I was just asked to comment on and blog about a post that Julianna did last year and the subject came back up this week. please see her blog Legislation that could effect your staging business
Here are my total thoughts:
This is WHY a member run trade organization is so important. I hear a lot of people say the words we are NOT regulated. While technically that is true I prefer to use the words we are SELF regulated. One of the main objectives for RESA that is wanted by the members and stagers in general is to set standards. When we all come together and create standards or a "ten commandments" type document stating, This is what is acceptable, this is how we work, these are the things considered unethical and we will not conduct ourselves in that manner and WE ALL decide this together then agree to it and abide by it, then a "standard" in created. By doing this NOW when we are still in our infancy as an industry then it becomes the STANDARDS, then ALL the newbies coming into the industry look for the standards then they follow them. Newbies come in and they never have to worry about understanding the standards because the training companies are teaching them. The entire industry benefits from our unity.
When you look at creating standards it can actually be very simple. Everyone throws out ideas we word them correctly, modify them and vote on them.
Example: Someone may say we need to address "bringing the outdoors in" issue. Now we all know many stagers will cut branches, flowers etc from outside and bring them in. We ALL know what happens next. Bugs drop from them, they die and fall apart inside. So do we ban "bringing the outdoors in" NO, we state: If branches are cut from outside to use inside for decorations the branches must be: 1. Sprayed with a environmentally safe bug spray in order to ensure pests are not brought in 2. Must be sealed with a sealer. OR whatever you all want to say about it. Do we state Fresh Flowers should NEVER be used because they die? NO, we state Fresh flowers may be used as long as there is a plan for someone to care for them, refresh them, change them.
If you want standards then start thinking of subject matters that need to be standardized. Then we take each subject and give the solutions. We can make a Staging Standard Practices ACT. Make it a document that can be posted on everyone's websites and taught in the training. When situations arise as time goes by etc then we make changes and those are called amendments.
I will make a comparison to Debt Collections and Private Investigations. When you are a bill collector you call people that owe debts to collect them. That seems simple enough right? NO- there are RULES, it is called the FDCPA- Fair Debt Collection Practices ACT. In that ACT there are rules/standard practices. 1. You can't call someone before 8 am or past 9pm to collect a debt if you are a third party collector. 2. You can't threaten: imprisonment, great bodily harm or make any threats to take action that you would not normally take to another account in the same situation. You can't threaten to repossess a car unless you intend to do it. Basically this means you can't lie to a debtor to collect the money.
In collections there is practice call "skiptracing". Skiptracing is the methods that a collector uses to find a person that owes the debt. People move, change jobs, phone numbers etc. Then there is Private Investigations, in California you must be a licensed PI, and licensed by the State of California. PI's also skiptrace. You don't have to have a license to be a skiptracer, but you do to be PI, because PI's do more than skiptrace, they follow people, take photos, interview suspects etc. These extra issues are issues that also cross the lines of someone's Constitutional Rights and the PI's safety. SO they must pass a test issued by the State. State Regulations come into play to protect the rights of the civilian and the PI. Then from the PI world that gets into bail bonds. I'll stop with this comparison but you see how they all link together. Just like Designers, Interior Decorators, Re-Designers, Stagers, and Organizers. There is just a Hierarchy of how and when they were created but it doesn't make any of them less important. But yet some people view each one as lower on the food chain which in my opinion is ridiculous. We all have a role to play.
I used this analogy because a large part of my career I was a manager in companies that collected debt, I was a skip tracing manger and was a Private Investigator for 10 yrs. To also make the point that government regulation is needed when it comes to the public's safety. This is why Designers get to move walls and decorators don't.
All in all regulations/standards etc are NOT a bad thing in my opinion. I am not a huge fan of government but I understand government laws that protect. I am also not a fan of mayhem which is why laws and regulations are needed. But with that being said, wouldn't you rather be part of forming these regulations and standards? Zig Ziglar once said, "You are either part of the problem or part of the solution."
There are people in the world that watch things happen, make things happen and wonder what the heck happened. You just v to ask yourself which do you want to be?
I would love to get some thoughts on what the REAL issues are. When we get those issues lets take them one at a time and toss out solutions. I will track everything write it up and send it out, Then we make a final round of adjustments and then you have now created your Staging Standard Practices ACT.
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