Just Say Yes!

The State of the Union of Education in the National Chimney Sweep Guild

By Bob Ferrari, Director of Education, National Chimney Sweep Guild

Click here to watch this speech in video format.

My name is Bob Ferrari, and I am a chimney sweep.

The National Chimney Sweep Guild (NCSG) has a long history of innovation and sharing of information. The NCSG itself was an innovation when it was founded in 1977 by sweeps who each put up some money to better the lives of sweeps everywhere.

The NCSG founded the CSIA in 1981, and it took over the education and certification programs in 1991. Our education became more structured, and a better path to professionalism was established.

Education and information have always been an “open source” style. Sweeps would gather to share ideas, techniques, and problem solving in an open and welcoming manner — and not just for professional matters! NCSG Marketing Committee Chair Jake Cromwell shared on Mark Stoner’s podcast a few weeks ago that if one of his kids needed help anywhere in the country, he has no doubt there would be a sweep nearby who he could call for help. This is the culture of our industry.

The NCSG has and always will be the place where sweeps pool their money to share their knowledge, solve problems, and mingle their lives. It’s a family. And, like most families, we don’t always get along — but we are bound together as brothers and sisters in black.

In the 1990s, the huge dream project was to build the first chimney sweep training center in Plainfield, Indiana. NCSG members and vendors raised the money to build the first chimney sweep training center in the country. Many of them have their names engraved on bricks commemorating their commitment to this trade. People like Vic Imgarten and John Pilger traveled to Europe and brought back models of the technical training developed over there to share with us.

We are very proud of this accomplishment because even though chimney sweeps are the multi-tool of the trades, we have often been looked down upon by other tradesmen and agencies where we pull our permits. To paraphrase Steve Jobs’ brilliant “Think Different” ad, we were the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels; to the realtors, we were troublemakers; and to the established trades, we had no respect for the status quo of chimney work. And while some of them still vilify us, they have not been able to ignore us.

I’m asking you to be the finest of troublemakers for the Guild — that is, the ones who dream dreams so big that nobody knew they were even dreamable.

This culture of openness and sharing has been threatened in recent years. We went through what I’m going to refer to as “the divorce,” when the NCSG and CSIA separated. And she got the house and the car. And some of you still hurt from that.

Every week, we field questions. “Which one do I go with — NCSG or CSIA?”

Let me put it this way. In any divorce, there is duplication. You now need two houses, two refrigerators, and two fully furnished rooms so that the kids can bounce back and forth. Along the same vein, we have two certifications, two paths for education, and two rooms to stay in.

What I want to say to you about that is — “It’s still in the family!”

Our tech center is not lost to outsiders, to plumbers, or carpenters. It’s still our home. And to it, and to the education provided, and to the instructors teaching, the NCSG asks for those who honor our history, who love our great trade, and who are building our future to just say “YES!”

Yes to our shared history, yes to education from all quarters, yes to professional certifications. Yes to our family. Just say “yes!”

I want to make something very clear right now. Right now. Listen!

The NCSG is not bringing you better information. We are not bringing better instructors than who are already out there today.

How could we? How could we have better information than what the Ryan and Segerstrom Show offers? Who — by the way — was preceded by the Tom and Jerry Show (Tom Urban and Jerry Isenhour) who 15 years ago were traveling the country teaching the last generation of sweeps how to inspect and document chimneys.

And woe to me if I leave out our inspection Grandfather Dale Feb, who laid a foundation in inspection through the F.I.R.E. course, and who made us fierce in our knowledge. Some of you sitting here will bring this same knowledge to the next generation, built on these foundations.

How could the NCSG provide better information or instructors than CSIA, Copperfield, Lindemann, NFI, and Saver Systems, who all have top notch instructors and curriculums, and CVC and SureFire, who have exceptional content.

To all of these instructors, education providers, and their content — the NCSG says “YES!”

The NCSG also provides excellence in class content, accredited certifications, and professional instructors. We say so because it is true, not to diminish any of these other organizations.

What the NCSG is uniquely bringing is a new delivery system. We are building a training center in your home with our new virtual reality (VR) learning platform. It’s expensive to travel. It’s expensive to miss work. It’s expensive to forget even a little of what was taught. We can largely solve all of these problems in VR, and we’ve built a house where everyone is welcome.

Now we are about to give you a little taste of the next frontier of chimney sweeping: VR training. You’ll be able to put on a headset and see just how immersive this experience is. We believe that with just one look, you will see the possibilities.

It’s big.

We haven’t perfected it. We need your insights, wisdom, knowledge, and experience to flesh it out. And I’m asking for your openness to help us. Don’t let us be the status quo. Embrace our crazy. Be our troublemakers — in the best sense.

Much of the VR infrastructure is built, and we’ll be rolling out additional modules over the next few months. We believe that with just one look, you will see the possibilities.

The NCSG is accomplishing more than just VR. In 2014, Jim Bostaph and Renée Brigman wrote a national standard of training for chimney sweeps that was signed by the Federal Department of Labor. We’ve had a Registered Apprenticeship Program for 10 years. Jim presented it to the NCSG and CSIA

Boards of Directors at the time and nobody had a vision for what they had accomplished. It lay dormant.

Recently, the NCSG modernized the apprenticeship program, and you can now adopt it. It offers a learning path that moves from entry level apprentice to journeyman. It opens the possibility of training dollars for your company in your state. It is for everyone. This is another huge project, and we need your help. The program will vary from state to state, and it needs tailored to each company’s needs.

The program is FREE! Do you want to know which classes and courses are the ONLY ones that can be used in the program? The answer is YES!

As you’ve heard, the NCSG settled with OSHA. The first draft of a training and safety manual has been written in alignment with this settlement. We look forward to providing training basics in VR as well. We’ve also written a Chimney Sweep Handbook, full of standard operating procedures. It’s undergoing the final edits.

The NCSG co-sponsored with NIOSH a paper on respirator use for chimney sweeps. It is locked in their government bowels for the final, final, final review, but we will put it out there as soon as they release it.

The Under Pressure class using the Heat and Moisture (HAM) model provides the final element of a proper inspection. How air moves through a home affects its comfort, health, appliance efficiency, carbon monoxide spillage, and atmospheric pollution. It is complicated enough that the building performance cheerleaders want to seal off every atmospherically vented appliance and make us have romantic evenings gathered around the air duct. Professional chimney sweeps solve these problems. It is your dues — chimney sweeps pooling their money to share ideas and solve problems — that allow all of us to develop cutting-edge programs to build professionalism and further your business.

Let me take this moment to welcome all of you — my sooty family — to take a peek at the future. Just one look and you’ll fall in love. Just say YES!

Editor’s Note: This speech was originally presented at the National Chimney Sweep Guild (NCSG) Annual Membership Meeting on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 by NCSG Director of Education Bob Ferrari. This written version has been edited for clarity.