptions. No man is an island in this biz.

We have a very small window of time when most of the really old timers will be getting out of the business and taking their unique perspective with them into retirement. I think there are only 10-20 original home inspectors left alive! Now is a good time to harness that experience to benefit the home inspection community.

[Terence McCann]

I should tell you of all the folks I've known in the Mechanical Contracting business over the last 27 years but alas, that would be a bore.

[kurt]

Yeah......I'm on life support most of the time.......I gotta defib just to get outta bed in the morning.........

Is this an entree' into the Road Show?

[mgbinspect]

“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteenâ€

[Terence McCann]

“Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteenâ€

[Jim Morrison]

Les,

I don't think my background in this business is unique at all. As a matter of fact, I think there are a lot of folks out there just like me. I was a (mostly locally, but also nationally) active member of ASHI who (after a dozen or so years) left and found life on the outside just fine.

If I could encapsulate my opinion of ASHI, I'd say that it is clearly the finest org out there; it's just not what it used to be, that's all. Also, in licensed states like mine, ASHI membership means less to consumers. That's an established fact.

[mgbinspect]

That's what I'm talkin' about, Terry. When it comes right down to it, the two things that I am the least worried about are: 1. Being "right" 2. Being the know all / be all. And, when I find myself in a room full of guys that seem to suffer from that need, I just want to find the closest exit. "Can't we all just get along?"...

Having said that, today I spoke in front of a crowd, as I often do, about the home inspection process and how valuable the national associations are to every home buyer.

I truly do appreciate all the good things the associations offer. I just have always had little tolerance for heady people. It's my shortest fuse...

Being self-employed during half of the 80's and ever since 1992, I guess I too am a lone wolf. And, stints, through second jobs working for the corporate world, serve to drive that fact home. All I can see, when I work for others, is: bad attitudes; inefficiency; waste; lost opportunities: etc.

[kurt]

The danger of the associations to the profession is not a bunch of fools thinking they're brilliant. The danger is the ability of the association to define this profession.

In other professions, say orthopedic surgery, there are schools, advanced degrees, and years of rigorous internship before the practitioner is ever allowed to hang out a shingle.

So, the Society of Orthopedic Surgeons serves a real purpose of networking, lobbying, information dissemination, etc. It is where the practitioners come together and advance the profession in all the ways they do, but it does not define how the practitioners engage their services to the public. The manager of the Society of Orthopedic Surgeons has a very real function, but it is much like that of the exclusive country club manager; necessary so the club can remain functional, but no member of the club much wants to associate with them, and they are absolutely not defining where the club is on the social roster.

Our profession, otoh, has no schools or rigorous training, much to my chagrin. Due to that unfortunate reality, any bunch of yahoos can effect how the public perceives us, corporate interests can insert themselves in the process of education, individuals intent on self-advancement can proclaim idiocies, etc., etc., etc.......

ASHI, for better or worse, is the society that defines the profession. Yes, there's Nick, and Nicks got some good ideas, but Nick is a sideshow and he knows it. The worst thing that could happen to iNACHI would be for the general public to actually get a real look at what it is and how it operates. I think iNACHI could be formed into something intelligent around it's educational offerings, but first there'd have to be an alignment of membership with professional conduct. Nick's brilliance, and I do think he is brilliant, is he understands management, organizational modeling, and integrating the two into a functional bureaucracy.

But I digress.........

So, the danger inherent in ASHI's machinations is that the profession gets sidetracked by one or another of the dithering ideas of the crop of goofballs currently calling themselves "leaders", and the more insidious threat, that of the management of the professional society itself.

That was the scourge of branding; a neophyte executive director, a complete novice masquerading as an expert, was given the keys to the kingdom and told to run with it. Yes, the BOD approved all the asinine ideas, but that only goes to show the BOD lacks any semblance of sound judgment.

And that's where it is now........rudderless leaders, "guided" by a self serving management model that seeks to bring ASHI into the fold of larger management models, therein providing fertile opportunities for managers of the business of the business of the society to define what it is and how we do it, and most horrific of all, how the public perceives what it is that we do.

All one has to do to see where this is headed is to look over the "ASHI Complete Product and Service Directory" that was recently mailed out.

It's not where the profession should be going, and the current leaders of ASHI have their foot mashed on the pedal to get there, encouraged and assisted by the professional society manager who benefits greatly should the society become a big multi-tentacled behemoth for them to manage. The bigger and more confused the association organizational model, the better for the managers of that model.

So, you see where this takes us. The enemy isn't necessarily the "leaders", who, btw, are not. They are the led.

The problem is the idea of the professional society manager, who, while necessary as a functionary handling the obvious business of the society, is the base cause of the harm inflicting the society.

[davidlord]

Barely read the email and didn't fill out the survey. Right or wrong I just don't care.