What separates Whitlow Enterprises LLC Smoke School from the other smoke school providers? Why are we so much better? One Word- CustomerService
Uncle Buck Says, In my humble opinion as a scholar and a gentleman. The other smoke school providers are full of CHICKEN $##$. This is just my opinion and everybody's got one.
HOW Y’ALL ARE ?
As my Dear
Ole Daddy used to say- "Attitude is everything". The Whitlow team of employees
loves smoke school. We are all dedicated to 100% customer service. We love smoke
school- this is not just another job. Smoke school is fun for us and you will
love us- as the Cajun Chef from Denham Springs Louisiana,
Justin Wilson used to say- "I
garontee!!!!". It is called smoke school. It is not called smoke testing.
Other providers treat you like a herd of cows or like an old hound dog- they
just say sit- read. they don't even believe in giving you a treat- just sit and
read. When you say smoke school the word school implies that training takes
place. I paid a great deal of money for Annie, my million dollar bird dog. Her
trainer invested many hours in training. Annie is a smart dog. She will sit
outside the duck blind and watch the sky for a duck. Then she will look at you
and wag her tail waiting for you to shoot the duck, even if the duck is in a bunch all by
himself. When you shoot the duck and the duck falls in the ice cold water, Annie
don't even ax no questions.
She
jump into the cold water, trip trip trip on top of the water fetch dat' duck,
trip trip trip back on top of the water and bring dat' dead duck back to you, and lay it on the
ground at your feet- down there by the golden fiddle.
Then
she dress dat' duck and cook a pot of duck gumbo. Now Annie is a smart dog and
she do what she trained to do. I am embarrassed tho'. I have not taught dat' dog
how to swim yet. I am a great trainer. One day I am going to train Annie on how
to talk and how to read the newspaper out loud. Then I am going to train her on
how to go to the refrigerator and get me a beer. I garontee!!!
I remember one fine frigid cloudy miserable morning we were out at the duck blind. Along came a duck in a bunch all by himself. I got out my electronic duck caller and called the duck and he flew on down and landed next to my giant 6- foot duck decoy. I raise my twice barrel 10 gauge shootemup shotgun and fired both barrels at dat' duck. I look at Annie and she wag her tail at me. I said Annie you have just witnessed a bone a fide miracle. Did you see dat' dead duck jump up and fly off? Annie said that I must have got some mud in the barrel.
Now that is a well trained dog- ain't no doubt about it. Now that is funny. I don't care who you are- that is funny. If that ain't funny, turn off your computer and go home. Annie can also go into a field and spot a covey of quail or a peasant. Just the other day a young boy came walking across the front yard and Annie treed him and pointed him out. I walked over and I ax this boy if he had a quail in his pocket. He said no. I ax him if he had quail for supper and the boy said no. Then I ax him what his name was and he said Bob White. Annie goes bird hunting every time we go into a field. She sticks out her tail and points at the birds and waits for you to shoot them. They flush like a covey of quail and --- well don't bring Dick Cheney with you.
The moral of the story is we here at Whitlow think it is stupid (stupid is is stupid does) to let you take a certification test without giving you training before the test. It would be like taking a mutt out of the dog pound and putting him in the duck blind. We take the time to conduct training before each day of testing. For a lot of you this will be a review. I have had several customers from other smoke school providers say that they had been taking the test and have never been trained on how to take the test. After 20 years they finally leaned how to do it right the first time.
In my humble opinion, smoke school attendees experience difficulty passing other provider’s certification test and develop a history of smoke school dread and testing stress because of inadequate pre-test training, failure to set up optimal conditions for reading opacity, and failure to compensate for zero drift in the opacity monitor. Everybody knows that it is more difficult to pass a test if you are under duress. I began conducting smoke school in 1984 as an employee for the Louisiana DEQ. Before that I had to take smoke school so I could perform air quality inspections. I suffered- I have walked a mile or so in those shoes, been there, done that and took a picture of it. Our goal is to provide as much ole fashioned customer service as humanly possible during one lifetime. If you are not willing to provide customer service then you cannot be a member of the Whitlow Team. The customer service starts when we get your email or when we answer the phone by the third ring. We do not use no push the 9 button for this or the 3 button for that. We don't use no voice mail- if you get voice mail hang up and call later. The customer service does not stop when we mail you your certificates within 3 weeks of training. We are always here to answer any questions that you have in your field of dreams. You would not like it any other way. Come to Whitlow, Expect the best, and you will not be disappointed. On my word as a gentleman and a scholar. Bubba Gump.
