I need to get 8 CE hours per operator by March without parking iron for a full day, so I’m planning after-shift sessions (5–7 pm) and looking for on-site options that count. If you’ve blended short online modules with field refreshers, what providers deliver credit (SFI state committee, OEM trainers, extension) and kept crews engaged? We’ve got 24 operators, a $6k budget, and priority topics are tethered operations and hydraulic diagnostics on our Ponsse/Waratah setups.
24 operators, a $6k budget, and priority topics are tethered operations and hydraulic diagnostics on our Ponsse/Waratah setups. We booked our Ponsse dealer’s field tech for two 90‑min after‑shift hydraulic diagnostics clinics (Opti fault trees on our machines, sign‑in + agenda), then had the SFI state committee pre‑approve a 2‑hr tether refresher on the landing; ran it over two evenings for two crews and it all counted for CE and stayed under $6k. Only snag was travel fees — ask the dealer to stack you with another stop or host at your yard; what state are you in so I can share the SFI contact I used?
Short answer from my side: I’m seeing the same pattern — one concrete thing that helped was writing down the exact handoff and timebox it to 15–20 min. Does that match what you’re running into?
We got our SFI state committee to pre-approve a four-night 5–7 pm “toolbox + field” series, where 30-min online modules were followed by a 45-min tether ops walkdown, and we logged credit with a QR sign-in and a 5-question quiz. It kept production up and came in around $5.5k for 22 people with our extension agent facilitating — email the SIC first; their directory is here: https://forests.org/implementation-committees/. On Ponsse/Waratah, the dealer let us stage a live hose change and pressure test on a spare head in the yard so nobody parked iron.