ASHI Is Here For You!

Reprinted from April 2018

Happy National Home Inspection Month! The ASHI Membership Team is excited to be part of such an important profession that helps millions of people make one of the most important and biggest purchases of their lives.

Here at ASHI, we work hard to provide the tools and resources for our members to be successful in their buisness and in the profession. But what makes ASHI even more valuable is you, our members. You create a community that helps one another—by keeping each other accountable to standards and ethical practices, by helping inspectors who are new to the profession, and by answering questions and sharing your knowledge with the world. For all of that, we thank you! 

Below is an article I wrote about a year ago about our continuous work to create a mentoring program that will enhance the ASHI culture. I am happy to share that this mentoring program is moving forward, and with the help of the ASHI Membership Committee and the ASHI Board-appointed task force, we hope to soon roll out a successful program that will help many new home inspectors. 

The offer outlined in the article below still stands. If you are interested in becoming a mentor or would like to have a mentor, please contact me. ASHI is here to serve you!

Hello, ASHI members! I hope that this spring season is bringing you lots of business and I want to tell you about some projects we are working on that will benefit you.

ASHI staff members gather at least twice a month to discuss ways in which we can better serve you and enhance the home inspection profession. ASHI HQ is the home base for a team of 15 people who strive to do their best, sharing ideas and suggesting improvements to processes that can make ASHI even better. With so many ideas, sometimes it can be difficult to accomplish everything on our list. 

FOCUS ON RETENTION
Retention has always been a top priority for ASHI, but with recent changes in ASHI’s demographics and procedures, we have seen a greater fluctuation in our membership numbers than ever before. We often ask the question: Why? Which group is not renewing? How long have they been ASHI members? Are they reaping all the benefits we have to offer? 

Well, when we examined the reasons why people cancel their membership or do not renew, the majority of them said, “I can’t make it, so I’m closing my business” or “I’m going back to my previous profession because home inspection didn’t work out for me.” This left us with the question: How can we help?

On the other end of the spectrum, we also have noticed transitions happening among members who are seasoned ASHI Certified Inspectors (ACIs). Many of them are ready to make the switch to become retired members of ASHI or they are retiring from the profession completely. 

So, if we have “newbies” not making it and we have many tenured ACIs retiring, where does that leave ASHI? 

This is the question I asked the ASHI Board at their meeting in January 2018. Many agreed that ASHI should focus on providing more services for new inspectors, including mentorship programs, peer reviews and specific programs to help new inspectors succeed in their business. 

I also talked about changing the culture—perhaps by asking our tenured inspectors to help the newer inspectors in the field. I said that I understand that there is competition, but what about showing camaraderie with one another? When I brought up this topic, ASHI Past-President Marv Goldstein said, “As one of the home inspectors who was around at the beginning of ASHI, it’s not about changing the culture—ASHI started out as an association where home inspectors gathered to help one another. It’s about going back to that culture.”

Those words resonated with me and my colleagues. By keeping this idea in mind, we are planning goals and projects that will cater to new inspectors, and we are partnering with our chapters, affiliates and other allied associations to provide high-quality benefits for both new and long-term ASHI members, and everyone in between.

Would You Volunteer to Be a Mentor? If you are an ASHI Certified Inspector (ACI) who is willing to be a mentor to a new inspector, please send a message to membership@ashi.org. We intend to build a list of members who are willing to share their knowledge and experiences with new inspectors coming on board. 

Would You Like to Be Paired with a Mentor? If you are a member who would like to be connected with a mentor, please send a message to membership@ashi.org. We will find someone who can help you or we will partner you with someone in your local chapter while we work on building this program. 

ASHI IS HERE FOR YOU!
ASHI wants to help you. We are here to listen to your needs, suggestions and wants, but we can only know them if you tell us what they are. Reach out to your local chapters, reach out to leadership and reach out to us.

We are here to serve you!

Copyright © 2019 American Society of Home Inspectors ®, Inc.