A Preview into Davey's Annual Training Program D.I.T.S.

Hear from three students attending the Davey Institute of Trees Sciences (D.I.T.S.) program, Davey’s flagship training program in biological sciences, safety, tree and plant care and management techniques. Brandon Ponciano from Davey's Dallas office, Carl Myers from Davey's Loganville, GA office and Georges Bois from Davey's Burnaby, British Columbia office share their experience in the four-week program, including their key takeaways, being away from home for 30 days and the experience bonding with other employees and tree care professionals from all over North America.

In this episode we cover:  

• What has Brandon learned at D.I.T.S.? (:57)
• What has Carl learned at D.I.T.S.? (2:10)
• What has George learned at D.I.T.S.? (3:18)
• How is it being away from home for 30 days? (4:30)
• How does George plan on using his D.I.T.S. takeaways back home? (5:33)
• What was Brandon's reaction to being chosen from D.I.T.S.? (6:53)
• What is Brandon's favorite part about D.I.T.S.? (7:38)
• What are Carl's highlights from D.I.T.S.? (8:29)
• What is the importance of comradery and bonding at D.I.T.S.? (10:14)
• What has been challenging about D.I.T.S.? (10:53)
• R.J. Laverne (12:46)
• What are everyone's biggest takeaways from D.I.T.S.? (13:51)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about careers at Davey, visit Davey.com/Careers.
To learn more about training at Davey, visit Davey.com/Training.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!

Transcript

Doug Oster: Welcome to The Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. This week, we've got a very special episode. It is our third annual look at the Davey Institute of Tree Sciences training, and that's DITS. I'm joined by Brandon Ponciano. He's a foreman from the Dallas Davey Tree office.

Carl Myers, plant healthcare technician from Loganville, Georgia. George Bois, he's a climber from Burnaby, British Columbia, the Davey Tree office out there. Welcome to the show, guys.

Brandon Ponciano: Glad to be here.

Carl Myers: Thanks for having me.

George Bois: Same here.

Doug: We're going to start with you, Brandon. What sort of things have you been learning there at DITS?

Brandon: Some parts of it I've already known, I'm a production climber out of Dallas, as you spoke of. A big part of what I'm learning is tree risk assessment and urban forestry. Those are the two subjects that I've realized that I need to do a lot of my focus in. That's really what I've been hunkering down and studying on, is tree risk assessment. Basically, it's not the climber's perspective anymore. It's the perspective of the either manager or the owner of the tree, which was interesting to me. It put a whole new twist on that.

Doug: How did you look at it before you started your training? How were you looking at it?

Brandon: Very similarly, but it was more to the aspect of my visual versus the customer's visual. You know what I mean?

Doug: Yes.

Brandon: In tree risk assessment, the customer decides an acceptable risk level, whereas in my assessment, it's my decision of an acceptable risk level. Am I going to climb the tree, or am I going to try to figure out a different way to do this?

Doug: Carl, what are you focusing on there?

Carl: There's so much. Truthfully, I came up here with the goal to do my absolute best in making the grades for the DITS class. The main thing I've realized is that was missing the opportunity there. As I got here and started learning, to me, it seems the relationship aspect of everything. It has been the biggest learning deal for me. Learning who all my peers are in different positions throughout the whole North America. Got some folks from Canada.

Learning who the teachers are at the Institute and how we can reach out to them, and how they're very personable and not this thought in your head of someone that's there, but you don't know how to contact, and they wouldn't want to take your call anyway. None of that's real. Learning that has been amazing to me.

Doug: George, what about you? Is there a certain aspect of this that you're looking closely at?

George: I'd say that coming here, I have an analogy. I look at this whole tree industry as a puzzle, like a big puzzle. I've been with Davey for four years, and I've accumulated a few pieces of the puzzle. Coming here has actually given me the frame. The overall frame of the puzzle with a lot of pieces in it. For me, I like the fact that it's shown me a wide-angle vision of the overall industry of my work and also the company, and discovering there's a lot. I've learned a lot of things. Just to realize that there's going to be a lot more pieces of the puzzle to come.

Doug: It's a 30-day training. Is that tough? Is that tough to be away from home for 30 days?

