Message from the President, Greg Goater

As this year’s president, I am happy to give you my insight as to the benefit of belonging to this great organization.

To begin with, the CARE organization grew out of an Instructor’s Workshop that was started by ARI 10 years ago.  At that first meeting, instructors from various secondary and post secondary institutions got together and formed an association whose primary mission was to assist each other in the development and ongoing success of their individual programs.  This takes place on many different levels.

What the industry wants, and what programs such as yours deliver are high quality entry level techs to fill the many HVACR related positions available throughout the industry.  To do that requires a program that teaches industry recognized standards in service and installation.  Many jobs go unfilled every year because there are not enough techs to fill the void created by retiring technicians.  By helping instructors such as you build and maintain a quality program that is in sync with the industry’s demands, we are able to accomplish an awful lot.  We started with the adoption of an industry recognized curriculum published by ARI.  This curriculum is available on the ARI website, and is the foundation of any good program.  The CARE organization goes a step beyond that.  In conjunction with ARI, we established an accreditation program that allowed schools who were demonstateably meeting those standards to become be recognized as such.  This accreditation takes into account not only the curriculum, but the faculty, textbooks, facilities, and support services provided to your students.  The benefit of having your program accredited gives you recognition on a national level, helps in recruiting students to your program, and makes you eligible to receive equipment donations from manufacturers through ARI.  This accreditation is known as PAHRA, or the Partnership for Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Accreditation.

Over the years, the main focus of CARE has been in helping sustain the annual instructor’s workshop, held each Spring in the Washington D.C. area.  Each year the workshop gets larger and more elaborate, so that today, with the help of 7 sponsoring organizations, the workshop truly is an industry wide collection of the best and brightest teachers, manufacturers, trade associations, and most recently, some HVACR Contracting organizations.  If you look at our website, you will see the details from last Spring’s workshop and note the many and varied topics covered in the 3 days.  And the best part is that it is entirely free to the attendee.  All you have to do is pay your own expenses.

Personally, the biggest benefit to me has been the huge number of contacts I have made over the last 5 years that I have attended.  When I have a problem with a subject matter, or need some ideas about how to present material, or even when I develop a new facet to my program, I have an almost unlimited supply of people to contact to help.  Simply pick up the phone or drop them an e-mail, and I always get a great response from my fellow teachers.  Some of us have even gone so far as to share lesson plans and power point presentations, all with the understanding that whatever I can do for you will be returned in kind.  And we contribute to the industry as well.  Many of us are routinely invited to have input to the issues facing the industry today.  Many of us have been published in the trade magazines, have been guest speakers at various trade organizations conventions, serve on the NATE Technical Committee, and most recently, a few of us were privileged to participate in the development of the new ANSI/ACCA standard on Quality Installation. 

I give you my assurance that you will find that your participation in this organization will truly be it’s own reward.  I look forward to meeting you next March, and if you have any questions or need for additional information, please drop me a line at ggoater@isaacheating.com.

Best Regards,

Greg Goater