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Alright, thank you everyone for joining us. We're hanging out with Howard Weiss today. Howard, thank you for being here.
Thanks for inviting me, Clifton. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today.
So, one of the things that we do get questions about is, you know, how to properly handle an advisory committee.
You know, when we were at the conference, one of the things that we realized is there were a lot of first year educators that were there to, you know, learn how to be better educators.
But we often don't talk about the things that the educator is expected to do. And one of those is the PAC meeting, the Program Advisory Committee.
So, let's talk a little bit about the purpose of it and how to, you know, best handle an advisory committee.
It's a great topic, Clifton. I'll just share something. A lot of teachers, when they're first hired, they're often handed a set of keys.
Yeah, here we go. Go told. Go teach HVAC like it's a singular subject. It's the same everywhere.
They're told you have to have a program advisory committee and they look forward to seeing you at the Christmas party.
There's little onboarding of new instructors and one of the most important things is a program advisory committee.
So, unfortunately, without knowing the true purpose, many hold a meeting just to satisfy their accreditation requirements, not realizing it's an opportunity to strengthen their program,
to get valuable feedback from the industry stakeholders as to how to improve the program and better prepare graduates for success.
Exactly. So, maybe they walk in and they've already got people that have been participating in the PAC meeting before.
How do we even take a look to see is this the right people for my committee? Who should attend an actual PAC meeting?
The funny part is everybody. I know a lot of people will say I like to limit my PAC meetings. I like to keep them small.
I like to keep them only to the organizations that are currently hiring my graduates.
But if you really take a look at it and draw a circle around your school, where can they potentially wind up long term?
That may be working for a hospital, a university, grocery store chain, utility. The options are endless.
So, when you really think about it, even if your program is geared toward residential contractors, you really should be trying to invite.
Is there a local manufacturer, a manufacturer's rep? What wholesalers are in the area? Contractor groups, utilities. Start looking at everyone.
But when you go ahead and you're reaching out to these folks, I just want to say one of the problems I see is I get a lot of emails.
PAC meeting Friday. What's a PAC meeting?
Right. Not even explained.
Right. If you want people to attend, you should, you know, the phone has another feature that allows you to, your smartphone that allows you to call people.
Reach out to people. If I call you up, hey, Clifton, I'm Howard. I'm the new teacher. I have a vision for this program, whether you've been here or not.
Explain what the meeting is and why I want you to come and attend.
Exactly. What about internally? I mean, you know, do we, who from our own program and from our own administration should we be looking at as well?
That's a great question. I'm a big believer that you need to have, first of all, someone from the school administration should be there.
Whether that be a college president, director of education. If you don't have someone from the administration getting feedback from the industry, they really can't see how big our industry is, how diverse it is, understand the needs to truly fund it.
So, they're pivotal. But if possible, someone from your placement services.
Oh, yeah.
So, think about it this way. Go to a program advisory committee. I'm here to learn about what, what this program offers. But I also want to learn about how students are brought into the program, what your placement programs are.
I want to learn a little bit about the student loans. I want to get a full picture of everything that's going on there.
All right. So, let's think about, you know, some good suggestions for running a program. You know, we, so we started talking about who we can reach out to. How are we best advertising this and preparing for it?
Well, as far as advertising, I believe actually talking to people, old school, calling them up, going out a little bit.
Throughout the course of every month, if you go visit a few people all the time, face to face, get to know a little bit about their businesses, it's a lot more personal and you're going to get a lot better response than just sending an email.
Then when you do send the email, you've already, you're expecting it because someone's already called you. You've seen this person.
Now, when I get to the school, how to run it, I'll just share with you. I've been at schools where I've struggled to find the program advisory committee meeting.
Right, just directions.
And I've almost lost, I've left.
Right.
There's other times.
Especially large campus.
Right. It's a massive campus, lots of buildings. No one seems to know what's going on. Other times, people have been properly advised where the meeting is. There's signage and there's people stationed waiting to greet you and bring you back to the meeting.
When you actually get back there, some of the things, to me, how you actually set the room up and what you do is very important.
Tell me a little bit about that. I'm very, very interested on that one.
So I think, first of all, I think that when I enter a room, I want to see it set up as a horseshoe or a circle, not a classroom.
If we're going to have a discussion amongst people, we need to have people sitting where they can see each other.
Sure.
It's nice if you can make little place cards with everyone's names on it.
Right, get to know everyone.
The program advisory committee meeting, let's talk about its real purpose because that explains how to run it. If the purpose is for me to convey the product coming out of the school of the student.
Right, the program.
