WSA Member Update 8.15.24

August 15, 2024 Dear WSA Members, Please send me an email if you attended the Zoom call with Jay Presutti on August 6th on the topic of sweeping contractor liability issues when sweeping parking lots. I intended to attend but ended up with a schedule conflict and my understanding is the seminar was not recorded.  ‘Pay-if-paid’ contract clauses have caused big problems for unpaid subcontractors, including in the sweeping industry. The LEVELSET has compiled an e-book analysis entitled “The 50 State Guide to Contingent Payment Provisions.” The e-book includes a chart that examines in brief how each state interprets pay-when-paid and pay-if-paid provisions. Remember: This chart is a very big picture overview of the state laws. There are a lot of additional nuances that could be very important to your particular circumstances, including disputes or ambiguities within the state itself. The open source artificial intelligence (AI) project, ChatGPT, as well as other similar efforts, is in the process of revolutionizing the internet. Just by word of mouth, according to current sources Chat GPT reached a million subscribers barely five days after it was established in November 2022.  Another AI program that incorporates ChatGPT – but also takes AI helpfulness another few steps further – is called ‘Perplexity.’ With the Perplexity program online you can converse in a “conversational style:” You ask it a question and it provides you with a comprehensive answer. I now use the Perplexity app on my iPhone instead of Siri for asking most any questions I want the answer to. To illustrate how very helpful the program can be, I encourage you to use this link to download a WSA-member PDF I made for you that shows how to use Perplexity to help you quickly analyze a contract. When you try the technique it outlines on one of your current contracts, I think you’ll find the results amazing.  This month, our Safety First! post has info centered around the recent hurricane hitting the east coast as well as the time of year when school gets back into session. August’s Safety First! message discusses the following:Watch Out For School-Related Traffic!Hurricane Cleanup RemindersDeer Season InfoCollege Back to School RemindersPreparing for GlareSafety: Are You Prepared?I’m interested in your suggestions about what you’d like to read in our twice-monthly updates. And, as always, if you have questions or comments about this WSA Member Update, or anything else to do with the World Sweeping Association or power sweeping in general, please let me know. Good Sweeping, Ranger Kidwell-Ross, Executive Director World Sweeping Association