Henry,
To answer you question......I would not support the PWNA in no circumstance. They have missed the bus. Too many years have gone by and the PWNA has done nothing to certify themselves in a market that has grown tri-fold. I would rather see another group start a Pressure Washing Association. With this they should require at the minimum the following:
I'm not sure how they have missed the bus since they are pretty involved in EPA stuff and some other political things (I don't know much about that though) BUT, wouldn't working with a new org "IF" one starts up put things at more of a disadvantage? They would have to build up a membership, structure, directors, policies and all kinds of other stuff before they could do anything. That could take at least a year or two. Why not just try to help fix any problems the PWNA has? It would be a lot more time effective.
1. Proof of Insurance on a yearly basis. (This could be done at time of renewal) Insurance should have a minimum of at least $300,000 General Liability.
2. Written certification based on the type of cleaning that will be done. ie. wood, concrete, kitchen hoods etc...... This would only have to be done once per individual Every person in each company? That's pretty expensive. per company. After the written certification they should have it set up for the individual to demostrate their ability. How many times have we seen members of the PWNA wash wood or concrete etc.... at the conventions. Why can this not be done at time of certification ? I think everything you have here is easily workable if they decide to do this but the demonstrating ability part would be almost impossible to manage. There's just too many people to do it with and where would it be done on a pallet for wood certification? Pallets aren't the same as a deck. How many kitchen exaust systems would we have to clean for free to test for that and who's going to want their kitchen closed down to allow us to do it? I think explaining the procedure and a test for it would be good enough. That's what they do now really with their certification courses.
3. An annual check of the BBB, state, local and federal authorities of any discrepencies or violations.
4. If a company is required by state to be licenced then this should also be proven that they are current. LEG WORK that PWNA has not been willing to provide.
Just the above mentioned would be a start. Then the organization would be able to lobby for improved standards for our type of business.
Currently, PWNA allows anyone to join....Once they join for 1 year they have the privlages of using all PWNA logo's, stickers etc....... Hell even if they do not sign up for another year they still use the logos. What's the point. PWNA should at a minimum have the individual or company sign a clause against using their logos if not a current member. Then they could go after the individual company for malicious use of their logo.
In order to have an association that stands for POWER WASHERS OF NORTH AMERICA, they should not have anyone the sells products on their board. This is a no no. From the outside this looks like a conflict of interest which if you read all of the post over the years you will find this mentioned more than once. Why do you think the main guys that started PWNA were all distributors ? It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
It was started by some distributers this is true but, at the same time the members are the ones that vote for the board of directors..so it's up to them to vote for who they want.
Last and not least, the organization has to have somebody beating on doors. I am talking the Federal Government. They need to take the monies and hire a lobby group that will do this for them. The Federal Government when confronted with the right people will turn tricks for them. It is not out of the question for the Federal Government and their envolvement in the environment to give out Federal Grants to get the word out. Hell just in the last two months we have found out that there are columnist gettin paid to promote George Bush and his directive. Dont you think, the Government would give a reputable organization monies for tv spots ? Come on, you know they would.
The government has been pretty busy spending all our money in other ways..lol I did mention the PWNA is involved in some EPA stuff and other programs but I don't know enough about it to comment knowladgably. Basically I agree with most of your suggestions though and I've also run polls on quite a bit of them on the PWNA site in the past to get the members input. I just thought it was also important to get input from others that aren't in PWNA and still have strong opinions about it. Any information and suggestions you have can help make the org stronger. Even if you don't want to join to try to help fix your concerns I still think it's great that your willing to put them out there constructivly with out drop kicking my comments. I appreciate that, and I think you have a lot of good ideas and suggestions.
Enough said. I hope you give me feedback on this as well as I invite any PWNA member also.