AASHTO re:source Q & A Podcast
AASHTO re:source Q & A Podcast
Creating Quality “New Year’s” Resolutions at Work, Part 2
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We turn loose resolutions into real quality improvements by focusing on knowledge sharing and outcome-driven goals. Along the way, we normalize failure as a learning tool and announce an accreditation update for core drilling vs testing. If you are attending the Technical Exchange, make sure to ask Brian for his autograph.
Have questions, comments, or want to be a guest on an upcoming episode? Email podcast@aashtoresource.org.
Related information on this and other episodes can be found at aashtoresource.org.
Kicking Off A New Year Of Quality
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Ashto Resource QA. We're taking time to discuss construction materials, testing, and inspection with people in the know. From exploring testing problems and solutions to laboratory best practices and quality management. We're covering topics important to you.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Ashto Resource QA. I'm Brian Johnson.
SPEAKER_01And I'm Kim Swanson. And we have a follow-up episode to our December podcast. What are we following up on, Brian?
SPEAKER_00Well, we are way past the uh the time limit for saying happy new year, but this is our first podcast of the year. So happy new year. Um happy new year in mid-February. But we're this this podcast episode is a follow-up to, like you said, from our last one in December. And what we did is we challenged our listeners uh to send us some of their uh 2026 New Year's resolutions for quality at their companies. Now, as things go uh with our solicitations to listeners for content, we didn't get a lot of action. We did I went with plan B and I reached out to more laboratory contacts that I had recently communicated with, and I asked them if they had any 2026 New Year's quality resolutions. And I got some bites.
SPEAKER_01Yes, we did, thankfully, for your initiative. Because yeah, our listeners, while there are many, uh, are not very active.
SPEAKER_00No, no, I don't know what the deal is. I I would love it, you know. If you're listening to this, it's like just just let us know you're out there.
SPEAKER_01It really would do a lot, like it would make our month, I'm sure. If once like anytime anybody says, Oh yeah, I listen to the podcast, it's like you did, like, because otherwise you're just a number on the analytics I look at. So I know people like I know people are, but it's nice to have a person say it.
SPEAKER_00I I'm always delighted slash irritated when I hear that because I'm like I'm thrilled that somebody listened to it, but at the same time, I'm like, why why don't you just let like you can let us know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was gonna encourage everybody to say hi and tell them you listen to the podcast at TechX next month. It's like a couple weeks away, and I was like, you should definitely run up to Brian and say, Can I have your autograph? I hear you're on a podcast.
Technical Exchange Preview And Participation
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I'm sure people will be doing that. Uh I I I yeah, we might as well get to that first. So so we are we are preparing for the technical exchange here in March in Louisville, Kentucky. If you have not signed up to or registered and booked your hotel yet, please do so. It'd be great to see you out there and we can talk about quality there. I I've got I'm working on my presentation still, um, much to many people's chagrin. Uh that I'm still working on it. But I truthfully, I will be working on it until I give it. Yeah. Because I'm always thinking about like what can I do? How can I tighten this thing up?
SPEAKER_01Um continual improvement.
SPEAKER_00Continual improvement, always on my mind.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's great, and other times it's just uh, you know, trying to perfect something that's already perfect. So sometimes sometimes you gotta know when to when when it's good enough.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Good enough, good enough is is a good start, right? Yeah. Um actually, it's kind of funny. Like as I prepare for tech hacks, I'm thinking about so many things. I I'll start presentations that are totally irrelevant.
SPEAKER_01I'm aware.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I went over it with Kim yesterday. I I started and I was like, you know what, that would be a good one. And then I looked at my stuff that I'm going over, and there's nothing that it fits into. So that one's just gonna exist in my brain and on my computer um until there is a time to go over it.
SPEAKER_01You know, maybe maybe we'll have a show and tell podcast that you have to listen to uh or watch on the on the YouTube is the word I was looking for, and you can go over it then. Maybe it's a podcast and not a tech ex session.
SPEAKER_00Maybe I I you know I I have another one that I really like that I that I never have gone over with with people um about uh about knowledge. Yes, and I have I have I you've talked about it.
SPEAKER_01You have talked about it. I'm not saying you need someone.
SPEAKER_00I'm really proud of that one. I'm like, this is great. I would like if I saw this online, I would definitely like listen to this thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but you know, I wrote it.
SPEAKER_01So you might be a little biased.
