Rob Fox introduces himself, discusses his background as a pool operator, and explains the services offered by Aquatic Training and Consulting Service.

Introduction and Background

Rob Fox provides an overview of the swimming pool operation course, discusses the updates made to the course based on national guidelines, and explains the class structure and examination process.

Course Overview and Updates

Rob Fox discusses the continuing education requirements for pool operators, the frequency of the class offerings, and the target audience for the classes.

Continuing Education and Class Schedule

Rob Fox explains the minimum age requirement for pool operators, his teaching approach, and the relevance of the course for coaches and facility operators.

Minimum Age and Course Relevance

Rob Fox discusses the certification process, jurisdictional differences, and the applicability of the course in various states.

Certification and Jurisdiction

Rob Fox explains the enrollment process, materials provided, and a special promotion for ISCA members.

Enrollment Process and Special Offer

# Fox Swimming Newsletter

## Meet Rob Fox

Rob Fox, the founder of Fox Swimming, has over 34 years of experience as a pool operator. He previously worked as an executive at a large pool management company, where he was in charge of hiring, training, and managing staff for 600 swimming pools.

## Aquatic Training and Consulting Service

Rob's company, Aquatic Training and Consulting Service, offers a range of programs related to water safety and management, including swimming pool operation, swim club, learn to swim programs, lifeguarding classes, and CPR classes.

## Swimming Pool Operation Class

- The swimming pool operation class is a 2-day course, with 14 hours of instruction and a certification exam based on the National Model Aquatic Health Codes.
- The course is instructor-led and uses the GoToWebinar platform for virtual learning.
- Participants receive a manual and access to a secure website for testing.
- The certification is valid for 3 years, with a requirement for a 4-hour continuing education course every 3 years.

## Course Schedule

- The class is offered about 3 times a month during the winter and 1-2 times a week from the end of April to the middle of July.
- Regular scheduled classes can be found on poolop.com, with the option to request an individual class for a specific staff group.

## Minimum Age and Coaches

- The minimum age to become a pool operator is 16 years old, with some local jurisdictions setting the age at 17.
- Coaches can benefit from the certification by gaining a better understanding of pool operations and handling inquiries from parents and facility management.

## Certification and Jurisdictions

- The certification is known as the Professional Swimming Pool Operator and is recognized by health departments in various states.
- Rob is in the process of obtaining a stamp from the National Model Aquatic Health Code Council to further validate the certification.

## Enrolling in the Course

- Enrollees will receive a PDF, online resource page, and a GoToWebinar link 2 days prior to the class.
- A special promotion code, ISCA10, is available for a $10 discount on the course fee.

## Partnership with ISCA

- Participants can also receive information about joining the International Swim Coaches Association (ISCA) for a year.

## Join the Course

Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn from an industry expert. Join Rob Fox's swimming pool operation class to enhance your knowledge and skills in pool management.

Thank you for considering Fox Swimming for your training needs! We look forward to seeing you in our upcoming classes.

Sincerely,
The Fox Swimming Team

"Enhance Your Pool Management Skills with Rob Fox's Certification Course"

- Rob Fox has been a pool operator for 34 years and now runs Aquatic Training and Consulting Service
- He teaches a swimming pool operation class based on national guidelines, covering chemicals, filters, and pumps
- The 14-hour class includes a manual and exam, and the certificate is valid for 3 years
- The class is offered 3 times a month in winter and 1-2 times a week in summer, primarily for pool management staff
- The minimum age for pool operators is 16, and coaches can benefit from taking the course
- The certification is called Professional Swimming Pool Operator and varies by jurisdiction
- The course is not affiliated with the National Swimming Pool Foundation and is based on Rob's own perspective and experience.

- The speaker discusses the process of registering for pool operator certification in different states
- They mention the National Model Aquatic Health Codes as a standard
- They provide information on their website and course schedule
- They discuss the process of receiving the certification and joining the webinar
- They offer a discount code for the course and a partnership with the International Swim Coaches Association

Well first let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I think I've been a pool operator for about 34 years.

I used to be an executive at a large pool management company where I was in charge of their human resource and training department.

So basically what that entailed was that I was in charge of getting about 2,200 people hired, trained and out to the pool each day during the summer.

And then I decided not to do that anymore.

I just decided to take all the things that I liked about my job in pool management and kind of create some companies around that.

And 1 of those companies is the Aquatic Training and Consulting Service.

Basically, what we do is we teach anything that has to do with water.

Most of what I teach is the class that we're here talking about today, which is swimming pool operation, which will teach you about the chemicals and the filters and the pumps.

