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i’m also doing some live events at the
booth
so maybe you can stop by for one of
those so i’m there right now and i hope
you stop by our booth at the awt
virtual convention
welcome to every water treaters favorite
podcast scaling up h2o
the podcast where we scale up our
knowledge so we don’t scale up our
systems
coming to you live from the association
of water technologies virtual convention
well as live as we could be at a virtual
convention this
is scott slate of atlanta’s morning news
it is my pleasure to introduce the host
of this podcast
and this year’s recipient of the
association of water technologies ray
baum memorial water technologist of the
year award
trace blackmore
[Applause]
[Music]
scott thank you so much for that
introduction now
for those of you that live in the
atlanta georgia area
you have heard that voice for 20 plus
years that is scott slade a great friend
of mine
uh he and i met scuba diving i am
his scuba diving instructor and what a
heck of a nice guy i’m always talking
about
being a mentor and getting a mentor for
somebody else well folks that is what
scott
is to me scott learned because i told
him that i did a podcast
and he has been in broadcasting
for quite a while i think he recently
told me he’s been involved in
broadcasting
for 50 years i told scott that i did not
have a background in that and he said
well hey let me help you he came over to
my
office help me turn it into a studio
help me with equipment he has just been
fantastic so scott thank you for all
that you do
thank you for having me sound better
on scaling up h2o nation as you can tell
from the introduction this is going to
be a
different show from what we normally
do and i am really excited about this
show i have information to share
with you on this show and
i i just can’t wait so i’m going to
introduce
another friend of mine you actually
heard him earlier in september
on episode 154 it’s
this year’s president of the association
of water technologies
tom branvold it’s my distinct pleasure
to present this year’s ray baum memorial
water technologist of the year award
to my good friend trace blackmore trace
congratulations
tom thank you so much for presenting me
with the ray bomb memorial water
technologist of the year award
i can’t tell you how humbled i am and
i just i just want to thank you and i i
want to let the scaling up
nation know that it is such
a privilege for me to announce this
award
that i’m getting this with you this
scaling up nation i feel that this
is our award and i know you might be
wondering
what does it mean to receive the ray
ball
memorial water technologist of the year
award
so to talk a little bit about that
here’s my good friend james mcdonald
hello trace this is james mcdonald and i
want to personally congratulate you on
receiving the 2020
raba memorial water technologist of the
year award
this award recognizes outstanding
entrepreneurial spirit
and contributions to the field of water
treatment with all you do for us
from training to this very podcast you
certainly embody
what this award is all about trace as a
2013 past recipient of this award myself
i am proud to have you join our group
where we get to stand alongside such
greats
as bob cavano art friedman
ben befarty colin frain jack seuss
jim scott rob ferguson and many more
going back annually to 1991 starting
with chuck branvode
getting that call from the awt president
telling you that you’ve been chosen to
receive the ray bomb award is a surreal
moment you’ll never forget
being a pure nominated award people
thought highly enough of you to nominate
you
an awt board has enough faith in you to
choose you
rebel in that moment trace i’m sorry we
couldn’t all get together this year in
person to shake your hand
pat you on the back and say good job but
hopefully this message will help make up
for that a little
good job trace well learned and well
done
congratulations james thank you for that
i think we all have a little better
understanding of
what the award is and again i
am just extremely humbled to be
in the group of people that james
mentioned
and i have to say that i
am always about mentors you heard from
one of my mentors that introduced me
on the show today well i have water
treatment mentors
as well and i’m going to go ahead and
name them because they are both
recipients of the same award
and that is bruce ketrick senior
and jay farmery bruce and
jay saw me when i was a very young water
treater
and i have to tell you i was very
intimidated by
both of them and as luck would have it
when i
sat down to eat lunch at an awt function
i had jay to my left and bruce to my
right
and bruce just came out with a question
saying like hey what do you think give
me your whole story about what do you
think is going on here
and they just started having a dialogue
with me
from there i was very impressed
with what they’ve been able to do in
their career the amount of knowledge
that they had
and i realized that i had an opportunity
to learn from them and i asked them both
if they would mentor me of course they
both said yes
and i again am so humbled
to be amongst who people that i
consider mentors and share that same
award
so we’re not together because this is a
virtual convention this year for the
association of water technologies
so i’m now going to share with you my
acceptance speech
to the ray baum memorial water
technologist
of the year award i’m honored to accept
the ravon memorial water treater of the
year award
finally something good from the year
2020.