SPEAKER_00I'm a little biased, yeah. Just a just a little, just a tiny bit. Um anyway, we are gonna be giving other presentations and having panel discussions and uh workshops. And if you do come to Technical Exchange, be prepared to be an active participant because um you will get the most out of it. It's okay if you want to uh hang back in the beginning because you're not quite comfortable yet, but you will be comfortable by the end, so you might as well just jump in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think with tech ex um my advice to attendees is always just like you everyone there, you can learn something from everybody there, all the attendees, the speakers, but they can also learn from you. So don't hoard your knowledge, like realize that you are part of that exchange and that you do have valuable contributions and don't second guess that because I think a lot of I've seen a lot of people like, well, should I like what I do or what we do is whatever. Um, but everyone's there to learn from each other, not just the presenters. So attendees make the exchange part possible of the technical exchange.
SPEAKER_00So that's a great point. And and that goes uh that that's related to this topic that we're talking about today, uh, with with New Year's resolutions related to quality. Uh, we we talked about quality yesterday and some of the ways that you know what that means to people and and how it uh manifests itself in different organizations. And I think that communication of quality, uh your thoughts about quality or your uh your the way the things that you
Building A Culture Of Sharing And Learning
SPEAKER_00are doing that you may not think are important for other people to hear about are important for people to hear about. And we see that uh even even in our own organizations, and we consider ourselves to be pretty quality-oriented, uh and it but there's always this uh moment where I might think about something, like let's say I just learned something, and I think should I share this with the rest of the team? Or well, how what what not just the team but the organization? Should I should I send this information to anyone? Should I send it to my team? Should I send it to another team too? Should I send it to the entire office? Should I send it to all of Ashto? Like so you think about those things because you don't want to overburden people with information, but at the same time, you you do if it's something useful, and if you can create a culture in your office or your company where you do share those those good things that you've learned. If imagine if everybody did that when they learned something new that was interesting to them, uh, and nobody said, Don't send, don't send me stupid emails, yeah, or don't waste my time with emails. How what kind of environment that would be? That would be a really environ a great environment of continual improvement if people were not afraid to share the things that they learned with their colleagues. Um I would encourage people to do that, even if somebody says, Don't waste my time with this. Ignore them because they they need to get on board with having a growth mindset and adopting continual improvement.
SPEAKER_01I was just gonna say, talk about growth mindset. And so that's not only sharing what you have learned, but then also what you've learned from your failures. Like, so we talk about like what you've learned of like, oh, this is new information, other people should know this too. But then also when you've had a quote failure or something didn't quite go right, to then share what the lessons learned were there, like, oh, this ABC eh didn't really get us the outcome we wanted, but maybe it's because of this. Do you guys have insight, you know what I mean? And like it's a collaboration of sharing knowledge, you know, it's not a one-way thing, I think isn't important to of like you have that collaborative environment, and it's not one person sharing one thing, or you know, like things all the time to a group of people, that it's a conversation of quality.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And and though the you touched on another key point is the learning from failure. Failure is truly the the best opportunity you'll ever have for learning. Um, I I it it's funny when you're younger, you hear that from older people and you think like this, yeah, what is this loser talking about? Like that that's not right. And then and then you so like you continue to learn like theoretical things, yeah. That it but without applying it, without applying your what you think you've learned. And then as soon as you start applying it, you start making mistakes and you start really learning. Yeah, right. But it's so hard to it's hard to come to terms with that when you're young and and you you haven't really done a whole lot uh yet. But it's uh it's so true. Like it and it's uh if you could if you could come to terms with that earlier, it would be very helpful.
SPEAKER_01So and I think I'm trying to teach my kids that I think that's something that you have to keep on you have to keep on relearning that, at least I do, because not like I don't love to fail. Like I don't think anybody no most people, yeah, most people are like awesome. Like I learned how to not do that. Like, yes, you can say that logically, right? Like I learned what didn't work, but like you don't you want things to work like the way you want them to work. So um it is definitely a lesson that I keep relearning and having to reteach myself that failure is okay, and sharing what like the the failure with other people, it's not a thing to be ashamed of, it's a it's a growth opportunity, and you have to look at it that way, but I have to remind myself to look at it that way a lot. It is not easy, it is not fun to be like, hey guys, I failed at this. Like I wanted X, Y, and Z and A, B, and C happened instead, or something like that. So it is something you have to relearn, and I think just keep practicing being okay with failure. Sounds weird to say. That sounds so weird to say out loud, but it's true.
