Question RE; ASE Test Question Writing Workshops

Yes, we were paid. It was all done online via Microsoft Teams, four hours per day, for five days.

Thank you John, for the information!

Hello, Mike Going back to doing the A8 test workshop circa 1997, I was not paid a fee to participate, but all of my travel, lodging, and meal expenses were paid. Quite frankly, I wasn't really comfortable with the dominating behavior of some of the aftermarket people in attendance. Auto manufacturer reps included, we had about 17 people in the workshop. As for problems, I was paired with a…

Thank you Gary, for the information!

You're welcome Mike. I just finished communicating with ASE's Dan Baumhardt about the compensation issue. Turned out that ASE assumed that I was employed by Babcox Publishing Company when in fact I was self-employed as a contributing editor, which explains why I wasn't paid. If I had been a full-time staff member at Babcox, Babcox would have paid my salary and expenses. In fact, I've owned and…

Hi Gary, I haven't been invited. It was (what I thought) an innocent question borne out of curiosity after hearing about these workshops over several years. At the time I posted the question here, I didn't have any direct contacts at ASE. I don't quite understand the ASE logic (at the time of your participation) of not paying you because you were self -employed as opposed to Babcox paying you…

Participated in 2018. We were paid to participate, all travel fees were reimbursed, either by mileage if you drove or airline fees. Workshop was Tuesday through Thursday.

Thanks, Matt!

Mike, As noted below, they are not doing live workshops at present, unless something has changed very recently. So travel is not paid for but they do pay a stipend. I participated in three of the five Hybrid vehicle test workshops during development of the L3 some six or seven years ago. I think the pay was $200 a day but could easily be mistaken. The workshop was typically three days with a…

Thank you Phil, for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it. Hope you are doing well!

Mike - some of your questions are not really appropriate in a social media environment. Since participation in … questions development workshops is by invitation only and regarded by many as an honor, you may want to consider asking these questions to someone at ….

Kevin- This is more than a “social media” forum. It is a professionals forum and the questions Mike asked are relevant to professionals in this field who might be interested in participating in the program. No doubt you just turned away a number of those individuals with your stance…..

How are they inappropriate? This is what you get when you ask questions in an open forum for everyone to see,…scolding? Good to know. Thanks Mike for asking and everyone for answering.

You're welcome, Erik. I thought they were pretty innocent enough questions. I don't have any direct contacts at ASE so I just thought I would post here.

Kevin, I, at first, thought the same thing but because I know Mike personally, I'm certain that he asked the question to get the kind of feedback he has gotten here, rather than just getting the answers that ASE would, without question, been able to give him. I didn't give you a thumbs down, but your comment does sound somewhat condescending. Techs and managers that participate here consider…

Thank you Phil, for your kind words. I greatly appreciate it!

Hi Mike, Here are the facts around … test question writing workshops: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are imperative to developing … tests. We realize there is significant time and some costs associated from people spending time to develop these tests for the industry. In some instances, the industry/company covers the SME’s cost and in other instances we do offer a stipend and travel expense…

Thanks, Jennifer. I started doing L1 workshops maybe 25 years ago and really enjoyed the interaction. I once did some tests for entry-level testing for (what at the time was called) NATEF and that was also very rewarding. I loved working on the hybrid (L3) committee developing a semi-camel for testing purposes and I think the results have been good. What I really learned well was the value of a…

I understand. Nothing beats in-person events! Thank you for all you've done!

Pretty good perspective of the ASE workshop experience Phil. During the ‘90s, I participated in both A7 HVAC, A3 Manual Drivetrain with David Milne and John Tisdale, then an AYES workshop with Bill Kersten. You could quite easily have participated in the same AYES workshop as I did back then, but the only names I seem to recall were Earl Bailey, Vince Fischelli and maybe Denis Mattoon. It's…

Hi Martin, thanks again for your responses. Really miss Harv and his sense of humor. I first met him at AES when he was visiting Jorge and Carlos. Later I convinced him to attend a 6.0L Powerstroke class I was presenting in Surrey. He kept insisting (and did repeatedly), that he was not a diesel guy (I believe he hated Diesels) - but he did attend. Albin Moore was in the same class and I…

Thanks very much, Jennifer, for replying to my questions!

Absolutely. You can reach me at … if you ever want to know anything else!

Thanks very much Jennifer for sharing your email with me!