Well, first of all "governing body" really is misleading. Of course you can't govern what retailers and independent mechanics actually do whether they are members of your group or not.
Maybe not, but there can be a standard set that others with any pride would like to attain. Bad practices makes for bad business.
Really what we're talking about is simply a certification to insure that mechanics are trained in the "best practices".
It's like the tightening of pockets, discussion.... how many facings do you want to stack up to avoid extending the subrail. Do you want employees that are capable of subrail extention, or guys that can glue another piece of rubber over another one and call it good enough for a 4" pocket? As a consumer/player being charged about $150 which would you rather be paying for?
For the purposes of this thread, let's say that our organization is called "Billiard Table Mechanics Association".
As with most endeavors, the first hurdle is money. Where does it come from? I can see this association being funded through three sources - manufacturers, retailers, and mechanics themselves.
If the school is backed by manufacturers and retailers, then maintained and trained by well rounded mechanics, then that hurdle is already crossed, so the next step would be affordability and the time required for those that want to be trained and certified. There's no way that you could take someone, teach them the bare basics of working on a table, and call them a mechanic. They are now an assembler. there are thousands of them out there. They can take a table out of a box , slap it together with a carpenters level and leave. They may or may not be able to cover a rail with Championship or Forstmann's, but not even close to ready for Simonis. They probably don't even play pool so don't know what the difference is anyway. An installer may have what it takes to do the job, but doesn't really know that there are other ways to get it done until introduced to it. They can do some repairs/touchups, recover rails, disassemble a table and probably figure out many other tables that they have not seen before. Could they move and setup and antique or a Diamond? Most don't want to try. Not for what they are getting paid to do.
In my perfect world there would be two three-man teams of instructors traveling the country - one west of the Mississippi and one east. Retailers would pay a fee of let's say $100 per employee to be certified. Independent table mechanics would pay $200 each for certification. Independent mechanics would first have to prove that they have a business license and insurance before being certified.
But what is the time frame for quality control purposes to get this training/certification done in? There are guys that have been doing it for say a year, that still are barely an assembler. They have no ambition to become better, don't feel the need to learn, so are they also qualified to have the same certifications as someone that can strip down restore/repair an obsolete table, repair broken slate, change out rail rubber with the correct profile for the correct table, fabricate parts to complete a job, or even tighten pockets beyond 3/8"?
Not real fair to the guys that have spent decades learning the trade and reinventing the wheel in some cases to make the gears turn better for the industry. Compare the diamond smart table to a 20 year old Shelti for example...
It isn't a one day forklift class to teach you how to not knock boxes off the shelve or run anyone over, or an hour long video to laugh through at all of the mistakes being made. It's about preserving someones investment, and improving upon what has come before, to improve the standards of what the customer should expect anyway.
Retailers and independent mechanics would then be able to use a logo and the title "BTMA Certified Billiard Technician" - similar to ASE certified mechanics, etc.
After spending hours upon hours over the last week reading almost every thread in this forum, I would urge anyone interested in undertaking this endeavor to avoid getting bogged down with promoting the "one right way" to perform specific tasks - leveling, stretching cloth, etc.
I have read hundreds of posts from Real King Cobra, OTLB and others in this forum. No two of you do everything the same as another. Let's face it, the problem isn't wax vs. bondo vs. Durham's. The problem is mechanics that can't properly set up a table using ANY of those three methods. Instruction and certification will have to be as much about what NOT to do as what you SHOULD do.
