Business View Magazine | December 2020

85 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 to our aboveground tank section or our field erect, where the projects are more visible, you can drive down the road and point to a water tower or a fuel tank and say, “I built that” and there is a real sense of pride in that. I want to see us do as much as we can to promote workforce development within our industry and to promote emerging leaders for those already in the industry. We have an Emerging Leaders Conference to get them involved in the association, and show them the path to move forward in their company and their career. Getting young people involved in the trades and the steel industry is very important.” Not surprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for STI/SPFA. As Geyer reports, “Every two years we have a mandatory quality control meeting, since we license technology to our shop fabricated fuel storage tank fabricators. We typically have about 140 people there and up to 100 fabrication plants represented at that meeting. That along with our Annual Conference have been pushed back because of COVID-19, so the pandemic has hit us hard just like every other association as far as our conferences go.” Part of the Association’s newer strategic plan was the expansion of its education offering to webinars and online programs. One of the bigger programs is certification of inspectors of aboveground fuel tanks – it’s a four-and-a- half day class with a test afterwards. That too has been impacted with a reduction in classes, as has the program on corrosion protection of underground steel tanks. The good news is that the fabricators of aboveground fuel storage tanks have been really busy because the price of fuel has dropped significantly, creating a demand for storage tanks. In particular, the agricultural sector is very strong, with a lot of tanks being purchased there, as well. According to Geyer, “We started large field erected industrial fuel tank seminars; one-day classes where our speakers are fabricators of THE STEEL TANK INST I TUTE/STEEL PLATE FABR I CATORS ASSOC I AT ION those tanks for jet fuel, etc. and there is a lot of interest from buyers and specifiers. We are doing a virtual one with the American Petroleum Institute as part of their annual conference. We also thought it was a good idea to have a fast result COVID-19 test kit for new employees, or an employee who gets sick and you want to make sure you limit exposure, just in case. So we started that program as well. Paul Oliver, our safety consultant, agreed that it was really needed out in the field, and very timely.” Another change due to COVID has been the transition to virtual audits. STI/SPFA has an annual Audit Certification program for Steel Water Pipe Section members, run by a third party, but