Archive for December, 2008

Hey Peoples… Looking for a good field to get into? You can train for this field in a short time, get your certifications, plus other incentives. With all the attention on energy savings and safe energy, this is a good field to step into. Training information below for those interested!

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Please join Workforce Development and our expert trainers for both classroom and field training in Heating, Cooling, Envelope, and Building Analyst. Building Analyst is nationally certified through the Building Performance Institute (BPI). ECC Workforce provides the training and the convenience of testing at the same location.

*NYSERDA is offering 75% cost reimbursement upon successful completion of the course. This incentive program is being offered by NYSERDA for a limited time only!

Directional ArrowCall Workforce Development to register for any of our four different training tracks. 851.1800.

Building Analyst Starts January 5, 2009. Limited Seating!

All training takes place at ECC City Campus (Room G-49), 121 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY.

Complimentary parking for all registrants!

*See course descriptions for reimbursement requirements.

BUILDING ANALYST TRAINING
STARTS January 5,2009
January 5 – 14, 2009
9 AM – 3:30 PM (Classroom)
9 AM – 4:00 PM (Field)
First Class on January 5, 2009 begins at 8:00 A.M City Campus G-65!

Now is still time to enroll! Free parking at the time of registration.
36 hours of training

Course Content:

· Fundamentals of building science
· Identify and understand building performance problems including ice dams, mold and mildew, and indoor air quality issues
· Analyze buildings using “Blower Door” technology and other diagnostic equipment
· Assess building tightness, mechanical and distribution systems and combustion safety for a “whole house” performance-based approach
· Practical application of “blower door,” combustion safety and other diagnostics for assessing air leakage and efficiency in buildings.

8 Benefits of Training

The cost of this training is $1,045, with NYSERDA reimbursing 75% of the fee upon completion of the course. Your net cost after reimbursement is $261.25. This includes all course materials. You must complete the entire course to receive Proof of Participation and reimbursement for this program.

February 16, 2009 Start Date for Next Building Analyst Class

TelephoneCall Debbie to register 851-1800 !!

COOLING PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
April 28 – 29, 2009
9 AM-2:50 PM

16 hours of training

This two-day course is designed for experienced heating contractors. You must have completed NYSERDA Heating Professional training or have BPI Heating Professional certification. EPA Section 608 proof of certification is required in order to attend. The training, which consists of both classroom and field experience, will help prepare you for BPI’s written and field tests for Cooling Professional certification (also known as Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Professional). The BPI Cooling Professional designation was developed in collaboration with North American Technician Excellence (NATE).

Registration Information:

The cost of this training is $925. NYSERDA reimburses 75% of the fee upon completion of the course to students in the NY System Benefits Charge utility territories. Your net cost after reimbursement is $231.25. This includes all course materials. This incentive program is being offered by NYSERDA for a limited time. You must complete the entire course to receive Proof of Participation and reimbursement for this program.

ENVELOPE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
March 9-11,2009 (Classroom)
1 PM- 7:30 PM
March 13, March 16-18, 2009 (Field)
1 PM – 7:30 PM

Free parking at the time of registration!
30 Hours of training

Course Content:

· Health & Safety
· Indoor Air Quality Assessment
· Indoor Moisture Sources & Solutions
· Visual Inspection
· Thermal & Pressure Boundary
· Evaluation
· Identifying & Inspection Critical Shell
· Transitions
· Advanced Blower Door Applications
· Air Sealing & Dense-pack Techniques
· Prioritizing Air Sealing Work
· Duct Diagnostics
· Insulation Techniques & Applications
· Window & Door Inspections
· Minimum Ventilation Requirements
· (ASHRAE 62-89, BPI)
· Ventilation Systems Options

The cost of this training is $1,125. NYSERDA reimburses 75% of the fee upon completion of the course to students in the NY System Benefits Charge utility territories. Your net cost after reimbursement is $281.25. This includes all course materials. You must complete the entire course to receive Proof of Participation and reimbursement for this program.

The Prostitution of America

When I’m not writing my books, I am a professional headhunter. I talk to a lot of people, professional people, tradesmen, laborers, men and women with families and responsibilities, and what strikes me as most important is their spirit. While the media, some of the corporate America “biggees” and some lame politicians speak about economic woes, they are missing the important point. Americans are dynamic people. They are one of the few peoples left on earth that have not entirely bought into the slave-ideology that the best system is a socialism where everyone gets their pie no matter what. A system where entrepreneurialism, innovation and dynamic capitalism is all but lost to the idea that everyone deserves the same as everyone else, but of course not everyone needs to work as hard as everyone else. The poor bloke who is sick and incapable, should get his pie too, as should the guy who isn’t motivated enough to get up and work 5 days a week and demands that you and I pay for his unemployment or welfare, he too should get his pie and his health care benefits etc.

