High Cost of CEUs

treemonster

treemonster

Location
Palo Alto, CA
With my multiple certifications with the ISA, I have found it challenging to keep up on the Certification Education Units. With the Online Seminars for Municipal Arborists now charging hefty fees I am looking for alternatives. Does anyone know of any other cheap online sources for CEUs?
 
I'm sure other buzzers can better help with suggestions, but usually there are inexpensive (or free?) CEUs available from quizzes based on articles in Arborist News. Pretty much everywhere I go to speak to arborists, ISA CEUs accrue such as state arborist or ISA chapter meetings. Now, I realize that conference participation is not necessarily cheap and might not be justifiable merely to accrue (I won't say earn) CEUs, but still people say they rack up over time.
And to stick my neck out, consider the intent of requiring CEUs. OK, let's not be too cynical and recall that CEUs are an imperfect means to encourage folks to expose themselves to recent developments and to reinforce proper established practices. Investing in one's personal and professional assets is probably a good thing. I'm interested in seeing what other folks have to say.
 
Thanks, I agree with you on many points. I keep up with the Arborist News articles and read the Arboriculture & Urban Forestry articles online. Both offer free CEUs with ISA membership for the past years publications.
 
One of the first and best pieces of advice I got from a mentor, immediately after becoming a Certified Arborist, was "Attend every Chapter CEU event you possibly can, because that's where you'll meet people who will send you work." He was spot on! I've started to look at CEU classes not as an educational expense, but rather as a marketing opportunity. If you're always in the front row taking notes, it will eventually be assumed that you're a good person to contact for the most up to date information and the widest palette of options for tree owners. You can print out your CEU history to show to prospective clients to demonstrate your commitment to being a well-informed practitioner/consultant.
 
The title of this thread is kinda bogus. High, compared to free? the "Online Seminars" were never high quality, but I'm not surprised that guy is cashing in now that folks are used to those offerings. Bait and Switch.
Totally agree with Richard, and Kevin re "accrue".

Why not kill 2 birds by publishing info for your target markets, aka advertising?

College Courses
College courses are now worth 10 CEUs per credit hour. For example, a 3-hour college course is worth 30 CEUs. College course work must be completed at an academically accredited two- or four-year institution, and proof of passing grade is required.

Chapter Events
Many conferences, seminars, workshops, and other chapter-held, educational events are worth CEUs. Ask your chapter executive to learn more about how many CEUs are available for different types of events.

Climbers at Tree Climbing Championship Events
Climbers and judges can be awarded up to 3 CEUs at ITCC and Chapter TCC events.!!!!!!@!

CEUs for Non-Educational Purposes
CEUs are not to be treated as a commodity to compensate volunteers. There must be a formal educational component to receive CEUs, and they cannot be traded for service projects, board meetings, or participation in other non-education focused programs.

Published Articles
**Authors can receive 3 CEUs for published educational articles.**

CPR and First Aid Training
A CPR and First Aid class or renewal are each worth 4 CEUs. A copy of your card is needed to earn the CEUs. Also, CEUs for CPR and First Aid will only be awarded once per certification period.

ISA Publication Quizzes
If you complete ISA Arborist News Quizzes you may only receive CEUs created for them once for the life of your certification unless the publication is updated.

Note: To receive CEUs for publications and other educational products, you must successfully complete the associated quiz or CEU workbook questions. Just like CEUs earned for quizzes from Arborist News, other ISA publications can be earned only once per issue or edition during the life of your certification.
 
You have to pay for what you get so if you want to hold more certs. than the other guys you best be learning more to back that up, of course people like to get paid for there skill and tutelage. Just cause I can tear apart a tree doesn't always make me a good teacher.
It also goes with out saying the more you hold in certs makes you more qualified and the assumption that goes with that is that you are the most competent, a 2 faced coin.
 
KevinS said:
On a scale of 1-10 how important do your customers find that information? Do their know what it really means?
Not saying it is a bad practice I've just never known anyone who does it
Click to expand...
Kevin, this is really about who his customers are. Knowing your target client and what values they have allows you to better craft your sales presentation. Think about their background, are they professionals who also are required to accrue CEU's? Do they have a master's or PhD? Well, they value formal learning and will see it as an asset, plus they'll appreciate what underlies your price.

Imagine, your up against Badeaux -I know a formidable challenge- you show them your record of CEU courses that include several advanced workshops on crane removal.....
 
treehumper said:
Kevin, this is really about who his customers are. Knowing your target client and what values they have allows you to better craft your sales presentation. Think about their background, are they professionals who also are required to accrue CEU's? Do they have a master's or PhD? Well, they value formal learning and will see it as an asset, plus they'll appreciate what underlies your price.

