It's official....

Decisions were made that ITCC can't happen in the heat. That was the last nail in the coffin, but there was never enough crossover interest to make the combination work well.
 
guymayor said:
Decisions were made that ITCC can't happen in the heat. ...
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Hawaii is hosting a well known ironman in a few weeks. Maybe they could move the race.

On a serious note, and having no involvement with tree comps, I don't get this thinking. Anyone traveling to an athletic comp may need to acclimatize. From experience, traveling from winter to hot humid summer can take 5 days to acclimatize before competing in endurance sports.
 
If they ITCC has grown to the point it can stand on it's on merit then it's a good idea. As long as it's not bouncing all over the calendar and creating a scheduling nightmare for the feeder TCC's.
 
Personally I wish that ISA and the ITCC committees would have worked together toward developing more synergy between the two events. Our industry desperately needs more people who work outside doing production going inside for classes and to meet and know the people who do the research, and write and enforce municipal code. There's also a very real need for the people who work inside to go outside and get to know the people who actually implement those new findings, and work within the constraints of those municipal codes, so that they can see how their actions translate into real world/hands on tree care.

As long as there's an "Upstairs/Downstairs" mentality keeping both factions predominantly siloed among people who do the same kind of work, the growth and dynamics of our industry won't come anywhere close to being everything they could.
 
cerviarborist said:
Personally I wish that ISA and the ITCC committees would have worked together toward developing more synergy between the two events. Our industry desperately needs more people who work outside doing production going inside for classes and to meet and know the people who do the research, and write and enforce municipal code. There's also a very real need for the people who work inside to go outside and get to know the people who actually implement those new findings, and work within the constraints of those municipal codes, so that they can see how their actions translate into real world/hands on tree care.

As long as there's an "Upstairs/Downstairs" mentality keeping both factions predominantly siloed among people who do the same kind of work, the growth and dynamics of our industry won't come anywhere close to being everything they could.
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Well said. I have made the advancements in my career BECAUSE I came inside and listened, talked to, and met those who were working in the labratories and research plots. It is a bit humbling when gentlemen like Dr. Shigo and Coder et.al. knew, or know you by your first name.
 
As someone that was intimately involved in setting up an ITCC AND helping with ISA International in Providence 2009, I can say that it is WAAAAY too much put on one small chapter to try to facilitate both of these things at the same time. ISA provides help, but it is incumbent on the regional chapter to ready so many things it is nearly impossible. Not placing blame, although I think if the goal was to keep them together, ISA could put more resources behind it and make it happen, but in reality, the split allows for much more concentrated planning efforts, and will be a good thing for the chapters. I don't believe that separating ITCC alienates non-climbing arborists, as there are so many opportunities to view practices (on floor workshops, climbers corner tree, etc.), but perhaps with the separation, ISA should encourage everyone to tour the trade show more widely, and perhaps look for more speakers that can dovetail different parts of our industry, with CEU's for all kinds of arborists available at as many talks as possible. I also ran a local conference as president, and I found this to be the most challenging and rewarding part of building a conference.

Tom
 
The conference is geared toward all arborists. Do those who compete only come for that purpose. The conference is merely extra? I don't see that. If the competition is happening at a low period in the year then great it may be something worth attending, as long as there were vendors and demos for those of us who don't compete. As for attendance at the conference, this is something that more employers need to offer to their staff.
 
Having just had an ITCC and an international conference here in Florida, I'd have to say that the net gain for my chapter and its members, was zilch. Absolutely nothing was done to draw attention to the 2200 some odd ISA certified arborists who practice and make their livelihoods here. Press statements, coordination, everything was pre-planned and fulfilled out of the home office. People reading newspaper interviews, or watching TV spots would likely come away with the thought "Gee there are people who are incredible experts in tree care.. apparently they're all in Illinois. We were asked to provide material, money and volunteers, and to keep our pretty mouths shut if any media were nearby. Period. As far as I'm concerned, if we're asked to host an international conference again and I'm on the chapter board, I'll be giving it a nay.
 
".I can go along with separating because of the weather issues. "

Spoken like a true Minnesotan!

Richard, sorry that you and FL experienced all that! At some point for some reason it turns into dogeatdog.

Tom you did a great job, both times!
 
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