WEBVTT
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Welcome, pool guys, and gals to the Let's Talk About Pools podcast, where your host, Lauren Broom, will take a splash into many topics in the pool industry to educate all aquatic professionals.
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Listen in, and you just might be surprised what you'll learn.
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So let's jump right in.
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Welcome everybody today to the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
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And on episode 83, I interviewed Julene Hefter with AOAP, the Association of Aquatic Professionals.
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And we talked about running aquatic facilities and what the AOAP has to offer our pool pros, especially those running like big facilities and that kind of thing, what resources, education, networking, and support they have to offer to those pool pros.
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I want to say thank you to our strategic podcast sponsor, Pool Brain, as always, for helping support education again.
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And this is the free education through the podcast.
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So I call it podcast education to our pool industry.
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Thank you so much.
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And please listen in to what Pool Brain has to also offer to our pool pros.
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And then we'll jump dive right into our episode.
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Thank you very much to all my listeners for almost full five seasons now with the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
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I talked to so many customers that are using this app for this feature, this app for this, and this app for this.
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I'm said, well, why don't you just use Pool Brain?
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Because we can do it all.
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I absolutely love Pool Brain.
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There's not a better app on the market.
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We've tested a ton of different ones and we landed on Pool Brain for a reason.
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We have well over 6,000 pools on Fool Brain.
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We've been on a few other platforms in the past, and this one's been by far the best one we've been on.
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Just very intuitive and easy to use for pool professionals and very obviously made for pool professionals.
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And I really love it.
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I love we love full brain, baby.
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It is quite literally what I believe the future of the industry is going to be when you have a CRM focused for our industry for the service professionals.
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I believe that everybody wins.
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She's the executive director and the CEO of the Association of Aquatic Professionals, also known as AOAP.
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Welcome today to the episode, Julene.
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Thank you, Lauren.
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I'm really happy to be here.
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I'm happy to have you too.
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So tell our audience a little bit about you and your background in the pool industry, and then a little bit about the Association of Aquatic Professionals and what it is to be a member and what you guys have to offer as an organization in the pool industry.
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Sure, I'd love to.
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I probably have similar background to a lot of people in aquatics.
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You know, I started swimming when I was five years old.
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My mom said you could either take swim lessons or ballet.
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I was all in the pool.
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So I started swimming competitively right away, swam throughout grade school, high school, college, did master's swimming.
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Um, so did all of those type of things.
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Um, I was a backstroker.
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So um that was my exciting event that I always did, made it to state a handful of years in nationals in college.
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Uh, so really enjoyed that.
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But when I was getting into high school, I wanted to become a lifeguard.
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Obviously, that's kind of makes a lot of sense.
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So became a lifeguard, lifeguard instructor, uh, water safety instructor, and then an instructor trainer.
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Um, so I've run a lot of different pools from or facilities such as swimming pools.
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I've worked at YMCA's, school districts, park and rack facilities.
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I've been in charge of lakefront uh facilities, man-made lakes.
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Um, so I've had a big small community water parks type of things.
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So I've had a lot of experience running and operating facilities from a management standpoint, but also technical standpoint as well.
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Um, I'm happy that I'm an AFO instructor.
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Um, I know you're an instructor for a lot of things.
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We were talking about that ahead of time.
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You know, we're all about educating people how to do things safely.
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So that's a big part.
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Um, I got involved on a national level back in '96, going to my first national aquatic conference with NRPA and National Aquatic Management School, and really just got really excited about it.
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So I think that was kind of my start where I was outside of a community area.
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I have a degree, a bachelor's degree in um recreational management from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.
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And, you know, I at first I went there and I was going to be Julie the cruise director and I was going to be on a cruise ship.
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And then I found out you don't get any sleep if you do that.
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So I need my sleep, so that wasn't going to happen.
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Um, but went into park and rec.
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I've done various park and recreation jobs from manager of recreation services to a supervisor, um, aquatics director, parks and rec director.
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And then back in the early 2000s, 2004, um, I actually kind of took a turn and I went to work with association management.
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So I was the deputy director for the Wisconsin Park and Rec Association.
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And I was really excited because I could really make a difference in everybody's communities.
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You know, you work within your own and you make such a big difference.
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But I thought it was really neat that I could help other people.
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And then got really involved on the national level, um, was involved with the National Recreation and Park Association.
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I still am, like I said, as an AFO instructor.
