Get Involved: The Community That Makes This Trade Worth It

You can learn to sweep a chimney from a manual. You can learn to run a camera from a YouTube video. But the things that actually separate a good sweep from a great one — the instincts, the troubleshooting shortcuts, the hard-won lessons about running a business in this trade — those come from people.

The chimney industry has something that most trades don't: a community that genuinely wants to see you succeed. Not everyone, and not everywhere. But if you show up, ask questions, and put in the work, you'll find mentors, lifelong friends, and professional connections that change the trajectory of your career.

This article is about where to find them.

The Events That Matter

There are a handful of events every year where chimney professionals from across the country — and sometimes from around the world — come together to learn, network, and push the trade forward. If you're serious about this career, you need to be at these.

NCSG Convention & Trade Show

The National Chimney Sweep Guild Convention is the largest gathering of chimney professionals in North America. The 2026 convention was held February 24–28 at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center in Kansas City, MO — and if you missed it, put next year's on your calendar now.

What you get:

• Technical and business classes with continuing education units (CEUs).
• A trade show with 60+ industry suppliers showing the latest equipment, tools, and technology.
• Networking — hallway conversations, dinner meetups, and late-night stories with sweeps who've been doing this for decades.

This is not a public event. It's for professionals. And that's the point. When everyone in the room shares your daily reality — the soot, the callbacks, the crawl spaces, the satisfaction of a clean flue — the conversations hit different.

CSIA Sweeps Week

Every year during the second full week of June, the Chimney Safety Institute of America hosts Sweeps Week at the CSIA Technology Center in Plainfield, Indiana. This is a different experience from a convention — it's a full week of hands-on learning, service projects, networking, and wood-fired food.

CSIA CEUs are awarded for each day of attendance. Hotels in the area offer special rates when you mention CSIA. But the real value isn't the CEUs — it's spending a week immersed in the trade with people who are as passionate about it as you are.

HPBExpo — Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Expo

The HPBExpo is the big industry trade show for hearth, patio, and outdoor living. In 2026, it runs March 18–21 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

This one is broader than just chimney work — it covers hearth appliances, grills, outdoor kitchens, patio furnishings, and more. But for sweeps who service gas and wood-burning appliances, it's where you see what's coming to market before it shows up in your customers' homes. Understanding the equipment you'll be inspecting and servicing next year starts here.

Regional Guilds and Events

Beyond the national stage, regional chimney sweep guilds hold their own conventions, meetups, and training days throughout the year. On the West Coast:

• Golden State Chimney Sweep Guild — serving California and parts of Nevada for over 30 years with education, networking, and representation.
• Oregon Chimney Sweeps Association (OCSA) — founded in 1978, covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and beyond. Their annual May Day Convention runs April 29 – May 2, 2026 at the Oregon Garden Resort in Silverton, OR. Four days of hands-on technical training, business and safety classes, a trade show with industry vendors, banquet dinner, and auction. Pre-registration is open now.

Across the country, there are guilds in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, the Mid-Atlantic, and the North Central region. But look at the map and you'll notice the gaps. No guild in Washington state. Nothing in Arizona, Colorado, or most of the Mountain West. Huge stretches of the country where sweeps have no local community to plug into.

The trade needs more sweeps. And more sweeps need access to local training, mentorship, and community. If your region doesn't have a guild, maybe it should — and maybe you're the one to start it.

Take Classes. Then Take More Classes.

Certification gets you in the door. Continuing education keeps you relevant. But beyond the credential, classes taught by people who've spent their careers in this trade are where the real breakthroughs happen.

CSIA and NCSG both offer structured training programs. But the magic often happens in elective sessions and specialty workshops — a two-hour deep-dive on troubleshooting draft problems, a hands-on relining demo, a business strategy session from someone who built a multi-truck operation from scratch.

Don't just take the classes required for your certification renewal. Take the ones that scare you a little. The ones where you don't know the material yet. That's where the growth is.

Education That College Can't Touch

Here's what makes these events different from any classroom you'll find at a university: the instructors are still doing the work.

These aren't professors who read about chimneys in a textbook. These are people with decades of field experience who are still out there every day — running businesses, climbing ladders, solving problems that don't have clean answers. They take time away from their personal lives and their daily operations to show up and lift up the next generation of sweeps.

Think about that. In college, the odds of being taught by someone who's actively practicing at the highest level of their field, who's been doing it for 20 or 30 years, and who's there because they genuinely want to see you succeed — those odds are slim. In the chimney trade, that's the standard. That's what you get when you walk into a CSIA class or an NCSG workshop.

The quality of education available just by being part of your chimney trade community is something most industries would kill for. Don't take it for granted.

The People Who Built This Industry

Every trade has its legends — the people who didn't just do the work, but elevated it. Who taught, wrote, advocated, and pushed the entire profession forward. The chimney industry is no different, and we're fortunate that many of these people are still here, still teaching, still sharing what they know.

That won't always be the case. Pay attention now.

