March Birthday’s March Anniversary
Suxan Huntington (4) Troy & Robin Winters (26)
Gil Belcher (28)
Brinan Winters (18)
Do we have your birthday and anniversary? Send in your dates to info@ippca.com and we will add you to the calendar.
Message From IPPCA Senior Vice President
I feel a certain obligation as an IPPCA member, Certified Professional Pond Contractor (CPPC), and recently elected senior Vice President on the IPPCA board of directors to reveal some truths by "calling 'em how I see 'em". I have been encouraged on numerous occasions to submit for the newsletter, with the only parameter being "something I feel strongly about". While there are many things in the watergarden industry that are close to my heart, I thought it may be fitting to make my first personal appearance with the IPPCA newsletter, one that strikes very close to home for all members.
It is only fitting that I give a brief history of myself so others can appreciate better my situation. As with most installers of custom work, I am truly passionate about my trade and profession. I joined the IPPCA initially because Dave Jones responded personally to my web request for membership within hours of submitting it. At the time I did not know Dave but was so impressed by the research I'd done on the IPPCA and the devotion that Dave showed in that very first conversation. I knew that the tools made available by this organization would be of great benefit for myself and the growth of my company. I had no intentions at the time of becoming directly involved with operations or having a voice in the association.
One of the best tools made available by the IPPCA is the forum. This is a place where just about anyone can look to professionals for tips, advice, help and the occasional laugh! But, within this forum lies the key to my problem. I use the site as a reference, reading about others successes and failures to broaden my own horizons. I even post an occasional question that always gets a response.
The thing that I find disturbing however, is the presence of a certain large corporation that admittedly is a powerful force in our industry. On any given day there will be posts that make reference to this giant in some negative way. I know that many things are said "tongue-in-cheek" and the references are sometimes entertaining, but they are still small digs none the less. The most disturbing thing however is how the IPPCA forum is saturated with these constant "small digs".
We are all well aware that many members have been abused, misguided or just plain trampled on in their past experiences in the industry. It is not surprising that there is animosity and a lingering bad taste in the mouth. We should all now spend more time focusing on the positives of this situation.
Aquascape, Inc., is one of the primary reasons that our industry has been growing by leaps and bounds. Their products and marketing made it possible for consumers, installers and even manufacturers to benefit from a "standard" of pond building. By this, I only mean general construction and the use of simple, easy to use components that make a water feature more palatable to clients.
The IPPCA is about education and uniting the water garden industry. I feel the only way we can ever achieve this goal is to put aside the desire to constantly point fingers and look for faults in an industry leader. Our association is for open minded people. It includes former and current CAC's, former sales reps, installers that swear by the Aquascape system, and numerous people like myself that swear allegiance to no one single manufacturer. The one thing that would be of greatest benefit is to let sleeping dogs lie and focus all energies on the positive things in our industry. We are admittedly a "small start-up" association, but our presence is always getting bigger. Let's be sure that this presence is seen by others as a guiding light, not a looming shadow. The best way to increase our members and supporters is to always put our best face forward and let everyone see that the IPPCA is truly the best, most helpful and unbiased association in the water garden industry.
Jake Bright
Senior V.P. IPPCA
How do these Pointer Sites work? For a very small additional fee, another smaller, website under a second domain name that you own, "points" the way for customers, so they arrive instead at your main Web site - seamlessly and invisibly!
For example, say you are in a business that sells boats. If you own the domain names canoes.com and boats.com you are pretty lucky! In this case, use canoes as a "pointer" to your main site, boats.com. Many Internet search engines use the name of the site, and link popularity as part of their ranking methods. If someone does a search for whitewater canoes, a site such as canoes.com will be ranked higher than outdoorequipment.com because the word "canoes" is present in the name of the domain.
Having additional sites pointing at your main site shows that your site is popular, and will lead to a boost in your rankings. Also, if you have just changed your domain name, you can convert the old domain to a pointer site so that it can continue to bring traffic - and important e-mails - to your firm. There are reasonable limits with these Pointer Sites: 500 kb total server space (Web and mail files etc.) and a 500 mb monthly data transfer limit (bandwidth). At these very inexpensive prices, you'll understand why it only makes sense to pick up pointer site domain names..
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Aquadyne and EasyPro Professional Grade Products
The IPPCA is proud to announce that effective immediately qualified IPPCA Members will be able to purchase both Aquadyne and Easy Pro brand products at a reduced price through the IPPCA. These added value discounts to IPPCA Members have been initiated in good faith with these two industry leaders.
“For those of you looking to add to your bottom line, this year and the years to come, it is becoming more and more apparent that IPPCA has the “Pros” without the “Cons”, stated founder Executive Director Dave Jones.
In keeping with its truly professional format the IPPCA is not offering entry level and Do-It-Yourself type products or seconds. These are truly top of the line, professional grade products for the serious pros of the industry at prices lower than they can get them anywhere else. “These discounts by professional leading pond manufacturers offered to professional level people is nothing but a good thing. Both for our members and the Industry,” states IPPCA President, Rocke’ Huntington.
Our days are so crowded
And our hours are so few
And there’s so little time
And so much to do
That the days fly by and are over and done
Before we have even half begun
To do the things that we meant to do
But never have time to carry through…..
And how nice it would be
If we stopped to say
The things we feel in our hearts each day