I have heard through the grapevine that other smoke school providers judge how effective their EPA Method 9 certification test was by how many of ya'll failed the test. The other guys say, "Well we gave the test 33 times over 3 days and 50% of them flunked it each time they took the test. Ten people could not pass after 3 days. We had to go to Denver so we left. We did not give them a refund." They say that not all people can read smoke. I say Bull- anyone with reasonable vision who can operate a complicated plant process or perform as an E H S coordinator or a state DEQ inspector can read smoke very accurately and pass a certification test with a reasonable amount of simple training. I would rather do the job right the first time and we can all go to Denver and go fishing.
I think they got the shoe on the wrong foot, it is as plain as the nose on your face. The word school implies that training takes place. We are not M I T and we are not Yale or Harvard and we don't have no quota system and we don't grade on no curve. To us here at Whitlow, we use the test to verify how effective the training was. If you fail the test then our training was a failure. We think that given proper training you ought to pass on the first run of the day. Once in a while I see someone take it 3 times before passing. I am not promising that all of you will pass the first time. We increase the training and we perfect the simplified testing methods- we don't cheat, we don't give clues, and we are audited by the EPA and we have to comply by their rules. Come to Whitlow expecting to learn something and expecting to pass, but just in case- plan to stay until you do pass, plan to stay until 3PM. We will stay until you do pass. If for some reason, you can't stay, then you can come to any other location at no extra charge.
I have heard rumors form our customers that other Smoke School Providers spend more effort scanning the crowd proctoring for cheaters than the effort they put out conducing adequate training so you don't develope the cheating habit. I have heard that they walk through and tear up your test paper if they catch you looking on another persons paper. To me, this is treating you like a child, and we are all adults, the last I checked.
We do monitor the crowd in an effort to make sure you:
are learning something and demonstrate that you understand the training
are reading the smoke yourself and not relying on your neighbor
are reading the smoke when you are supposed to- read when you hear the word read and read for 3 or 4 seconds, don't look back, don't second guess, trust your first impression
are recording your answer in the correct spot on the form in correct increments of 5%
If you get confused or lost, please raise your hand or yell out, HELP!!!
The objective of a Whitlow Smoke School is to train you to read opacity in the field. To know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you know that you know how to read smoke and dust correctly. If you do cheat or look at someone else's paper, then I guarantee that it will be like a rattlesnake and bite you when you least expect it. This is your job and you need to give it 110% and learn how to do it correctly. If you cheat, you are only hurting yourself. Since I started smoke school in 1984 I have noticed lots of people in lots of locations sitting close together and taking a group test. Usually if one of them misses an answer by more than 15%, all of them in the group fails the test. It is much easier and quicker to pay attention to the training and do it yourself correctly the first time.
I guess this is my calling from God. At one time I wanted to be an evangelist and a preacher able to lay hands on the sick and they be healed. I wanted to save the world, take a few fish and feed the multitude. I wanted to be Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and GI Joe. I wanted to be like Jesus. Hind sight is 20/20. At age 61 I realize my calling is to train. All things work together for good for those who love the Lord. It all started during the Vietnam War on May 8, 1969 when I dropped out of college to sign the dotted line for the Air Force. That is about the only date I can remember, that and 19 hundred 42 when Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. I have Angie's birth date and our anniversary on the email calendar-- I hope.
The Air Force made me a trainer. I did not have any choice. The orders said Airman 1st Class George A Whitlow is a trainer. I trained for the Air Force for 13 years and for the Louisiana DEQ in smoke school for 17 years. When I die put this on my tombstone, "He was a trainer." The Air Force taught me the show and tell method of training and since it has been such a huge part of my life for so many years, all of us here at Whitlow Smoke School abide by the Air Force training steps.
Air Force Training Steps that I learned in 1969:
Tell them the objectives of the training- to learn how to read opacity of smoke and dust for compliance documentation
Explain the training techniques and why it is important to learn them
Explain about the certification test and how it is given
Show them how to do it, demonstrate the smoke school standards- 25, 50, and 75% white and black smoke
Teach them how to narrow down, rule out and select the best answer
Allow them to practice reading smoke and selecting the best answer.
Observe them taking the practice test with supervision to make sure they demonstrate they follow training procedures and understand them
Ask them questions to see if they understand the procedures
Allow them to conduct reading opacity with little or no supervision- the certification test
Grade the certification test to see if they learned something
Allow them to work in the field without supervision until they come back again in 6 months for re-certification
And that is the way it is. That is all I have to say about that except AMEN Brother.
Actual photos of Annie complements of her Annie's breeder and trainer Chris Anders of Thunder Force Kennels