SPEAKER_00You're you are right, and I actually have a tip that none of this was what we were gonna talk about today, by the way. Um, but I I had an experience this weekend that is a great learning opportunity. I encourage other people to do it. It's a low-stakes way to fail that you can if you like you you said you can train yourself to be okay with it, right? And I would say take some low-stakes activities that you can fail at and think about, like, try to really absorb that concept as you do it. So I will tell you what my failure was this weekend.
SPEAKER_01Perfect.
SPEAKER_00Uh, I decided I really wanted to make some biscuits.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna make the the best biscuit, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich
Embracing Failure As A Training Tool
SPEAKER_00I've ever had. And I looked up some recipes on biscuits, watched some videos, I'm like, okay, I got this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I I did it, and uh, I made the biscuits, and they were they were not great. They were they were okay. Uh, they were, I would say, uh very average.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00If I went to a restaurant and I was served those biscuits, I would say those are those are biscuits. I identify those as that food, but they are not the best ones. They weren't terrible, but then I started looking after that. I was like, I can't wait to make them again. Yeah, because I know, like, I I consider it a failure, what I did, and I know that the next time I'm gonna improve, and I'll probably fail in a different way, but I am gonna keep doing it until I get what I want out of this thing, and then I'll I'll I'll be happy with it, and then I'll probably uh lose interest in making biscuits, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_01Your hyperfixation on getting the perfect biscuits.
SPEAKER_00I really want to do it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I get it.
SPEAKER_00And and I'm not I'm not a perfectionist. Yeah, I'm I I like continual improvement. I mean, I'm very into that, but I I'm not like it doesn't have to be perfect. I mean, it'd be great if it was, but that's okay, that's okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but it it's a way it's a way you can kind of like get that mindset if you don't have it, and failure is okay. Like you can pick something kind of low stakes, yeah, and work on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I think I've seen a quote or something on social media uh from someone smart, maybe I don't know where it even came from, but I like it. And it's you have to be brave enough to fail at something new, right? So, like that is part of what you're saying, right? Like, you're not necessarily like a baker by trade, clearly. Um so like to be brave enough to fail at something new, I think is is important. And that does that is a good way, like you're right, low stakes way. Like, yeah, maybe don't try like brain surgery as like a thing to practice and fail at. But you know, making biscuits or making a new recipe or trying something new or learning a new hobby that you kind of stink at. Um, yeah, I think that's definitely a good lesson to learn and a good way to practice failing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and it and it's okay. Like if you're if you're not like if you don't need to teach yourself how to fail, uh that that's good too. I mean you can you can apply this to anything, and and really it's like you should just be doing stuff, like taking chances, doing things that you're not a hundred percent sure are gonna work out yes to to get in that mindset.
SPEAKER_01Yes, the I'm showing not my age, but uh taking chances, make mistakes and get messy. Miss Frizzle, Magic School Bus. Oh lessons, yeah, lessons to live by from Miss Uh Miss Frizzle and the Magic School Bus is take chances, make mistakes, and get messy. Were your kids not a fan of a magic school bus?
SPEAKER_00That's great, yeah. Uh so we did we did watch the magic school bus. They did it, they did reboot it. They did uh a new a new version of it.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if I don't know if I approve of that, but okay.
SPEAKER_00Um all right. Now now that we've we've talked for 20 minutes about uh stuff that was not planned to discuss, let's get into our actual uh quality resolutions discussion. So yeah, I got a great response from John McCarthy of ECS. Uh he's the senior director of quality assurance. And he touched on a lot of the points that we often talk about. Uh so number one is training. So he has he has a goal this year to work on some internally developed training modules on various uh QMS quality management system components and teach people all through the organization, you know, from technician to uh director-level people about some of these concepts and some of their policies and procedures that lead to quality improvements. I training is I I think that's probably if that's not something you're working on, put
Listener Resolutions: Training And Comms
SPEAKER_00that on your list because that's where I think that's like the biggest shortcoming our industry has is actual training related to quality uh topics, um, instead of just here's your job, this is what you're gonna do. Um another thing is more communication related. So, like kind of what we were talking about earlier, uh sending out these little newsletters, QA moments sent out weekly or bi-weekly, emphasizing lessons learned uh and changes to standards and other things. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01One of the things that I saw that he sent that I uh am just like, yes, we need to do this internally as well. Like I feel like this should be part of ours, but is the standardized folder and file structure for records and stuff, so that's standardized and consistent within the organization. Um, I think that's probably something a lot of organizations have uh an issue with. I'm assuming maybe it's just my bias that I know I have an issue with it. So, but I'm assuming other laboratory, like laboratories have that. But I think it's something like that that you might not think necessarily is a quality, you know, goal or you know, New Year's resolution. But even something simple like that, I think is an amazing and probably harder than you think it's gonna be from personal experience to come up with the the you know, the storage and hierarchy and naming structure, like uh so good good luck with that one. I but I think that's a example of something that you think is small but would have a big impact across a lot of like improve a lot of employees' interaction with quality related things, if that was the way to say that. But yeah, I I rambled there for a little bit, but I think I think you get it.