But we also have a swim club, we have a learn to swim program, we teach lifeguarding classes, CPR classes, we do some safety audits, all of those kinds of things.

I've been teaching this class since 1999.

I developed my own course many, many, many years ago and basically updated it right about the time that the pandemic hit to be based on the national guidelines.

Then the national health model health codes came out and just about every state is adopting those as the way that they're running their pools.

So I rewrote my course in order to be based on those national codes so that I could be more applicable to not only the Washington metropolitan area where I'm located, but hopefully throughout the country.

My class, if you're taking the full class, it is 2 days.

It usually runs either 8 to 3 during the weekdays or 9 to 4 on the weekends.

It's a 14 hour class with the last 2 hours of the class being the time for the exam.

And the exam is based on the National Model Aquatic Health Codes.

As part of the class, I give you a manual, a PDF of our manual in order to be able to follow along.

It primarily uses the GoToWebinar platform and I'm there answering questions all the way through as we go through the material and then we set you up on a secure website in order to do the testing.

The certificate is good for 3 years and Every 3 years, according to the national guidelines, you're supposed to do a four-hour continuing education course.

And basically, there's like a little 25-question quiz at the end of that course to show that you've done it and that you've kind of maintained the knowledge.

I generally do those in conjunction with the full course.

What I've found is that most of the people that have been pool operators for 3 years or more, the things that they've forgotten are the things that I cover in the first 4 hours of class.

They've probably forgotten why some of the chemical readings are important or what that information is supposed to be telling them.

And so I kind of go through that in, in the review, as well as some of the staff considerations and some of the things that you should be thinking about in terms of running a safe and efficient pool.

We offer the class about 3 times a month during the winter.

And then once we get to the end of April, I'm pretty much teaching a class 1 or 2 times a week all the way through the middle of July.

Cause obviously during the summer months is when primarily Most of the pool management companies that I service are looking to get their summer staff trained.

During the winter times, most of the clients that I'm kind of catering to are municipalities and hotel staff.

But the course doesn't change regardless of the time of year.

The things that you need to do to keep your water blue and safe and clear are the same regardless of what time of the year it is or what kind of facility that you're running.

Like I said, I do have regular scheduled classes on pullup.com and then I can also create a circumstance if a staff needs an individual class put together for theirs provided that it's a virtual learning experience.

So the minimum age, according to the national guidelines is you have to be 16 years old to become a pull operator.

There are some local jurisdictions that make it a little bit more restrictive and say 17, but pretty much it's 16.

A lot of times people get, most of my younger students do better than my older students on the test, to be honest with you.

So it's not a over highly complicated situation.

I'm a very kind of Talk in layman's terms, you know, I've been doing this a really really long time.

I'm not over chemistry or over math what I'm looking for in my course is what what what you practically needed to know in order to run a safe pool.

And I approached it the way that I needed to train my staff when I was running 600 pools.

It's because the coaches organization should coaches take this course.

Well, you're you know, What I have found is is that you the more certain the more certifications you have the easier it is usually to get practice time so You know in my case, you know, I serve as my pool operator for my morning practices when I go outdoors.

I'm in a situation where then I'm just trying to hire a lifeguard in order to cover my practices, as opposed to trying to find somebody that's a pool operator and a lifeguard or paying for 2 or 3 people to be there during a practice.

The other thing that it really, really helps coaches with, not only, you know, maybe you're not in a situation where you're ever gonna have to perform the pool operator duties for your facility.

But a lot of times, you're the 1 that's answering questions of parents as to why is the pool closed?

You know, should I be concerned about, you know, the chlorine was above 5 today?

All of those things are things that if you're a pool operator, you find it a lot easier to answer.

And also it's a lot easier to deal with your facility if you're in the know in terms of why they say they need to close down because you find that there's a lot of creative ideas as to why they should not allow you to have practice.

And if you're equipped with the answers, it makes it a little bit harder for them to shut you down.

So there's a certification, you're a certified pool operator, right?

So tell us about the jurisdictions and what that certification really works and where does it, you know, applicable?

So the certified pool operator, that terminology actually comes from the National Swimming Pool Foundation and it's actually proprietary.

So my certification is called the professional swimming pool operator.

And you'll find that the national guidelines refer to things like aquatic venue operator.

But you do hear a lot of people kind of dropping the word CPO or certified pool operator.

Basically what you're talking about there is somebody that has gone through and shown they've done a 14 hour class and that they've proven through a testing that they can have the certification for 3 years.

So that the terminology, I don't obviously use CPO because NSPF is 1 of my competitors and they wouldn't appreciate me using their copyrighted material.