George: Yes. Very tough. Leaving your wife behind, the dogs behind, all of that is unreal. Then I'm up here from Georgia, so I not only left them, but I left behind 75-degree days in February, 12 hours of sunshine every day. Those things I missed, I wasn't prepared for. I didn't even know I'd miss them. It is a tough deal that you don't realize how tough until you get in the midst of it. It's also been nice. Definitely an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone, and grow and learn.

Doug: You're almost done, right? You'll be going home pretty soon. Is that right?

George: Yes, sir. Saturday, I think everybody will be leaving out.

Doug: George, how do you plan on using the information that you have and going forward when you get back to British Columbia?

George: I've been wondering about that. Obviously, I'm not going to keep it for myself. I want to share as much as possible with my colleagues in my yard and whoever I come across and share whatever I've experienced here with the company, with people whom I had never met before, experts I didn't know the company had. I want to be able to inspire. I want to be able to motivate the people I work with because not a lot of people are going to be able to come to DITS. This is a one-off opportunity. Not a lot of people can do this.

If I can inspire people and motivate people to engage more with the company and all those things, I'll be happy with that. Plus, everything that's more technical that if I can share with my colleagues, I will gladly do.

Doug: Brandon, what was it like for you when you got chosen? Was it a big thing for you when you did get chosen?

Brandon: Oh, it was huge. I was very excited. One of my passions is trees, along with climbing safely. When I heard that I was getting an opportunity, 50 people were chosen out of 12,000. That's huge. We're the best of the best, if you will, to a certain degree. 30 days, it seemed like a long time in my mind at the initial start. When I first got here, I loved being here. I was telling everybody I didn't want to go home. Now that I'm in the fourth week, I'm definitely ready to go home. [chuckles] I miss the kids. I miss the family. I'm just missing everybody. I miss the guys at the shop.

Doug: Brandon, what's been the fun parts of DITS?

Brandon: The climbing portion, of course. All the rigging modules, all the outside, setting up different systems. Again, it's one of my passions. I've done a lot of studying on different rigging systems, complex rigging systems, and the different types of positive rigging, negative rigging, span rigging, all kinds of different things. A lot of the stuff that they're presenting to us, I've already had a feel for. You can just imagine how excited I got when we started going over these things.

Doug: Is it mostly classroom for the climbing?

Brandon: We did, yes. About 90% of it was classroom. Then we did a couple portions outside. Had the weather been better, I imagine we would have done more outside.

Doug: Carl, talk a little bit about some of your highlights of being part of DITS.

Carl: Highlights? Well, Golden Oak. Yes, excited to see who wins the Golden Oak. Like I said, that was my goal coming here. That was my main focus.

Doug: What is that? What is the Golden Oak?

Carl: Brandon?

Brandon: Basically, the person who scores the highest on our weekly test, they get awarded the Golden Oak. I think there's an unwritten baseline that Carl is our Golden Oak, regardless of who wins the Golden Oak. [chuckles]

Carl: Delete that out.

[laughter]

Carl: Delete that out. That's not true.

Brandon: Everybody loves Carl.

Carl: I appreciate the sentiment. I have no idea who's going to win, but that was my goal coming here. Like I say, the highlights for me was the realization that I don't think it matters. The relationships with these guys, like I say, learning from RJ. Wow, a lot of people get the book smarts, and then a lot of people have artist-type capabilities that I have no idea about. RJ seems to blend those with his style of teaching and just has a very artistic flow of the knowledge, and it's just really cool to learn from him.

Like I say again, their relationships with the peers and the technical advisors, meeting the technical advisors.

Doug: George, there's obviously a camaraderie here of the people that are going through the training. I can just see the three of you guys laughing it up there. Talk a little bit about the importance of that, of everybody getting along.

George: Yes, you're just getting a sample of what's going on with the 42 participants. There's been a beautiful spirit amongst all of us, that's for sure. If there's one thing I'm going to be missing, it's going to be that attitude that everybody had.

Doug: This is to any one of the three of you. What has been some of the most difficult things for you?