Chris Prior

Chris Prior is a chimney savant. He channels. We receive. The creator of PriorFire — a retrofit fireplace system that reflects his deep understanding of combustion and chimney science — Chris brings a level of insight that makes every conversation a masterclass. He's also genuinely fun to be around — the kind of person who makes a convention worth the flight.

Michael Sergestrom

If you need someone who understands the physics of what happens inside a chimney system — the draft dynamics, the inspection subtleties, the troubleshooting logic — Michael Sergestrom is that person. He probably knows more about chimneys than anyone you'll meet. His contributions to the industry have been recognized multiple times, and for good reason. When Michael explains why a chimney isn't drawing correctly, you don't just learn the fix — you learn the science.

Mark Stoner — The Sultan of Soot

Mark Stoner figured out how to make chimneys cool. That sounds like a small thing until you realize how hard it is to do. As the founder of Ashbusters Chimney Service, a past president of CSIA, and the author of Blue Collar Gold: How To Build a Service Business From the Dirt Up, Mark has inspired an entire generation of sweeps to think bigger about what this trade can be. He's an entrepreneur who never forgot that the work starts on the rooftop.

Rich Rua

Some instructors teach. Rich Rua brought energy. When Rich ran a class, you were engaged — there was no other option. That kind of teaching doesn't just transfer information. It makes the information stick. It makes you want to go back to work the next day and be better. That's a rare gift, and anyone who sat in one of his sessions knows exactly what we're talking about.

Chuck Hall

Chuck Hall introduced many of us to the concept of chimney sweeps serving the White House. High caliber, impeccably put together, and — importantly — not too good to sit down, hang out, and share stories. The best leaders in any trade are the ones who carry their expertise without arrogance. Chuck is that.

Ashley Eldridge

Patient. Humbly humorous. Deeply knowledgeable. If CSIA's training center is Hogwarts for chimney sweeps, Ashley Eldridge was its Dumbledore. For those of us who had the opportunity to train there alongside industry greats, Ashley set the tone — welcoming, rigorous, and always willing to explain something one more time until it clicked.

Jasper Drengler

In 2015, Jasper Drengler was already well-established and certified. He didn't need to be sitting in an NCSG class. But there he was — with one of his employees — still learning, still investing in his own growth. That tells you everything you need to know about the man. Since that class, Jasper has been a consistent source of solid advice and unwavering support for the community. That kind of dedication to the craft, even when you've already "made it," is what sets the best apart.

Donny Horensky

Sometimes the most impactful mentors aren't the ones on stage — they're the ones who answer the phone when you're staring at something you've never seen before. Donny Horensky was that person. A sweep out of Pennsylvania, Donny shared trade details freely — what tools to use, what products are the best, how to address the trickier findings that come with experience. As the repair jobs got more complex and the learning curve got steeper, Donny was there with the knowledge to help bridge the gap. That's community in its purest form: one sweep helping another get better.

A Global Community

The chimney trade doesn't stop at the border. Sweeps come together from around the world at festivals and conventions — sharing techniques, comparing standards, and discovering how the same fundamental work gets done in completely different regulatory and cultural environments.

German chimney sweeps, for example, operate under a completely different system — district-based licensing, government-mandated inspections, and sophisticated software tools built specifically for their regulatory framework. Meeting someone like Andreas Gartner from Germany at a convention, watching him demo his chimney sweep management software on a laptop at the airport after the event — that's the kind of connection that broadens your understanding of what this trade is globally.

And then there's chimney royalty. Families like the Pilgers, whose multi-generational commitment to the trade represents something deeper than a business — it's a legacy. If you know, you know.

The Honest Truth About Community

We'd be lying if we said there's never division. Like any industry, there are disagreements about standards, competition dynamics, and the direction of the trade. You'll encounter some of that. It's real.

But here's what's also real: when it matters, this community shows up. When someone needs technical help on a complicated job, the Facebook groups light up with advice. When a new sweep walks into their first convention looking lost, someone walks over and says, "First time? Let me introduce you to some people."

At the end of the day, we're all here for the same reason. We care about our communities — both the homeowners we serve and the sweeps we work alongside.

Where to Connect Online

Between events, the chimney community stays connected primarily through Facebook groups — both national and regional. These groups are where sweeps post tricky inspection findings, ask for troubleshooting help, share wins, and occasionally argue about brush types. They're not perfect, but they're active, and they're free.

Regional guilds and associations also maintain their own communication channels. Check with your state or regional chimney sweep guild for local meetups, training days, and networking events.

Don't Wait

The legends of this trade are here right now. They're teaching classes, answering questions in Facebook groups, holding court at convention dinners, and writing the books that the next generation will learn from. That window doesn't stay open forever.

If you've been putting off going to a convention, stop putting it off. If you've been meaning to take that CSIA class, register. If there's a sweep in your area whose work you respect, call them and ask if you can buy them lunch.

The chimney trade is one of the oldest professions in the world. It has survived 400 years of technological change, regulatory evolution, and market shifts. It survived because people passed what they knew to the next person in line.

Be in that line.