And that's the other thing is that my manual is written kind of from my perspective Okay, you have other other places out there like the Association of swimming swimming pools You've got other other companies that have names that are very close to my name.

My company is Aquatic Training and Consulting Service.

We are based out of Maryland, but I've been teaching classes for the East, most of the eastern shore for about 20 years now

and then So there are different sanctioning bodies that have different so so we shouldn't really call this You know a CPO course We should call it a pool operators course or a professional pool operators course.

Yeah, so getting my certificate, it depends on where you're located.

So like some of, so In my area, for example, in the state of Maryland, you have to go, any place that you would run a swimming pool you have to go register at the health department and get your card, okay?

Where if you go to Virginia, which obviously is only about 40 miles from my house, so I have a lot of people that get certified there, they just take my certificate and hang it in their pump room and that's what the health department's looking for.

So there are some local jurisdictions and some things that you have to kind of find out about.

But generally speaking, you know, I haven't had any health department that's ever looked at my course and said that it's not applicable, especially now that we have the National Model Aquatic Health Codes to kind of be our standard bearer.

So my main website is AquaticTrainingService.com, and service does not have an S at the end.

That talks about all of the different courses that we found.

And then I basically what happened is I've been, you know, I get a lot of client calls while I'm on my way to swim practice in the car and telling them that website has been too difficult.

So I just went with poolop.com And that takes you right to the schedule for all of our pool operator courses right now, all the way through the end of August.

I generally keep my calendar September to August because that's kind of the same as the pool industry runs for.

Okay, and then a little more on jurisdiction.

If you're from Michigan, or if you're from Ohio, or from Florida, is there an insurance or a guarantee or how do they know that this is actually gonna be valid?

They have to do a little research before they enroll?

So they'll have to do a little bit of research.

I'm in the process of finishing up getting the stamp from the National Motto Aquatic Health Code Council.

I should have that in the next few weeks that hopefully makes it an automatic.

In the meanwhile, If they don't automatically take my certification, a lot of the health departments are just looking to see that you're certified in other states, that you're accepted in other states in order to get on the list of approved providers.

Sometimes a health inspector wants me to email them, a health department wants me to email them our manual so that they can kind of go through it and kind of our course curriculum and things like that.

Obviously, I want to expand the opportunity to touch as many people with running a safe pool as I possibly can.

OK, and then when they enroll, there's a PDF.

Then 2 days prior to class, because of sending it too early, I've found that people can't find it.

So I generally will send an email about 2 days before class that will have a link to the PDF, a link to our online resource page that will have other kinds of materials that you might find helpful in running a pool.

And then it will have the GoToWebinar link.

And so then you click on the GoToWebinar link, you put your address in so that I have it for where you want your certification sent.

And then the day of the webinar, it will send a link through your email that you just click on join webinar.

And like I said, we usually start at either 8 or 9, depending on the day.

So the pullout.com is where you're going to kind of pay.

And the go to webinar is how you're going to join the link.

And As you know, Mark, we're offering a special for the ISCA.

So the code, the promotion code is ISCA10, and that will get you $10 off for my course.

And then I'll send you some information also about being able to take advantage of joining ISCA for a year.

So that's kind of the partnership that we've developed with ISCA.

You've walked the walk and you do it all.

And congratulations on building a solid business and being a service for a lot of other people that are gonna help in the industry.

Yeah, it's always a lot more fun when I've got a couple of swim coaches on the webinar.

Most of the Maryland LSC, most of those coaches have taken my class.

And so it's always fun to have a couple coaches in the mix.

I really appreciate the opportunity to work with the International Swim Coaches Association.

And I look forward to seeing you all on deck at some point.


Speaker 0: This is Rob Fox from Fox Swimming.

Speaker 1: Well first let me tell you a little bit about myself. I think I've been a pool operator for about 34 years. I used to be an executive at a large pool management company where I was in charge of their human resource and training department. So basically what that entailed was that I was in charge of getting about 2,200 people hired, trained and out to the pool each day during the summer. We ran about 600 swimming pools.

And then I decided not to do that anymore. I just decided to take all the things that I liked about my job in pool management and kind of create some companies around that. And 1 of those companies is the Aquatic Training and Consulting Service. Basically, what we do is we teach anything that has to do with water. Most of what I teach is the class that we're here talking about today, which is swimming pool operation, which will teach you about the chemicals and the filters and the pumps.

