ASHI Committees Meet in Chicago

Harnessing the power of public relations
The Public Relations Committee met February 23 to continue its work of promoting ASHI and the home inspection profession to the general public, related industry organizations and home inspectors. Five work groups were formed to carry through on the strategies assigned to the committee for the year:

State associations
Chapter PR, including community service
Realtor® awareness
Allied organizations
Articles for publication

One of the ongoing committee assignments is to develop and maintain relationships for ASHI with allied organizations. During the meeting, the committee reviewed a proposal from one of those organizations, the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists, Inc. (AARST). AARST proposed to provide ASHI Membership with discounted access to the new Radon Measurement Standards developed within the National Radon Consortium, National Radon Proficiency Program (NRPP) certification and AARST membership. ASHI Member Tim Tucker has represented the Society’s interest with AARST for the past three years and brought the proposal to ASHI. The committee found that these discounts would provide a direct member benefit to existing and future ASHI membership involved in radon measurement, and prepared a motion that was presented and passed at the April Board of Directors meeting.

One of the highlights of the meeting was Lisa Gungoll’s
presentation of the public relations firm’s activities on ASHI’s behalf—past successes and future plans.

PRCommittee.gif Photo: The 2006 Public Relations Committee members, left to right: Jay Balin, Director liaison; L. Bryant Barry; Vimal Kapoor; Dan Howard; Danny L. Maynard; Lisa Gunggoll, MS&L public relations; Paul Staron, chair; Dennis E. Parra Sr.; Max Curtis. Not pictured: Arthur S. Lazerow,
Mark Lee Oldroyd and Sandy Bourseau, staff liaison.

— Sandy Bourseau, ASHI director of communications

ASHI Membership Committee looks for growth in 2006

The ASHI Membership Committee met March 3 and 4 in
the Chicago area for a two-day session to begin work on its
priorities for the coming year. The committee is led by Chair Scott Patterson of Jackson, Miss., now in his second one-year term.

While work had already begun on several items included in the 2006 ASHI Work Plan, the face-to-face meeting allowed the group to brainstorm ways to boost the ASHI membership and to discuss items related to membership services, new membership benefits and to begin setting roll-out dates for certain sections of ASHI’s new “Smart Track” Candidate development program.

During the meeting, the group discussed the reasons that people choose ASHI over all home inspection societies and associations.
Membership Committee member Michael Stephens said
during the discussion, “People tell me all the time, if I’m ASHI they’ll use me for their inspection and that makes
me feel good about the choice I made.”

Committee Member Patrick Graham indicated that there were many benefits of membership that ASHI Inspectors weren’t taking advantage of. Graham highlighted the excellent service provided by the ASHI store, which allows inspectors to have their company logos stitched into clothing along with the ASHI logo for only a small set-up charge. “I’ll bet there are many members who didn’t even know they could do this,” he said. “This is great service offered by ASHI.”

The committee discussed some new ideas to work more closely with schools teaching the ASHI Core Curriculum in its classes, explored some membership suggestions to improve the verification process, and reviewed some recommendations by an ASHI Task Force looking at the Society’s membership categories. Any recommendations from the meeting will be going to the ASHI Board for its consideration in April or July.

Over the past year, the ASHI Membership Committee has been responsible for several motions that passed the board, including setting the minimum age of membership at 18, requiring a question about felonies on the membership application, creating a new task force to look at ASHI’s insurance offerings, developing a Member Get a Member recruitment program, and creating a program to recognize longtime Members with new membership pins.

Membership-Committee-Meetin.gif Photo: The 2006 ASHI Membership Committee, front row, from left: Anthony Snyder (staff liaison), Michael Stephens, Committee Chair Scott Patterson, Guillermo Hunt. Back row, from left: Jamison Brown, Steve Hartnett, Les Van Alstine, Alden Gibson, Charles Gifford (board liaison) and Patrick Graham.

— Anthony Snyder, ASHI director of
membership & marketing

Fostering benefits to ASHI members through the chapters

ASHI’s Chapter Relations Committee (CRC) met on March 9 and 10 to carry out its mission of fostering beneficial relationships between ASHI HQ and it chapters, assisting in development of new chapters and overseeing the Chapter Leadership Day (CLD) program. CRC discussed President Joe Corsetto’s vision of an Open Society and how chapters can contribute, and expects to have proposals to the Board at its July meeting that will explore allowing inspectors to participate in chapters for a period of time without joining national. Other highlights included a motion that the Board appoint a task force to give some uniformity to chapter certification programs, identifying training needs of chapters, investigating the use of peer review and group inspections for recruitment, and developing educational programs for chapter use. One of the most important efforts was the development of a Chapter Positioning System, a program to identify and assist struggling chapters culminating in four chapters receiving hands-on training at CLD. It was a very productive meeting.

ChapterRelationsComm.gif Photo: The 2006 Chapter Relations Committee, front row, from left: Bob Kociolek, staff liaison; Bruce Czech; David Sherwood; and
Paul Signore. Back row, from left: Ron Rusch, chair; Bill Loden, board liaison; Ed Massart; Grant Bell; John Vaughn; Cheryll Brown; Randy Pierson; and Mark Schweickart.

ASHI Legislative Committee stays on top of the issues

ASHI’s Legislative Committee (LGC) met on March 4 to continue its mission of monitoring legislation and regulation to ensure benefit to ASHI and the inspection profession. The committee tracks both state and federal issues and consists of Marvin Goldstein, Co-Chair for state affairs; Frank Lesh, Co-Chair for federal afairs; and Board liaison, Joey Caballero; Tom Edwards; Jim Fahs; Jim Hanratty; George Harper; Joe Kelly; Hugh Kelso; Joanne Mackintosh; Robert Pyne; Charlie Sessums; and staff liaison Bob Kociolek.
The LGC heard an update on federal events from Lesh,
discussed state activity, affirmed a new effort to communicate important developments directly to members in states, reviewed and revised ASHI’s Position Statement on Regulation of Home Inspectors, and outlined ASHI participation in the annual meetings of NCSL and ARELLO.

A highlight was the participation of Janet Swandby, ASHI’s government affairs consultant. Swandby’s long service to ASHI gives her a unique understanding of the issues, and the committee members benefited from her expertise and sage advice.

— Bob Kociolek, ASHI director of chapter relations & state affairs


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