EDUCATION “We would like to help members by Expanding the Scope of Education at ALOA By Jim Hancock, CML, CMST fees as well. We have published surveys, sent out fact-finding emails and polled people at the conventions about what could be done. Unfortunately, the answers are almost always the same: lower education class costs. While this is something we would love to do, as I have detailed in previous articles here, the cost associated with holding a class (instructor travel, lodging, daily fee, shipping of materials, local transportation, printing of materials, blah blah blah) has increased very steadily over the years. As such, the cost of classes has had to keep pace in order to continue. Lower costs would be great, and if we ever get in a position to do so, we absolutely O 54 will make it happen. As a class attendee myself for many years, I understand and feel your pain. You are not only paying for the class and your own travel and costs associated with it, but you also deal with the income lost because you aren’t running your business or caring for your customers personally. The Answer? We have kicked around a lot of ideas and think we may have come upon one that is by no means new, but one ALOA has not really embraced over the years as much KEYNOTES APRIL 2020 ne thing that we in ALOA Education are always brainstorming about (or, in our case, probably more like brain drizzling) is what we and ALOA can possibly do to enhance the value proposition of being a member. This is always a big discussion with us, as it is difficult to come up with benefits that can be added without an increase in doing product testing and reporting to you, the membership, what we find.” as other publications and organizations. We would like to help members by doing product testing and reporting to you, the membership, what we find. Now un- derstand, this will not be a “we hate this because…” testing but more of a “mat- ter-of-fact” test where we will put items, hardware and tools through the rigors and see what happens. We will then put together a report or article that will relay what we did and the outcome, and that will be it. No judgment; just factually what happens. As I always ask when looking at some- thing new, would this appeal to you as members to have a fact-based report with zero opinions on the hardware and tools we use daily? How about you, Associ- ate members and manufacturers? Would you be interested in having us test your item(s) and new products? Please email us at [email protected] and let us know if this would be of interest to you as a member or manufacturer. Jim Hancock, CML, CMST, is ALOA’s educat ion manager. You can reach him at [email protected] or (214) 819-9733. WWW.ALOA.ORG
