LTC 2010 – It’s All About Success

ASHI long has recognized that chapters are the heart of our organization. Chapter meetings are a place to meet other inspectors, get education and advance your skills as an inspector. They also provide an opportunity for inspectors to cooperatively promote ASHI to real estate agents and consumers through local public relations. For many of our members, all they know of ASHI is through their interaction at the chapter level.

Many of our chapters are successful. Educational meetings and seminars are well attended and the membership is large enough to allow such experiences to be successful. Yet, this is not the case for all chapters. Some have fewer than 10 members and struggle to find leaders to fill volunteer positions and to grow their membership.

Recently, ASHI performed an assessment of its chapters and found that approximately 50 percent of ASHI Certified Inspectors does not belong to a chapter, and less than 25 percent of ASHI Associates do. Chapter membership has been declining across the board due to economic circumstances.

ASHI is committed to strong and viable chapters. For this reason, we formed a Chapter Task Force charged with determining how ASHI can better support its chapters and enable their success. The task force surveyed chapter leaders and presented an initial report to the Board of Directors.

The next step was to schedule a face-to-face dialogue with chapter leaders. As this magazine goes to print, chapter presidents and vice presidents are participating in a two-day special chapter leadership event. The purpose of the first day is to get feedback from local leaders as to what their challenges are and how we at ASHI national can better support chapters. There is no one-size-fits-all for chapters. This type of event has never been done before, and we are looking forward to a successful dialogue.

On the second day, chapter leaders will be learning how to be more effective at running successful chapters. It’s a hands-on, nuts-and-bolts session designed to enable chapters to become more successful working as volunteers.

We are truly excited and anticipate a successful and productive LTC event. We hope everyone came ready to listen, learn and to tell us what you think. Watch for news from the event next month.