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Um, I also own my own business where it's called Safety First Aquatics, where I do expert witness work for fatal and non-fatal drownings, um, teach the course, do a lot of different educational offerings.
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I think I do over a hundred different topics for conference presentations or webinars type of stuff.
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And then in 2011, um, I was blessed to be able to be one of the first people to help set up the association of aquatic professionals.
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And kind of, you know, that's where we're gonna get into in a little bit and talk about the association.
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It's where you've been for 20 years now.
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Yep.
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So in 2013, I actually got hired as the full-time, the first full-time executive director.
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Um, for the first two years, I volunteered my services.
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So I basically did everything I'm doing now, but as a volunteer for two years.
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And I was like, ooh, I can't do this in a full-time job and own my own business.
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Um, but then when we created the position, I was blessed, our board uh entrusted me with that position, and I've been there ever since.
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Um, but the association has grown astronomically since 2011.
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It's it's just amazing how much we've grown from our first conference of having like 40 exhibitors there and a little over a hundred some attendees to last year.
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We had almost 1,300 attendees and 130 companies exhibiting.
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So it's really grown a lot.
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But a lot of the things that we do, um, we try to be that one-stop shop for aquatic professionals.
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So if you're an aquatic professional and you need you have a question, you need an answer to, you need a contact, we get emails every day on just trying to get people to help them out.
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You know, they might need an RFP for something, they might need a contact to order some equipment, they might have a question on a pool code in their area or um, you know, some information that they need to present to their board.
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We, you know, we know how that goes.
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Boards don't always like to support everything that we do.
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So, how can we get them more information for that?
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So that's part of what we do.
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And then we also have about a hundred different webinars that people can take.
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We've been blessed, we've had so many people that have volunteered their services, um, or some that have gotten a small stipend to do educational webinars for us.
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So we have those.
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We have our annual conference and exposition, which we'll talk about at the end of this.
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But then we also have we give out life jackets, swim lesson grants, um, and we really try to provide people with, again, that information.
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Um, we have an amazing aquatic professional designation um that was developed quite a few years ago.
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Um, and people, you know, a big part of that was my husband is a firefighter paramedic.
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He's been one for he retired in 2019.
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But we'd go places, and you're gonna maybe chuckle at this, but they'd say, Oh, what do you do for a living?
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And he'd be like, Oh, well, I'm a firefighter paramedic, which is amazing.
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I'm not saying it's not, but he'd go through that and it was the ooze and the ahs, and oh, what do you do?
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Oh, I run aquatic facilities.
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And it was like, oh, you have fun all day, you swim all day.
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And people just don't understand the complexities of running and operating aquatic facilities, the safety concerns that you're running a facility, and I'm sure you've been there, you leave for the night, and that phone rings.
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Oh my gosh, you know what happened while I was gone, or what happened when I wasn't there, and those types of things.
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So we really wanted to bring that professionalism to aquatics.
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And we've had a lot of people take advantage of that.
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And it's a process you can go to through, you can apply for it, and then you finalize all the different things.
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And we're really lucky now we've transferred all of our educational stuff and our AQP over to a Learn Upon platform.
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So we have our own page.
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Uh, you can go there, you can sign up for the AQP, and there's four different ways to get it.
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Actually, there's now five because we're providing people an opportunity to do all the pre-stuff online and then come to the conference and take the exam with us at the conference.
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So we're kind of, yes, we're trying to make it as easy as possible.
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You go through our three levels of our director's school that we have.
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We have three years of our director's school.
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If they complete all three of those, it contains all of that knowledge and information they need for the AQP.
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So they can either renew it or they get their initial one um free of charge for that.
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So we're really trying to expand on that educational stuff, and that's really what we're doing now.
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You guys have, I mean, between the website and the conference, I mean, the training is phenomenal.
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You know, the well, you're you're one of our you're one of our uh speakers this.
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Um what where are some of the other like is there anything else like if they somebody becomes a member of the AOAP, what what else is there involved?
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I know there's the conference, they can register for that, of course, member versus non-member rates and stuff like that.
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What anything else?
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Yeah, we have tons of member benefits.
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So, first of all, we keep our memberships as reasonable as possible.
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I mean, an individual red membership right now for a year is only$55.
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That's a commercial consultant membership is$135.
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So, really comparing those to other organizations, it's really extremely reasonable to do that.
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Um, some of those benefits, everybody and anybody can sign up for our AOAP weekly.
