If such a challenge were made, it would be for only one purpose and that would be to establish fraud.
In the U.S., alleging fraud in a lawsuit allows a plaintiff to claim unlimited punitive damages. Without this, the plaintiff is limited to only his actual damages.
If I wanted to turn my claim for a new water heater into a multi-million dollar law suit, my attorney (through the discovery process) would acquire from you every shred of evidence that exists regarding the number of verifiable inspections and hours of education obtained, along with actual proof of all other criteria.
Proof of failure to achieve any level of these would mean instant fortune for me (and 33% of it to him) for now I can show that you misrepresented your qualifications to me in order to get my business.
But this is not limited to CMI.
This can happen to a NACHI member who claims to be a member in good standing, but only acquired 15 hours of CEUs the passed two years.
NACHI and the CMI Board, IMO, are wise not to share liability with me by “validating” or providing anything more than my affadavit. To do otherwise would implicate them as a co-defendant in perpetuating the fraud if, indeed, I was deficient.
Jim figured it out. By being a CMI or an InterNACHI member or IAC2 or more recently www.nachi.org/ir.htm YOU are making a claim, not the org, hence the affidavit. And as John points out, even states rely heavily on the claims of applicants. Making a false claim is not wise.
Well if thats the case Nachi would have an onus to ensure members have met the rigors, which in this case they did not. Nachi is holding itself out as a body granting designations it had better be sure it carries out its requirements to ensure members are in compliance.
Nachi is the one offering the designation. It is the body that must ensure members are in compliance. No special status, no favours, no special privileges, everyone must meet the same conditions. We know this not to be the case.
NACHI includes my name in its many search engines with my word that I have met my annual CEU quota. NACHI does not have the manpower to account for the hundreds of thousands of individual CEUs gained (or not) by its membership each year.
When the plaintiff’s attorney requires hard proof for my claims that I advertise (through NACHI’s search engines) but that I am unable to provide, he gets to sue me for fraud and Nick simply shrugs, deletes my name from the membership roster (for I have violated NACHI’s COE by lying about to NACHI about my qualifications) and moves on.
The affadavit is a tool that is also used by ASHI and NAHI. It is not unique to this association.
So once Nachi issues its designations it washes its hands and could care less. The public is also putting faith that your accrediting associatioin ensures members measure up, which as you allude it can’t. At the very least Nachi should be conducting random audits as other associations do.
We do random audits. Deleted a member on Tuesday. We also audit when we get a complaint from a consumer, a licensing agency, BBB, another member, etc. Deadwood project has been in operation for several years.
We also allow every member to make him/herself invisible if they get behind. Making oneself invisible makes the inspector invisible on all 4,500 sites instantly.
What some people forget is that we “apply” for membership and are accepted/rejected based upon the information we provide.
People have been known to also lie on their resumes to get jobs with certain companies. An employer’s only duty to his public is to fire the employee who lied when it comes to his knowledge. He does not have to go back and “refund” customers that the employee may have sold to.
Integrity cannot be “legislated”. It is not “awarded” or “designated”. It does not come from the institution to which one belongs. It is something that is brought to the institution by the people who join.
We also provide each member with an online continuing education log. This log does not permit back editing of the dates. The IRS uses a weaker system (pencil written log book) as evidence for mileage deductions.
We also auto log every course www.nachi.org/education.htm that a member completes. This is done by forcing the member to access the course with his/her membership username and membership password.
Your quote that I was responding to was:
“In the inspection profession, which has an average life expectancy of less
than 3 years, only 1 in about 350 inspectors reach their 10th year.”
I believe that you were talking of the HI industry in general and in my following post I was referring to the the profession, and not CMI’s.
BTW, how many CE’s can someone get by reading through all your online courses? Just curious.
When you look at the number of inspectors in the entire industry, it would seem that if not that many qualify we have a hell of a lot of newbies out there. Heaven help the buying public.
When you look at the entire industry including other associations and all the independents, remember the other associations and independents do not want to be want to be INACHI and most likely CMI certified. How many CMI’s are not INACHI affiliated?
Why are some of the more knowledgeable INACHI senior inspectors on this board not applying for CMI which I assume they will have no problem receiving. Other INACHI members with consciences have made unflattering comments about CMI designation- that’s where I get the “gimmick” term from.
Brian, I’m glad to see that you confess that you developed your position on CMI from other’s unflattering comments, rather than from the actual requirements: www.CertifiedMasterInspector.org
And yes, many CMIs are not affiliated with InterNACHI. Many are ASHI’s top veterans. ASHI members seem to like the CMI designation as ASHI’s 250 fee-paid inspections mark isn’t that hard to reach. CMI is open to all for a one-time fee. No annual dues.
CMI’s Executive Director for instance, is a licensed Texas inspector (which means he did hundreds of CE classroom hours). He is also an ASHI member. And he doesn’t have just 250 inspections under his belt (ASHI)… or 1,000 (CMI)… his team has performed over 22,000 inspections!
No, it’s not unique to this org but its blanket use throughout the org for just about everything is and means that there are virtually no checks and balances in play. Can anyone tell me that if all renewing member CHI’s are totally up to date?
I can tell you how tight our own chapter is. The Pres is fair but firm and wants a professional org run…he’s been re-elected by acclamation 4 times now. He’s an old college buddy but in early February pulled my name off the chapter website because he did not have my name on a required meeting (for me- need to attend 3 in any 12 month period) roll call sheet. In fact, I was there but got there an hour late late due having a meeting on a gov’t contract I had…so no record of Brian signing in, no Brian on the website (for about 3-4 weeks) since I had not met my obligations to the org…sweet and simple…friend or not!!! That may be the kind of management a professional org needs.
But where are the standards and the rules as to how CMI is set up and run via bylaws, elections, finances, meetings, et ceteras? It seems to me that you can do pretty much as you please with no rules or regulations other than the SOP and COE, which do not address members rights and obligations as part of the contractual scope of membership?