But we also have a swim club, we have a learn to swim program, we teach lifeguarding classes, CPR classes, we do some safety audits, all of those kinds of things. As far as the pool operator class goes,

Speaker 2: like I said, I've been a pool

Speaker 1: operator for about 34, 35 years. I've been teaching this class since 1999. I developed my own course many, many, many years ago and basically updated it right about the time that the pandemic hit to be based on the national guidelines. Then the national health model health codes came out and just about every state is adopting those as the way that they're running their pools. So I rewrote my course in order to be based on those national codes so that I could be more applicable to not only the Washington metropolitan area where I'm located, but hopefully throughout the country.

My class, if you're taking the full class, it is 2 days. It usually runs either 8 to 3 during the weekdays or 9 to 4 on the weekends. It's a 14 hour class with the last 2 hours of the class being the time for the exam. And the exam is based on the National Model Aquatic Health Codes. As part of the class, I give you a manual, a PDF of our manual in order to be able to follow along.

Our class is instructor-led. It primarily uses the GoToWebinar platform and I'm there answering questions all the way through as we go through the material and then we set you up on a secure website in order to do the testing. The certificate is good for 3 years and Every 3 years, according to the national guidelines, you're supposed to do a four-hour continuing education course. And basically, there's like a little 25-question quiz at the end of that course to show that you've done it and that you've kind of maintained the knowledge. I generally do those in conjunction with the full course.

What I've found is that most of the people that have been pool operators for 3 years or more, the things that they've forgotten are the things that I cover in the first 4 hours of class. They've probably forgotten why some of the chemical readings are important or what that information is supposed to be telling them. And so I kind of go through that in, in the review, as well as some of the staff considerations and some of the things that you should be thinking about in terms of running a safe and efficient pool. We offer the class about 3 times a month during the winter. And then once we get to the end of April, I'm pretty much teaching a class 1 or 2 times a week all the way through the middle of July.

Cause obviously during the summer months is when primarily Most of the pool management companies that I service are looking to get their summer staff trained. During the winter times, most of the clients that I'm kind of catering to are municipalities and hotel staff. But the course doesn't change regardless of the time of year. The things that you need to do to keep your water blue and safe and clear are the same regardless of what time of the year it is or what kind of facility that you're running. Like I said, I do have regular scheduled classes on pullup.com and then I can also create a circumstance if a staff needs an individual class put together for theirs provided that it's a virtual learning experience.

Speaker 0: Fabulous, great introduction. So I got a couple of questions. What about the ages? Is there a minimum age? Is a lifeguard fit into that?

Is that sort of silly? Tell me about

Speaker 1: that. So the minimum age, according to the national guidelines is you have to be 16 years old to become a pull operator. There are some local jurisdictions that make it a little bit more restrictive and say 17, but pretty much it's 16. A lot of times people get, most of my younger students do better than my older students on the test, to be honest with you. So it's not a over highly complicated situation.

I'm a very kind of Talk in layman's terms, you know, I've been doing this a really really long time. I'm not over chemistry or over math what I'm looking for in my course is what what what you practically needed to know in order to run a safe pool. And I approached it the way that I needed to train my staff when I was running 600 pools.

Speaker 0: Now, what about coaches? It's because the coaches organization should coaches take this course. What's your take on that?

Speaker 1: Well, you're you know, What I have found is is that you the more certain the more certifications you have the easier it is usually to get practice time so You know in my case, you know, I serve as my pool operator for my morning practices when I go outdoors. I'm in a situation where then I'm just trying to hire a lifeguard in order to cover my practices, as opposed to trying to find somebody that's a pool operator and a lifeguard or paying for 2 or 3 people to be there during a practice. The other thing that it really, really helps coaches with, not only, you know, maybe you're not in a situation where you're ever gonna have to perform the pool operator duties for your facility. But a lot of times, you're the 1 that's answering questions of parents as to why is the pool closed? Why is, why are people coughing?

Why is my, you know, my kid has a rash? You know, should I be concerned about, you know, the chlorine was above 5 today? Should I be concerned about that? All of those things are things that if you're a pool operator, you find it a lot easier to answer. And also it's a lot easier to deal with your facility if you're in the know in terms of why they say they need to close down because you find that there's a lot of creative ideas as to why they should not allow you to have practice.

And if you're equipped with the answers, it makes it a little bit harder for them to shut you down.

Speaker 0: Yeah, knowledge is power for sure. So there's a certification, you're a certified pool operator, right? So tell us about the jurisdictions and what that certification really works and where does it, you know, applicable?