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So we have a weekly newsletter that comes out every Wednesday, and we try to keep up with new things going on in the industry, things happening in just aquatics, codes, pool updates, job postings.
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I've seen that.
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Brand new job board.
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Have you checked out our brand new job board?
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It's amazing.
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Um, we were blessed to work with um Madi uh Eliahoo, who was wonderful in assisting us with that and putting helping us put that into play.
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But you can go there now, you can set up your own account and you can do a watch for different jobs.
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You can apply right there.
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Um, we've got a lot of different options for organizations.
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But as a member, you get a member rate for posting jobs.
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As a member, you can apply for our life jacket grant.
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You can apply for our swim lesson grants for people for it within your communities.
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Um, for the life jacket grant, if you get it, you have to provide those like Coast Guard approved life jackets during your swim lessons to train people how to use them properly and safely, but then also make them available during your open swims, free of charge for anybody that's a weaker non-swimmer.
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And we encourage people to require those things.
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Um, again, layers of protection.
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A life jacket does not take the place of constant, direct, uninterrupted supervision at all times, but that's a part of it.
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You get discounts on our webinars.
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So for a member, those webinars that all come with CEUs, continuing education units.
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They're$20 for members,$30 for non-members.
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Um, you can sign up for packages of them.
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Um, and again, you can use those CEUs for recertification of a lot of things.
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You can use them towards a lot of educational requirements that you might have for other things.
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And we do, we are working on a new partner, insurance partner.
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Uh, we had an aquatic, you know, it's really hard.
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You own your own business to try and get insurance for aquatic professionals.
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Um, fingers crossed, I think we might have a new aquatic partner for insurance coming up shortly for members of AOAP, um, where members would get a discount and they're really their prices are very reasonable, comparatively speaking, to what we're seeing for other insurance companies.
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So I'm hoping by the end of the year, beginning of next year, we will have that all in place.
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Um we do, we offer our commercial members now.
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We've got a buyer's guide.
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So if you sign up as a commercial member or consultant member, you get put in the regular buyer's guide.
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That's available to everybody.
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And then we have a members only buyer's guide.
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So if you're a member of the association, now you have access to that members only information.
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So that provides you all the contact information for those companies, what they do.
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And then those companies have an opportunity to do additional advertising with us as well.
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So we provide advertising opportunities, sponsorship opportunities.
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And then obviously, you mentioned getting$100 off the conference rate for just an attendee if you're a member.
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So your membership's$55.
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You get$100 off the conference, so you're still$45 ahead.
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Uh commercial members are the same way.
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They get member rates for exhibiting at our conference.
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And then again, the ability to um do more stuff within the space that we do.
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Um, so those are kind of some of those things that we've got.
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We've got a free drowning prevention campaign.
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It's called Respect the Water Drowning Prevention Campaign.
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We've been super blessed to work with a lot of Olympic swimmers.
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We worked with Matt Beyondi.
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Amazing to work with.
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Unfortunately, that was during our virtual time where he was supposed to be our keynote in St.
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Pete's and we had to go virtual that year.
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Uh, or no, but not in St.
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Pete's when we were supposed to be in Reno our first year.
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So in 2021, we were virtual and I didn't get to meet him in person.
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So that was kind of a bummer for me.
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But he did our overall PSA Respect the Water program for all of our overall program.
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Um, we worked with Elizabeth Beisel.
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We did three PSAs.
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We've got a water watcher by AOAP program.
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So there's three portions of it: the importance of wearing a life jacket.
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Elizabeth did our PSA, and then we have a book.
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We actually have a book that you can go on, a children's book, go online, Amazon, and purchase it.
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We have the importance of backyard pool safely safety.
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And that we did um, I should have looked it this up.
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That was either uh SummerSanders or um Dana Vollmer.
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I can't remember which one did which.
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And then we have one as um the importance of wearing a life jacket.
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So we've got three of them, and they tie in with those three PSAs.
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Uh, you can download that free drowning prevention program.
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You can print it out.
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There's PowerPoint presentations, there's instructor's guides, it's in Spanish as well.
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So we did that, and again, all free you can download other than the books from Amazon.
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We also have Water Watcher by AOAP cards that people can order.
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We get thousands of them ordered each year now.
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Um, I have uh I live in an HOA community in Arizona now in Queen Creek, and I dropped off 50 of them on lanyards down by our pool uh here so that they have them hook on a hook.
