NRVTA expands its communications team

ATHENS, Texas – The National RV Training Academy (NRVTA) today announced the addition of two staff members to enhance communications and material generated by the center.

Codi Johnson was hired to be the creative editor and Melissa Flammia will serve as social media manager. Together, they are responsible for creating consistent messages across multiple channels promoting NRVTA and its courses to train technicians, inspectors and RV owners.

A native of east Texas and is nearing graduation from Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi with a degree in English, Johnson is tasked with repurposing NRVTA videos into written form. She will transcribe the Tech Tip Tuesday videos uploaded to the school’s YouTube channel every week and convert them into blog posts.

All of the NRVTA training videos and home study courses are being redone to improve video quality and include up-to-date technical information. When work is completed on the nearly 50 videos, Johnson will repurpose them into written textbooks and PDF training materials for use by students undergoing hands-on training at the NRVTA campus. 

Eventually, Johnson will develop a monthly newsletter that will become a professional e-zine available to NRVTA graduates and prospective students to address continuing education information, new products and services as well as interesting data pertinent to the RV industry.

“We want people to understand NRVTA is not just some little out-of-the-way technical school somewhere in Texas, but rather a state-of-the-art, government-certified training center serving professionals throughout the United States and Canada,” said Johnson. 

“We want people to understand that students don’t just come here to learn how to fix their own RVs, but that they can build an entire future around what is taught in NRVTA classrooms and hands-on labs,” she added. “My goal is to create material others can share with business associates, staff and even customers to provide real value for evaluating and maintaining recreation vehicles.”

“Codi is going to help elevate our booklets and online programs to the next level by creating workbooks that are more than just standard PowerPoint presentations,” said NRVTA Sales and Marketing Director Tony Flammia. “We want our workbooks to be a valuable resource for our students to use with or without accompanying videos.”

Johnson can be reached at [email protected] or by calling (903) 804-6205.

Melissa, or “Mel” as she prefers to be called, is married to Tony Flammia. She is a native of Cleveland who operated a photography business in that area before the family moved to Texas earlier this summer. 

As the social media manager, Mel is responsible for posting information to Facebook and Instagram, which are NRVTA’s chosen platforms. She also responds to comments and inquiries directed to the school via those social sites.

“We always enjoy good engagement on Facebook, probably because the demographic of users lines up very well with the age-range of students who enroll at NRVTA,” Mel explained. “We branched into Instagram earlier this year because it attracts a slightly younger audience who are also very interested in going into business for themselves.”

She started work in early May as an in-house photographer capturing portraits and activity in NRVTA classrooms as well as hands-on labs. Mel was asked to take on social media duties a few weeks later and has already enjoyed some success as followers exceed 10,000 on Facebook and 1,000 on Instagram. 

She earned a degree in graphic design and interactive media from Willoughby-East Lake Technical Center in Willoughby, Ohio. 

“Mel is standing in the frontlines of our information channel,” Tony Flammia explained. “She’s typically the first person someone talks to online before deciding to take the first step and speak with a student advisor. Mel spends countless hours capturing what it’s like to attend NRVTA and she creates inspirational posts on Instagram and Facebook.”

“There certainly is a lot of activity taking place on NRVTA’s expanding campus,” Mel added. “Between technician training at the Big Red School House and inspector training at the Little Red School House and hundreds of people staying at the adjacent Texan RV Park, there are lots of fun and interesting stories to tell.

“I’m looking forward to sharing the success of our programs and students with the rest of the RV industry and people who enjoy the RV lifestyle,” she added.

Mel can be reached at [email protected] or by calling (440) 454-4646.

For more information about NRVTA’s courses and hands-on training labs, visit www.nrvta.com, email [email protected] or call (903) 386-0444.