SPEAKER_00Uh definitely, and I know that formatting, organizing, uh all that stuff is really important, but it's hard to find time to do it because it does to do it right, it does take time. Um and sometimes other people need to get involved, and uh it's hard to collaboration on things that are really tedious is is a challenge. Um, we we've always struggled with kind of a knowledge management uh issue over the years where we have so much uh information kind of scattered about uh that we haven't really found a great way to consolidate it and to uh make it so that if you have a question you can quickly get to the right answer. Um there's a lot of noise from discussions because a lot of times the questions that come up are things that have never been standardized. Uh and there's no there's no uh clear answer, but there has to be a consistent direction to that answer for us. Uh so it it's it's a a bit hard to pin down, uh but we have to have something. There has to be some decision made on these ambiguous things so that we can move forward. Um so that's been a challenge.
SPEAKER_01And documenting that for easy reference later,
Organizing Knowledge And Records
SPEAKER_01like what you were saying. Like that I think is like we make decisions, but then in X amount of time, do we remember that we made that decision or why we made that decision, or when that question gets brought up again, do those factors still warrant the decision that was made, or do we need to make a different decision or whatever? That kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and the the people who are who bring this to light, the best for us are always new employees.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Anytime we get new employees, they ask a million questions and it is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because when when we're like, uh we don't know, like, well, put it on the list. Yeah, that's something we have to do. Let's fix this. So I I love when they when we get new people who ask a lot of questions. And I I know some people don't like that because it it can't, it, it, it it can be irritating if they ask a lot of them, but you have to like that's where you get a lot of growth.
SPEAKER_01Continual improvement. You have to look at that, the questions, as like the opportunity of like, oh, we've lived in this so long, and like we know why X, Y, and Z, but if it's not easy for an outsider's perspective or a newcomer, that's not great.
SPEAKER_00Nope, it's not great.
SPEAKER_01It's not great.
SPEAKER_00So you can do better. Okay, so uh other one. So John gave us just so many good ones, you know, some about doing better internal audits and management reviews, and um there's just a lot there that's awesome. And I would encourage other people to sit down and think about what they want to make improvements on and start start working on it. Uh when you make those goals, uh let me ask you, you you talk about goal setting a lot. Um do you have any tips for people about um ways that they can uh I guess take those thoughts that they have about things that should be done and try to put them down and and make them actionable. And and help them lead to success in in solving those problems.
SPEAKER_01With goal setting, personal or organizational goal setting, is that it really needs to connect to your values, mission, and vision. If you cannot, if you have a goal or you have something like, oh, I'd like to do this or we should be doing that, taking the time to really draw the clear, direct line from the outcome that you want to the organizational principles, to your quality objectives, to your organizational values, vision, mission, that kind of stuff. Draw the draw the clear line of the outcome. Make that very clear. Because I will say sometimes your the why, like why that outcome is important, is more important than the goal itself because the how can change. Like if you want uh you know consistent whatever for the outcome, maybe it's not what you think, it's the naming structure, maybe it's a different thing, maybe it's something else. So you might be thinking the avenue to the outcome is one path, but if you focus on the outcome and not the path, um, and make sure the outcome is connected to your things, you may find better ways or different ways to get there. If that might not answer your question. Did that answer your question?