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When people get there, we encourage them to put one on, put it back so they're borrowing them and using them, hopefully.
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But we just have so many things that are going on um that are kind of I think pretty amazing in the short time that we've been around.
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Yeah, you guys have been done amazing things, the education, the webinars are nice for the members and adding to the inventory.
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And I know you guys are still adding to that inventory um of available webinars, either live or recorded, that they can watch, and that gives them more and more content.
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And there's not a lot of organizations that have done that because you got to make it available where people can work it around their work schedule because everybody's so very busy.
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And so that's a smart way to go.
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Yeah, and I think we've found that some people like doing it live, but a lot of them for doing those on-demand ones make it a lot better.
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And again, we've been truly blessed because a lot of professionals have volunteered their services to help us out to provide that educational platform for people.
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Um, and we've got we're constantly adding new ones.
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Um, every month we're adding a couple new ones, and hopefully we'll continue to be able to continue to do that.
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Um, and then you know, we'll get into talking about our conference, which is one of our biggest education.
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So, where can people find you guys on online?
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Okay, so they can go to www.aquaticprose.org.
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So aquaticprose um dot org.
00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:35.680
And then if you want to, that'll give you all the access to everything we're doing, memberships, signing up for the free newsletter.
00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:42.400
Our newsletter, if I didn't mention, goes out to over 28,400 plus individuals every Wednesday.
00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:46.559
Um, we do sell advertising in that, that keeps it free.
00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:55.839
So when you link, you know, when you get it in the mail and you see some advertising in it, or every once in a while you get e-glass that we sell advertising, and that's how we keep that for free.
00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:06.400
Um, but if they do that, and then if you want to get to the conference stuff, all you have to do is uh scroll over the educational link, click on the conference exposition.
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.279
We have letters you can download to convince your supervisor to let you go.
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:22.799
There is a conference registration booklet that just gives the title and the speaker for the sessions that are going on, and then all the hotel information, transportation information.
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:26.720
So we have tons of stuff, and I am always available.
00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:30.240
Uh Julene at aquaticprose.org.
00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:35.759
Um 262-894-9772.
00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.119
Give me a call if you have any questions in the aquatics industry.
00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:42.480
If I don't know it, I will point you in the right direction.
00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:43.359
Awesome.
00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:47.519
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Julene.
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:48.960
Thank you for having me.
00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:49.359
This is great.
00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:51.920
I was excited to interview you.
00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:53.839
Thank you so much for being on today.
00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:55.039
You have a great day.
00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:56.000
You too.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:57.119
Thank you.
00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:02.720
Thanks for diving in today with the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.000
Be sure to follow us on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page.
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:13.759
And feel free to rate, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast so more aquatic professionals like you can learn about the show.
00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:19.279
We appreciate it, and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:17.120
Welcome, pool guys, and gals to the Let's Talk About Pools podcast, where your host, Lauren Broom, will take a splash into many topics in the pool industry to educate all aquatic professionals.
00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:20.399
Listen in, and you just might be surprised what you'll learn.
00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.640
So let's jump right in.
00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.560
Welcome everybody today to the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:39.759
And on episode 83, I interviewed Julene Hefter with AOAP, the Association of Aquatic Professionals.
00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:56.640
And we talked about running aquatic facilities and what the AOAP has to offer our pool pros, especially those running like big facilities and that kind of thing, what resources, education, networking, and support they have to offer to those pool pros.
00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:04.719
I want to say thank you to our strategic podcast sponsor, Pool Brain, as always, for helping support education again.
00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:08.079
And this is the free education through the podcast.
00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.599
So I call it podcast education to our pool industry.
00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:12.560
Thank you so much.
00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:16.799
And please listen in to what Pool Brain has to also offer to our pool pros.
00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:20.719
And then we'll jump dive right into our episode.
00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:27.840
Thank you very much to all my listeners for almost full five seasons now with the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:33.840
I talked to so many customers that are using this app for this feature, this app for this, and this app for this.
00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:35.680
I'm said, well, why don't you just use Pool Brain?
00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:36.400
Because we can do it all.
00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:38.079
I absolutely love Pool Brain.
00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:40.079
There's not a better app on the market.
00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:43.519
We've tested a ton of different ones and we landed on Pool Brain for a reason.
00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:46.159
We have well over 6,000 pools on Fool Brain.
00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:50.319
We've been on a few other platforms in the past, and this one's been by far the best one we've been on.
