RSES Journal Winter 2025, RETA-RSES

Leading Off

An Exciting Year Awaits

PERSPECTIVES

I want to begin my first President’s Message by saying that I am extremely humbled and honored to have been selected to lead our organization. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be sitting here today writing this column. As I mull over what I would like this upcoming year to look like, I want to take a minute to honor several of the largest contributions that former Executive Director Jim Barron made to this organiza tion. First, he was the catalyst that made RETA the only ANAB accredited refrigeration organization in the world. Without him, RETA’s credentials would be just another piece of paper. Second, as Executive Director of the organization, he led us through the first years of self-management, establishing policies and building a strong financial foundation for our organization. The financial restraint that Jim demonstrated over the years enabled RETA to not only purchase a building for its headquarters, but to pay it off. Finally, he was instrumental in helping RSES adapt and survive such that our two organizations could begin the process of becoming one again. Thanks to Jim’s contributions, RETA is ready to break out of the mold of an industrial trade organization. With our training materials and ANAB accredited exams, we can lead the way in addressing the manpower shortages that the industrial refrigera tion and HVAC/R industries face. Before that can happen, we must finish what we started in integrating RETA and RSES. The goal for this year is to complete the financial integration of the two organizations. By this time next year, we will have one set of general ledger accounts showing one set of numbers for our entire organization. Another goal for this year is to identify all of the moving pieces that need to be addressed to integrate us organizationally, from membership benefits, to chapters, to logos and everything in between. With all these pieces, it is unlikely that organizational integration will be completed within the next year. That being said, HQ has been challenged to establish a timeline for completion before the end of May demonstrating when we will see our two great organizations as one. In April, the board, along with the HQ department heads, will spend three days focusing on strategic planning. Out of that will

come a 1-year, a 3-year, a 5-year, a 10-year and a 15-year plan for the organization. These plans

will become the roadmap for our organization moving forward. Each year, the board and HQ staff will be charged with reviewing and tweaking the routes to get us to our goals. As I mentioned during my address at conference, this will take a lot of outside the box thinking. I am excited to say that many of the committees are already demonstrating this. For instance, the Marketing Committee is pursuing the establishment of a RETA RSES podcast to reach a wider audience than just our membership. The Education Committee is evaluating a new structure for our educational materials that will streamline the process of establish ing them as an international resource. The Conference Commit tee is looking at the possibility of holding regional conferences to attract more people, many of whom do not have the support of their companies when they attend. The Membership Committee is working on establishing new member benefits. The Certifica tion Committee is hard at work in the process of developing an exam for the Book 1: Introduction to HVACR that was recently published. In addition, the CRES exam is due for a rewrite using the RETA Energy Efficiency book which did not exist when the exam was created. Also, the RAI exam is due for a refresh in order to pull in content from the CRST exam, which also did not exist when the RAI exam was first developed. All of this will require a lot of manpower. The easy answer is to hire more people. Our new Executive Director, Vern M. Sand erson, is already evaluating the staffing needs. However, one of RETA’s longtime strengths has been its volunteer base. Our orga nization cannot survive, much less thrive, without the contribu tions of our volunteers. So, we need your help. To paraphrase the late President John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your association can do for you, ask what you can do for your association.”

Bill Lape, CARO, CIRO, CRST RETA-RSES International President

RETA HQ 844-801-3711 info@reta.org RSES HQ 800-297-5660 general@rses.org Vern M. Sanderson Executive Director, RETA/RSES vern@reta.com Lori Schiavo Senior Director of Operations, RETA/RSES lschiavo@rses.org Chantell Schaumburg HR Manager/Controller, RETA/RSES chantell@reta.org Larry Copeland Customer Service Rep., RSES lcopeland@rses.org

Stephanie Date Events Manager, RETA/RSES stephanie@reta.com Dan Denton Chapter Relations Liaison, RETA dan@reta.org Allie Dulabaum Assistant Editor, RETA/RSES adulabaum@rses.org Kali Grigorica Marketing and Communications, RETA/RSES kali@reta.org Halie Hugenberg Training/Testing Coordinator, RSES hhugenberg@rses.org Samantha Ibarra Certification Coordinator, RETA samantha@reta.com

Winter 2025, Volume 30, Number 3

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4 RSES Journal WINTER 2025

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