Current Situations Facing our Industry – Seminar Update From Keith Clark

Dear seminar vendors and attendees,

You may wonder why our seminar sessions are in local community colleges and technical schools this year. You may also wonder why we’re not choosing usual venues like hotels and casinos. While the latter may be more comfortable and convenient, we see a dire need for something different that reaches toward a solution for real issues that our industry is facing.

The current situations facing our industry are summed up as follows:

• Not enough new, trained technicians are entering the transmission industry.
• Not enough training is available to get technicians up to speed with current technology.
• Not enough resources to maintain staff training to stay current with technology.
• Older technicians looking to retire, sell their shops, or turn them over have no one capable of taking over.

While we recognize that we cannot solve these problems with a one-size-fits-all solution, we know we cannot continue business as usual.

To answer the concerns of our industry, we have launched the University Project. It has been in the making for several years but gained traction during COVID when virtual training was the only solution. Universities, community colleges, and trade schools reached out to us for resources that we created to assist in modifying their existing curriculum to meet the requirements for their students to graduate on time. With our virtual training resources, we partnered with them to meet their needs.

Our goal is to create a pathway for these students to enter the transmission industry and ultimately be the next-generation builders, diagnosticians, R&R techs, and shop owners. Our presence in these universities, community colleges, and technical schools provides multiple advantages to foster the growth of this project:

• It allows the students and faculty to experience our industry.
• It will enable ATRA to expand our seminar training platform by providing a two-day event with hands-on training.
• It increases the overall value for the seminar attendee to gain more training.

It was brought to our attention that vendors need more time to interact with the technicians. As a result, we are extending our break schedules as follows:

• The actual seminar start time is moved back to 8:30 am. The ADVERTISED START TIME WILL REMAIN AT 8:00 am, allowing extra time before the seminar starts.
• The VENDOR giveaways will occur either at 10:30 am before the morning coffee break, or at 1:00pm after lunch (to be determined at the venue). We are asking ALL VENDORS that have giveaways to be prepared to present them directly to the winners at that time.
• The morning coffee break will be from to 10:30 am to 11:00 am. Attendees are encouraged to visit with the vendors at this time.

We are sending updated seminar registration forms with the updated schedule to suppliers. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding. We’ve heard you and are making an effort to enact positive changes as quickly as we can.

We realize that change, as a rule, can be difficult and issues will arise, but we challenge you to go with us on this journey. As a trade association, we focus on doing what is best for our membership and the industry we represent. So, as we navigate this new territory, bring a ‘solution suggestion’ for each problem you bring to the table, and I guarantee that we can find the best way to create a new and more excellent seminar setting for all to enjoy!

Please feel free to reach out to me at kclark@atra.com or 805-604-2011.