Welcome & thank you for visiting us!

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

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

 

Many thanks Tony,

 

I sincerely hope my/our presence will be beneficial for everyone involved.....and the industry!

 

Clearly though we have much work to do and "hereth it begineth!"

 

Regards..

 

Paul

Edited March 3, 2010 by AA Teccie (Paul)

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

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.

 

Many thanks 'misterTee',

 

Be sure to 'pop in' n see us again.

 

Regards..

 

Paul

[Stephen Blair]

Hi Paul, i have a vey large client base ranging from £20 hedges to estate and land owners, i just work myself mostly and pick and choose my jobs. I have been trading for 12 years now with out any hic ups, maybe the odd moan and groan but i have done ok, i do not wish any large council wok or commercial business. Do you think being a member of the AA could help me, and if so how. thanks Stevie:001_smile:

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

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.

 

Dear 'arb culture', thank you for your post and for the interesting points therein.

 

I don't consider there to be a conflict of interest particularly, as both membership and accreditation seek to recognise and promote professionalism and professional practice in the industry (and again that is absolutley NOT to say that if you are not a member nor an AAAC / AARC you are not professional, you have simply chosen not to have your professionalism recognised by the Association because you, and your clients, recognise you already...I really do understand that and respect it's entirely your perogative so to do.)

 

Whilst I understand what you are saying here you have the choice, as anyone does, to attain accreditation with the AA. Perhaps one of the key related issues here is restriction of use of the Association logo to further/better promote you membership, currently being solely the domain of the ACs & RCs? If so, this issue is currently 'on the agenda' as there are many who feel its use should be released to members to gain recognition for the benefit of both the 'member' and the Association....'watch this space.' Obviously, IF this happens we need to ensure the ACs & RCs have the right to use a different, but related, logo to recognise their status too.

 

You mention there are "...other and better ways of choosing a good contractor or consultant" which intrigues me, do you mean through personal recommendation etc, or some other means? In terms of confusing the clients, we do get several calls from clients asking if contractors using the logo are approved by us, i.e. "just checking", so whilst I acknowledge some may be confused others aren't.

 

Regards..

Paul

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Hi Paul, i have a vey large client base ranging from £20 hedges to estate and land owners, i just work myself mostly and pick and choose my jobs. I have been trading for 12 years now with out any hic ups, maybe the odd moan and groan but i have done ok, i do not wish any large council wok or commercial business. Do you think being a member of the AA could help me, and if so how. thanks Stevie:001_smile:

 

Hi Stevie, thanks for the post.

 

Sounds like you're pretty well set up and fairly happy with your lot, so to speak, which is great.

 

As you mention you don't particularly wish to enter the LA/commercial sectors then clearly AAAC / CHAS status would be of limited value. It may help to reinforce your position by underpinning your existing position by carrying external accreditation but again this is probably of limited value to you.

 

Obvioulsy there are the benefits of extrenal recognition of you H&S compliance and operational competence which would undoubtedly stand you in good stead if naything unexpected ('accident') happened and HSE investigated. Then again having gone through the process the likelihood of this 'unlikey' occurence should be reduced to 'highly unlikely' anyway...pardon???

 

Some smaller companies /firms operating mainly in the domestic sector choose to go AAAC when the competition gets harder and they're looking for something additional to 'stand out from the crowd', so to speak, but I always advise these companies they need to be aware that implementing and maintaining AAAC status will inevitably introduce an additional overhead inot the business whihc will affect the bottom-line, i.e what they charge the cleint, and hence this move could be counter-productive. That said, many have and it's worked for them. Tis your choice really?

 

Now just in case I've got the 'wrong end of the stick' (APOLOGIES if so!) and you actually do mean 'membership', as opposed to 'AAAC' status, here we go:

- Membership of the single largest UK body for arboriculture (BUT with much capacity to grow) and teherfore contributing to a bigger voice for the industry.

- Helps to keep you informed of what's new and 'happening' in the UK arb industry generally

- Dependent on what level of membership you're thinking of it can bring the right to use letters/post-nominals after your name and it can bring access to the members benefit scheme whichincludes discounts from various companies and suppliers etc.

- Direct access to arb technical help via telephone or email

- Oh yeah and a free AA mug if we see you at the 'Arb Show' (AA Trade Fair) AND free entry (saving £8.)

 

Think that's about it...post back if any more questions.

Thanks again.

 

regards..

Paul

[skyhuck]

Many thanks for taking the time to come on here Paul.

 

Could you please advice me, I have NPTC units 20,21, and 20. Which are dated 1996. If I wanted to became a AAAC what would you require me to do in order to show competence?

[Stephen Blair]

thanks paul, much appreciated.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Many thanks for taking the time to come on here Paul.

 

Could you please advice me, I have NPTC units 20,21, and 20. Which are dated 1996. If I wanted to became a AAAC what would you require me to do in order to show competence?

 

Skyhuck, thanks for your several contributions to my postings ..I like your 'straight to the point approach' and I'm sure it's welcomed by many readers who are thinking the same but don't post...DON'T STOP please!

 

'Lead Ballon Time' I'm afraid, and you know what I'm gonna say right?! Bottom line, whilst I'm sure your as competent as hell in what you do (and that's what really matters) BUT in this respect with a scheme recognised by HSE and recognising the NPTC as the 'cert. of competence' awarding body we would require you to update to the 'modern' suite of NPTC units. Obviously you wouldn't need to do the training necessarily, just book the test and get the ticket.

As I mentioned, as part of the actual worksite audit what we are more interested in (whilst the relevant tickets have to be in place) is true 'competence' which only comes about through experience and this shines through with a good climber. Equally, we have failed companies because this has essential skill has not been demonstrated competently even tho the climber holds the relevant ticket (therein lies another story!)

 

Regards..

Paul

[Arborist Sites]

Skyhuck, thanks for your several contributions to my postings ..I like your 'straight to the point approach' and I'm sure it's welcomed by many readers who are thinking the same but don't post...DON'T STOP please!

 

'Lead Ballon Time' I'm afraid, and you know what I'm gonna say right?! Bottom line, whilst I'm sure your as competent as hell in what you do (and that's what really matters) BUT in this respect with a scheme recognised by HSE and recognising the NPTC as the 'cert. of competence' awarding body we would require you to update to the 'modern' suite of NPTC units. Obviously you wouldn't need to do the training necessarily, just book the test and get the ticket.

As I mentioned, as part of the actual worksite audit what we are more interested in (whilst the relevant tickets have to be in place) is true 'competence' which only comes about through experience and this shines through with a good climber. Equally, we have failed companies because this has essential skill has not been demonstrated competently even tho the climber holds the relevant ticket (therein lies another story!)

 

Regards..

Paul

 

This IMO is when you get it totally wrong.

 

You will let a novice with a degree join even though they have no knowledge of the industry, you can know all the latin names etc but it will never beat an experienced arb with hands on knowledge of a tree.

 

What a big mistake by the AA , thats why you isolate the majority of the industry.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

This IMO is when you get it totally wrong.

 

You will let a novice with a degree join even though they have no knowledge of the industry, you can know all the latin names etc but it will never beat an experienced arb with hands on knowledge of a tree.

 

What a big mistake by the AA , thats why you isolate the majority of the industry.

 

Skyhuck, you've lost me a bit (not hard I'm afraid).

 

The scenario you describe above relates to membership of the AA rather than AAAC status, which is what(?) I thought you were asking about...sorry I've misunderstood. I'll try again.

 

Anyone can join the AA regardless of qualifications or none. Qualifications will help with certain membership grades, dare I say at the higher level, but this is entirely consistent with other professional bodies, i.e. IOSH.

 

As far as AAAC status is concerned, you can have as many degrees (& NPTCs) as you like but if you can't "cut the mustard", so to speak, you won't make the grade. Is this your concern?

 

PLEASE REPLY!

 

Regards..

Paul