Hello PHCC of Arkansas!
Please take a moment to reflect on our first year in review.
It has been quite the year for us here in Arkansas. We started off the year with political battles in the senate and the house. Last minute notifications and we were able to send John Oliver to the house committee to speak on our behalf against the SB90. This bill as it read was a little gray in the fact that people from other states could come in and prove they had experience and just apply for license. Chris West spoke personally with Ladyman on the issue and expressed our disapproval. Mark Valentini, Chris, Chuck, and I all had many emails to the Senate and House in disapproval of the bill. This went on for several weeks into a month before it got some revision and passed the senate without our notification. We thought it was going to die, but last minute it got brought up at the house and we were able to get John Oliver to go straight to the House Chamber in Little Rock to voice our opposition. He was met with minds made up and they related some question to our trade like “what’s the difference between a toilet in Arkansas and toilet in Texas?” To which we realized they were passing the bill without understanding our ploy. It had nothing to do with the function of what we work on it had to do with protecting the public from inept people coming into our state and applying for license with fabricated training experience and taking advantage of the Arkansas citizens. Chris was able to speak off the record with someone who is on the Arkansas Plumbing board, and they felt the language in the bill that PHCC was successful in changing, would give more authority for the board to enforce testing for out of state applicants.
Chris West was able to attend PHCC–National's Legislative Conference in Washington, DC, in May. He met with several figures on our behalf. We intend to set up meetings with our Arkansas representatives to establish those relationships and at least let them know that we are a growing voice for our trades, and we are here to help add clarity if ever they need it. We want those relationships with our State Leaders.
Governor Sanders is in a push for a better work force. She has hired a new position Mike Rogers, Chief Workforce Officer. He worked as a welder, production manager, and held several jobs in the trades including teaching. I think this is going to speak well for our initiatives and help with what we are trying to accomplish in our state.
We had a great time at PHCCCONNECT2023 for those of you that were able to attend. It was a good learning experience, many great breakout sessions, wonderful show floor, and lots of networking. If you missed it, I understand. Next year’s PHCCCONNECT2024 will be in Birmingham, AL. This is a little closer and will not be a bad drive for us here in AR. Please mark it on your calendar and plan to attend October 7-9, 2024, at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.
We have passed our official one-year milestone, YEAH! What this means is that after one year we can start offering our educational programs. This will only be offered to members or non-members with a basic automatic membership built into their price. We have been working tirelessly for many months trying to get our standards written, our hoops jumped through with the DOL and office of apprenticeship. I am pleased to announce that WE HAVE BEEN APPROVED. You can view and download the certificate here. Hang it with pride!
PHCC-National's office helped with this effort and our final documents were submitted on October the 27th while meeting at CONNECT. The day we left CONNECT to fly home, we received correspondence that we were approved. We have been on the phone and zoom meeting with all the authorities trying to flesh out the procedures, forms, and details. Last Wednesday, the 22nd of November, we had another zoom meeting with department of labor on our RAPIDS (Registered Apprentice Partners Information Database System). This is the heartbeat of everything Apprentice.
Our program will be an online system that will allow apprentices to work at their own pace and in their own environment. It is very intense, and the curriculum looks amazing.
There will be more coming on this program very soon. We will start full enrollment of apprentices in the fall semester of 2024. We are one of the only, if not the only, organization that will have an HVAC program that has been submitted. Since Arkansas does not recognize HVAC apprenticeship, it is not approved, but will be available for our members to utilize and increase the quality and knowledge of our technicians.
The online classes that will be available will be:
· Pre-Apprenticeship
· Fast Track Plumbing
· Four Year Plumbing Apprenticeship
· Fast Track HVAC
· Four Year HVAC Apprenticeship
We will be working with PHCC National to get these posted on our website and how to access soon. We will notify you as we progress. Pre-Apprenticeship, Fast Track Plumbing, and Fast Track HVAC will all be available early 2024, whereas the four-year programs will be available for the fall semester 2024.
As you can see, we have been working tirelessly behind the scenes. I know we have not had regular meetings this year, but in all honesty, the last few meetings we had were sparsely attended. This is your organization; Chris and I encourage you to give us feedback on what we can do to better serve the needs of all. We were thinking of possibly having an in person gathering either before the end of this year or early next year just as a meet and greet. Little rock seems to be the most central location because we are scattered all over the state. Many other states have these and on occasion some states call them “NEWS AND BREWS”, which is catchy. We need your feedback on what you really want from this organization. I think we could all learn from the collaboration, but I understand if you want all the benefits of membership and don’t have time to attend the meetings. We are working on the organization and adding many things that will help us all in the long run, just please voice your opinion to [email protected] or cell 870-918-9425 or Chris West [email protected] or cell 870-974-2055. We want to hear from you!
One last note, “THE ARK” which is our Arkansas PHCC newsletter has been sent out several times this year. We are trying to get it on a regular schedule with the help of the national office. Our liaison with national is no longer there, so bear with us as we transition to a different person with national. The newsletter is also something that we worked on in our first year as well.
As you can see, it has been busy in the PHCC AR office! The Executive Directors of Chris and myself have been working hard to improve our Chapter. We have used our own personal funds in this first year to get the chapter ignited and have not used the dues revenue we have. We think this will help us as we now progress into 2024 and look to have more opportunities as a chapter to engage. If we don’t get together before the end of this year, we want to have a meeting at some point early 2024, please give us feedback.
As a token of appreciation to you for supporting our efforts to start a chapter in Arkansas, we sent a box with many PHCC national and PHCC AR goodies in it. Enjoy them and let us know if you need more of anything.
WE WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! We are excited about what is to come with PHCC Arkansas in 2024 and beyond. We look forward to improving our trades in our state with you by our side! Thank you for investing in PHCC AR!
Stay tuned for more to come!
Brent McDiarmid
President and Co-Executive Director
PHCC AR