i’m excited to accept this award and i’m
also excited to be a water treater
in this crowd we all know what that term
means
but we all have different definitions of
that term
today i want to share with you how i
came to define the term
water treater we all start this job in
some way
for me it was my father that introduced
me
to water treatment i remember being five
years old and
burning my hand on his hot plate as he
was running test
probably not the best child care i also
remember him having me run titrations at
the kitchen table when i was in middle
school
i remember him hiring me as a service
technician
when i finished high school and feeling
incredibly
overwhelmed and i remember him taking
that overwhelmed feeling
and teaching me everything that he knew
about water treatment my dad was the
first to help me
personally define the term water treater
beside my dad stand many other water
treaters
that have given me their time to help me
throughout
the years i call them my mentors
these mentors poured into me when they
didn’t have to
these mentors challenged me to think
more
and to do more these
mentors also helped shape my personal
definition
of the term water treater and it was
also these mentors who encouraged me
to volunteer for the association of
water technologies
as an awt volunteer i learned more about
water treatment
i learned more about business
and i learned that awt was an endless
well for friendships in fact
some of my most cherished friendships
are with people i met here
at awt so awt
has helped me define the term
water treater three years ago i started
a podcast called
scaling up h2o with one mission
to raise the bar of the water treatment
industry
that podcast grew wildly popular within
our community
and soon had its own following called
the scaling
up nation after a few episodes of the
podcast were aired
i started getting messages from people
who were not enjoying their jobs but
were now
suddenly enjoying their jobs again
they said the scaling up h2o podcast
gave them a push
to try new things to learn new things
and to actually push themselves it was
at that time i realized that i was
giving back to
others what my father and my mentors
gave
to me today the scaling up nation is
over 12 000 members strong in
72 countries a few of those members have
joined the rising tide mastermind group
i started
a group that was formed on the premise
that we will make each other
better and as we do that we elevate
ourselves that was the secret my father
and my mentor
showed me through the gift of their time
with the scaling up h2o podcast the
members of the scaling up nation and the
members of the rising tide mastermind i
continue to enhance my definition of the
term
water treater as i think of all the
people that made it possible for me to
receive the ray bond memorial water
treater of the year award
i would like you to think of all the
people in your life that help
you define the term water treater
this award is a symbol of all the things
you do
in your career that allow you to become
a better water treater it’s a symbol of
all the people who build
other water treaters up because that’s
how they build up
the industry it’s a symbol
that we all have a definition of the
term
water treater and even though those
definitions might be a little bit
different
we all have to discover what that term
means
for ourselves and if we do it right
we should never have to do it alone
thank you so much
for this award hi mark lewis here
the most requested guest of scaling up
h2o the podcast for water treaters by
water treaters where we’re scaling up on
knowledge we don’t scale up our customer
systems
i want to take you back to 2005. palm
springs california
the awt’s annual convention and
exposition
and that’s where i met trace blackmoore
trace was
energetic active involved
attending the sessions meeting the
people
and having a great time but it wasn’t
until 2006
the convention in charlotte where tracy
and i got to know one another
we got to be friends we started talking
we made phone calls we connected well
and as our careers progressed we got
involved in awt together
we both served on the awt board of
directors
and we now present at the awt’s
technical training in the fundamentals
and applications class
not only professionally but trace and i
engage in personal functions as well
trace taught me to scuba dive
and every year sometimes twice a year we
go down to the florida keys and have a
great time
scuba diving if i had to describe trace
i would say busy tracy is always doing
something and normally that something is
something to make either himself or
other people better
trace’s philosophy is a rising tide
raises all ships if we use that as a
metaphor
we look at the ocean as the water
treatment industry
and us water treaters as the ships as
the tide comes up
so do all the water treaters so trace’s
idea
is to raise the tide so that all of us
can be better water triggers and so
that’s why i’m proud to congratulate
trace blackmore as the 2020
recipient of the raybaum memorial
water technologist of the year
congratulations trace
hi trades bernadette homes here seems
like just yesterday you were calling to
welcome me to the awt board of directors
that’s been 10 years ago now and during
that 10 years
if i could use one word to describe you
it would be admirable
admirable that you continue to set goals
for yourself
to be a lifelong learner and teach
others in the water treatment community
in that you’ve helped lift all of us
to be lifelong learners on behalf of the
scaling up nation
the awt community and my team here at
iwe
i’d like to congratulate you on being
this year’s ray bomb award recipient
you really live the essence of this
award congratulations
trace congratulations nobody embodies
the ideals that this award represents
more than you your efforts truly have
made
the industry better keep up the good
work
because i don’t think there’s any rule
that says you can only win this award
once
hi my name is chris kersey and i work
with trace blackmore
one phrase i can use to describe him is
out of the box
thinking so scaling up is a great
example of this
where we have a water treatment podcast
of all things
who would have thought that was coming
but
out of the box thinking has influenced
my life directly
in my career working with trace i get to
experience a lot of the
ideas and different ways of thinking and
things that we can do
and then get to implement those with him
and the rest of the team
ultimately trace i’m proud of the work
that you’ve done
with scaling up and now that you’re
you’re being recognized for it through
the ray bond award
congratulations on it i’m pleased
to work for you and to experience this
with you so
keep doing what you do and
congratulations once again
