All we want for Christmas is ...

• A cold winter (as it is great for business).
• A hot summer (so it keeps contractors busy and profitable).
• An e-mail system that knows which messages are junk (and deletes said messages before one has to spend time reading them).
• Advertising budgets to increase exponentially.
• Merger and acquisition budgets to decrease.
• 300,000 trained, skilled service technicians.
• That our industry continues to be strong and profitable.
• A continued strong economy with very little inflation.
• That you always remember what is most important.
• That you remember to be thankful . . . for everything.

-Taggart E. Henderson

• The elimination of moonlighters and low-bidders.
• More service and maintenance articles from those experienced in the field. (Hint-hint.)
• To help the contractor grow his/her business.
• More trained, knowledgeable, and skilled technicians (who don’t whine, either).
• To keep up with technology, mergers, and consolidations — oh my!
• One refrigerant to remember — period.
• To never see the final results of global warming.
• Who Moved My Cheese? in every contractor’s Christmas stocking. (If you have not read this charming book by Spencer Johnson, M.D., by all means do. It may help you face and conquer this ever-changing world, which looks to be even more fast-paced in 2000 and beyond.)
• Profit margins.
• Patient customers.

-Mark P. Skaer

• A sudden influx of anxious young workers, looking to make hvac their career choice.
• The sudden failure of 1 billion furnaces (provided that no homeowners’ lives are put in danger).
• A winning Lottery ticket.
• Fair competition between contractors, utilities, and manufacturers.
• Fewer stories about workplace violence.
• A shift to fair pricing and no more low-balling among contractors.
• A whole year without stories of human suffering and human rights violations.
• More stories of contractors who have made a positive influence on their communities.
• For the Pokemon fever to stop.
• An attitude adjustment by local education gurus who feel that hvac training should no longer be a part of their vo-tech curriculum.

-John Hall

• That the homeless find warmth and shelter.
• That not one contractor receive a “no heat” call on December 24, 25, 31, or January 1.
• Another year of growth in the hvac industry.
• Wider acceptance of people different from ourselves.
• More people to spread holiday cheer by donating to food shelters.
• People in rush hour traffic to wave hello using all of their fingers.
• More “common folks” to understand just what contractors and technicians go through to give them good service and keep them comfortable.
• Humanity to put its best foot forward on December 31 and not turn celebrations into riots and disasters.
• For greed and money to become less important to people’s personal happiness.
• People to say thank you more often, even for little things so that people feel appreciated.

-Virginia Nowak

• Two front teeth (for my nephew, that is).
• For readers to be better prepared for the job by reading The News.
• To see movies portraying an installation/service tech as an action-adventure hero. (One promo: “See as he fights his way around a mechanical room too small for the equipment!” Another promo: “Watch as she rushed to fix refrigeration units at a local blood bank during a heat wave!”)
• A thermostat in all apartments (especially mine).
• That all Y2K problems be fixed before December 31, so on January 1 we’re all wondering why we were so worried (and why we stocked up on so much bottled water).
• More humor to bring a grin or chuckle to your day and ours.
• The end to guns and bombs, or threats of those, in schools.
• Duct tape — the appropriate type for the project, of course.
• To teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
• A happy and healthy 2000 for you.

-Cherie Preville

• That service techs get all the training they want and all they need.
• That service calls be routine and not mysterious.
• That we see more stories in the mass media about contractors that contribute to their community, not those that try to rip it off.
• That all of the trades be elevated in status.
• That we apply the latest technology to improve our business lives.
• That New Year’s Eve is largely routine with no surprises (unless they’re pleasant surprises).
• That Y2K doesn’t bug us.
• That independent contractors grow and prosper in the new millennium.
• That carbon monoxide detectors be installed in every home to prevent needless carbon monoxide poisoning deaths.
• That multiple smoke detectors be installed in every home to eliminate the space heater fire fatalities that seem to happen every holiday season.

-Greg Mazurkiewicz

• That every guidance counselor’s furnace breaks down on Christmas Eve, and that they are each repaired by a well-spoken, professional hvacr technician.
• The next great game from PlayStation to feature a very cool hvac scenario.
• The next hot action-adventure cartoon on “Kids WB” to feature a service tech who moonlights as a super hero.
• For everyone who needs heat this holiday season to get it.
• For every service tech who helps others this holiday season to be rewarded 20-fold.
• Cookies that make themselves.
• That all races and religions join in one day of unity, and that this unity continues.
• Less money spent on colonizing Mars, and more spent on curing illness here on Earth.
• Bright, motivated, A-students who discover that there is no shame in working with their hands.
• People who are more interested in humanity and less interested in the accumulation of things.

-B.A. Checket-Hanks

• A reduction in the number of syllables in national trade associations, as in Air Diffusion Council.
• A $10 prize to the one who can pronounce, as an acronym, and without losing his dignity, NHRAW.
• Peace during the NAECA standards talks between unitary manufacturers and the environmental groups, starting with an exchange of prisoners.
• Enough refrigerants to “bridge” the industry’s needs during the phaseouts of HCFCs.
• At least one unitary equipment manufacturer to exhibit at the 2000 International Air Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition in Dallas.
• A clearer distinction between condensers and condensing units.
• A $50 prize for the product press release that resists the temptation to use any of the phrases: “state of the art” “leading edge,” and “consumer-friendly.”
• A Nobel Prize in Science for the executive who retards and finally stops the move to metric.
• A care package for the last remaining independent hvac contractor in America.
• An hvac warranty program that satisfies the consumer, installing contractor, and the intermediate distributor.

-Thomas Mahoney