Last Class in 2009

Class finale of 2009

We had our last class of 2009 the weekend before Thanksgiving on Friday and Saturday, November 20-21.  We were teaching at our home base:  PoolCorp’s SCP, Orange, CA location.

All the classes have had their own personality and this one was no different.

As we were going through the presentations regarding water contamination, pool water problems, water circulation, and filtration — it all came down to this:  we need to disinfect to kill harmful pathogens.

And then we focused on:  ’How do you get the dead pathogens and other microscopic contaminates out of the water?’  Well, in many ways:

1. Oxidation — by break point chlorination, ozone, potassium, or using enzymes
2. Diluting or draining the pool water
3. Nano filtration

Nano filtration! — What’s that?  Well, as it turns out, one of the students owns a company that built a portable nano-filtration system that can filter out pool water contaminates, calcium and other dissolved solids; thus, reclaiming 75% of the water.  A very interesting coincidence, don’t you think!

We took a few pictures of our last class, but the camera did not make it home from our out-of-town trip.  We misplaced it somehow, and it is not to be found….so no pictures this time–sorry!

Thank you Stan and Matt at SCP/Orange and thank you PoolCorp for a great year.  And a huge thank you to all our students this year for spending your resources and your time to improve our pool service industry!

Check our out 2010 schedule: 2010 CPO Class Schedule

CPO Class at SCP-Orange, June 19-20

How much do I add?

We had another great class! — this time at the SCP office in Orange California this past Friday and Saturday, June 19-20.  Eleven enthusiastic students!   They came from as far as Palmdale, Canoga Park, Riverside and San Clemente.   There were pool guys,  property managers, a student from a home owners association and a student from the Parks Division, Riverside County.

Steve is shown here teaching the class how to calculate the amount of chemical to add given a certain amount of water in the pool.

Our continential breakfast was a hit!  Thanks to my partner and lovely wife Elise.  We both want to thank the great crew at the SCP Orange facility: manager Matt Semonza, and Stan Kim — you guys are super!  We are now off to Palm Desert — for the first time.  We’ll be there on July 10-11.  We’re looking forward to it.

CPO On the Road Again

….this time to the Coachella Valley, the Desert, and San Diego!

As part of our working non-service week, we planned a two day CPO ”Road Trip” to seek out new teaching locations in Riverside County (specifically, in the desert area somewhere).

So we took off early yesterday and headed through Riverside County to the Coachella Valley, stopping first at the SCP office in Riverside and the Superior office in Grand Terrace to leave CPO class schedules and registration forms.  By the way, our next class is in Riverside, June 5-6, 2009…..and there’s still room for more students, if you are thinking about signing up!

We headed to the desert next, BUT our first stop was to visit with Steve Little, President and CEO of Hire Standards Pool Maintenance.  What an impressive, enthusiastic and dynamic young man he is–WOW!!  He was truly an inspiration to listen to as his story unfolded about how he got into the pool service business and how he has become so successful!  Steve Little has over 1,000 residential pool customers and his business is growing so fast that he has recently moved into a brand new facility and is wanting his staff of 40 to obtain their credentials as Certified Pool Operator!!  Check out his new website!! So after having lunch with Steve (by the way, Steve–thanks again for lunch!) ….

We headed up the road to Indio where, we visited with Dave Barfuss, the Superior Branch Manager, and he showed us around and was very happy to help us advertise and hold CPO classes at his facility.  Dave is standing by to hold classes there whenever we’re ready, but he did suggest that we head west to Superior’s Palm Desert store and talk to Renee Nelson (National Pool Tile Branch Manager).

By this time of day, the temperatures had risen to 95 degrees (summer arrived early in the desert, according to Dave–and we could feel it!)….. AND it was getting late and we weren’t sure we were going to make it to Palm Desert before closing.  But when we arrived at Superior, we found Renee hard at work in her NPT office.  She showed us their huge tile showroom that she says has had as many as 50 in attendance for other teaching seminars! Wow!–we were blown away! She was so accommodating, saying that the upcoming summer months would be a perfect time to schedule classes, and that she and her staff would even set up the room for us!  Thanks, Renee!!–You are awesome!!  Since Palm Desert is in between Indio and Palm Springs and since the showroom is so wonderful, Steve and I decided that we HAD to hold class there.  So the next step is to confirm dates with Renee, re-do our CPO class schedule, and get the new ones out to all the SCP and Superior locations pronto!

BUT first we had to go to the San Diego Superior store this morning to meet Brett DeVanna (Branch Manager) and see their beautiful store and office.  Brett was very excited about us holding CPO classes at his facility.  He took us upstairs and showed us their very nice meeting room space and break room accommodations, also offering to help us in any way possible!

A HUGE thanks goes to SCP and Superior!  Because of their gracious support of our CPO classes, we will soon have five (5) teaching locations in: 

• Canoga Park (L.A. County)
• Orange (Orange County)
• San Diego (San Diego county)
• Riverside (Riverside County) and
• Palm Desert (Riverside County)

Stay tuned for future updates on classes in these locations!!

After stopping by Torrey Pines Lodge for a superb lunch at A. R. Valentien restaurant (did you know it was recently rated top 10 restaurant in San Diego?), we headed back home in the rain to get back to work!  More details to follow…..