Speaker 1: So the certified pool operator, that terminology actually comes from the National Swimming Pool Foundation and it's actually proprietary. So my certification is called the professional swimming pool operator. And you'll find that the national guidelines refer to things like aquatic venue operator. It's all a copyright kind of thing. But you do hear a lot of people kind of dropping the word CPO or certified pool operator.

Basically what you're talking about there is somebody that has gone through and shown they've done a 14 hour class and that they've proven through a testing that they can have the certification for 3 years. So that the terminology, I don't obviously use CPO because NSPF is 1 of my competitors and they wouldn't appreciate me using their copyrighted material. And that's the other thing is that my manual is written kind of from my perspective Okay, you have other other places out there like the Association of swimming swimming pools You've got other other companies that have names that are very close to my name. My company is Aquatic Training and Consulting Service. We are based out of Maryland, but I've been teaching classes for the East, most of the eastern shore for about 20 years now

Speaker 0: and then So there are different sanctioning bodies that have different so so we shouldn't really call this You know a CPO course We should call it a pool operators course or a professional pool operators course.

Speaker 1: Yeah, so getting my certificate, it depends on where you're located. So like some of, so In my area, for example, in the state of Maryland, you have to go, any place that you would run a swimming pool you have to go register at the health department and get your card, okay? So that's how Maryland works. Where if you go to Virginia, which obviously is only about 40 miles from my house, so I have a lot of people that get certified there, they just take my certificate and hang it in their pump room and that's what the health department's looking for. So there are some local jurisdictions and some things that you have to kind of find out about.

But generally speaking, you know, I haven't had any health department that's ever looked at my course and said that it's not applicable, especially now that we have the National Model Aquatic Health Codes to kind of be our standard bearer.

Speaker 0: Very good. And then you had a short URL too. Is it P-O-O-L-O-P.com?

Speaker 1: So my main website is AquaticTrainingService.com, and service does not have an S at the end. That talks about all of the different courses that we found. And then I basically what happened is I've been, you know, I get a lot of client calls while I'm on my way to swim practice in the car and telling them that website has been too difficult. So I just went with poolop.com And that takes you right to the schedule for all of our pool operator courses right now, all the way through the end of August. I generally keep my calendar September to August because that's kind of the same as the pool industry runs for.

Speaker 0: Okay, and then a little more on jurisdiction. If you're from Michigan, or if you're from Ohio, or from Florida, is there an insurance or a guarantee or how do they know that this is actually gonna be valid? They have to do a little research before they enroll?

Speaker 1: So they'll have to do a little bit of research. I'm in the process of finishing up getting the stamp from the National Motto Aquatic Health Code Council. So I'm in the process of getting that. I should have that in the next few weeks that hopefully makes it an automatic. In the meanwhile, If they don't automatically take my certification, a lot of the health departments are just looking to see that you're certified in other states, that you're accepted in other states in order to get on the list of approved providers.

Sometimes a health inspector wants me to email them, a health department wants me to email them our manual so that they can kind of go through it and kind of our course curriculum and things like that. And I'm always happy to do that. Obviously, I want to expand the opportunity to touch as many people with running a safe pool as I possibly can.

Speaker 0: Excellent. OK, and then when they enroll, there's a PDF. What are they going to get back?

Speaker 1: Then 2 days prior to class, because of sending it too early, I've found that people can't find it. So I generally will send an email about 2 days before class that will have a link to the PDF, a link to our online resource page that will have other kinds of materials that you might find helpful in running a pool. And then it will have the GoToWebinar link. And so then you click on the GoToWebinar link, you put your address in so that I have it for where you want your certification sent. And then the day of the webinar, it will send a link through your email that you just click on join webinar.

And like I said, we usually start at either 8 or 9, depending on the day. So the pullout.com is where you're going to kind of pay. All right. And the go to webinar is how you're going to join the link. And As you know, Mark, we're offering a special for the ISCA.

So the code, the promotion code is ISCA10, and that will get you $10 off for my course. And then I'll send you some information also about being able to take advantage of joining ISCA for a year. So that's kind of the partnership that we've developed with ISCA.

Speaker 0: Yeah, Fabulous opportunity. Thanks so much, coach. You've walked the walk and you do it all. And congratulations on building a solid business and being a service for a lot of other people that are gonna help in the industry.

Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always a lot more fun when I've got a couple of swim coaches on the webinar. Most of the Maryland LSC, most of those coaches have taken my class. And so it's always fun to have a couple coaches in the mix. So I hope that you'll come out. I really appreciate the opportunity to work with the International Swim Coaches Association.

And I look forward to seeing you all on deck at some point.

Speaker 0: Thank you

Speaker 2: very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 0: ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

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