How do we gain this designation?
That’s a good one to have, nice going Nick…!
Gary, any member in good standing may call him/herself a “Certified Professional Inspector.” It’s all yours!
When I first started working at InterNACHI, Nick told me that you’d have to be stupid to not be a member. I thought he was just gloating, but I eventually realized how true it was….I mean, Nick began vying for CPI, what, over four years ago?
Alright, let me tell you guys something. I’m not sure if Nick wants people knowing about how things work here, specifically the War Room, but here goes. There’s an actual room in this building where Nick has a giant map of the world, color-coded and everything. When I say giant, I mean gigantic, maybe 20 by 15 feet, as well as a few smaller maps of various projections. To me, the maps looked like a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns, I couldn’t really understand it at the time, but to Nick, they represent the territories controlled by various associations for home inspectors, how much ground they’ve gained or lost in recent years, their strengths, vulnerabilities and I can’t imagine what else.
He wears a cape while he’s in there and pushes small emblems about a layer of sand using nothing but what appeared to me to be either a cattle prod or a shuffleboard stick. The only sound is that from incoming video calls from his lawyer, Rush Limbaugh, and occasionally Ted Nugent. Granted, I was peeking in through a small ceiling tile so most of this was hard to make out.
Nick may be a dictator, but he’s a benevolent one. He’s driven by nothing but the promotion and success of InterNACHI members, not the destruction of bogus organizations like ASHI, although this may be a necessary consequence. Let their death be a quick one.
Well, the actual InterNACHI “War Room” isn’t quite so fantastic and was never built to harm anything. It’s a big room with about 40 fold up tables covered with white butcher paper and different colored strings connecting pins stuck into writing on the butcher paper. It’s mostly a big Bingo-style room that depicts nachi.org, our other websites, our projects, our growth plans, and our operations in 3 dimensions so that when we conquer new territory (oops, I mean start new projects) we can integrate them into all our other operations, sites, projects, etc.
For instance, yesterday I announced the release of our new course; How to Inspect the Attic, Insulation, Ventilation and Interiors](http://www.nachi.org/interiorcourse.htm) course. To get to the point of release a lot had to have happen in the past: Online course system had to be built, the course had to be added to the printable certificate system, it had to be incorporated into each member’s online continuing education log as an option, it had to be printed in book form so that it could be sent to all the states and licensing boards for approval, the exam had to be added into the exam grader, the stats from the exams that are being taken have to be added to our exam stats database, the announcement page had to be built, all the graphics in the course had to be drawn and copyrighted, links to the course had to be added to InspectorMall.com, our education page, our benefits page, our success page, our what’s new page, etc. Accounting has to pay the editor and attorneys to go over it, pay the various licensing and state agencies for approval, etc. Rob has to research every member or agency comment/suggestion sent to us to determine if the course needs to be updated, which may mean a graphic has to be redone, a quiz has to be reworded, an exam question has to be reworded (its how our courses keep getting bigger and better over time), which might mean new copyrights, legal and editing fees, etc. Then IT has set up the state-auto-notification for CE verification by licensing boards, then it has to make sure it can handle the hosting load on our servers to make sure it doesn’t crash the first week when likely 1,000 people will take it. Then we have to…
… well, you get the point… and that is just one little piece of the inspection industry (a free, approved, online Interior Inspection course) we wanted to take over.
Anyway, the War Room got its name because every time a member or staffer comes up with something they’d like to have, we view it as a new hill to conquer and it become another line and pin on a piece of butcher paper on a fold up table. We add it to our battle map and begin the process of taking that hill. As in the case of CPI (the topic of this thread), the Federal Certification Mark alone took over 4 years to get. We brought in reinforcement (an outside attorney who specializes in Trademark law) to help our advance. We have a stack of folding tables and rolls of butcher paper and colored string, so please suggest any other parts of the inspection industry you’d like to see us take over.
InterNACHI braucht mere lebensraum! 
********](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=OMEWS5GxF9GNnQf1za3WBg&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CBIQBSgA&q=Deutschland+braucht+mere+lebensraum&spell=1)
Us inspectors in Misoouri would love to see NACHI be dominate over A$HI in Missouri.
InterNACHI mere habitat needs!
:mrgreen:
InterNACHI needs more living space! A quote from military history. Rationalization for Germany taking over Poland.
A question every inspector should ask: What has my association done for me today?
Got that right.
The quicker ASHI is put to rest the better for all of us.
Here in Arizona, ASHI members think they are the ‘dogs balls’ because the BTR adopted their standards way back in 1992 (because the BTR couldn’t be bothered to write their own).
Since 1992, they have remained the AZ standard without ammendment. Now how obsurd is that, having to work to 1992 standards? And their so called “ongoin training seminars” where they issue you with a low grade paper certificate of attendance which anyone can print out, are an absolute joke!
The one thing I wish interNACHI would do (prick your ears up Nick), is create an association (similar to the realtors associations), so that we can have a voice and effectively use it to our advantage in every state.
Fair and Stabilized inspection fees is a big issue for all of us and I bet there isn’t a single interNACHI member that doesn’t know of a “cut price Johnny” in his area? Correct me if I’m wrong, but from my experience, I believe Realtors fees are a non negotiable 6% of the sale price!
Likewise, we need to get realtors/banks/lenders to understand that ASHI is not paramount to a professional inspection.
Your thoughts gentlemen please.
Totally agree!
Raymond, who are you, and where are you from? 4 posts, and you write something like this? Most of us are in agreement with you, but state laws vary so much from state to state that it is hard for Nick to come up with anything that jives with all of the laws. Until the feds move in, it may have to be status quo.
There will always be the inspector who negotiates fees with RE office brokers; “hey, I will get you 100 inspections at $200 each” type of thing because “we like you”. Many of these inspectors will then write soft reports to keep the business. These are ethical fine lines, and until the lawmakers and consumers wake up to the facts, us honest, hard working, detailed writing, deal killers will have to market elsewhere. This does kill business, but when the market comes back, there will be business for us all. We must maintain our integrity and professionalism for the overall sake of our profession. When it comes to this message board, anything goes.
Since 1992 ASHI changed its SOP several times and AZ changed theirs. The two are not one and the same and haven’t been for 15 years.
Arizona requires that you use the Arizona Standards of Practice by law.
BTW: Certified Professional Inspector (CPI) is available for use by all InterNACHI members in good standing.
Is it OK to pass on that good standing clause since most of us may not be on Dec. 21st? Who is buying the first round?
“Arizona requires that you use the Arizona Standards of Practice by law.”
Which like Gary said is Ashees…