Certified.

Congrats Drew.


Regarding the "no worries, I know how to do my job..."...

My fiancé always ribbed me about not being certified and not knowing what I was doing. I took it and passed it with a 93% and told her I didn't want to hear it now, I'm certified.

She now says the certification doesn't mean crap to her anymore if I can pass it ...good thing she only spends my paycheck and doesn't sign it. Wimmin....
 
Congrats guys! N.E. Tree, drink the kool-aid :descansando: It's good to have the cert. The only way to progress in this industry is by educating yourself continuously and the cert does that through the CEU requirement. Once you get going on learning you'll become a junkie for it. With each new thing you learn you'll be more fascinated in these natural wonders we attempt to care for.
 
treehumper said:
Congrats guys! N.E. Tree, drink the kool-aid :descansando: It's good to have the cert. The only way to progress in this industry is by educating yourself continuously and the cert does that through the CEU requirement. Once you get going on learning you'll become a junkie for it. With each new thing you learn you'll be more fascinated in these natural wonders we attempt to care for.
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CEUs are kool-aid. I just plan to retest every few years. It's cheaper. When CEUs are free and on YouTube I'll take them instead of re-certing.

YouTube offers way more return in knowledge I actually need and want (especially per unit time) than CEUs ever could, imho.

The corporate structure of CEUs (charge for people to show up at expensive beach hotel to eat endless buffet lunch and see tree guru speak) leads me to conclude that they exist to perpetuate the ISA and the associated network. I genuinely appreciate all the gurus, btw. There is *nothing* that can't be archived on YouTube or conversed about via teleconferencing. The "how about crane rigging and bonsai trimming?" argument doesn't even float when present technology is enthusiastically deployed. I mean, buy VR goggles and learn from the best crane guy in the world, the most experienced device user, or a bonsai pruner in Japan. The cost is the same or less, and the quality is tops. If you wish, water down the VR to YouTube or teleconferencing and you still come awfully close. Who wouldn't prefer a virtually-trained crane rigger from a notable distance trainer over a guy trained by someone you don't know much about?

I like most of what the ISA generally stands for, but not the CEUs. The way they are disseminated points to them being mere social stratifiers whose point is to, first, indicate who has money and power, secondarily to raise money, thirdly to educate arborists, and fourthly to perpetuate themselves in an information-rich society where they can't legitimately offer value in comparison to what's going on on treebuzz and YouTube. #dropsthemic :)
 
CEUs are free. You can do the ones in the Arboriculture and Urban Forestry journals the ISA puts out. Yes, they're dry and often irrelevant to the everyday arborist, but they're free, and there's more than enough of them to maintain your cert.
 
Boomslang said:
CEUs are free. You can do the ones in the Arboriculture and Urban Forestry journals the ISA puts out. Yes, they're dry and often irrelevant to the everyday arborist, but they're free, and there's more than enough of them to maintain your cert.
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Do they require ISA membership, or a journal subscription fee?
 
colb said:
Do they require ISA membership, or a journal subscription fee?
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To be an ISA certified arborist one does need to be a member. There are tons of CEUs to be had for nothing. The whole point of CEUs for any professional designation is to encourage improvement and keeping up to date on the latest stuff. This is the norm for Doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers who hold a specific certification. Nothing that the ISA does is unique in that regard.

As for attending to a tree guru's seminar at some beach front hotel, I'd rather that as it affords me the personal contact and opportunity to develop a rapport that can lead to other opportunities.
 
treehumper said:
To be an ISA certified arborist one does need to be a member. There are tons of CEUs to be had for nothing. The whole point of CEUs for any professional designation is to encourage improvement and keeping up to date on the latest stuff. This is the norm for Doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers who hold a specific certification. Nothing that the ISA does is unique in that regard.

As for attending to a tree guru's seminar at some beach front hotel, I'd rather that as it affords me the personal contact and opportunity to develop a rapport that can lead to other opportunities.
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I think I'm an ISA certified arborist and non-member...

If I can take CEUs to retain my certification I'd do that, if cost was not the issue. I'll have to look into that more - kind of thought it was not possible to avoid those costs.

I agree that continuing education is the norm for certifications, although I'm not intrinsically a fan of consensus - one of us isn't as smart as all of us, but neither is one of us as dumb as all of us... My rant about the corporate appearance of things isn't unique to the ISA - I feel like it's systemic.

I want the tree gurus in online seminars so that I do not have to travel and pay to stay somewhere. I'm poor, and the most critical part of my business model is to eliminate all possible recurring costs. During my first year, I was solely bicycle based to eliminate the recurring costs of auto insurance, gas, and (sort of recurringly) repairs. All that money went to picking up gear. I still use open source accounting software, open source GIS mapping software, and I do not pay for an ISA membership. My point in describing my vigilance regarding recurring costs and avoiding expenditures in general is that I've been forced to find information for free, and have been almost completely successful at it - e.g. I'm alive and I have some awesome gear and a skill set that is formidable compared to where I was at two years ago when I switched over to tree climbing (and embarrassingly lackluster compared to where I'll be two years from now, lol). That's due to reading extensively on the major arborist forums and surfing YouTube, where you guys trained me up without really knowing it and did a pretty good job. Think about it - a hundred top notch climbers from around the world online are way better than a single mentor in real life, in almost (but not quite) all ways. Although I'd like to share physical space with the best teachers of our community, I'd rather save the travel money and learn from them online, because of my remote "lurking learning" experience and how comfortable I've become with it. If you had to learn to climb tree on Mars, you'd be alright with a little web-based training, eh? It's time we don't undervalue online resources, and the impact of professional forums. :)
 
macswan said:
That link doesn't work on my end
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I had that same bike 30 years ago. Dr. Gilman from your U of FL gave a webinar two weeks ago that was free and worth ceu's. There are monthly webinars posted here that are archived and have ceu's. Lots are available. Check with state Forestry commission, they have programs that are inexpensive to attend. Volunteer at a competition. Tons are out there.
 
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