Jay Gonsalves reflects on his dedication to teaching with ACA International.
11/26/2019 9:00
After more than 12 years as a Certified Instructor with ACA International, Jay Gonsalves, IFCCE, MCE, president of Action Collection Agencies Inc., has learned a few things along the way.
Here is an excerpt from an interview with Gonsalves in the November issue of Collector magazine.
Why did you decide to become a Certified Instructor?
Back in 2005, when I started serving on ACA’s Executive Committee, it was suggested that it would be helpful for committee members to become Certified Instructors. So, in 2007 that’s exactly what I did, and I almost immediately started teaching half-day seminars when I was invited to install officers at unit meetings. It was a pretty smooth transition. I’m not saying I wasn’t intimidated by public speaking—I was—but it was something I quickly became used to and it helped build my confidence.
Have you learned any lessons about teaching along the way?
I try to talk about my own personal agency experiences when I teach a class. I discuss the things we do in my office—what we’ve gotten right or wrong—because I think that really resonates with people. I also draw on my experiences as an ACA leader and share the history of how things came to be, like the roots of certain policies and programs and what was going on in the industry at the time something was created. A couple of examples would be the Code of Ethics and The Collector’s Pledge. I’d say ACA’s Ethical and Professional Collections class is the one I enjoy teaching the most. I like to talk the principles of business ethics and why we all need to follow ACA’s Code of Conduct. As I mentioned, I bring a lot of history to that and talk about where we’ve come from as an industry and association.
Read more about Gonsalves and his experiences teaching for ACA in the November issue of Collector magazine.
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