So here, this weekend, we're all looking to buy cars. I may want to buy an all-wheel drive vehicle because I live near the mountains in Colorado.
Sure.
Someone in California might be looking for something fuel efficient.
When an employer shows up at a program advisory meeting, they're looking to buy what is the product.
Your product.
Graduates.
Right, so they want to have a good picture. What are the features and benefits of this program?
How long is this program? Is it a year? Is it a year and a half? Two years.
Explain to them how long it is.
Go through the classes one by one.
So if your first class is electrical, is someone going to know how to use a meter?
Go through the competencies.
Tell them what books are used.
Do they take any national tests such as the HVAC excellence employment ready, OSHA 10, OSHA 30, their EPA certification?
Paint a picture class by class of exactly what they're going to learn, what competencies they're going to know, if they have any certifications that go along with it.
After you've painted a picture of what you're teaching, you're going to, before you even ask them what we need to change, this is an opportunity to take a break,
walk them through the lab.
Right, show things.
The equipment, the tools. Because when I have a full picture, you just told me you're teaching high efficiency heat pumps, but I didn't see any high efficiency heat pumps in the lab.
Right, what do you call high efficiency? Is it a 16-year? Is it an 18? Is it a 20? Is it a true inverter? Yeah, that's a big range.
Or you told me you're teaching mini splits, but I don't see a flare nut torque wrench.
This is an opportunity for me as an industry stakeholder to say, Clifton, I'm seeing that we should be teaching the following things that I don't see you're teaching, or you're missing the following equipment.
Now, the teaching part, teachers have an opportunity to say, that's great. Does everyone here agree that we should be adding, say, manual D or HULs, whatever the topic.
But they may say, I only have so many hours. Now, is there anything that we should be looking to take away we no longer need to cover?
Right. Is there anything that doesn't relate to our industry and our market as much as another item?
A well-run program advisory committee is going to allow me to explain what the mission of the program is, the courses I offer, let someone understand the equipment, the tools, see student outcomes.
If you're a contractor listening to this, this is an opportunity. If you go there, offer to be a guest presenter, think about this. You're going to see which student showed up first, which one stayed last.
That says a lot, doesn't it? How they approach different projects. You have an opportunity to see that diamond and rough before they're even available on the market.
What about approachability? I know that is a topic of concern is, you know, what if I'm a contractor? What if I'm another trades organization? What if I'm in UA and I'm at a meeting and I do want to approach the program?
Are there some things that are proper dos and proper don'ts that go along with that?
Yes. It's a great question. We had at the conference last week, we just had some people discuss some of the don'ts.
Contractors should never show up and say, why are you going to school here? I'll train you for free.
They don't understand that they're hurting not only hurting the student, they're hurting the school to achieve their short term goals of filling that role.
Well, real quickly, Clifton, schools, the state or governing agency over that school is going to look at their placement rate, their attrition rate.
So if there's 10 people in that program and you just took two of them out and another person drops out, that may be considered a failed program by the state. Oh, wow. You can't get funding next year just because of that action.
Sure. Absolutely. A better way to approach that is most schools have cooperative training programs.
They're going to work with you. They would love to have you have ride alongs or have students get part time jobs.
Right. Just the employer should be cognizant. What's the student's schedule? Make certain they always go to school.
Schedule their hours and non school times, and they're going to find out they're going to get a great entry level person by allowing them to take the time to finish.
Right. So I see that as a very important opportunity and a role of our, you know, of our contractors and of our other associations is to be a very big part of that co-op.
Get that student through the program. Get them a successful education. And then we can move into the rest of our apprenticeship.
Well, and I think if you're talking about dos and don'ts, you know, there's a lot of dues. It's an old story. Be very honest.
Explain to people at the program should be an honest discussion. What is your funding? What are your challenges?
How can these people who are coming today help you improve the product coming out of that school? And that may be simply a saying right now we're looking for some new equipment.
And if there's a need to donate it, we'll even put a placard up with your name on it.
Right. Great opportunity for a wholesaler distributor to look at that as a opportunity.
One of the suggestions we've always made to schools is they label their trainers. And there's a couple reasons why. And this goes to a PAC meeting.
So people show up at the school and let's say you're the instructor and you're too busy to take me on a tour. Right.
I could go around with anyone at the school and see station one is a heat pump. What is a heat pump? What am I going to learn?
But it does it has two other functions. You could tell me, Howard, I want you to go work on the refrigeration trainer. Which one, professor? Oh, unit six. So it helps with teaching.
Identifying. Yeah. But lastly, where did it come from? Perkins funds, Johnstone Supply, you know, Manitowoc.
