Highlights of Recent Activities & Accomplishments
In the February issue of the ASHI Reporter, the president, treasurer and executive director publish an annual report covering ASHI’s accomplishments from the previous year. With the full report two months off, Jeff Arnold, ASHI executive director, provided highlights of a few of the recent activities taking place at headquarters.
Education always a priority
ASHI was pleased to introduce its e-Learning online catalog Monday, October 3, with its first 30 offerings selected from the last three InspectionWorlds. This has been done in conjunction with a third-party firm, InReach, and was months in the making through the efforts of Michele George, in our office, with the assistance of Bill Lewis.
This is our first series of online offerings through ASHI Education, Inc. (AEI). We started The ASHI School (TAS) with live education courses and now are augmenting it with this program. ASHI owns the contents of these online modules, with the permission of the original presenters, and will be adding presentations from InspectionWorld 2012, as well as all future InspectionWorlds.
In addition, four of the modules are now available for use by ASHI chapters for free.
An individual from a chapter can purchase any of the other 26 modules for $29 and use it for 3 months). If your chapter is interested, please contact Michele George at ASHI headquarters (micheleg@ashi.org).
Also, the Smart Track Program, available to members at no cost, has been approved for continuing education credits in all applicable states.
Providing feedback to members
The reporting of views to each individual member’s Find an Inspector profile started in July and continued with the scheduled quarterly report emailed to the member on Thursday, October 13. The next quarterly report will be emailed in mid-January 2012. This program has been a tremendous hit with our members.
Getting feedback from members
ASHI Certified Inspectors, as well as ASHI Associates, were surveyed in the late spring and the chapter presidents were surveyed in the early spring. Bob Walstead, ASHI Council speaker, has “taken its pulse” periodically throughout the year, as has Kurt Salomon, ASHI president, with the ASHI Board.
A major member satisfaction survey was done in 2010 and is planned again in the near future. It indicated high satisfaction with ASHI, which is reflected in the strong renewal and new member figures this year, even during the worst housing crisis in the history of the U.S. (Housing values have dropped further and faster than they did during the Great Depression). As of this date, renewals are running approximately 500 ahead of last year in the same time period.
Nuts and bolts
As with any organization, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. Here are a few examples:
- New internal network
- New ASHI database (first new database in almost 10 years)
- New splash (home) page with new member-friendly features
- Nominating committee voting done electronically for the first time
- Director voting being done electronically this year for the first time
Marketing ASHI and promoting ACIs
We do this through a variety of mechanisms, including the various ASHI websites, blast emails, the Reporter, First Thing, direct mail, the Weekly News Briefs, social media and even sometimes through chapters.
In addition to being featured in all the venues mentioned above, certification has been highlighted in the “center square” of the ASHI home page for almost three months straight.
More to come
Thanks for taking the time to read these highlights of recent activities and accomplishments. I look forward to sharing my full annual report in February. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact any of the staff members regarding questions you may have about the activities and accomplishments outlined herein.
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