Steve Wilson posted on August 27, 2010 08:07
On Wednesday, we sent out our first newsletter. If you weren't on the recipient list, you should be, and luckily, you can still take a look here.
Signing Up
There is a signup for our newsletter on both the homepage of our website and on our facebook page. It's simple and confidential. As I've said many many times in the past, we are here as a free service to operators, we aren't buying, selling or advertising anything.
Did You Say Facebook Page?
That's right we started a Facebook Fan Page for SmallWaterSupply.org. If you are wondering why, let me explain. In Illinois, 67% of the operators of systems with less than 500 connections are over 50 years old. On the other side, only 8% of the operators of systems under 500 connections are less than 40 years old. We've all heard about the potential for an operator shortage, and many industry groups are already working on campaigns to target young people to consider the operator profession.
We totally agree that we need to do a better job of marketing the benefits and strengths of being an operator. We are starting to get involved by providing a few internships to high school students and working with Rural Water to job shadow with circuit riders. That, in addition to using the web and social media sites like Facebook, all help promote the operator profession. We feel that having a Facebook page makes the profession more visible to the younger generation that have grown up using Facebook.
More On Careers
It's not ready yet, but hopefully soon we will launch a careers page with links to a lot of great information for anyone considering this field. It will also have interviews with operators who can talk first hand about why they love what they do and interviews with some of the interns who can describe what their experiences were like.
So, check out our Facebook page if you like, all you have to do is click on the facebook icon on our homepage. We will be promoting events we plan to be at, and giving others a chance to start sharing ideas. More importantly though, if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to get more young people interested in becoming operators, or how to better market the operator profession, please share them with us.