I can’t pick on Joe B’s and Greg B’s state of Florida anymore… a state where diploma mills like ASHI, FABI and NAHI and even the state itself have NO entrance requirements whatsoever into our profession. Picking on FL is too easy.
Instead, let’s take Illinois, where NACHI is a licensed (by the state) home inspection continuing education provider. Illinois only requires 6 hours of continuing education per year.
Math question (Greg is looking for his calculator ): How many years could an Illinois State Licensed Home Inspector who is fulfilling ALL his/her state required continuing education legally operate without reaching 100 hours of continuing education required to be a CMI???
Answer: 16 years!!!
That’s right. An inspector taking all his/her continuing education required to keep his/her Illinois state license still wouldn’t qualify for CMI until his/her 17th year in business as a state licensed inspector.
To be a MASTER at anything takes more than a hundred hours. I know of no lic. master trained , plumber, elec,hvac tech. etc. that got to a so called, master status just by completing 100 hours of nothing!!! This is a joke and makes those who are educated professionals look like we are bumbling idots!! Why in the world would you take a so called master status, (which most people think of being well trained and well educated) and trick them into thinking that this so called Master Inspector is well trained. Joe blow realator
can become or use a master inspector status and make us look really bad. Why ruin the industry.
Good Idea but very bad planning and qualifications!!! To become a MASTER at anything you must be well educated and trained!!!
Mike, funny you should use the trades as an example. Our industry as a whole requires far less education, even for those inspectors licensed, than do the trades, so that is not the point.
The point is: Would (regardless of our industry’s reliance on continuing education) CMI’s percentage (8%) of Masters (with respect to our entire industry) exceed the percentage of Masters in other trades???
As a former electrician and plumber, I am quite certain that Master electricians and Master plumbers make up more than 8% of all electricians and plumbers. No?
So, that leads to the question?.. What percentage of our profession do you think should be classified as Masters??? You tell me and I’ll extrapolate from there.
Bruce, you are an electrician. What percentage of all electricians would you say are Master electricians? I don’t know the answer but would like to hear a wild guess anyway.
Having worked around the trades, it is my recollection that the average Master plumber had at most 2 plumbers working for him. Some Master plumbers had more, some none, but if I was forced to guess I’d say there were no more than 2 plumbers for every Master plumber, which would put the percentage of Master plumbers to plumbers at 33%… far greater than CMI’s 8%. Yes?
The smaller the percentage of inspectors that qualify to be Master inspectors, the more meaningful the term *Master *becomes in the inspection profession.
Just like the smaller the percentage of members of any profession that qualify to be termed Masters in their profession, the more meaningful the term Master becomes in that profession.
To reduce the number of inspectors that qualify as Masters to 5% we would have to increase the number of continuing education hours to 160.
I think the issue here is that new inspectors that are resourceful and/or willing to spend the money can get 100 CE hours the first few months in business. Since the technical part of this business is really only 50-60 percent of the job the experience gained in several years should be part of the requirements. Another thing to consider is the inspector that never participates in any message boards, is he really dedicated to the profession?
I attended a 2-day carson dunlop course that was really good but it does not hold a candle to spending 2 days cruising the old message board and this new one.
8% is the right number and should never change as a percentage of home total inspectors, but I’ll bet that if this program goes forward as you envision in less then a year 80% of current NACHI members will be sporting a new CMI designation, so who’s fooling who.
In New Jersey all state licensed electricians are considered Master Electricians. I was a Master Electrician in the state of New Jersey 1985-2003 License #8755, back in 85’ to become licensed it took being an apprentice for 5-years and then you became eligible to sit for the state test, fail the test, then add another 6-months apprenticeship to qualify until you pass.
Continuing education was introduced around 1990, 35-hours / 3-years because licenses in New Jersey renewed every 3-years.
Yeah, I think a good start might be 5-years experience and 1250 completed full-home inspections, passing a nationally recognized test like the ICC Residential Combination Inspector that would be the minimum qualifications to sit for your little 100-hour thingy class and then your are probably good to go.
So lets recap; as pre-requisite to be able to sit for your 100-hour CMI class an inspector would need:
5-years experience
1250 paid, completed, full-home inspections
*]Passing ICC Residential Combination Inspector or equivalent
Of course CMI would have to be capped at 8% forever to keep it meaningful.
I guess that when Nick called me to ask me to be a pArt of the CMI board (after the last debate about why CMI should be re-worked) and told me post such online (to establish the new direction for CMI) that he was (as usual) full of it. I knew nothing of it. Thanks, Nick.
I should have known better…you can’t take some people at their word.
I held out much higher hopes for CMI. Instead, it is a way to generate $$ for schools and little else…
You know I start these threads because I value everyone’s opinion.
So if we boosted it to 150 hours of continuing education (the equivalent of 6.25 NACHI member years, 6.8 ASHI members years, 9.3 NAHI member years, and 25 Illinois State Licensed Inspector years) and guaranteed to raise the number of continuing education even further if CMI approaches 8% of the industry, would that be fine?
Sorry Nick. Look back at the previous threads. You will see that more than 2/3 of the membership is against the program. I understand what your trying to accomplish. I would rather you take the appraoch of aim high shoot higher than the current path it has taken.
I believe education is the foundation for great home inspections. Having a marketing designation means nothing if the client receives a poor inspection. The designation would be tainted quickly.
Do you find it strange that the ED, P, VP, MAB, and 2/3 of the membership don’t want to see this launched.
Nick CMI needs a lot more work. Be patient and it will turn out better in the long run.
I’ll tell you what …I have learned a lot more from the boards than any education I can get making mistakes in the field plus I can rely on you guys to help me with anything I don’t understand at least ONE person in New Mexico reads these boards and benefits from it … as far as the CMI I really don’t care one way or the other as long as I can still be affiliated with a good organization especially in this state…anyone can be an inspector so i guess I’m a little ahead of the pack at least I’m learning:shock:
): How many years could an Illinois State Licensed Home Inspector who is fulfilling ALL his/her state required continuing education legally operate without reaching 100 hours of continuing education required to be a CMI???