Rick Bartel, an acknowledged veteran industry expert and Certified Master Water Feature Installation Contractor for more than 20yrs, has reached nearly every milestone imaginable in this industry. As the previous owner of a design and installation business; Rick was credited with reaching the fifteen million-gallon milestone with his water feature creations worldwide. Early on in his career he demonstrated a passionate desire to advance quality water feature installations to the next level of proficiency by developing the now well known and industry respected R.I.S.E. Method of naturalistic watershaping techniques. A method so simple that beginners could easily follow along yet so advanced, experienced industry veterans would also gain valuable and beneficial information. This installation technique, emulating nature in a most precise and significant way, has literally changed the way the world's foremost installers are currently designing water features. To date, this Random, Irregular, Spontaneous and Erratic Method has been credited with receiving more than 1,800 national and international awards and recognitions for quality water feature design and installation practices. From Design Masters competitions and the first ever NAPP Annual Service Award to being featured on Extreme Landscapes and the DIY Networks Waterscapes Workshop. The R.I.S.E. Method has literally taken water feature design to a new level.
The author of more than 500 internationally published works on the subject of quality water feature installation, Rick was adamant about sharing every piece of information he gained with others in the industry. He believes you can not consider yourself a successful water feature contractor if you are in possession of information or knowledge not readily available to others. To share this information with his colleagues and peers put everyone on an even playing field. Then, he felt he had to work that much harder; placing equal knowledge against equal knowledge, to keep his business ahead of the competition. His competition; which in fact was a group of contractors from around the country that he never really felt were his competitors but rather his colleagues; working with them many times shoulder to shoulder on several larger projects.
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In 2001, Rick was invited to become a member of and sit on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Pond Professionals where he played a key pro-active role for the next eight years; during which time he served as the Chairman of the Continuing Education Program, the Certified Contractor Program and co-authored their National Certification Test.
In mid 2006, Rick was approached by industry giant Savio Engineering and asked to set up and implement an advanced and innovative, think outside the box, educational program which became what is known today as the Savio Water Feature Institute. In late 2007, Rick sold his water feature installation business and became the Institutes full time Program Administrator and Primary Instructor. Today, this institution offers a well-rounded curriculum of several advanced level workshops, seminars and contractor forums designed to assist today's professionals in operating sustainable and profitable water feature installation businesses.
By early 2010 more than 6200 industry professionals had attended Rick's seminars and workshops worldwide, which have earned; an unprecedented; seven prestigious awards for excellence in education.
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