Imagine, your up against Badeaux -I know a formidable challenge- you show them your record of CEU courses that include several advanced workshops on crane removal.....
Click to expand...

Fair enough. This does sound like not a bad idea but can you walk me through it a bit more?

For me,
1. the office gets a call and sets a time for a quote
2. one of us show up look at the tree and find out what they want and give them a quote
3. they sign off or we leave it with them so they can talk it over with there better half and they call us
4. where do you put in the google search to see if he's a ceo, professor, or some guy on welfare that sits around smoking pot all day and just wants the tree to stop rubbing on the neighbours house because they're complaining.

I'm not a full time sales rep for a big company or anything but what protocol do you use to facilitate this ? Do you always show up with your ceu records, insurance, references.... By advertising or just saying you're isa cert. you have to have sufficient up to date ceus and if they super care don't they go looking into you anyways?

As for going yup against Badeaux I'm not in his league, you saw those oaks, there is no way in hell me or my guys could have done a job like that. With our combined knowledge and compared to him limited skill there's just no way.
 
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I get a lot of good quality, no-bid, consultant-rate $XXX./hour jobs, just by having a BCMA label on my truck, and on my jacket.
CA label would set you apart from Bad-O on bids; chutzpah only goes so far.

BCMA is the best investment I make. CA had a similar impact 1992-2004. BCMA is much better and much cheaper than TRAQ. Considering bang for the buck, those CEU's are way cheap.

"I keep up with the Arborist News articles and read the Arboriculture & Urban Forestry articles online. Both offer free CEUs with ISA membership for the past years publications."
Um do you really need to be a member to take those tests?? ISA is not like ASCA in that regard, methinks. Their mission is to spread the knowledge and keep people thinkin'.
 
KevinS said:
Fair enough. This does sound like not a bad idea but can you walk me through it a bit more?

For me,
1. the office gets a call and sets a time for a quote
2. one of us show up look at the tree and find out what they want and give them a quote
3. they sign off or we leave it with them so they can talk it over with there better half and they call us
4. where do you put in the google search to see if he's a ceo, professor, or some guy on welfare that sits around smoking pot all day and just wants the tree to stop rubbing on the neighbours house because they're complaining.

I'm not a full time sales rep for a big company or anything but what protocol do you use to facilitate this ? Do you always show up with your ceu records, insurance, references.... By advertising or just saying you're isa cert. you have to have sufficient up to date ceus and if they super care don't they go looking into you anyways?

As for going yup against Badeaux I'm not in his league, you saw those oaks, there is no way in hell me or my guys could have done a job like that. With our combined knowledge and compared to him limited skill there's just no way.
Click to expand...
Let's see, you're in Elmira and serve the Kitchener/Waterloo, Guelph markets. Hmmm... so how many RIM people are your clients or UofW profs? How many of your client's come from your community work?

1. Do they ask any questions of the person calling? Like how did you hear about us? It helps to know what marketing tools are doing the most work. Who takes the incoming call? How much info do they gather for you?
2. When I show up at an appt. I look at the neighbourhood, how old it is, upscale, middle class, working class. kids? What kind of car/s, any big kid toys? Besides a quote do you provide them with any literature about the company? Do you have a presentation kit? We provide every client with a certificate of insurance when we submit the proposal.
3. All of our proposals go by email so there's an electronic record. Notes are taken on the job, there may be a ballpark figure given depending on the client.
4. Take their name along with maybe their address and google them. They're company profile may come up or their linkedin, you'd be surprised at what you'll find. We know what all our clients do. When we know them we better understand how they buy and can tailor our process to better fit them. When I was doing the fundraising last year I googled everyone on my list, about 200 people. Found out a couple of them headed up companies that did over a billion in sales. I also found out where they graduated from and what kinds of charities they supported.
The pot smokin' welfare dude, you'll figure out pretty quick!

From my previous work in training I learned to read people and how they communicate. Comes in handy when you're dealing with everything from the welfare dude to the head of multinational corporations or professors.

Put together a presentation kit. With all that in it. Why leave it entirely up to them to do all the leg work? Like the rest of the tools in our kit, take the ones out that fit the situation.

One of the things that may be playing in your favor is the EAB infestation. It's creating an abnormal spike in demand. This puts your business in an enviable situation, much alike to what Superstorm Sandy did for us down here. We didn't have to do much selling, just managing the demand that far outstripped supply. Initially we qualified our clients by whether they wanted a quote or not. If they did, they went to the back of the line.

What we're talking about here is in a normal market without any usual conditions pushing up demand without an equivalent rise in supply.
 
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