advertising

Now that I'm a cpst, I want to make a difference in my community and am all gung ho and ready to do it. I have a list of car seat check events in a nearby community, but my own has none. I want to advertise myself to do free private checks as well as advertising the check events in a fairly nearby community. (Nearby enough that everyone has to go there for something or other, even if it is 45-60 minutes away.) I've got a poster for myself and a poster for the check events. I plan to go around to ped offices in town to ask if they will put them up. I think I'll go to the wic office as well. I know one grocery store allows such advertising, so I'll try there as well. Do you have any other ideas of places where I might hang my posters?

Wow, that's a good idea! What'd you include on your poster?

I might have to do the same thing.

Thanks!

Ill be checking back on this.
Ill be taking the cpst class at the end of this month. Ive never seen anything about seat check events anywhere near me. We only have 5 cpst listed here. So Im not sure on any events they may hold. The class is booked and thar great for our community but Im going to guess it may just be out of towners bc its one of two in our state.

But depending on how I feel about my abilities, I may have to take your approch.

I would hold off on doing private checks until you have more experience.

I know you have a lot of experience as a parent, and you know a lot--probably more than the other people in your class--but "book smarts" are a lot different than "street smarts" when it comes to unfamiliar cars and seats.

Even though I was very knowledgeable and rather cocky, I still didn't feel comfortable doing checks on my own until after I had done many events with other techs.

I would also check with the agencies hosting the events you're advertising to make sure they WANT them advertised. I know the coalitions I work with typically do events by appointment only, or they tend to already be swamped and don't need/want a lot of other publicity. Even if that's not the case where you are, I would still check with them just as a courtesy.

Agreed. I did many public checks before I started on private. And I was nervous and probably started too soon.

Is there a local mommies list? I hung out there (and still do) and offered advice. It wasn't long before people asked if I could come and look at their seats, and once they did it really took off that I did a lot of checks (to the tune of 40 hours a month fairly often).

Wendy

I know so much more than when I came here last fall.. But I really still would not do a seat check alone until I had more experience under my belt. When Monstah came and checked my seats, She knew things I am sure are not in the class. She was so thorough and that does not come from schooling but from experience. There was nothing I asked she could not answer. I am excited to get my ceritfication but I will volunteer at checks and hopefully find a good community of techs to be a part of before I branch out on my own.

I've talked to the coordinator for the Salt Lake Safe Kids before and she's been fine with people out here going to their checks, but I shot off an email to her to make sure. I intend to work as many of those checks as I can.

We do have a local mom's online group of which I am a member. The ladies there do know to ask my advice for choosing car seats, but so far they've only talked about having me help them with installation issues.

I know I'm cocky and inexperienced, but I actually have had some experience installing many different kinds of car seats. I've gone through about 30 different seats for my own kids in various vehicles, using latch, seatbelt, and locking clips. I've used alr, elr with sew latch plates, locking latchplates, and switchable retractors. I've bought car seats, played with them, then sold them. I've tried the various methods of installing those seats as well. Then, when people buy the car seats from me, I often show them how to install the seat in their vehicle. Last week in class, I purposefully chose to install car seats I hadn't installed before and installed them in all the methods available in various other vehicles just so I could learn. I now feel pretty confident in my ability to read manuals. They really do help a lot

There are now two CPSTs in my county. (Which is huge.) The other CPST works two days a week, 8 hours a day, is hard to reach, and tends to not return calls. I feel that having my skills available to the community can make children safer than they currently are. At this time, I am willing to take the risk that I might not know everything. I am very comfortable telling someone "I don't know. I will search for the answer."

ETA: the Salt Lake coordinator responded affirmatively to advertising their events out here

I just think it is one of those things where you need hands on experience and a lot of it before you take on the responsibility alone in a check.

To me it is no different than a dr that goes to school or a tradesman. They have the schooling but the still have to intern and apprentice before they are qualified to be on their own.

Sorry, Just my pennies and a 1/2.

There's still a big difference between installing your own seat, and spending an hour in a car educating parents. You have half of it down if you've done all the seats. Now you need to go from being an installer to an educator. If you feel comfortable with it, go for it.

Wendy

For me, at least, there's a huge difference between installing seats for MY kids and installing seats for someone else's kids.

With seats for my kids, I make sure they're correct, and then I'm good. Even now, after doing this for years, I still panic that I'm doing something wrong with other peoples' seats. I mean, I'm sure I'm not, but even now I'll still wake up in the middle of the night wondering if the seat I did for someone the day before was REALLY tight or not. (It was. It's just the paranoia that comes from putting someone else's child's life in your hands.)

I don't care how long a person has been hanging out here or how well they did in class. Something in the real world WILL throw you for a loop, and it's best to have that happen with other techs around.

christineka said:

At this time, I am willing to take the risk that I might not know everything.

Click to expand...

Are you comfortable taking that risk for other people's kids? It's scary if you are. No one knows everything, of course, but the more hands-on work we do, the more we know -- and more importantly, we know what we don't know. That you think you're ready to fly solo suggests to me that maybe you aren't really aware of how much there is to know (or not know).