An open letter to FCICA

[TFP Admin]

To Whom It May Concern:

Today, I had short conversations with two of your Board of Directors officers and they didn't go very well. I really was just trying to help - not just you, but all flooring professionals that might run into the same problem I had. Unfortunately, when I run into difficulty explaining something that, to me, is quite simple, but to others is an enigma, I get kind of... well, grumpy - just ask some of my members. So, I wanted to apologize.

But that still leaves the problem I had such a hard time explaining. It's a problem concerning links to your website, which I would hope many flooring related websites such as us here at The Floor Pro Community, have on their sites to help direct traffic to your fine organization, Floor Covering Installation Contractors Association. For about two years now, we have had a link to your website that appears on nearly all of our non-forum pages and we've had some discussions that link to your site (one was a news item posted last year: FIT Tile Program Available). I just found out today that those links were all bad and they led to a page that made it very difficult to find the actual FCICA website.

Maybe I can explain better in writing what I had such a hard time conveying on the phone. TFP can't be the only website on the Internet that has links to your website - especially links that were posted before you redesigned your site, like we have. Then there's all the search engines that have cataloged your various pages over the years to help people find information you have to offer. TheFloorPro.com is relatively small, but we do have well over 1,400 members, about half of which are flooring professionals. If any of them, in their search for more information, training or organizations that might benefit them followed one of our links, they would reach a page that didn't look like FCICA and didn't offer them an obvious way to get to where they had hoped to go. If you follow this link, you'll see what I mean.

Although it's true that the links here at TFP can be fixed, what is important to understand is that all the other websites out there that have old links are also broken. In addition, all the search engines have cataloged lots and lots of your old pages and those links are bad. It's great that basic searches for your organization give the right link, but there are people who find your site by doing not-so-basic searches. Some will be looking for an article you used to have, or your old site will be included in the results of some obscure terms used in a page you have moved or no longer exists. My point is, you are missing out on important traffic. No quality floorcovering organization that offers the benefits and training you do can afford to miss that traffic.

Why am I going on and on about this website stuff to a bunch of FCICA officers that don't understand about website stuff? Because the Internet is becoming one of the most valuable resources to the flooring professional. And because, as a flooring professional that spent 35 years loving the installation business and has now become a flooring website administrator, I am passionate about providing my members with as much information and as many resources as possible. I know they can't get that if they can't find it. Why don't I just contact the webmaster of the FCICA site? Because there is no link to that person either.

Please help flooring professionals that need you. That includes us here at The Floor Pro Community - our 1,477 members and thousands of visitors every week. Ask your webmaster to set up a "custom 404 page" (they'll know what that means) that will always redirect any visitor that has a bad link to your home page. If you ask them for the statistics for your current 404 page, you'll understand why that's important to you. I set mine up so a visitor always has a way to get to where they need to go: www.thefloorpro.com/fake-page-for-an-example.html

Again, my apologies for my clumsy telephone explanation. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. And thank you for your great contribution to the industry. If we can ever do anything to help, just let us know. We are here to support all flooring professionals.

Best Regards,

TFP Admin

[TFP Admin]

By the way, everyone, the proper link to FCICA is: https://www.fcica.com/

T

[barrycarlton]

Funny this thread should be here now. I literally just got off the CFI site. The links to the installers list didn't work, to the inspectors list didn't work, and the message board didn't work (although at least there was a message apologizing)

WFCA also seems to have some problems with linke from other sites to their's.

barry

[TFP Admin]

I really hadn't expected a response from any of the 15 Board of Directors members I sent the email to so soon, but I did receive one already. Unfortunately, it didn't come from the board member, it came from the email server his address is listed as on the FCICA website:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed: bill@beckerbrothers.com SMTP error from remote mail server after RCPT TO:<bill@beckerbrothers.com>: host sun.arkware.net [216.138.161.10]: 550 5.1.1 User unknown

That's quite a disappointment, since he's listed as the Vice Chairman of FCICA. To be fair, there is other contact information for him, as there is for all the board members. It may also be that the webmaster hasn't had time to update the email address if he has changed it.

It did make me curious - actually, I did some checking on this earlier - whether the dead link problem I had was an issue on any of the board member's websites. I checked Christopher Capobianco, the Chairman's website, Flooring Answers.com, first. He has a link to FCICA on his links page. And it works.

Vice Chair, Bill Becker, Jr., doesn't have a website I could find easily on Google (for some reason, all of the board member's email addresses are linked, but none of the websites they own), so I couldn't tell if there is a link, good or bad, on his site.