00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:57.120
Just very intuitive and easy to use for pool professionals and very obviously made for pool professionals.
00:01:57.200 --> 00:01:58.400
And I really love it.
00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.519
I love we love full brain, baby.
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:11.919
It is quite literally what I believe the future of the industry is going to be when you have a CRM focused for our industry for the service professionals.
00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:13.919
I believe that everybody wins.
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:40.319
She's the executive director and the CEO of the Association of Aquatic Professionals, also known as AOAP.
00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:43.599
Welcome today to the episode, Julene.
00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:44.639
Thank you, Lauren.
00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:46.080
I'm really happy to be here.
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:47.840
I'm happy to have you too.
00:02:48.319 --> 00:03:06.080
So tell our audience a little bit about you and your background in the pool industry, and then a little bit about the Association of Aquatic Professionals and what it is to be a member and what you guys have to offer as an organization in the pool industry.
00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:07.680
Sure, I'd love to.
00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.599
I probably have similar background to a lot of people in aquatics.
00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:13.759
You know, I started swimming when I was five years old.
00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:16.719
My mom said you could either take swim lessons or ballet.
00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:18.159
I was all in the pool.
00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:26.479
So I started swimming competitively right away, swam throughout grade school, high school, college, did master's swimming.
00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:28.719
Um, so did all of those type of things.
00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:30.319
Um, I was a backstroker.
00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:36.639
So um that was my exciting event that I always did, made it to state a handful of years in nationals in college.
00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:38.159
Uh, so really enjoyed that.
00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:41.120
But when I was getting into high school, I wanted to become a lifeguard.
00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:43.919
Obviously, that's kind of makes a lot of sense.
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:50.319
So became a lifeguard, lifeguard instructor, uh, water safety instructor, and then an instructor trainer.
00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:56.560
Um, so I've run a lot of different pools from or facilities such as swimming pools.
00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:00.879
I've worked at YMCA's, school districts, park and rack facilities.
00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:06.080
I've been in charge of lakefront uh facilities, man-made lakes.
00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:10.479
Um, so I've had a big small community water parks type of things.
00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:18.800
So I've had a lot of experience running and operating facilities from a management standpoint, but also technical standpoint as well.
00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:22.240
Um, I'm happy that I'm an AFO instructor.
00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:24.399
Um, I know you're an instructor for a lot of things.
00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:26.079
We were talking about that ahead of time.
00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.279
You know, we're all about educating people how to do things safely.
00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:30.639
So that's a big part.
00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:43.839
Um, I got involved on a national level back in '96, going to my first national aquatic conference with NRPA and National Aquatic Management School, and really just got really excited about it.
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:49.839
So I think that was kind of my start where I was outside of a community area.
00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:58.319
I have a degree, a bachelor's degree in um recreational management from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.
00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:03.920
And, you know, I at first I went there and I was going to be Julie the cruise director and I was going to be on a cruise ship.
00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.720
And then I found out you don't get any sleep if you do that.
00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:09.199
So I need my sleep, so that wasn't going to happen.
00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:10.959
Um, but went into park and rec.
00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:22.480
I've done various park and recreation jobs from manager of recreation services to a supervisor, um, aquatics director, parks and rec director.
00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:31.600
And then back in the early 2000s, 2004, um, I actually kind of took a turn and I went to work with association management.
00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:35.439
So I was the deputy director for the Wisconsin Park and Rec Association.
00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:40.160
And I was really excited because I could really make a difference in everybody's communities.
00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:43.199
You know, you work within your own and you make such a big difference.
00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:46.160
But I thought it was really neat that I could help other people.
00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:53.519
And then got really involved on the national level, um, was involved with the National Recreation and Park Association.
00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:56.639
I still am, like I said, as an AFO instructor.
00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:07.759
Um, I also own my own business where it's called Safety First Aquatics, where I do expert witness work for fatal and non-fatal drownings, um, teach the course, do a lot of different educational offerings.
00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:14.639
I think I do over a hundred different topics for conference presentations or webinars type of stuff.
00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:24.879
And then in 2011, um, I was blessed to be able to be one of the first people to help set up the association of aquatic professionals.
00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:31.279
And kind of, you know, that's where we're gonna get into in a little bit and talk about the association.
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:34.160
It's where you've been for 20 years now.
00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:34.800
Yep.
00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:41.360
So in 2013, I actually got hired as the full-time, the first full-time executive director.
