The 2008 Circuit Breaker Test & Maintenance Training Conference in October will commemorate 15 years of training excellence for substation and switchgear maintenance people worldwide. Yet, the conference host still faces new challenges.

“One of the newest challenges we are looking at right now is finding the ‘decision-maker’ at each utility company, the person that decides who attends our training conference,” said Bill Myers when asked about future challenges for his annual training conferences.

There are still many goals to achieve in the next few years. “We have built a great rapport with electric utilities over the years, but old friends in the business are retiring and the new generation is taking over. We must share our knowledge now and the need for useful maintenance training is obvious,” said Myers. “I repeatedly hear comments by our conference guests of every age and job responsibility that their superiors claim they can’t afford to send people for training every year, yet when something goes wrong, they are expected to know all the answers.”

Myers is a “baby boomer” himself and hears the cries for help from his attendees every year. “Old equipment must be maintained, new equipment must be mastered, safety issues must be addressed--it’s endless. We must continue to offer our services to this new generation,” said the determined Myers. “We will continue searching for those decision makers and offer them this annual training venue their people require and deserve. We must keep our electric utilities well-trained and ahead of the game, what a target.”