For the National Association of Tower Erectors, 2015 was a fruitful year. This year saw the establishment of the National Wireless Safety Alliance, which began holding its first certification programs, and the Unmanned Aerial Systems committee created to address the growth of drone use in the tower industry and beyond. So will 2016 be equally as fruitful?
On this week’s episode of Cell Tower News, NATE executive director Todd Schlekeway talked about NATE’s accomplishments in 2015 and explained what was on tap for the organization in 2016.
First, Schlekeway addressed the importance of the work the NWSA is doing. “It was kind of historic when the National Wireless Safety Alliance announced recently announced that for the first time in the wireless industry, there’s national certification available to the industry’s workforce,” he explained
“We’ve been very pleased with the anecdotal stories we’re hearing. There were wireless industry contractor companies who’s employees were previously NCCCO certified, now they’re swapping those cards out for the co-branded NWSA cards so the longer the NWSA’s brand is in the marketplace, the more those programs will be used and the tests and certification cards will be rewarded to the industry’s workforce,” he said.
Schlekeway said the next step for the NWSA is a tower tech I and II certification program, which will be developed by a 45-person task force of industry stakeholders who will meet every six weeks in Dallas. The programs are expected to launch in 2016.
Also on tap for 2016 is a five day train-the-trainer course that will be held at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Feb. 21 through Feb. 25 and 11 fall protection training courses in geographic regions throughout the country, which will be funded by a $140,000 federal grant NATE received through the Susan Harwood Training Grants program.
The Fall Prevention Worker Training Course curriculum will focus on the hazards in the communication tower industry and includes employee rights, employer responsibilities, whistleblower protection, high angle rescue, principles of fall protection, principles of safe climbing, tower systems, testing safety climb systems, testing personal protective equipment (PPE) and conducting a job safety analysis, according to a NATE release.
“The concept is the train the trainer course will train about 35 trainers that can then go out and get experience at these fall protection courses that will be held throughout the year, so it’s kind of a trainer apprenticeship program,” Schlekeway explained. “At the end of the day the grant is catered towards getting some of the small contractor companies, small businesses and their employees, access to high quality training free of charge.”
Another item on the agenda for NATE in 2016 is a climber connection marketing campaign, which is “geared directly towards the young workforce who are working at heights and we’re going to take that message to the platforms that they’re on, specifically social media [and] video, so it’s really geared more towards the 18 to 29 demographic,” according to the Schlekeway.
Schlekeway also revealed some tidbits about NATE’s annual flagship event, NATE UNITE 2016, which will take place in New Orleans Feb. 22-25. The opening reception will take place in the club lounge of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the home of the New Orleans Saints football team.
He said NATE is looking to evolve for this event. “In addition to the traditional sessions that we offer on fall protection safety and rigging, we are excited because we continue to evolve. We’re going to have a session on 5G and other emerging technologies and the future of the wireless industry, training course on [distributed antenna systems] because many of the contractor companies NATE works with are equipped to work in the DAS and small cell space,” he explained.
A record turnout is expected for the event, according to Schlekeway.
To close the interview, Schelekway spoke about the difficulty of replacing the loss of Ernie Jones, an icon and innovator in the industry, giving a heartfelt tribute to the longtime NATE member who died this year in a tower-related accident.
“When you talk about Ernie Jones from the wireless infrastructure and broadcast industries, he’s an icon,” Schlekeway explained. “Guys like Ernie Jones have a certain expertise when it comes to being a structural engineer, they’re few and far between in our country and so he was a go to resource for NATE and for me personally when I had a question I couldn’t answer about an industry standard or engineering question, Ernie was one of the first guys I’d go to.”
Industry colleagues estimate Jones designed and oversaw fabrication of over 3,000 towers ranging from 240 feet to 2,000 feet in height. He was an active member of NATE putting together a gin pole summit in 2012, which helped develop the standard for training parameters for the A10.48 Standard.