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.240
Um, for the first two years, I volunteered my services.
00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:48.560
So I basically did everything I'm doing now, but as a volunteer for two years.
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:52.879
And I was like, ooh, I can't do this in a full-time job and own my own business.
00:06:53.040 --> 00:07:01.040
Um, but then when we created the position, I was blessed, our board uh entrusted me with that position, and I've been there ever since.
00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:06.240
Um, but the association has grown astronomically since 2011.
00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:15.600
It's it's just amazing how much we've grown from our first conference of having like 40 exhibitors there and a little over a hundred some attendees to last year.
00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:21.360
We had almost 1,300 attendees and 130 companies exhibiting.
00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:22.800
So it's really grown a lot.
00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:29.680
But a lot of the things that we do, um, we try to be that one-stop shop for aquatic professionals.
00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:41.519
So if you're an aquatic professional and you need you have a question, you need an answer to, you need a contact, we get emails every day on just trying to get people to help them out.
00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:55.600
You know, they might need an RFP for something, they might need a contact to order some equipment, they might have a question on a pool code in their area or um, you know, some information that they need to present to their board.
00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:57.279
We, you know, we know how that goes.
00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:00.240
Boards don't always like to support everything that we do.
00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:03.040
So, how can we get them more information for that?
00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.279
So that's part of what we do.
00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:10.160
And then we also have about a hundred different webinars that people can take.
00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:19.920
We've been blessed, we've had so many people that have volunteered their services, um, or some that have gotten a small stipend to do educational webinars for us.
00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:21.120
So we have those.
00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:25.680
We have our annual conference and exposition, which we'll talk about at the end of this.
00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:36.399
But then we also have we give out life jackets, swim lesson grants, um, and we really try to provide people with, again, that information.
00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:43.600
Um, we have an amazing aquatic professional designation um that was developed quite a few years ago.
00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:50.080
Um, and people, you know, a big part of that was my husband is a firefighter paramedic.
00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:52.879
He's been one for he retired in 2019.
00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:57.919
But we'd go places, and you're gonna maybe chuckle at this, but they'd say, Oh, what do you do for a living?
00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:01.360
And he'd be like, Oh, well, I'm a firefighter paramedic, which is amazing.
00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:07.600
I'm not saying it's not, but he'd go through that and it was the ooze and the ahs, and oh, what do you do?
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:09.679
Oh, I run aquatic facilities.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.960
And it was like, oh, you have fun all day, you swim all day.
00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:26.159
And people just don't understand the complexities of running and operating aquatic facilities, the safety concerns that you're running a facility, and I'm sure you've been there, you leave for the night, and that phone rings.
00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:32.320
Oh my gosh, you know what happened while I was gone, or what happened when I wasn't there, and those types of things.
00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:37.519
So we really wanted to bring that professionalism to aquatics.
00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:40.799
And we've had a lot of people take advantage of that.
00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:47.919
And it's a process you can go to through, you can apply for it, and then you finalize all the different things.
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:55.279
And we're really lucky now we've transferred all of our educational stuff and our AQP over to a Learn Upon platform.
00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:57.039
So we have our own page.
00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:01.679
Uh, you can go there, you can sign up for the AQP, and there's four different ways to get it.
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:12.399
Actually, there's now five because we're providing people an opportunity to do all the pre-stuff online and then come to the conference and take the exam with us at the conference.
00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.399
So we're kind of, yes, we're trying to make it as easy as possible.
00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:20.159
You go through our three levels of our director's school that we have.
00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:22.559
We have three years of our director's school.
00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:29.279
If they complete all three of those, it contains all of that knowledge and information they need for the AQP.
00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:35.759
So they can either renew it or they get their initial one um free of charge for that.
00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:41.679
So we're really trying to expand on that educational stuff, and that's really what we're doing now.
00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:48.799
You guys have, I mean, between the website and the conference, I mean, the training is phenomenal.
00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:52.960
You know, the well, you're you're one of our you're one of our uh speakers this.
00:10:53.519 --> 00:11:03.360
Um what where are some of the other like is there anything else like if they somebody becomes a member of the AOAP, what what else is there involved?
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:10.559
I know there's the conference, they can register for that, of course, member versus non-member rates and stuff like that.
00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:12.240
What anything else?
00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:14.960
Yeah, we have tons of member benefits.
00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:18.879
So, first of all, we keep our memberships as reasonable as possible.
