Nickrosis
Manned by Boderators
Taking off from this old thread: http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?threadid=11318
The Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) does have an accreditation program, but it is for companies not individuals since TCIA only provides membership to companies. At any rate, you can read the details on their website (http://www.tcia.org) under "TCIA Accreditation."
The cost knocked the socks off of me - $495 for a member company to be repaid every 3 years. To be sure, the process is involving with an on-site audit following weeks of preparation and long checklists of things to complete.
Many of the required things are components that ought to exist in a quality company, but it still surprised me because you would literally have to commit a person to dealing with accreditation compliance for at least a couple of weeks at the outset and working with the topic part time for, well, infinity.
I don't want to bash it without being intimately familiar with it, but I'm going to their office in Manchester in September to sit down and talk to the leadership, and I'll meet with board members before the end of the year, but I want to through this out to AS to get some opinions and feedback. To my knowledge, not many of you are familiar with it or at least weren't last year. Maybe that's changed - I'd like to know if anyone here is working towards accreditation.
The Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) does have an accreditation program, but it is for companies not individuals since TCIA only provides membership to companies. At any rate, you can read the details on their website (http://www.tcia.org) under "TCIA Accreditation."
The cost knocked the socks off of me - $495 for a member company to be repaid every 3 years. To be sure, the process is involving with an on-site audit following weeks of preparation and long checklists of things to complete.
Many of the required things are components that ought to exist in a quality company, but it still surprised me because you would literally have to commit a person to dealing with accreditation compliance for at least a couple of weeks at the outset and working with the topic part time for, well, infinity.
I don't want to bash it without being intimately familiar with it, but I'm going to their office in Manchester in September to sit down and talk to the leadership, and I'll meet with board members before the end of the year, but I want to through this out to AS to get some opinions and feedback. To my knowledge, not many of you are familiar with it or at least weren't last year. Maybe that's changed - I'd like to know if anyone here is working towards accreditation.
The idea has merit...when everyone is looking to work for any accredited company, it'll be a necessity. Right now, though, I'd like to meet the requirements and apply formally within the next year.