SPEAKER_00Are you saying, okay, let me let me ask you if I understand that yes, are you saying not to be transfixed on the methodology?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And like be open to changing it as you learn more things along the way, is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_01Yes. I so what I often say is the why is so important, and that's the connection to the other things, the and the outcome that you're looking for. The why is so important because the how can change. So if you are wanting a specific outcome and the things that you're doing are not getting you there effectively or just at
Goal Setting: Focus On Why And Outcomes
SPEAKER_01all, then your how might be the wrong how. Like your avenue, your methodology, you know, like oh, this online tool or this out-of-the-box solution that we're gonna buy, or all of these things, or this training that we're gonna do, might not be the right thing for the outcome that you want. Because if you're not getting that outcome after multiple attempts at different strategies, like that's what a lot of the missing pieces are sometimes. That if you're focused on the how or the why, and then the connection to your bigger organizational picture and your personal picture of your values, mission, vision, quality principles, if those are aligned with the outcome and the why, then the how is will find its way. You can like be creative in the how. You don't have to be rigid of like, well, we're gonna do this with this. Like does that make sense? I don't know if I made it more confusing. Probably.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, it it does, but if you aren't watching the YouTube video, you should because Kim's uh Kim's hand motions made it made the uh the response very complicated.
SPEAKER_01You're not wrong. I might cut all of this out. I have the power in editing. I might cut it all out.
SPEAKER_00That's true. You have the power. You can you can make it what you want. But but I would say like I think I think sometimes, you know, we are we call ourselves resource for a reason. Uh we we have a lot of um a lot of experience in in things that people don't have experience in. And uh, you know, if you if you want to follow up with Kim on any of these things that she's talking about, feel free.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00Uh feel free to reach out if you're like, hey, I I'm I'm interested or I'm curious about what you were talking about with with goal setting. Uh I'd like to know more.
SPEAKER_01Based on based on previous experience, nobody will. I love, oh yeah, for sure. I would love that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, use use what you got, right? Yeah, like no, for sure. We're we're here, we're here, and we we're happy like uh so John McCarthy, who submitted some of those ideas, um, he and I communicate regularly about all kinds of stuff. It's not all just like, hey, what's going on with this laboratory accreditation issue? Uh it's like we we're trying to build this culture of quality, not just in our organization, but in this in this testing field, this construction materials testing field, industry in general. Uh, so so be be part of it and and and reach out uh at any time. Uh it and I've got another another respondent, uh John Maroon from UES in Reno, Nevada. He's a lab supervisor. Uh we we've been communicating about a couple things recently, and and we haven't communicated much before this. So I was really appreciative that that he reached out. Um, but he's got he's got some things he's working on too, which I think are really awesome. Uh using an automated Excel-based calibration log uh to improve consistency and reduce human error, that's great. That's that's those are those are awesome things. Like we've we've been trying to do that too, because anytime you've got humans involved, there will be error. Uh and and those are learning opportunities, as we talked about uh before. But but making, you know, automating certain things that can be automated and and help improve, make things more efficient, uh, more repeatable, like those are those are great. And also by uh trying to incorporate email notifications and alert staff when when there are deadlines coming up. Uh that's another thing that John's working on. Uh so that those are those are great improvements. And I'm sure that those are heavy on people's minds if they're lab managers or supervisors. Um and I would also encourage people uh to reach out to their their uh other people in the industry too. I mean, you can talk to us, you can talk to other people in the industry. A lot of times there's regional groups that get together regularly and talk about some things. Uh, they may not be focused on quality topics all the time, but use those opportunities to have side conversations about things you're working on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it especially like we were talking about at the beginning at the technical exchange next month, right? Like it's that opportunity to expand your professional network with quality-minded people in your field, right? Um, that you can share and get ideas with. And going I guess the tip that you asked for forever ago, and I didn't say because I was working around it. Um, it's be creative with the solutions. It's basically what boils down, where you have that desired outcome that you want, and you think email reminders are gonna be the one that gets me that outcome, or like this one system and these tools are gonna get me this outcome. And maybe it's
Peer Solutions And Automation Wins
