Tar Heel Pest Management News
August 2016
Summer Conference Welcomes 
NCPMA's New Officers

The 2016-2017 NCPMA Officers.

The 2016 Carolinas/Mid-Atlantic Summer Conference was held July 28-30 at the Holiday Inn Wrightsville Beach Resort.  We had a great turnout for the event and thank everyone who was involved in making the event such a success.

During the meeting, we welcomed our new slate of officers for the 2016-2017 NCPMA year.  The new officers (pictured above) include President, Dana McDuffie of McDuffie Pest Control in Elizabethtown; Vice President, Donnie Shelton of Triangle Pest Control in Holly Springs; Secretary/Treasurer, Bruce Roberts of A-1 Termite and Pest Control, Inc. in Lenoir; and Past President, Lee Smith of Rid-A-Pest, Inc. in Morehead City.

"For nearly 70 years, the North Carolina Pest Management Association has been the state's voice for the pest management industry, and that is a responsibility that we do not take lightly.  As a board, we are excited for the possibilities that await us for this upcoming year, and we look forward to serving our members and our industry," said Dana McDuffie, 2016-2017 NCPMA president.

We look forward to seeing everyone at next year's summer conference!
NCPMA Insider:
"An Intern Could Have Written This for Me"
The NCPMA Insider is a monthly guest article that includes tips from the pest management industry including business development, career development and pest management knowledge. 

 By Leah Hazelwood

We know that interns are common in other industries like advert desktop-items-phone.jpg ising, public relations, social media. What's odd, is that you don't see too many interns in the pest management industry ... when all its companies exercise all these functions on a day-to-day basis! If you don't have an intern, you could be missing out on a very beneficial relationship for both you and the intern.

Interns are looking for valuable, real-life experience performing the actual functions of a job they hope to land one day. They are very often willing to work for less pay than a full-time employee, as their hours spent with you are rewarded with not only pay, but perhaps more importantly, hands-on experience that they can use to supplement their education on their resumes to help them land their first job.

So what is it that PCOs can offer interns?
  • Experience managing social media accounts
  • Writing practice with press releases, business award nominations and articles like this one
  • Research experience - geographic markets, fleet changes, etc.
  • Sitting in on high-level marketing and sales strategy meetings
  • Creating online content for websites, web videos and more
  • Event-planning experience for the company's community involvement efforts
  • Real-life project management, working directly with vendors on things like vehicle signage
  • Internal marketing to employees including company newsletters, competitions and outings
It's easy to post an ad for an internship on college websites. The resumes will roll in if you promise them exposure to real tasks that help a real company keep rolling - rather than the filing and busy work they've gotten with other internships. An internship often brings in a young, college-educated, fresh perspective to a pest management company from people who wouldn't have typically ever considered working in our industry professionally. It's very rewarding to open the eyes of the next generation to the complexity of our operations, and it is rewarding to know that you have helped someone with ambition get that much closer to their goals.

--Leah Hazelwood is the Chief Administrative Officer of Go-Forth Pest & Lawn and Lake Norman Pest Control.  She currently serves on the NCPMA Public Relations Committee.
Award Nominations
Do you know of someone who excels in the pest management industry? Consider them for one of the following award nominations which are now being accepted.

Deadline: Aug. 29, 2016

Deadline: Aug. 29, 2016

Upcoming Events
Mark your calendars for these upcoming events. Click links to get more information or to register.

Greensboro, NC
Nov. 17-18, 2016

Table of Contents
Meet the Board

Marie Horner
Presidential Appointee

Marie Horner joins the NCPMA Board of Directors as a Presidential Appointee. This is her first term on the Board of Directors after being active in the association for more than 10 years. 

With 18 years of pest management experience, Marie is currently the Region Vice President of Arrow Exterminators, Inc. She has experience in both commercial and residential pest management.

Every day in pest management is different and can sometimes lead to tricky but humorous situations.  "I was inspecting a crawl space in a residential home, got locked in by the neighbor, tried to get out of the crawlspace by squeezing through one of the foundation vents, got stuck and had to be rescued by the fire department," Marie said.

In her spare time, Marie enjoys reading, bowling, water sports and spending time with her friends painting at a local art class studio.
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