President’s Annual Report for 2011

An appropriate word or phrase for ASHI is reaffirmation. What makes ASHI great is its core values, mores, fellow inspectors and staff. It takes time to do most things well. They should not be rushed.

Roll out of ACI

There is a difference between self-certification and third-party certification. The requirements for ASHI Certified Inspectors (ACIs) have been validated by the National Commission For Certifying Agencies (NCCA). This organization has member associations representing nursing, safety professionals, chiropractic neurology, pharmacy technicians and financial planners. Certification includes taking a psychometrically validated test, proof of experience and proof of proficiency. To be an ACI, you have to take the National Home Inspectors Exam (NHIE); do 250 fee-paid inspections and have a sample of your inspection reports verified.

We developed a new logo for the ACIs. It is on the home page of ASHI.org. All ACIs are encouraged to use it. As ASHI Certification Chair Brendan Ryan said, “The distinctive gold standard logo and ACI acronym provide marketing opportunities for qualified inspectors to differentiate themselves from their competition. In general, they signify a higher level of experience and tested knowledge. For those in regulated states, these symbols promote the inspector’s dedication to excellence by going beyond the requirements of state licensing and maintaining ASHI Certified Inspector status as well.”

Membership categories

We started to study how we can keep our core values and mores and adapt our membership categories to be more welcoming to licensed inspectors and other experienced inspectors. Scott Patterson, Membership Committee chair, and a special subcommittee are heading up this project. We will continue this work for validation by our members and outside inspectors with a proposed Bylaws change in late summer or early fall. The landscape has changed from founding an industry to an industry that has regulations in over 35 states. ASHI and its members will benefit from an appropriate change.

Leadership Training Conference (LTC)

Under the leadership of David Haught, Chapter Relations chair, we had a successful LTC with 90 leaders from 43 chapters attending. Our focus was on how to grow healthy chapters and develop leaders. With ASHI, we have a great wealth of knowledge, skill and experience. Speakers included David Haught, Tim Buell and Don Norman. Past-president Norman credits the Boy Scouts for contributing to his leadership skills. He has numerous scouting awards including the Silver Beaver Award. It’s worth noting, we still have the original Ten Commandments and the same Scout Oath and Scout Laws. Society may change, but core values and morals do not.

Public relations

We had a successful public relations program again in 2011. For instance, our paid-distribution release, “Home Inspections Help You Sell,” appeared in 692 online and 90 print publications with an ROI of 98-1.

In addition to our traditional programs, we focused on our ASHI social media activities and #IW2012 proved to be popular with InspectionWorld attendees. Currently, Twitter (ashi_inspection) has 931 followers and is following 135. The Facebook fan page has 740 fans and 550 members are participating in discussions on LinkedIn ASHI Membership Group (Official).

Education

This was our first full year of operating ASHI Education, Inc. It is a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of ASHI. Its mission is to provide education to the inspector marketplace. We provided over thirty (30) classes, including entry-level home inspection education, specialty inspections and a commercial inspection class. Part of the entry-level education is a one-year membership in ASHI. This one-year membership resulted in excess of $40,000 dues revenue for ASHI.

We made InspectionWorld presentations available online through the e-Learning Catalog. We also made four IW modules available to chapters for their seminars.

Personal note

Thank you for the opportunity to lead ASHI in 2011. It was an interesting ride. ASHI is in good hands with our future leaders. I wish everyone a successful, profitable and healthy 2012.