SPEAKER_01not, maybe there's a different way to do that. So get buy-in and input from other people as well, because there might be a better way to get the outcome that you're hoping for. So really it's about not being rigid in the in the how of your outcome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. And and you know what? Sometimes you're gonna work on things and you're gonna throw it out and you're gonna say, like, oh, I just wasted all this time. Don't, don't ever feel like you wasted time because everything you threw out was a learning opportunity for you. And you it it's just it's just part of the part of the way things work. If I if I got mad every time I did something that didn't get used, or or you know, like wrote a document that was never published, or yeah, any of that stuff that I have tons of stuff like that. And and you know what? It it makes something else better, whether you know it's none of it is a waste. I'm never gonna feel bad about that. And I don't think anybody else should either.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I will say I do get frustrated when that happens, but uh yeah, it is you have to think about what you can take away. Like, all right, well, that that's not what I wanted, or that's not um how I wanted that to go. Again, the failure part of it, but it's you know, okay, what did I learn from it? How can I take this and incorporate it into the next go-around or something like that? So I think, yeah, that's easier said than done sometimes of not get too frustrated, not feel like you wasted time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it it is easier said than done, and it definitely um your experiences will shape how you and it how you deal with that. I got I got another one. So I was I wasn't sure if I had time to talk about this, and I don't, but I'm gonna say it anyway. So, one one update that I wanted to tell people about that we made recently. This was something that this is in the category of we did this a long time ago and never actually enacted it because we weren't really sure what to do. So there was like a lot of stuff done that never never actually came to fruition. Uh, but we did finally take action on it. So we we had this stand that so there's a standard C42, it's uh drilling and testing cores of concrete. Well, of course it is ASTM C42, Ashto T24. It's kind of interesting that those numbers are are flip-flop between Ashto and ASTM. I'm sure that was not done on uh intentionally, uh it's just the way it worked out, but I like it. Uh so anyway, these this standard we had been accrediting for it just alone. Uh like you'd be accredited for this standard, but we didn't always know which labs were doing the drilling, and which labs were just doing like drilling and testing, or just the testing of the cores. So we have recently I emailed everybody who's accredited for those standards, and I said, What are you doing? Um, are you doing the drilling or the testing or both? If you're doing the drilling, please send me information about your your drilling. And I got such a great response. Nice. Uh, I was really it it was so it was interesting because what I was told would happen was not what happened. I was told that almost every one of those laboratories would tell me, yes, we do the drilling. That was not the case. It was actually closer to uh it was under 20%.
Accreditation Update: Splitting Core Drilling
SPEAKER_00Oh, wow. Responded to me and said that they do the drilling. Some people said we specifically don't do the drilling because we don't think it's something that we want our technicians to be doing due to safety concerns.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, okay, that's cool. So those laboratories they don't have to be accredited for drilling. That's why we split it up. So if they don't do it, they don't have to worry about it. That's fine. You don't do it, great. Uh, if you do it, we'll we want to uh credit you for that so that if there's an agency that's looking for a testing firm that drills and tests it, they can find that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So anyway, we did it, we got the survey. I I sent the survey out, got lots of great responses, photos and reports and videos, and all sorts of cool stuff. And the people, this is what I really like my job sometimes in these interactions. I mean, not always, right? Uh, but uh I got so many people who were like, we are very proud of what we do for this, and here's some great examples. Like, yeah, and I love hearing when people are excited about what they do, yeah. And I got this really great training video from somebody too that they share with their staff, and I was like, ah, this is so great! Like, I I love I love the the excitement that people have with their work. So I got some responses. We made the updates of the directory, we're all done with it. Uh, and some are still trickling in, and that's that's fine, and we're we're dealing with those. Um, but but then other people like as we go through the tour, we'll split it. Like if they want to show us their drilling or or C CRLs, actually, the ones who would see it, they can present it then during their assessment, and they'll we'll add it to their directory listing. Um, but when we first split it, we just we split it for those who responded and and and just went in with the assumption that they had always been doing it. We just hadn't recognized it. Um, so their accredited sense date for the ones who did response matches the old like the old one. But for new ones, they'll get a new accredited sense date on the drilling part. So I wanted to let people know about that because I this is the kind of thing that doesn't go great with an email. It's like I think it's better to hear uh uh an explanation of it. Uh but that that's I think that's it. I think we've we've uh we've covered this topic uh the way we wanted to, and and then some. So uh that's gonna do it for this episode and uh hope to see you at the technical exchange.
SPEAKER_01Yep, and go to ashtoresource.org slash events for information on the technical exchange. And again, be
Wrap Up And How To Connect
SPEAKER_01sure to ask Brian for his autograph when you see him there. Thanks for listening to Ashto Resource QA. If you'd like to be a guest or just submit a question, send us an email at podcast at ashto resource.org. Or call Brian at 240-436-4820. For other news and related content, check out Ashtoe Resources social media accounts or go to ashto resource.org.