Page 12 - May/June 2019 W.C.T. Magazine

10nWCT
Iwant to take this opportunity to thank all of the speakers, exhibi- tors and attendees that made the
25th Annual W.C.T. Instructional Seminar such a success.
There is a lot of work that goes into making these event a success and so I’d like to specifically thank some of the individuals that helped pull it off.
I’m going to start with Dirk Shearer who was our MC this time. It would be impossible for me to try and MC the event like I’ve done in the past as I’m running around like a chicken without its head for most of the time taking care of small is- sues before they become big is- sues (like working with the hotel on where the lunch line will be be- cause of other hotel visitors setting their gear in the way). I didn’t even have time to get that many pictures to share with everyone.
Next, I want to thank Jack Am- merman and Tony Siri. These two individuals went out of their way promoting the event to new ex- hibitors and attendees. For those wondering, we had a total of 102 attendees and 13 exhibitors. More importantly, three of the exhibitors were brand new and two of them returned after several years away.
Continuing on, I’d
like to thank again our
Keynote speaker, Dr.
Chris Christensen, and
the other speakers that
shared their knowledge
with the attendees:
Ray Hartley, Don La-
Fountain, Dale Hodg-
son, Angie Giltner, Rick
Shadel, Ridge Guard,
Josh Jones, Dan Glock,
Caleb Wellman, Ron
Krueger, Jack Ammer-
man, and Dirk Shearer.
It takes a lot of time and
effort putting together a
thought out presentation
and submitting the required materi- als for the handouts and continuing education applications.
Lastly, I’d like to thank all of the attendees for making this such a successful event. We once again had a full house for the memorial on Thursday night and I’m glad to say that we didn’t have any new names from 2018 to add to our list.
During the round table, a ques- tion was asked and if memory serves, the answer was Al Krier and Dirk Shearer. The question was, “Who had attended all 25 W.C.T. seminars over the last 25
25th annual w.c.t. SeMinar
Longtime exhibitors Bob May (Bob and Sons
Greg Smith of Tomahawk talking about equipment and new updates to the Tomahawk brand.
years?”
If you think about it, that is quite
an achievement, especially as I’ve been “in the wildlife control busi- ness” for only 20 years. But, then again, knowing these two it isn’t all that surprising. After all, all one has to do is look at how successful their company’s are and it makes sense.
I don’t want anyone misunder- standing me here. I’m not saying that the W.C.T. Seminar is the only reason why these two are both so successful, rather, I’m saying that both of them have invested in continuous training for themselves and their employees, implemented what they felt was beneficial, and it was their willingness to invest in bettering their companies that has helped them become successful.
Not only did we have some of the “old” crowd in attendance, but we also had quite a few new attendees. It was great getting to meet some of them and hear how much they enjoyed the event.
It would be bad form for me not to recognize the exhibitors that donated items for our raffle, so without further ado, I’d like to thank Alan Huot of Wildlife Con- trol Supplies for all of the items (I
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Insurance), Paul Brooker (representing WCS) and Jim Bethell discussing the wildlife control industry.(Bethell’s Wildlife Control)