Make licensing mandatory - Letters

I am with a distributor here in Connecticut, and have been in the industry for almost 20 years as a spa professional. You sure hit the nail on the head with your editorial on our industry's image! (Reflections, 1/24/03, p. 19)

NSPI Region 1 has been tossing around various plans to improve the general image of its members. Here are some thoughts of mine, and some of my colleagues:

1. Create a seal of approval, and make the public aware of it through promotional campaigns.

2. Develop a program that is uniform and all-encompassing, to teach our industry how to install, build or maintain equipment. This needs to be made as standard as possible, with all regions in agreement

3. I personally feel that there should be a license that's mandatory for all pool and spa professionals. This standard needs to be written and agreed upon by all.

4. Policing of licensing should be internal from NSPI regions because most consumer protection organizations do not have the staffs to devote to the follow-through of new programs until they start collecting fees to offset the expense.

5. NSPI should offer more value to its members by providing more services, such as a Web page, maybe, that tells who's licensed or not.

The general feeling about this is quite mixed. I would like to poll our industry to see how everyone thinks this should go.

I am not aware of any other industry where you can just grab a toolbox and be a professional without any training of any sort. We are a unique group of technicians doing electronics, excavating, concrete, chemicals, plumbing, carpentry, etc.

Someday we will raise the bar for everyone, forcing them to learn about the materials they are working with. As a distributor, I speak to many professionals every day and yet I am amazed at people's lack of understanding about the materials they're working with. I sincerely feel that licensing will help the industry by giving some sort of structure to all involved.

Many regions have been working in this direction with limited success. If everyone got on the same page, this task would be accomplished in a smooth fashion.

Michael Tierney
Aquatic Parts Co.
Bloomfield, Conn.

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