When wholesalers walk in or contractors and they see a lot of equipment there with someone with their competitors. Another name on it. Hmm.
They want to know how do I get my name? How do I get a part of that? Yeah. And it's an opportunity for the school to say see these three stations that we don't have yet.
We need the following equipment and we'll go up there. Yeah. Man, now you're really talking about an opportunity because that was one of the things that we hear a lot about from our programs is how do I get equipment?
Because so far the only thing that I can get is, you know, used equipment that contractor A has been donating that they've taken away from jobs.
And, you know, how can I get new equipment? Well, here you go. Here's a prime opportunity to get some sponsorship of your program by local distributors and maybe even your contractors.
Now, and I just think if people go beyond doing what's required and put themselves in the other seat. Right.
You were when you were back in the industry, if you were invited to a PAC meeting, you want to feel your time is valued. Okay.
I don't want to come to a meeting where someone says we're required to do this. Please sign this form. Have a bite to eat and leave.
I want to come to some place where someone says this isn't my school. It's a community school.
I want to build a great program that all of you can use as a recruitment center. Help me build this program.
And if we work together, we can address things like recruitment, retention, placing students with the top employers, which is hopefully the members.
Yeah. Well, let's think about timing wise. That's a great point, too. So everyone's time is valuable.
Is there a better time to host a PAC meeting than others? It's going to vary from school to school.
You know, but I'm going to tell you right now, when I look at the vast majority of schools that have big participation, they're doing it at breakfast.
They're holding it at six, six thirty in the morning. Why? Because those who hold it during the day very often, if I hold a meeting at eleven or one,
I'm basically asking the employer, please stop working. I know you have business where you can make money. Instead, we want you to come here.
So for cognizant of their time, we should always ask them, what's the best time? And it may not be the same for everyone.
So if we have two meetings a year, maybe we hold one in the morning and one in the evening. Oh, great point.
But I've walked into some meetings at six a.m. We have a great committee meeting. We're on the road by seven thirty and you still have a full day ahead of you.
Been to some others that are, you know, six o'clock. They serve dinner. But it's it's a matter of just find out not from the people who are there.
Ask all the people who are not attending why they're not coming. Is there a better time? Right. Right. Yeah, absolutely.
So, I mean, that makes another good point. So say just even on the follow up, you know, so we're not only following up with the people that have attended.
We could even be following up with people who did not attend to see if there are ways that we can accommodate better times, better opportunities so that we can have a larger participation.
I think that, first of all, you should thank everyone who did attend. Sure.
But you should also send out a group email, social media post talking about what happened at the meeting, why what someone may have missed.
So I'll just give you a good idea. One of the schools that I'm on a program advisory committee meeting for the county they're in requires people to be licensed and they actually get CEUs at the program advisory committee meeting by participating.
Man, there's a nice opportunity. So when someone goes and finds out there was a wait, there was a code update class, they call the instructor and say, tell me what happened, what I missed.
I'd love to, but, you know, why don't you come to my next meeting? We're planning on having another code update. So anytime think about it right now.
Anyone who's listening to this now, A2L, Shear 2, two big topic issues. If you can tie something to your program advisory meeting that's not just about your program, but giving a little bit of an update of maybe what you learned at the National HVAC Education Conference.
Exactly. You're giving them another reason to attend your next meeting. So thank everyone for attending. Tell everyone what they missed.
If you can, follow it up with a phone call. It's a lot more personable than an email.
Sure.
And make certain that anything you promise to act upon, all the decisions are, all the suggestions, whether you can act upon them or not, should all be considered, reviewed, and you should tell them if you're going to take action. And if you can't, why not?
Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Good validation for each one of them.
Okay. Yeah, I really like the idea of bringing in new industry ideas. Exactly. Like someone coming back from the conference going, hey, I really think that we need to add some A2L training into our program. Let's bring this up in our advisory board.
Talk to them to see how aware they are, because maybe they don't even know yet. So it's an opportunity for all of us to sit down and go, things are changing in the industry. Let's all make sure we are prepared together.
That's right. I was at a program advisory meeting where it was after a conference a few years ago where there was a company selling clickers, and the clickers were meant to help improve student engagement.
And as part of the fun of the meeting, the teacher gave a little bit of instruction and then checked to see how much we understood it or not by using the interactive technology he just learned at the conference.
I love it. But if you're going to try to sell something, demo it, right? Exactly.
All right. Well, Howard, we thank you so much. It helps clarify better ways to organize and to present our PAC meeting and just opportunities for increasing our awareness within our own community.
Thank you for your time, Cliff, and I appreciate being here.