Welcome & thank you for visiting us!

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

...or, put another way, and going back to my 'northern' origins, "c'mon in, sit thee dhan n av a brew".

 

Please post freely, within reason no subject/topic is 'taboo', but remember in so doing we want to be here to help and move the industry forward for EVERYONE'S benefit including those on which we work who rely on us for a voice, i.e. 'them there trees!'

 

Thanks all.

Paul 'AA Teccie' Smith

 

PS. I will endeavour to deal with all your postings promptly but please bear with me as some weeks I'm out of the office for 2-3 consecutive days and can't always get a signal on "mi 'V.' dongle!"

[bob]

Nice one AA this will be interesting

will await the discussions with anticipation

I think this should be a big impact on the industry and arbtalk

[David oakman]

Hello Paul Smith. I came to do the basic tree survey with you at Stonleigh.

I am an AA member but i am just a poor woodman and can't afford to go to any seminar or courses as they are expensive. I would love to come to the conference but boss won't pay so i will have to keep dreaming about it.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Nice one AA this will be interesting

will await the discussions with anticipation

I think this should be a big impact on the industry and arbtalk

 

Many thanks Bob, indeed 'eager' anticpation although there's a couple of quite interesting ones with me in the 'lions den' running on the General forum as we speak.

 

Let's hope that 'BIG' impact is a positive one.

 

Cheers..

Paul

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

David, thank you (hope you found the previous BTI useful).

 

Sorry, as it appears I'm unlikley to meet with you again in the near future but please look out for future News Letters which will include feedback from Conference and other major AA events.

 

All the best.

Paul

[Doug Blease]

With the redundancy in the training department. Whats the honest appraisal for training provisions from the AA?

 

Zoe Paskins did a great job organising some training for me last year. Surely any loss in this department doent send a good message as far as investment in training is concerned?

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

With the redundancy in the training department. Whats the honest appraisal for training provisions from the AA?

 

Zoe Paskins did a great job organising some training for me last year. Surely any loss in this department doent send a good message as far as investment in training is concerned?

 

Doug, thanks for the post.

 

Zoe was indeed a (very) sad loss but unfortunately a victim of the current economic climate and down turn in industry training requirements through 2009.

 

However, I'm entirely confident the quality of AA training provision is as high as always (said as an AA Trainer). Tiff is rapidly getting to grips with the administrative side and Simon Richmond, as AA Training Manager, is coordinating and inputting as necessary.

 

Recognising contiuous improvement and development of new courses is essential we are so confident in our training course provision we have 'new' courses running this year (see the website at http://www.trees.org.uk).

 

Please let me know if you have any specific concerns/questions.

 

Regards..

Paul

Edited March 2, 2010 by AA Teccie (Paul)

[Amelanchier]

Good to have an AA presence on the 'talk Paul! Should be beneficial for everyone involved.

[Paul Barton]

Aye - a brave move but a good one hopefully! Lots of issues for discussion, should be a busy part of the forum I reckon.

 

I look forward to the discussions.

[arb culture]

It strikes me that many of the criticisms I hear about the AA are due (at least in part) to the activities of the approved contractor/consultant schemes.

 

The other half of the AA seems to attract a lot less criticism.

 

Perhaps there is a conflict of interest within the organisation due to the fact that one side of the AA is about promoting good arboriculture, and the other half of the AA is about promoting its accredited contractors/consultants to the disbenefit of everyone else, including many of its own members.

 

I'm not knocking the AA, I'm a professional member and happy with that, but I would be even happier being a member if the AA just got rid of the accreditation schemes - there are other and better ways of choosing a good contractor or consultant, and I think the schemes just cause further confusion among the general public.