Training: your best investment
By Jim Taylor, Editor MACS ACtion Magazine
ROI or “return on investment” is what you get for what you spent, whether it’s time or money. You’ve spent money on your business and tools and you expect a fair return. You put money into bank accounts and accrue interest. Hopefully, your stock investments pay regular dividends as well.
Often, a small investment can pay off quite handsomely if managed well. MACS Worldwide is inviting you to make a small investment in yourself and your business by attending the 2012 Convention and Trade Show. The three days – January 18, 19 and 20, 2012 – represent just over one percent of your annual work days but you’ll get a year’s worth of training.
Learn in January, profit from it all year long—how does a 98 percent return on your investment sound? Here’s some of what we’re doing.
Wednesday, Jan. 18 starts off with dual sessions for light vehicle and HD training. HD service is a growing and profitable segment; if you’re part of it you need to hear what the presenters have to say about how to diagnose and repair their systems quickly and correctly. This session offers detailed how-to sessions from both vehicle makers and equipment suppliers. A few hours with these guys can save you days in the field.
The passenger car and light truck curricula offers four sessions, each presented before and after lunch. Every one covers important topics for today’s shop. Still puzzled by computer controlled systems? We hope not, but nobody knows everything. Perhaps “HVAC Control System and Diagnosis” is for you, or else “Vehicle communication networks.” Ace presenter David Hobbs will de-mystify variable displacement compressors. And since you need good tools to work on any of these systems, Peter Meier will show you how to “Get the most from your tools and your brain.” It won’t be hard to figure which one is more important.
Thursday’s classes will be a mix of tech and management for the modern era—some of these sessions result from your previous-year requests. Anyone in business recognizes the abbreviations CEO and CFO, but if SEO is unknown to you, your website (you do have one, don’t you?) probably isn’t working as well as it could. We’ll explain it all for you in two marketing classes, including one specifically targeted at working on a shoestring budget.
It wasn’t too many years ago that cars didn’t have a malfunction light watching many things under the hood. Today, they can be a nuisance for owners and technicians alike. Donny Seyfer will offer his secret sauce to deal with the problem. Guaranteed you learn something new in this class.
A/C systems should be hot in some sections but not in others, and temperature testing makes a lot of sense. Learn how in Las Vegas. If your shop is starting to see hybrids, or is seeing more of them, Paul DeGuiseppi’s class will give you the inside view on their high voltage HVAC systems.
Heavy duty and off road vehicles used to use straightforward HVAC systems, but as OEMs incorporate sophisticated computer controls into their products, shops and technicians need to keep up or risk falling behind. Diagnosis now goes way beyond a failed relay and we’ll have a class with answers for diagnosing HD heating and cooling electrical systems.
Friday is “information and testing” day. Paul will run the MACS EPA Section 609 training class in the morning, followed by the test. This one’s entirely free for convention registrants. If your school or shop has somebody that needs the certification, bring ‘em along!
Donny Seyfer’s session shows you how to squeeze your service information for its last drop of information, and the last class of the day lets Peter Meier and Paul DeGuiseppi combine into a freewheeling presentation of odd problems, strange tales, and the occasional happy ending. It’s “Case studies and lessons learned.”
We’ve planned other special topic presentations as well, including a high-level industry overview, new refrigerants and an open Q and A session in “Ask the Experts.” Friday morning also presents Ward Atkinson and his annual “State of the Industry” report. You can bet this one will be interesting.
Depending on how you schedule yourself, you can attend five or six classes plus almost as many special topic seminars, all in three days. That’s a strong bargain for the money right there. Throw in the two-day Trade Show, a number of convention meals and receptions, plus race driver Joe Bacal’s Keynote speech and that one percent of your work year shapes up as a very smart investment because the returns will last all year.
Invest in yourself—register for the convention today at www.macsw.org.
The Mobile Air Conditioning Society’s blog has been honored as the best business to business blog in the Automotive Aftermarket by the Automotive Communications Awards and the Car Care Council Women’s Board!
When having your mobile A/C system professionally serviced, insist on proper repair procedures and quality replacement parts. Insist on recovery and recycling so that refrigerant can be reused and not released into the atmosphere.
If you’re a service professional and not a MACS member yet, you should be, click here for more information.
You can E-mail us at macsworldwide@macsw.org or visit http://bit.ly/cf7az8 to find a Mobile Air Conditioning Society member repair shop in your area. Visit http://bit.ly/9FxwTh to find out more about your car’s mobile A/C and engine cooling system.
The 32nd annual Mobile Air Conditioning Society (MACS) Worldwide Convention and Trade Show will take place January 18-20, 2012 at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