Secretary-Treasurer, Gerry Swift, does have a website, www.potomacfloorcovering.com. Unfortunately, there's no link to FCICA. There is a logo, along with a number of other recognizable industry logos, but I doubt their target audience is familiar with them. To their credit though, they do mention the Floor Covering Installation Contractors Association by name on the Memberships & Affiliations page. No link to it though. If FCICA linked to his site and he linked to the FCICA site, both of them would improve their value in search engine rankings.

Bill Dietrich, the Immediate Past Chairman, has A.T.D. as a business name under his name, but I don't know what that is. My Google search turned up a number of Bill Dietrich's, but none that have any affiliation with flooring. American Tile Distributors, which was my only guess, also doesn't seem to have a website and the directory listing doesn't mention Bill Dietrich.

Vice Chairman of Associates, Carl Embrey, has the website, Home Page. That page has only one link, but it does go to a page with a menu. None of the links on the site lead to any mention, logo or link to FCICA.

Kimberly Oderkirk is the Executive Vice President. She is the Operations Manager of Automated Home Systems (Automated Home Systems :: Welcome ::) and I can't see any reason why a link, or even a mention of FCICA would be on that site - and it isn't.

Of the 6 Board of Directors officers, only one of them has a link to FCICA - one other has text that mentions FCICA. There are nine other board members. None have links to FCICA on the websites I was able to find. Only one of the nine had a FCICA logo and a text reference.

Please do not think of this as a criticism of FCICA, or any of the board members. The most unfortunate thing about this is that webmasters who build and operate websites for these important industry leaders, have neglected a vital function of having a website: making it known and easy to find. After researching this tonight, I am less surprised to know the two people I spoke with on the phone were perplexed with my concern, even irritated with it. They obviously don't understand the situation - after all, they have working links to the site in their Favorites and Bookmarks. Unfortunately, far too many flooring professionals don't.

R'gards,

T

[kwfloors]

That whole deal sounds unprofessional and or lazy and makes me think twice about the organization.

[TFP Admin]

Well, FCICA has been around a lot of years and have been providing a decent education and other benefits. But it's a good example of the lag-behind in technology the flooring industry has experienced. And even the companies that understand the necessity of having a good web presence don't understand the technology enough to know when the web professionals they hire aren't doing right by them.

But isn't this the same kind of issues the industry has been strapped with for eons? It's similar to the retailer, who understands a need for in house labor, but lacks the knowledge to hire qualified help. It's similar to the manufacturer, who understands the need for professional inspections, but doesn't have the information they need to measure ability.

Having a website meets a goal. We all hear how important it is in todays information age to have a web presence, so we find someone who can do that within certain parameters. You may find that price is near the top of the priority list. But even those who have a good budget for this venture into the Ether, if they don't understand the technology, or at least lend some attention to those who might, they will end up with the unfortunate situation FCICA finds themselves in - as do what appears to be a number of their board members. And let's look around at ourselves too - many other flooring professionals are in that same predicament.

Don't blame FCICA. They have offered quality education and training for some time. They developed and introduced the Floorcovering Installation Training program (FIT) in 1999 and I have heard good things about it over the years (more info here: https://www.fcica.com/technical-reso...brary/training). They offer for sale some publications that are also used in their training program and they have a convention every year. There's quite a lot more you can learn at their website (now that we have fixed the link to it).

There are a couple of things I found on their About page (https://www.fcica.com/about) that are poignant:

It is the mission of FCICA to provide our members with continuing education, access to cutting edge technology and networking opportunities so as to assist them in achieving their business goals.

They do have cutting edge technology - their website is powered by a great little content management system - but it hasn't been configured properly or even to the best advantage for FCICA and its members... which brings up this second quote:

Goals of the FCICA: -- To be the most well-known flooring contractor association in the country.

There are four important goals, but this one relates directly to what this discussion is all about. The primary purpose of a website is to help make the company known. More and more computers are finding themselves in the homes of flooring professionals. For many, it's mostly for entertainment that gets the floor pro online, but many are discovering the value of using the Internet for business - research, education and even camaraderie with other flooring professionals around the world - you and I experience that here nearly every day. It's not only fun, but many of us have found it profitable (in more ways than one).

So, my clumsy desire to help, will bring one or two of the board members here (I know, I sent the email and invitation to 15, but realistically, only 10 or 15% actually show up when I send out multiple recipient email invitations). I truly hope they see this as an attempt to make our 1,400+ members aware of FCICA - and FCICA aware of us. Maybe, as we try to do with all interested flooring professionals, we can help each other.

I certainly understand your apprehension, KW, but I hope you will welcome them if they do show up. I believe they have much to offer the industry and those are the kind of people the industry needs. And what we like to do most here at The Floor Pro Community, is share information and resources. We open our arms to all flooring professionals.

T