Contract Tree Climbers Association (CTCA)...

i definitely have a lot of room for growth, mainly in the speed department. climbing has always been a secondary income, mainly as something to keep me busy between commercial fishing seasons. i could attain a "elite" level of output in a relatively short period i believe. currently too busy shrimping out of oregon to focus on tree work but i have to get the cream when its available.
not one to brag about myself if i can help it but i have a good reputation in my area and i've worked with some of the slammers boats. im not 6'4" 240( 5'9" 190 and 36 yrs) and all muscle so i am physically incapable of some of the things my buddies are, but they always call me when they run some "been there done that bad ass mofo" off because they're ll talk.
by the way, thanks for your kind words TimBr
 
i definitely have a lot of room for growth, mainly in the speed department. climbing has always been a secondary income, mainly as something to keep me busy between commercial fishing seasons. i could attain a "elite" level of output in a relatively short period i believe. currently too busy shrimping out of oregon to focus on tree work but i have to get the cream when its available.
not one to brag about myself if i can help it but i have a good reputation in my area and i've worked with some of the slammers boats. im not 6'4" 240( 5'9" 190 and 36 yrs) and all muscle so i am physically incapable of some of the things my buddies are, but they always call me when they run some "been there done that bad ass mofo" off because they're ll talk.
by the way, thanks for your kind words TimBr
Man, I want to crew for you on your boat. Spent some time in Alaska working as a Longshoreman at Juneau Cold Storage. I swear to your gods that if I was ever reincarnated I want to come back as a fisherman on the Bering Sea!
 
rawtree,
getting on a boat is the easy part, its getting off that's difficult. its not hard to get a good job because turn over is so high. if a guy can be around a commercial harbor a few weeks before whatever fishery he wants to target there's a good chance of getting a job. look for big nice boats and ask who the money makers are. don't waste any time with small time because its a percentage gig and the only way to make the big bucks is to be on the right boat and keep up, then step up. it can be a lot of fun and pay well but long days and sometimes nights with lots of time, months sometimes, away from home.

p.s. ak is expensive as im sure you already know. flew to petersburg trying to get on a salmon seiner and spent two or three weeks in a hotel and beating the docks before i flew home empty handed, only to get a call a couple weeks later and fly back up to sitka to work on a freezer troller. those 3 weeks and plane tickets cost about half of what i earned that season

Sgriff,
seems like a pretty solid pump. takes me about 30 strokes to hit 160 psi. maybe it was $70 at the local bike store
 
OK, looks like this idea (thread) is dead! So, I'm just going to start throwing things out there. I want to talk about abstract ways of avoiding Workers Comp factors while doing contract tree climbing jobs. Did a small project to help finance my travels during a trip in the late Fall. My client has comp for his crews so he treated me as a new hire and since there were no incidents requiring a comp claim we agreed that he would pay me by paying for a tool purchase I would make. The other consideration was me billing him for the sale of a used chainsaw in stead of the labor I performed. I know this is out there and flaunting the rules but I'm no saint! The other thing I know is that most of the big boys out there have their little schemes for "managing" comp audits. I also supply him with a "Waiver of Liability". Most say this isn't worth the paper it's printed on but it is evidence should a legal claim be initiated.


Liability Waiver_2015.webp


Sorry, tried to rotate image but I couldn't...
 
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To be a legit subcontractor your insurance coverages need to match those for who you subcontract for. If you sub for a large company you will need coverage anywhere from 4-15mil in gen liab. The other thing is your exposure is high as a sub for a smaller return.
 
Was excited when I came on this thread just now. You proposed "brainstorming" which is all ideas, not any solutions. Don't be disappointed if you don't have all the answers yet.

A contract climbers group as an elite smaller number of people may be interesting to you but, I can imagine it also greatly restricting some peoples interest and participation. Whatever you do on that it would be increadible to also have a larger grouping of contract climbers that just wanted to join the organization and be available for work.

I guess what most interested me as a small business owner is the idea of having one contact method for climbing help. I could see you cornering that market in the tree world in a short time. Need a climber, call CC....
 
The problem I find hiring contract climbers is scheduling. We have 4 climbers on staff and need to fill a hole quickly if one can't come in to work for one reason or other. We as business owners need a database to pull from and how quickly one of the contract climbers can respond to the call. For instance, I need a climber on Monday and would love to bring one of you in but I see no contact info in this thread. So CTCA, send me a guy! !
 
The problem I find hiring contract climbers is scheduling. We have 4 climbers on staff and need to fill a hole quickly if one can't come in to work for one reason or other. We as business owners need a database to pull from and how quickly one of the contract climbers can respond to the call. For instance, I need a climber on Monday and would love to bring one of you in but I see no contact info in this thread. So CTCA, send me a guy! !
Funny. I jusk asked a fellow buzzer if he could create such a database...he says yes, it is underway
 
The problem I find hiring contract climbers is scheduling. We have 4 climbers on staff and need to fill a hole quickly if one can't come in to work for one reason or other. We as business owners need a database to pull from and how quickly one of the contract climbers can respond to the call. For instance, I need a climber on Monday and would love to bring one of you in but I see no contact info in this thread. So CTCA, send me a guy! !
What do you got John? . I'll push a day to help a fellow buzzard out! P.m. me .. Add " try out " for 20% off coupun code..I'll even throw in my rope man!
 
I also know that I'll probably never win a tcc, but I'm a solid, reliable, skilled, contract climber. A place I could lean on for scheduling, travel, and insurance would be welcome, even though I'm not "elite".

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Again, I'm sorry for making everyone feel that this type of work is for elite production climbers. I guess everything revolves around the expectations of the company needing help. Motivation and confidence are important factors. I hope you guys can work something out to help limbcontrol with his job on Monday.
 
Fall Risk has been doing some contract climbing work for us and has been a great asset to the team! He is very humble in his abilities so anyone needing his services should give him a shout. Thank you Jeff!

Treetopflyer(Aaron) has stepped up to help us for tomorrow. Aaron and I have talked about teaming up before and I am looking fwd to it finally happening.

Thanks guys!

:rock:
 
I like the ideas being thrown around here but am also very wary of it actually succeeding at least on the first go.

I think that what might work best is to just have small local cooperatives licensed, bonded, and insured in a few states instead of trying to have a nationwide organization. If they were networking well though, having someone come over to help out in another state or local cooperative wouldn't need to be that difficult.

Some of us have been doing this contract climbing thing for a while and have built a brand and a reputation. I would want those I am associating myself with to be at a similar caliber, have similar values, and similar work ethic.

What it will really come down to is that someone will always be carrying more of a load than others in the organization. I don't trust many people to carry their weight and to do their part to avoid putting the coop at risk. Especially when doing this dangerous work. Limiting the liability of the organization while at the same time providing some form of protection for the workers should be the goal but will likely be a very tricky thing to do legally.
 
That is the most intelligent post in this thread, and it is not a stupidity riddled thread. I agree the localized approach is probably best. And also agree that someone is gonna start the thing and do 85% of the work. Then they will inevitably burn out, and then the thing will become a shit show.

I am an admitted card carrying pessimist. I do love the idea, I would just trust nearly no one to carry it out properly. I would also love to be proven wrong.
 
couchsurfer.com style, just type in the area you want, choose if you looking to hire or be hired . Have a profile that lets people know your experience, equipment, insurance, certs, what your looking for etcetera... BAM! Your hiring and being hired anywhere with trees and people who need a guy


Oh yeah and reviews, gotta have reviews so people know if your a bullshitter wackjob or you got skills to pay the bills
 

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