Well George. Unless thwarted by superiors I intend to actually meet you, Ken and Steve in San Diego this year.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 11:09 AM, George Church<[email protected]> wrote: > I'd agree NFPA was not the windfall associations generator that AFSA & NFSA > were. And don't think that having 30 employees makes it easier to take off > without making up the work I do, have you seen what time I send emails out > regardless of convention or not? > > Realize the AFSA convention is a bit of a vacation for me in that I don't > mind spending time with friends discussing sprinklers. But from what you > describe, you've carved out a niche that allows no week-long vacations, > two-week vacations, just an occasional 3-day weekend with prior ok from > customers. > > I see several of your peers annually. Maybe you could ask them how they pull > it off? Ken Wagner (sp) presents a full-day plan review seminar for AHJs > each year, also has time to attend other seminars. Heck, he even found time > to spend a morning watching us write #3 when we were in his area for a mtg > last summer. > > Guess we all make our own choices and opportunities, priorities, choose left > or right forks in the road, and sleep in it. Rowe Sprinkler survived without > me almost 10 weeks last year between AFSA, IFSA, NFPA, & NFSA conventions, > #3 meetings and some vacation. Survived? Staff reports it thrived. > Financials back them up. > > All the best, > > glc > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Todd Williams > Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 1:24 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: Earthquake Bracing segue > > When you are a one man band, as I am, the cost is a lot more than an > airline ticket and a hotel. Lost revenue from no production, lost > opportunities from not being available, damage to customer relations, > the panic two weeks before and two weeks after to make up for the > lost time, etc can add up. That all needs to be considered. Sounds > like you've had a good ROI from your travels George, but I've been to > a couple of NFPA's (admittedly for a day only), got good info, but > haven't been able to justify it from a financial standpoint. > > > > At 12:32 PM 6/16/2009, you wrote: >>I've attended AFSA, NFSA, NFPA and IFSA conventions/conferences. No regrets >>at all on ANY of the $ investment made. >> >>Was bidding a $5.5m unusual project, outside #13. Heard same building >>erected in UK couple years earlier. Went to IFSA in Copenhagen. 3 weeks >>later I had AutoCAD files of the original building installation. If they >>built the original building, and if we got permission to use Section 1.4 >>Equivency for the criteria applied, we literally could have changed metric >>to imperial and gone to fab. What's that worth? PRICELESS. >> >>I've done projects with people we've met at conventions, have some in the >>works now, and have made more than all our conventions cost us in total. >> >>Some people don't read the Forum, bid street work to the same GCs, and > never >>differentiate themselves from the other non-Association members down the >>street chasing the same cheap jobs. They save money by not taking time to >>read the stuff here or ask questions, they save money not going to > seminars, >>they save money installing all steel pipe and not having insurance coverage >>for CPVC. In short, they maintain the status quo and wonder why things > never >>get better for them. >> >>I'm excited about diving into the Best Practices Paul is assembling and >>applying them to improve our operations and lessen our risk. Yea, it might >>cost us a few bucks. But a lawsuit averted, a lesson learned applied, and >>learning from the mistakes of others- PRICELESS. >> >>The seminars at AFSA are great, learned a lot, and discovered what turned >>into Quell by attending James' CMSA Seminar and it applied to a $2m job we >>ended up with and made some $ on. But I have always learned MORE in the >>corridors from other attendees, and hope I've returned the favor by helping >>others. You can't get that web-based and I have met literally dozens of the >>great people in this industry by attending in real life. >> >>BTW, if you're a contractor and you don't use air mile cards to charge your >>material, you're missing a free RT ticket to convention. Our R/T to IFSA in >>Copenhagen would have been $17,000 for British Airways First Class- and >>worth it- but 360,000 miles and under $900 for two made it a "no-brainer", >>cheaper than coach. >> >>The sooner you think outside the box and learn from others, the sooner you >>find yourself competing on other than a level playing field. >> >>It's a long weekend in a nice city with a lot of great people talking about >>sprinklers. >> >>Glc >>Soapbox <OFF> >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: [email protected] >>[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thom McMahon >>Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 12:02 PM >>To: [email protected] >>Subject: RE: Earthquake Bracing >> >>$318 Round trip on delta or check out Southwest for $99 one way. >>When it's important to us we all find a way. My air tickets form here will >>cost more. >> >>Thom McMahon, SET >>Firetech, Inc. >>2560 Copper Ridge Dr >>P.O. Box 882136 >>Steamboat Springs, CO 80488 >>Tel: 970-879-7952 >>Fax: 970-879-7926 >> >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: [email protected] >>[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Russell >>Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 5:51 AM >>To: [email protected] >>Subject: RE: Earthquake Bracing >> >>Thanks Thom. Being that I'm hugging the East coast makes it a tad out of my >>monetary reach. >> >>Russell Rewis >>Brown Automatic Sprinklers, Inc. >>107C Hemlock Street >>Valdosta, Georgia 31601 >>229-244-8130 >>[email protected] >> >> >> >><AFSA San Diego Oct. 2009, has classes for Seismic by Ken Wagner, worth the >>trip.> >> >>Thom McMahon, SET >> >>_______________________________________________ >>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) >> >>_______________________________________________ >>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) >> >>_______________________________________________ >>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) > > Todd G. Williams, PE > Fire Protection Design/Consulting > Stonington, Connecticut > www.fpdc.com > 860.535.2080 > _______________________________________________ > 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) > > _______________________________________________ > 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) > -- Ron Greenman at home.... _______________________________________________ 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)
