In this issue’s report, AEPMA president Vasili Tsoutouras pays tribute to Peter Knowles.
Our industry is made up of amazing people from all walks – some fall into the industry and some are born into it, some people stick around for a little then move on, while lots make a life career out of it and it forms part of their identity.
The last few weeks have been tough for our business – we lost one of our most trusted, hard working and knowledgeable team members, Peter Knowles. Peter worked in the pest control industry his whole working life, starting out in his family business, Knowles Pest Control, with his father, who was a key figure in forming the South Australian Pest Controllers’ Association. Peter then worked for Adams Pest Control after they purchased Knowles and finally spent the last seven years working with our team. He was proud of his profession and it formed a huge part of who he was, he loved finding termites and ultimately saving people’s homes. The industry in South Australia has lost a great man and mentor to many.
People are what our industry is all about. Not the pest or the chemicals, it’s the forebears passing their experiences on to the future generations of the industry, it’s people visiting homes and businesses all day, every day, to make a difference to their environments.
We all need to remember this in our businesses throughout the days, weeks and years. It’s the responsibility of all of us to ensure that learnings are passed on and our experiences are shared within our business and to others in our industry through mentorship and friendship.
The best example of this I have seen to date is on Facebook. A group of pest controllers (that continue to grow every single day) share ideas, problems and have a laugh. The founder of this page and its participants should be proud of what they have achieved and I highly recommend people become members of the page and get interactive, it’s called the Australian Pest Manager Network.
The business of running your association continues with the national office working in the background on membership renewals and growth, ensuring the finer details of the FAOPMA Conference are ironed out and that the Codes of Practice being worked on are administered and continue to move forward.
We have been testing the use of video conference calls in the development of the Codes of Practice. We hope this will give us the ability to more easily connect people working on these projects and other working parties from around the country, without having to travel for face-to- face meetings. This will reduce the impact on business and personal lives and will hopefully lead to even more participation from the talented people out there in the industry. We are also interested in using the technology to arrange webinars, which are used elsewhere in the world within the industry to great effect.
Annual general meeting season is upon us, which gives us all a chance to catch up and take stock of where we are at and where we want to get. We have come a long way since the formation of AEPMA when the state based associations came together, we have a long way to go too in a rapidly changing marketplace.
I look forward to reporting our progress in the next issue on all of the happenings at AEPMA.
Until next time, I wish you all the best and trust all is going well within your business.
Vasili Tsoutouras,
AEPMA President
