Courses not in competition.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

I am responding to the article discussing training for operators. While the intention of the piece was to highlight the growing sources of training available for public pool operators, much of it accurate and informative, I object to the inference that we in the operator-training world are in "competition" with each other.

In the lifesaving profession, we saw a great improvement in the quality of the Red Cross program with the introduction of a commercial approach to training by Ellis and Associates. The AFO, ceo, PPSO, POOL Dade Country (Fla.) Los Angeles County (Calif.), Fairfax County (Va.) and many, many other local or national "certification" programs benefit from each other's substance and style, often having dual-and triple-rated instructors.

The objective of our collective work is to create better operators who, in turn, give us safer water, more appealing facilities and increasingly efficient programs for our popular aquatic venues.

With reference to the Aquatic Facility Operator course being "small," we are sponsored by the largest recreation organization in the world, the National Recreation and Park Association. While our growth in numbers has been limited by costs relating to promotion, and self-limited to maintain quality, our nearly 100 instructors have performed several thousand AFO classes since inception in almost every U.S. state, in Canada, Mexico, England, the Bahamas, the United Arab Emirates and China. Class sizes have sometimes exceeded 70 students, although we often limit size for a better ...