I’m part of the team that is revamping and expanding our chapter system. I’m looking to start brand new InterNACHI Chapters in these areas: Philly, Reno, NorCal (San Fran/Sacramento), Mobile, Minneapolis, Albany, Syracuse, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Detroit, Hartford, NYC, and Boston.
If you’re interested in being a chapter head, email me at savannah@internachi.org and include your area in the subject line. In a few days I’ll pick one person from each area and we’ll get started on making the websites and scheduling events next week.
I talked to the former Mpls Internachi president about getting a chapter to meet. he’s a really busy guy and things never went anywhere.
I now attend MAHI meetings which are populated by Internachi guys.
Ask Jeff Jonas, he’s a big Internachi supporter and prolific forum member. Maybe he’d bring the members to church.
Or maybe scare them into joining ICHI
It has to be very hard to sustain a chapter given that many home inspectors aren’t around for very long. Many are part-timers during retirement and most small businesses fail within the first few years. The key, as I understand it, is to attract carreer inspectors. Just being a member of interNACHI you reap many benefits but in order to get those members to be involved in a local chapter the local chapter has to add value to their business with events and classes that expand their knowledge and make them money.
Other associations have regular chapter meetings.
Although these other associations don’t have the internet structure NACHI has.
It’s tough to feel motivated to go a chapter meeting once a month when we have an international meeting on this forum 24-7. The other associations, if they didn’t have meetings, their inspectors would never have any other interaction.
I also don’t care the way other association meetings charge $30-35 per meeting, which includes “food” that I may or may not want to eat. Plus chapter meeting are always at dinner time, which means missing dinner with my family.
This kind of attitude is why chapters fail. This MB does not meet the requirements of face to face training. We always learn from each other. Member participation is always a problem no one wants to drive 20 miles across town for a meeting. I personally drive 200 miles round trip every month and eat my dinner with a bunch of other hungry home inspectors
For sure I attended many home Inspector meeting over the years and sure learned a pile of things from other inspectors much before meeting and lots after meetings.
I would recommend if others get a chance Go even a 100 miles ,I do not think you will be sorry .
Well, I think you took what I wrote the wrong way, and reading back, it’s my fault for not making my point clear.
i just think there could be a better way.
For instance, I attend a weekly meeting of Real Estate professionals, where we discuss local Real Estate issues. It is held in the morning at a convenient time so everyone has time to drop their kids off at school, but the meeting is still over in time that leaves all day open to do inspections.
There is a menu, so everyone can order what they wish, or simply just get coffee. No one is forced to pay for food they may have an allergy to, or may be in conflict with individual religious beliefs, or simply not like.
Also, by being in the morning, I show up clean. Because I go into attics and crawlspaces, and it’s a sweaty and dirty job, and by 5pm, I need a shower.
I also personally believe as a Home Inspector, I owe it to my clients to be in good physical condition and good health so I can go in attics and crawl spaces. Eating bad pizza at an association meeting doesn’t help any inspector accomplish this.
And I’m not going to apologize for wanting to be home at dinner time with my kids. My kids will only kids for so long and I owe them as a father to actually be their father.
I am all for association meetings. I just think meetings could be done a better way than what I have seen locally.
And perhaps if they were done in a better way, they wouldn’t die off.
I serve on the Education Committee for the my local board of Realtors
and I am the tech chair on a committee for another local group of Real Estate professionals.
I stay busy, just not with an inspector only organization.
For years Nick has preached that in-classroom education is DEAD, and that on-line is the future! Why should Chapters and Chapter meetings be any different? Double standards and old-man ‘living-in-the-past’ way of thinking. Note the ages of the two above (70+) trying to force the chapter issue on those that are the future of this industry.
In NY online CE are not accepted for home inspectors. You can take all the online classes you want for personal enrichment, and i do, but you need 24hrs every two years with your meat in the seat. I like the idea of a chapter as a way to interact with my peers in what is otherwise a fairly solitary endeavor. I don’t see online activity and chapter meetings as mutually exclusive, but rather ways to enhance each other. The message boards should provide an excellent vehicle to keep the conversation going from meetings and to keep the membership involved and informed between events/meetings.
There are always exceptions, and NY is one of them. You are required to abide by he law. You have no choice, but other states do. I do not disagree with what you wrote. Just making a point that this is not 1960 America. Things have changed… ALOT. I myself have attempted to operate a Chapter in my region (rural Minnesota) for about 7 years and was never able to garner more than a handful of members. The only inspectors willing to make the drive were other rural based inspectors. City based inspectors refused to leave their small urban service areas. At the same time, I was a member of a chapter in Minneapolis/St. Paul that failed after about one year due to conflicts of interest between the members. I am now a member of a Minneapolis/St. Paul “combined” association chapter that so far is doing well. I drive 65 miles to this meeting every 1st Saturday (morning) of the month. I also have driven 325+ miles to a 2-hour Nachi event(s) in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and found them worth every penny and minute invested. This is where I shook the hands of Nick, Ben, Dominic and others for the first time. I would not have missed those events for anything.
G-d have mercy on this industry if people like you are the future. I have no problem with on-line anything but I also like my meeting face to face with knowledgeable people that share. I have driven to Vegas, to New Orleans, to Orlando, Dallas, Denver and New Jersey and flew to Indiana for training.
Go ahead and hide behind your key board trolling is about the only thing you know. Go ahead and call me names show me your education;-)
As the InterNACHI Director of Education, I love live, face-to-face, hands-on training. We have schools and trainers all over the world who combine the online with live training.
The value of live training is the main reason why we’re:
