Am I the only one rolling on the floor in convulsions of laughter and the prospect of George cringing at drink prices? Omigosh, you should see his room ... oh never mind. Seriously, what everyone else said. Over the course of my first three AFSA conferences after starting our firm, I was introduced to people who collectively redirected a considerable portion of our business. If not for meeting Roland at the conference years ago, I'm not on any technical committees. I'm not teaching for NFPA. I'm not networking with some of the very topmost people in their respective sectors of our industry. I can't just pick up the phone and call literally dozens of different professionals who can help me with issues that arise. If I don't so involved in the organization, then we don't send our trainees to the sprinkler school, and they don't come back energized and excited about the trade (one of our employees is going to change his courses of study and pursue an FPE degree because of his experience. You put faces to names, you make friends, you go to George's room at 2:30 in the mor ... oh never mind.
I'm sure we would have been successful in other ways, but it's not an exaggeration to say that Terri and I spend at least 50% of our time on projects and issues and with clients that are a part of our business because of AFSA and particularly the ball that starting rolling at those conventions in the 90's. Steve Leyton ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of George Church Sent: Wed 10/22/2008 3:51 PM To: sprinklerforum@firesprinkler.org Subject: RE: Convention -was sizing expansion tanks It's not a luxury, IMHO. You can stay at a lesser hotel nearby, and eat lunch at Mickeys if you need to. But the education and networking are priceless. Generally they're at resorts and a lot of attendees bring their family and its their vacation. Granted, my spouse went to the foam seminar Dave Sornsin and John Denhardt gave and most wouldn't, but there are day trips and excepting this year's one in the District, they're at places where you could spend a week just being there. Believe me, when we attended our first back in 2000, our firm was 2 yrs old and doing a whopping $1.5m/yr with very little excess money. I cringed at the drink prices. Now we do business with the friends we've made and convention experience and network development is just one of those things like insurance that you can't hold in your hand, but when you need it, you're glad you have it. I needed to know something about nitrogen tanks on a Sunday AM recently when a GC called me back about a job I'd bid Fri PM. In less than an hour a friend of mine 1500 miles from here was reading me info from a N2 tank at an Airco yard. I could intelligently discuss the space requirements in the pump room with the GC within 2 hours of his first call to me. Or the friend 2,500 miles away that explained IBC egress requirements to me while I drove to a variance hearing as an expert on an hour's notice. Getting cadfiles of a job built in the UK very similar to an unusual one you're bidding. Getting wood joist institute hanger details for 4" off TJI's on a Saturday afternoon. Priceless. If you don't have a network of friends and/or a peer group, you're solving problems others have already solved. Hey, it's this sprinkler Forum with beer. Or you can do it yourself. Todd, I'm not trying to bust your stones, and I know a small shop's travel budget isn't what we have available now. But I'm trying to urge people to develop and use the resources available to them. Simply makes traveling more fun when you already know people there, especially when they have season tix on the 48 or 49. Peer group membership takes effort and an open attitude. You have to do stuff for people as they do it for you or you're a parasite. I sent a friend a DPV when he couldn't afford one. When it works, and we're fortunate enough to have a group that does, it works very well. BTW, your budget for DC could have been: Arrive Wed eve, hit seminars Th-Sat noon, go home $525 Convention early bird member $500 RT airfare early purch coach $600 3 nights @ $200/nt somewhere $100 taxi/shuttle Throw in some food and drink that you'd spend some of anyway and it's a $2,000 trip, missing Wed afternoon, Th and Fri from office, wring out your liver on Sunday. glc -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Todd Williams - FPDC Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:42 PM To: sprinklerforum@firesprinkler.org Subject: RE: sizing expansion tanks Unfortunately, not all of us can afford the luxury of time off to go to conventions (let alone the extra $$). So we just glean what we can from here and move forward. At 04:46 PM 10/22/2008, you wrote: >Travis, nNice mention of being an AFSA member. I don't recall if I did my >annual pre-convention plug for membership, so Steve has at least one good >thought when he sees me. > >Those that didn't go to Convention missed another great opportunity for >education that pays dividends, camaraderie, networking, the big trade show >full of new and current products you may be using or should be using, and >seminars. Note the seminars and the education that pays dividends are >separate since you can learn more talking to people and sharing experiences >than in the seminars. > >As the late, great Bob McCullough said when asked if he had a lot of >competition in the sprinkler business, he replied "I have a lot of friends >in the sprinkler business". _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3547 (20081022) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com <http://www.eset.com/>
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