00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:22.960
I mean, an individual red membership right now for a year is only$55.
00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:27.039
That's a commercial consultant membership is$135.
00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:33.440
So, really comparing those to other organizations, it's really extremely reasonable to do that.
00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:38.720
Um, some of those benefits, everybody and anybody can sign up for our AOAP weekly.
00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:51.039
So we have a weekly newsletter that comes out every Wednesday, and we try to keep up with new things going on in the industry, things happening in just aquatics, codes, pool updates, job postings.
00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:51.919
I've seen that.
00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:54.080
Brand new job board.
00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:56.320
Have you checked out our brand new job board?
00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:57.360
It's amazing.
00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:06.799
Um, we were blessed to work with um Madi uh Eliahoo, who was wonderful in assisting us with that and putting helping us put that into play.
00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:11.679
But you can go there now, you can set up your own account and you can do a watch for different jobs.
00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:13.440
You can apply right there.
00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.960
Um, we've got a lot of different options for organizations.
00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:20.960
But as a member, you get a member rate for posting jobs.
00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.080
As a member, you can apply for our life jacket grant.
00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:28.799
You can apply for our swim lesson grants for people for it within your communities.
00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:45.279
Um, for the life jacket grant, if you get it, you have to provide those like Coast Guard approved life jackets during your swim lessons to train people how to use them properly and safely, but then also make them available during your open swims, free of charge for anybody that's a weaker non-swimmer.
00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:48.399
And we encourage people to require those things.
00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:50.240
Um, again, layers of protection.
00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:57.519
A life jacket does not take the place of constant, direct, uninterrupted supervision at all times, but that's a part of it.
00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.080
You get discounts on our webinars.
00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:05.120
So for a member, those webinars that all come with CEUs, continuing education units.
00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:09.039
They're$20 for members,$30 for non-members.
00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:12.159
Um, you can sign up for packages of them.
00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:16.879
Um, and again, you can use those CEUs for recertification of a lot of things.
00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:23.039
You can use them towards a lot of educational requirements that you might have for other things.
00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:26.559
And we do, we are working on a new partner, insurance partner.
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.440
Uh, we had an aquatic, you know, it's really hard.
00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.679
You own your own business to try and get insurance for aquatic professionals.
00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:50.799
Um, fingers crossed, I think we might have a new aquatic partner for insurance coming up shortly for members of AOAP, um, where members would get a discount and they're really their prices are very reasonable, comparatively speaking, to what we're seeing for other insurance companies.
00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:55.279
So I'm hoping by the end of the year, beginning of next year, we will have that all in place.
00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:59.279
Um we do, we offer our commercial members now.
00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:01.120
We've got a buyer's guide.
00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:06.159
So if you sign up as a commercial member or consultant member, you get put in the regular buyer's guide.
00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:08.000
That's available to everybody.
00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:11.120
And then we have a members only buyer's guide.
00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:16.000
So if you're a member of the association, now you have access to that members only information.
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.039
So that provides you all the contact information for those companies, what they do.
00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:26.879
And then those companies have an opportunity to do additional advertising with us as well.
00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:32.000
So we provide advertising opportunities, sponsorship opportunities.
00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:39.039
And then obviously, you mentioned getting$100 off the conference rate for just an attendee if you're a member.
00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:40.799
So your membership's$55.
00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:45.279
You get$100 off the conference, so you're still$45 ahead.
00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:47.360
Uh commercial members are the same way.
00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.320
They get member rates for exhibiting at our conference.
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:57.919
And then again, the ability to um do more stuff within the space that we do.
00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:00.559
Um, so those are kind of some of those things that we've got.
00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:02.879
We've got a free drowning prevention campaign.
00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:05.840
It's called Respect the Water Drowning Prevention Campaign.
00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.919
We've been super blessed to work with a lot of Olympic swimmers.
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.600
We worked with Matt Beyondi.
00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:13.679
Amazing to work with.
00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.000
Unfortunately, that was during our virtual time where he was supposed to be our keynote in St.
00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:20.159
Pete's and we had to go virtual that year.
00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:22.000
Uh, or no, but not in St.
00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:24.960
Pete's when we were supposed to be in Reno our first year.
00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:28.799
So in 2021, we were virtual and I didn't get to meet him in person.
00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:30.480
So that was kind of a bummer for me.
00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:36.879
But he did our overall PSA Respect the Water program for all of our overall program.
