Understood, sounds like there’s more going on.
Russell,
Nick didn’t have anything at all to do with this. I have friends and customers in Florida who are doing wind mitigation inspections. They asked me to help them put something together so I did. This is what we came up with. We have our own InterNACHI chapter up here where I am. I do lots of things with my chapter and other InterNACHI chapters but that doesn’t mean we involve Nick in everything we do. Nick was not aware of the report until after we had finished it and it was in use.
I was completely unaware that anyone else had already put the wind mitigation forms in an interactive PDF format. Based on all the requests we were getting, it looked as though there wasn’t anything available. It is a rare day that I don’t talk to at least one or two Florida inspectors. Lately, it seems that almost every call involves wind mitigation.
I already had planned to giveaway free copies of our InspecTrex PDF inspection report during our 19th anniversary events. I know a lot of Florida inspectors so I thought, why not include it in the giveaway. If Nick were only going to promote one of the giveaway items, I’d have much rather he promoted InspecTrex because InterNACHI members everywhere who are strapped for cash could have a good report free.
I’ve been around long enough to know that know matter what I do, someone will try to turn it into something negative and will suspect an ulterior motive. That doesn’t stop me from helping my fellow inspectors. This isn’t the first time that I (and others) have been hammered for for giving something away and I am sure it won’t be the last. When Bill Merrell was blasted for giving away training materials a few years ago, Bill and others quietly went away. For that matter, I stayed away from the message board for a long time too. That’s too bad. I know Bill very well and I know he spent thousands of dollars developing the materials. His traditional brick and mortar school caters exclusively to New York and New Jersey inspectors. He had absolutely nothing to gain by giving the materials to inspector all across the US and Canada.
While there are always those who will always suspect the worst in anything someone tries to do, there are those who appreciate a little help. That’s what keeps me going. It is very hard for me to participate on this message board. It is too often like drinking from a poison well.
As for Nick and his “crap”, I have known Nick Gromicko for a while. We don’t always agree on everything but I like Nick and I like what he does. I don’t get any special treatment from Nick. I have been at many InterNACHI events where Nick has given inspectors opportunities to promote a new idea. He has given up his floor time in front of an audience to give an inspector a shot at introducing a new product or service. He doesn’t ever ask for money, favors or anything else. I can honestly say that I have never seen any organization that opens doors to everyone the way InterNACHI does.
I’ll tell you another thing about Nick that a lot of people don’t know. You can stand there and tell Nick that he is full of crap. If you have a reason for thinking what you think, he’ll listen. He may or may not agree. He mostly keeps an open mind and he never takes it too personally. He also isn’t shy about telling someone when he thinks they are full of crap. But, he will tell you why. In the years we’ve known each other, we had more than a few of those discussions yet we get along just as well today as the first time we met.
Back to the wind mitigation report. If there is anyone out there who really believes that it is not fair for us to charge a few bucks for the premium edition or is just down on his luck and cannot afford it, call me. I’ll give you a copy.
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Thanks George, but you are wasting your time. Russell will never believe that I knew nothing of your product until after you told me to release it. He’ll also never believe that I make no money on it and that I’ve never asked you for a cut on any of your fine products.
Russell, George is just as much a member as you are, he’s involved in running two different InterNACHI chapters in two different states, he has manned our Vegas booths for many years, he’s been involved with wind resistance and mitigation for 30 years, and he has every right to produce products for our industry. If you email me a press release about a product or a school or a service you’ve come up with, I’ll promote it for you too. And I won’t ask you for a cut either. Must you always piss on your fellow member’s parade? Again, I had nothing to do with the product until a fellow member asked me to roll it out.
And as for this Wind Mitigation book and all the profits it generates? Where is it? I didn’t even know we published a Wind Mitigation book. Can you give us a link to it?
And as for our EPA-approved lead course, you have to take our hands-on course to teach it. That is EPA’s rule, not ours. It is open to all members who want to take it and then teach it. AAA instructors who are also members of InterNACHI, flew to Boulder, Colorado and took it. You didn’t. So you can’t teach it. They can. Don’t like it?.. complain to the U.S. EPA.
Yes, John was one of the people who worked on our CILB-approved Wind Mit course. But as for your continuous lies that we “got John to work for free” and that we “never offered to pay him”, I really want you to stop spreading your poisonous lies. I found this email exchange. I direct you to John’s email at the bottom of it:
Now go choke on your foot again Russell.
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@Nick—“I know nozzzzing…nozzzzing” “John Banner as Schultz” from “Hogans Heros”.:mrgreen::mrgreen:
I’ll answer them one at a time Russell.