Look – this isn’t about poor people or underprivelaged. It’s about a philosophy of life that has been the bastion of an American civilization and culture that is being attacked right now in the biggest way possible. It isn’t just that America stands at the crossroads of economic upheaval right now. That is not the issue. America has withstood several recessions and always come out of them. But this one is different. Because the campaign is now in full-bloom to attempt to bring America’s foundation into question. One that Obama is fighting to restore, and good on him for doing that. But one man is not going to change this alone unless we all realize what is at stake here. America is under seige. Corporately we can all snuff a nose at the big car manufacturers and say that they should bail themselves out, and that our government should not interfere, but let’s strike a match and take a look into the dark little recesses of this picture before we decide that our corporations should be abandoned. If we don’t take responsibility for the fact that American corporations have extended themselves to the point of dismal failure and bankruptcy, then there are wolves waiting to pluck those chickens from the farm yard. Across the ocean is a country called China. China is and its people are wonderful. But China, as in the People’s Republic of China, the Communist core that controls that place, is a wolf of a different color. If you think for a moment that the three big American car manufacturers are going to be allowed to go under, you’re dreaming. Right now, the PROC in China control enough money to buy out the American corporations that they want to do. If they control the car manufacturing in this country, they control the largest industry in America. Control equals power my friends, power to lobby, power to influence, and it is only a matter of time before the ideologies of a government that sanctions torture, slavery, that dictates no freedom of religion and no freedom of speech, works its way into the American system and starts to crumble the bastions of its constitution. If you think for a moment that any of this is hyperbole, fiction or the works of a stretched imagination, then you need to WAKE UP. Go read the constitution and mission statement (on the internet) of the Chinese government. Their stated purpose is clearly to create a new world order under Chinese control. And, the prostitution of America, which has been going on now for 1-2 decades at least, which is the outsourcing of massive amounts of production and manufacturing to China, has now empowered that nation to come right back and take over. Walk into any major department store. Count up how many products are made in China versus America or the West. Make your own decision about whether what I am saying is true or not.

This isn’t about China. And it is NOT about the Chinese people who are wonderful as a people and a culture. We are talking about a potential incursion of a political power and ideology that would destroy America. And while China is not the only potential foreign power that could buy-out our largest corporations in these times, they are a main contender and one of the more serious ones because their goal, despite all the sugar coating, is control on an international scale.

The point is, we DO need to take responsibility for our own dirty laundry, or someone else is going to do it.

America is being sold out. It has been compromised to the point now where it cannot even deal with its own corporate fall-out. But if we are going to turn this scene around and bring the American ship back off the coral reef, we are going to have to recognize the BIGGER picture. It’s not just a recession. It’s a turning point. Americans need to band together. Stop worrying about the smaller picture. Start pulling together and creating jobs here. Start IN-sourcing the work and NOT out-sourcing it to China or empowering the competition at the risk of losing the entire game. If the American government wants to salvage the US corporate car manufacturers, they should certainly run interception on ANY foreign take-over or bail-out, and instead of shelling out billions of tax payer dollars to the car industry, it would be better off giving the auto industry a massive tax-break for the next two years or so, on the condition that:

a. They restructure their manufacturing process to bring the cost of cars down by a SIGNIFICANT amount so that the production costs are cut way back, and so that the American public can buy AMERICAN made cars at a price that befits their pocket-book and rechannels billions of dollars back into America.
b. That they utilize the American work-force, en masse, to turn their industry around.

In this way, a true stimulus package would be injected into some of the largest industries in America, with a purpose to re-motivate the auto industry, jack-down it’s corrupt and outrageously high pricing, return it to a foundation-industry that supports America and the American work-force, and get it to gain back a massive amount of Americans who would buy American made cars not only because they are less expensive (not less quality) but because it would support an American economy.

Now, take a new perspective. We can fight this war two ways. We can start to take back what we’ve given away and start to build America again, or we can wait until the incursion is so obvious and so offensive, that the institution of America is crumbling and the only alternative is to go into a state of apathy and give up, or to fight it and win.

One road leads to a sort of sugar coated totalitarianism, one leads America back to being the nation of the free and the nation that carries the torch of freedom for the rest of the world. If it burns out in America, it burns out everywhere.

Real J. Laplaine

Blaine Witt, Snr VP for Pfannenberg in Lancaster NY has a vision to make the Peace Bridge, already a landmark in itself, into something MUCH more. By lighting up the bridge with aesthetic lighting, which Pfannenberg excels at (see their work on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Normandy Bridge in France), the Peace Bridge would become a spectacle in itself to attract people to Buffalo. See more on this at www.art-illumination.com. It would be elevated to a whole new level. Blaine’s pitching his ideas in different circles. We’re interested in what you think. Write us and give your input.

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