PHCC Arkansas 2024 Year in Review

December 9, 2024

Hello PHCC Arkansas!

As we reflect on our second year, it has truly been a remarkable one! While election years are typically challenging, this year has exceeded expectations in so many ways.

We began the year with great news from Matthew Winn of the International Code Council, who successfully secured approval from the State of Arkansas to offer a four-hour CEU class for HVAC license renewals. The class, held in October, was well received, and we will be offering another session on December 11th. These courses were initially offered free of charge to first-time attendees. If you need to complete your hours for this year, there is still time to register for the last session. You can sign up at the following link: https://community.phccweb.org/arkansas/home.

In other exciting news, we are in the process of rebuilding our PHCC Arkansas website. The new site will offer a more user-friendly experience, including the ability to make payments directly through the site. We are thrilled about this enhancement! While Nationals has adopted the Versa Pay system, which has been effective but met with some challenges, we are working to streamline the Arkansas billing system to bypass the Versa Pay link. If you’ve received an invoice via Versa Pay, please complete your payment through that link this year. However, for the 2025 billing cycle, you will receive a new email. We’re also excited to announce that membership fees have been significantly reduced: contractor membership is now only $900, and associate, sponsor, and supplier memberships are $600.

Our new website will include all educational resources, some of which you can access directly. The growing apprenticeship program will also have its own link, directing you to a form. Once we receive your submission, we’ll follow up with additional information. Additionally, the cost of both HVAC and plumbing apprenticeship programs has been lowered for members. New hire skill assessment tests are now available for just $25, allowing you to evaluate the knowledge of potential employees. Furthermore, fast-track educational programs are offered to quickly bring service plumbers and HVAC technicians up to speed with accelerated skills training. These and many other offerings from the PHCC Educational Foundation will benefit Arkansas PHCC by helping us keep membership rates affordable. We will be sure to notify you all once the new website is live and fully operational. In the meantime, here is the link: https://www.phccarkansas.org

We are also pleased to report that our associate membership is expanding. We will soon feature the following members and their logos on our new website:

We are grateful to Federated Insurance for their continued support. They have generously provided additional sponsorship funds, which have helped sponsor our News and Brews event and will support future activities. Please be sure to thank your Federated representative for their invaluable contributions.

 Contractor members, we need your support to help expand our contractor membership, which in turn strengthens Arkansas PHCC. If you know of anyone who may be interested in joining, please feel free to reach out.

 Moreover, the Washington, D.C. legislative fly-in was a huge success! Chris West had the privilege of representing Arkansas, engaging with legislators and their staff. This event will take place again in May 2025 as we continue to strengthen and cultivate meaningful relationships on the legislative front.

 PHCC Connect 2024 in Birmingham was another success! If you missed it, you truly missed out. We are proud to announce that Chris West was voted in as Zone 4 Director on the National Board—congratulations to Chris as he takes on this additional role, while continuing to support PHCC Arkansas (he is stuck with us!).  I was also honored to be nominated and elected to the PHCC Educational Foundation Board of Directors. This organization plays a vital role in providing innovative educational programming to help develop the plumbing and HVACR workforce. I will continue to serve PHCC Arkansas in my current capacity as well.

 This year, we’ve sent out several editions of "The ARK" newsletter. If you’re not receiving it, please let us know. With our new website, we will have better capabilities to distribute it directly and archive past editions for easy access.

As you can see, we have been hard at work this year, and we are excited to continue improving our Arkansas chapter.

 Lastly, we would like to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude to each of you for being such exceptional members. You are the heart of Arkansas PHCC, and it is your dedication that enables us to make a meaningful impact on the industry here in Arkansas. As we continue to build PHCC Arkansas from the ground up, we deeply appreciate your patience and support throughout this journey.

We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We eagerly anticipate the continued growth of PHCC Arkansas and are excited for the future of our industry.

Stay tuned for more updates and be sure to follow PHCC Arkansas on social media!

Warm regards,

Brent McDiarmid
President
PHCC Arkansas

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