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Pond-trade Certification

By Mike Garcia

As a water garden professional, nothing happens until I make a sale or get a contract signed. The art of making a sale is a process that includes building trust between myself and a potential client. Nobody does business until establishing trust.

Part of the trust-building process includes establishing your credentials as a professional. What makes a person a professional?

Education? Experience? Both?

There is no doubt that both education and experience make up part of the process of becoming a professional. A relatively recent development in this regard is the certification process offered by manufacturers and associations. Certifications give people a degree of professionalism in the public eye.

The pond world has several certifications. Some are offered by pond associations and others by manufacturers. International Professional Pond Contractors Association offers the Certified Professional Pond Contractor program, and National Association of Pond Professionals provides the Basic Level 1 Test (passer). Passing IPPCA's test certifies a person as a pond professional, while NAPP's test does not.

Irrigator Tech, another professional organization, expects to create a test in the near future. Manufacturers Aquascape Inc., Atlantic Water Gardens, EasyPro Pond Products and Savio also offer tests, which certify passers as competent to install their products. Certifying with one manufacturer might limit a professional, if a client wants another brand of product installed.

I think we need a standardized, pond-trade certification performed and monitored by a neutral governing entity. What are your thoughts bout certification?

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Pond-trade Certification

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I think the water garden industry needs to make it self clear that they recoginze the koi kichi as they are and that they need to quit trying to make their hobby equal to them, they need to stick to their hobby and leave the water gardeners out of the equation..please someone tell the kichi to leave the gardeners alone, get on with their lives. Nancy, Red Deer, AB Posted: 8/20/2009 9:26:54 PM I don't think a piece of paper by itself is the whole picture here,it is all fine and dandy to have.....but experience and professionalism are the key words here. Mike's comment: "The art of making a sale is a process that includes building trust between myself and a potential client. Nobody does business until establishing trust." Referals/Word of mouth......Projects: How many have you completed? Allowing customer's to actully see your work,not just photos. These are things that a piece of paper can't do. Part of the trust-building process includes establishing your credentials as a professional. What makes a person a professional? Good question.........here again not a piece of paper the person themselves have to EARN that title by experiance. I Don't mean doing 1 or 2 classes and group pond builds either. Professionalism has to be earned the old fashion way by a lot of hard work and understanding what it is your building. Let me ask you this question how many Certified installer's understand "form and funtion" of what they are building? After being a pond professional for over 20 yrs am still learning everyday...that day I say I have it all figured out is the day I need to step down and walk away. By the way Valerie am curious as where are the memory sticks that we were to be given when we completed the online survey from a few months ago? Something about a 4-6 week delivery time? Just my 2 cents folks.......... Mark Lawson, Lakeside, CA Posted: 8/20/2009 8:05:23 PM Dear Valerie...Thanks for reading the blog. I must admit that I was a member of the NAPP (formerly PPA) when it first began and still am a member. I bought a life membership when it was offered. I am not sure to which organization you refer when you write I am promoting my own organization, as my company is not mentioned in the blog. I do serve on 4 board of directorships (none of these are mentioned in the article). Max....You mention the staff of the IPPCA. I am very glad you were able to interact with them in the past. Fortunately, they do answer the phone, unlike some associations who will take up to 2-3 weeks to get back to me when I call. The pond world is a very small entity and when we can learn that we as fellow professionals are not the enemy, we will grow into an industry giant. Mike Garcia, Redondo Beach, CA Posted: 8/19/2009 7:28:12 PM Mike, It appears you are clearly just trying to promote your own organization and slander NAPP. The information you are posting is false and I would think you would want to remain neutral as a blog writer in order to gain respect and confidence in what information you are providing, rather than just promoting your own self interests. Valerie Steele, Albuquerque, NM Posted: 8/19/2009 1:15:32 PM