00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:40.399
Um, we worked with Elizabeth Beisel.
00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:42.559
We did three PSAs.
00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:45.120
We've got a water watcher by AOAP program.
00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:48.960
So there's three portions of it: the importance of wearing a life jacket.
00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:51.519
Elizabeth did our PSA, and then we have a book.
00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:56.480
We actually have a book that you can go on, a children's book, go online, Amazon, and purchase it.
00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:00.559
We have the importance of backyard pool safely safety.
00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:05.440
And that we did um, I should have looked it this up.
00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:10.080
That was either uh SummerSanders or um Dana Vollmer.
00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:11.679
I can't remember which one did which.
00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:15.759
And then we have one as um the importance of wearing a life jacket.
00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:19.519
So we've got three of them, and they tie in with those three PSAs.
00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:22.960
Uh, you can download that free drowning prevention program.
00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:24.320
You can print it out.
00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:30.320
There's PowerPoint presentations, there's instructor's guides, it's in Spanish as well.
00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:36.080
So we did that, and again, all free you can download other than the books from Amazon.
00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:40.159
We also have Water Watcher by AOAP cards that people can order.
00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:43.440
We get thousands of them ordered each year now.
00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:54.960
Um, I have uh I live in an HOA community in Arizona now in Queen Creek, and I dropped off 50 of them on lanyards down by our pool uh here so that they have them hook on a hook.
00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:00.799
When people get there, we encourage them to put one on, put it back so they're borrowing them and using them, hopefully.
00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:08.880
But we just have so many things that are going on um that are kind of I think pretty amazing in the short time that we've been around.
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:18.799
Yeah, you guys have been done amazing things, the education, the webinars are nice for the members and adding to the inventory.
00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:31.119
And I know you guys are still adding to that inventory um of available webinars, either live or recorded, that they can watch, and that gives them more and more content.
00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:39.920
And there's not a lot of organizations that have done that because you got to make it available where people can work it around their work schedule because everybody's so very busy.
00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.160
And so that's a smart way to go.
00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:50.079
Yeah, and I think we've found that some people like doing it live, but a lot of them for doing those on-demand ones make it a lot better.
00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:59.279
And again, we've been truly blessed because a lot of professionals have volunteered their services to help us out to provide that educational platform for people.
00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:03.680
Um, and we've got we're constantly adding new ones.
00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:08.880
Um, every month we're adding a couple new ones, and hopefully we'll continue to be able to continue to do that.
00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:13.680
Um, and then you know, we'll get into talking about our conference, which is one of our biggest education.
00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.279
So, where can people find you guys on online?
00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:23.839
Okay, so they can go to www.aquaticprose.org.
00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:29.440
So aquaticprose um dot org.
00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:35.680
And then if you want to, that'll give you all the access to everything we're doing, memberships, signing up for the free newsletter.
00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:42.400
Our newsletter, if I didn't mention, goes out to over 28,400 plus individuals every Wednesday.
00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:46.559
Um, we do sell advertising in that, that keeps it free.
00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:55.839
So when you link, you know, when you get it in the mail and you see some advertising in it, or every once in a while you get e-glass that we sell advertising, and that's how we keep that for free.
00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:06.400
Um, but if they do that, and then if you want to get to the conference stuff, all you have to do is uh scroll over the educational link, click on the conference exposition.
00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.279
We have letters you can download to convince your supervisor to let you go.
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:22.799
There is a conference registration booklet that just gives the title and the speaker for the sessions that are going on, and then all the hotel information, transportation information.
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:26.720
So we have tons of stuff, and I am always available.
00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:30.240
Uh Julene at aquaticprose.org.
00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:35.759
Um 262-894-9772.
00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.119
Give me a call if you have any questions in the aquatics industry.
00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:42.480
If I don't know it, I will point you in the right direction.
00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:43.359
Awesome.
00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:47.519
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Julene.
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:48.960
Thank you for having me.
00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:49.359
This is great.
00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:51.920
I was excited to interview you.
00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:53.839
Thank you so much for being on today.
00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:55.039
You have a great day.
00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:56.000
You too.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:57.119
Thank you.
00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:02.720
Thanks for diving in today with the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.000
Be sure to follow us on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page.
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:13.759
And feel free to rate, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast so more aquatic professionals like you can learn about the show.
00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:19.279
We appreciate it, and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Let's Talk About Pools podcast.