I didn’t. Ben was never an employee of InterNACHI, he was a part-time volunteer for years. Then Gerry, our Director of Education, unexpectedly died. The B.o.D. had to act fast and do what was best for InterNACHI. I suggest you review: Ben Gromicko - InterNACHI® to see why he was chosen. Ben was also willing to operate from our Philadelphia and Boulder locations in-house, which we have come to believe is a big plus.
We didn’t align ourselves with “a” school. We aligned ourselves with many dozens of schools all over the world. Any InterNACHI member can do similarly. You can offer classes tomorrow and we’d help you too, provided you use InterNACHI’s courses and curriculum.
Many did. Why didn’t you? It’s open to all.
Now let me ask you a few questions Russell…
Do you believe George when he explained that I knew nothing of his product until he told me to roll it out? Or do you think George is a liar?
Do you believe George when he explained that we don’t take a cut from any of his products or services and never have. Or do you think George is a liar?
Do you believe the EPA when they set a rule that requires members to take our hands-on EPA-approved lead course if they want to teach it. Or do you think the EPA is lying?
Do you believe Ben when he writes in his email to me and explains that he offered, by both phone and email, to pay John. Or do you think Ben is a liar?
Do you believe John when he writes in his email to Ben that he doesn’t want paid money but wants a credit instead. Or do you think John is a liar?
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Russell, you’re the one who has been implying for months that we suckered John into doing this work for free and didn’t offer to pay him. Read his email exchange with Ben.
And it’s not my parade you pissed on (see post #1)… it was George’s: A long time member, who also teaches for InterNACHI, who also runs his own InterNACHI Chapter, who helps with other chapters of InterNACHI, who manned our Vegas booths for years, who has helped InterNACHI members for many years for free, and who offered a product to you and fellow members for free.
Russell writes:
You sound like a third grader.
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Stop hijacking and poisoning other members’ threads, especially threads where a long-time, helpful member is offering something nice to his fellow members for free.
Nick you make a valid point and I did Hijack the thread hence I moved my comments to another thread.
I mean no malice to George and do not want to hijack this thread at all.
The comments are here, just so I have them for future reference.
As long as you S(h)it on inspectors I am pissing on parades…
The comments are here
You’ve always been a class act, George, and have outlasted the many noise makers who have come and gone over the years. Thanks for hanging in there.
Thanks Jim. I appreciate your support.
It has been a while since I last posted anything related to the Wind Mitigation report. I’ve been getting a lot of requests lately asking whether the free report is still available. It is. The only thing I ask is that inspectors who use the report to be an active subscriber to my free newsletter. Updates and other information is communicated to users through the newsletter.
http://forms.aweber.com/form/15/832120115.htm
Anyone with questions can call me at 407-401-9298
just my 2 cents:
I use Windsurance and it is a great tool and my agents have even commented they like the presentation. John Shishilla graciously gave me, and others, a free fillable PDF which I used for several months. It is my understanding John is willing to provide an updated program but he did not give me the impression it was something he was pushing but rather was willing to offer to help us out or quite frankly, I probably would have ordered John’s program.
A word about George Wells (which probably also applies to others who support us with software). For a little over a $100, I bought Windsurance. I am a computer software idiot. George spent 2 or 3 hours of his time educating me on the basics such as emailing, loading pics and other basic Word/Excel/Adobe skills any software developer would assume their customer would have. I was not charged one cent for all this “free” training. If George had charged $395 for the program, in my case, he still would have lost money.
From that experience, I have purchased his Heritage software and again, I am loving it.
George has spent many hours with me helping me to be a better report writer and has freely volunteered his experience and knowledge. I have read others feel the same about a couple of other software vendors. Someone once posted the relationship you have with your software developer is probably more important than the actual software and I second that.
I’m very happy with George Wells and I appreciate all the help he has given me to date. We are all lucky to have these committed teaming members.
I think Nachi should make us an emblem to post on our websites honoring our favored software provider. How about it Nick?
One other thing,
Like the folks at Nachi, George Wells is a vampire. He posts his office hours as Pacific Time even though he is really on Eastern Time. I bet he posts his office hours on the west coast as east standard time. This is a ruse to disguise the fact he does not require sleep and must avoid sunlight.
Other than that, he’s a great guy.
It’s a nice idea, but you can’t attach a “Signed” copy of the form 1802, page 4 to the form and it would be nice to have a cover page…but then again, it’s free and you can’t ask for a lot.