trace congratulations on the ray bomb
award
to be honest i’m a bit surprised it’s
taken this long given everything that
you have done for the industry
already i can’t think of a more worthy
recipient this year especially with
scaling up the past several years you’ve
always been a great mentor to me
and now uh you get to be a mentor to
thousands of your listeners and i think
that’s great and what you’re doing
is going to make a huge impact long term
on the industry so
congratulations you deserve it and keep
doing great things
hello i’m bruce ketrick with guardian
csc in york pennsylvania
and i have the great privilege of
congratulating trace blackmore on
receiving the 2020
ray baum award for water technologist of
the year
as a rebound recipient and most of the
others that have will attest to this
this is a very very rewarding and
humbling experience because it comes
from your peers
i would like to congratulate trace
for all of his contributions to our
industry as a
member of the board of directors past
president and one of the crucial
trainers in the technical training
course trace as a person
is always full of energy always
available and is always trying to
improve things
and as such i would like to thank trace
for all he’s done
as a friend as an associate and as a
teacher
because trace is the kind of person that
this industry needs
for us to continue to grow and prosper
again congratulations trace
on an award well deserved hey trace it’s
your buddy mark jewell
hey ever since i’ve known you for about
14 years now i have to say i’ve been
impressed with your passion for our
industry
you started with this passion on
committees within the awt
took that to being president leading
that organization which was wonderful
developing the water alliance developing
the seed group within the awt
for future water treaters and to bring
them on board
and then of course the wonderful work
that you’re doing with your podcast
the only podcast forest water treaters
bringing us into community
and also the mastermind groups which
also bring us into community as well
you’re always on a leading edge of what
what’s going on within our industry
and bringing us together you’ve been a
great force for that and so
we both know most of the people that won
this award over the years and they’re
exceptional
and you are no exception to being
exceptional uh congratulations
my friend nation again i want to thank
you
for sharing this experience with me
this has been incredible it’s been
incredible that we can
do this on the podcast and i know during
this covet time we’re always thinking
about things that we
can’t do and today
this is something that’s happened that
we were able to actually
celebrate here on the podcast we would
have never been able to do that
if we had the live event so
i promise you there is a silver lining
with everything
if you know where to look for it in fact
i have a paper that i did with scranton
associates
jill cavano where we are
speaking about things that we’ve learned
this year with the pandemic for those of
you that joined us
with our webinar series you know we did
13
webinars and we had subject matter
experts come on to help give us
information so we can make better
decisions during
the pandemic of course we’re still of
course suffering through the pandemic
but we’re smarter now because we have
experience
and we have people that know the answers
at least as good as the answers can be
because we know everything changes
tomorrow
so navigate over to the agenda at the
awt
virtual conference and you will see a
paper entitled
navigating the pandemic while innovating
for the future
i think you’ll get a lot of tips and
things that we
learned and continue to learn throughout
this pandemic and if you can’t find that
you can go to our booth where we’re
going to put a link
to that so you can go straight to it
from there
we’ll also have a pdf downloadable
document with all of the resources that
we
mentioned during that presentation so
you don’t have to worry about taking
notes
we mention a lot of things you can get
them all right there
and just click to where you need to go
speaking of where you need to go
next year the awt is having their annual
convention and exposition
in providence road island so it is
my hope that we are now able to get
together
and we can see each other in person
who knows what the future brings the one
thing i do know is that we are getting
smarter with dealing
with this pandemic as we experience it
so whatever the future holds we will
experience it
and we will endure it well and the
challenge that i
have for you because i know many of you
have just
learned about the ray von memorial water
technologist of the year award
is who’s going to be next year’s
recipient folks my goal with this
podcast
is to raise the bar in the water
treatment industry
and i know without a doubt
we have done that because i have heard
from you
the scaling up nation tell me that very
thing and that tells me that you are out
there and you’re doing things
better you’re making sure that we are
leaving our industry
better than it was when we found it
so is the award winner next year going
to be
you and there’s no reason that
it can’t be so i challenge you not to
get an award
but each and every day what
are you doing to make the industry
better and that i think
is what i have in common with
all of the people that came before me
that accepted
the ray ball memorial water treater of
the year award
nation as i have said throughout this
episode this
has been extremely exciting for me i’ve
heard from
so many people that i i can’t thank all
the people that
congratulated me uh that means so much
to me
so folks thank you for listening thank
you for all the people
that uh contributed to this episode
this episode was just incredible i hope
you enjoyed it too
and we are coming to you next week
each and every day so we’re going to
continue the celebration all the way
through next week but we’re not
celebrating my award next week we are
celebrating that we
are industrial water treaters each and
every day
we are going to do something different
for industrial
water week we’re going to celebrate
pre-treatment on monday
boilers on tuesday cooling on wednesday
waste water on thursday and careers on
friday we’re going to do this a little
bit different than we’ve done in years
past
i know you were going to have fun each
and every day
folks we are going to make this so much
fun you’re going to hashtag
your pictures each and every day to
iw20 and we can see
how all of us in the scaling up nation
are celebrating and i’m going to give
you some fun things to do
throughout the week so we’re going to
have fun with this
join me on monday where we kick off the
celebration
folks have a great weekend and i will
talk to you monday
you