Carl: There's a few. None to complain about, but just from coming out of the field every day and that physical exertion to being in a classroom setting again. That first week, you could hardly sleep. I can't speak for everybody, but I'd lay in bed at night, full of energy, wide awake. Mentally exhausted, but my body, I hadn't burned any energy. I learned real quick, I had to hit the walking machine at the hotel in the evenings before I tried to go to sleep just to stay on course. That was a struggle getting that dialed in, and then just being away from home and the people you love.

Speaking to what George said earlier, I'm impressed by the way that 42 people spend so much time together. There hasn't been one even argument that I've heard about, much less any sort of dispute. Between that, over this long time period, and staying together all the time, it's impressive to me. It's a very dialed-in course, Davey has.

Brandon: It's really cool to see all the people from-- the whole classroom is so diverse, from the West Coast to the East Coast, from Canada to Texas. Then you've got people like me who are climbers and people who have never climbed at all. You have the PHC techs. You have people who are in sales who've never really dabbled in any of it. It's really cool to see everybody come together and essentially help each other. They're like, "Oh, you don't know much about PHC. I can help you with that. Can you help me with some knots?" It's really cool to see the blend of diversity.

Doug: Well, Carl, it's interesting that you bring up RJ Laverne. He's been a guest on the podcast several times. Every time that we do this episode about DITS, his name comes up. Let's talk a little bit about these people that are doing the teaching.

Carl: Oh, wow. RJ, yes. He's a pillar. Even though-- I can say I'm sorry that I'm not going to be one of the DITS participants in the seat campus to come, I'm happy to be one of the participants who was lucky to be with RJ Laverne. His passion, his heart, the work, and passion in passing on his knowledge, his availability. The list goes on.

Brandon: He's definitely one of the giants that our generation of Davey gets to stand on his shoulders as we go forward, for sure.

Doug: Well, for all three of you, before I let you go, what's the biggest takeaway from going through a training like this for you guys?

George: I was told that by coming here, I would make some great connections with people, and Carl talked about it, so I'll echo that one. I'll add leaving DITS with knowing that I have access to a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, a lot of expertise, and that. Even though I'm going to go back to West Coast of Canada, I'm still connected to a lot of people. I can reach out to a lot of people and just make it happen and get some answers or some of their experience.

Doug: How about for you, Brandon?

Brandon: I can ditto after that. I don't think anybody who hasn't come here realizes how many resources we actually have. It doesn't just stop at our technical advisors. If my technical advisor can't figure it out, she's going to contact all the rest of the technical advisors. If they can't figure it out, they might even reach out-- they're going to pull resources from all over the place. My biggest takeaway is that there's really nothing, in a collective mind, as big as Davey is, there's nothing we can't solve. The sky's the limit for anybody in the company.

We toured the seed campus yesterday, and to see what's in Davey's future makes me excited to be a part of this company and be the best I can be. That's one thing I've always told my managers, is I want to do nothing but be an asset to this company and see where they're putting that money, where they're putting everything that we make for them, it's a beautiful thing. This company is on a skyrocket.

Doug: How about for you, Carl? Great, best takeaway.

Carl: One of my biggest takeaways is this has showed me how much I like to learn and be involved with stuff like this. A new goal I'm set is to somehow get invited back one day in some aspect. That's going to be a goal of mine going forward, hopefully. Having to figure out a way to get back up here. Maybe not for four weeks. Also, just how much trees are like people. We have a kinship, and we can all relate to that.

Doug: All right, guys. I want to thank you very much for taking some time out of your training, out of your lunchtime, to talk with me. I appreciate it. Enjoy your last few days in Kent. That is a cool city. I wish you all the best moving forward. Thanks very much.

Carl: Thanks, Doug.

George: Thank you, Doug.

Brandon: Thanks, Doug.

Doug: This yearly episode has become one of my favorites. Just listening to the passion those students have for learning and their instructors, it's wonderful. Do me a favor, subscribe to this podcast so that you'll never miss one of these good shows. Do you have an idea for an episode? Maybe a comment? There's two ways to reach us. You can send us an email at podcasts@davey.com. That's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S @ D-A-V-E-Y.com. You can also click the link at the end of our show notes to text us a fan mail message.

Your ideas might be on a future podcast, and we'd love to hear from you. As always, we'd like to remind you, on the Talking Trees podcast, trees are the answer.

[00:17:31] [END OF AUDIO]