Hello and welcome to the website of the Ohio School Bus Mechanics Association. If you are involved in any way with the transportation of school children we hope that you will find the information here and the corresponding links to be informative and of value. If you have any questions or concerns that are not addressed here please feel free to contact us.
The main goal of our association is to provide useful and up to date training for the mechanics who work on school bus fleets. We accomplish this in a variety of ways. We work closely with the Ohio State Patrol bus inspection teams and co-sponsor annual state-wide School Bus Inspection Manual meetings. We also team with the Ohio Pupil Transportation Association. We have representatives on the School Bus Construction Standards committee. The association provides training with two state-wide workshops each year. We offer a one day Spring Workshop and a two day Fall Workshop. Along with that each region offers local workshops at least two times during the year.
The Ohio Administrative Code 3301-83-10 states that all school bus mechanics must have a minimum of 4 hours of training each year. I would encourage all school bus mechanics in Ohio to attend our workshops to fulfill this training requirement. As we all know the school bus industry is ever evolving and therefore we strive to provide classes and instructors that will keep you up to date with valuable information and diagnostic techniques. Also, at our two day fall meeting we have a vendor exhibit show with over 40 vendors or products represented. This is a great opportunity to talk with some of your normal salesman and also perhaps to see some of the new products that are available.
On April 4th will we be offering our Spring Workshop to be held at the ODOT building in Columbus. Our Vice-President, Matt Hoven, has selected the topics and speakers for this event. You will be able to find your registration form to download on our website. Mark your calendar now and plan on attending!
One of the requests we had following the Fall Workshop was that we go back to the previous workshop site. We have listened to your concerns and are happy to say that this fall on September 25th & 26th our workshop will moved back to the Doubletree Hotel (formerly Holiday Inn) off of route 23 Worthington exit north of I-270. Please plan on booking a room at the Doubletree as this helps us offset the cost of holding the workshop. We are planning to offer an incentive for booking a room there. We will be offering early bird registration and the option to pay for the workshop registration by credit card. Although there are several restaurants in the immediate area, the hotel will also be offering a shuttle to the Polaris Mall area. We also are planning a Hospitality Room on Tuesday evening to hang out in and talk with fellow mechanics. Hopefully in the April issue of the Mechanic’s Messenger we will have the lineup of classes. But start making plans now to attend back at the old site.
Colin Eichel
President