Joey Rothman has been involved in the pyro community since 1992 which is when he first met Richard Cole and became his protégé. Joey attended several WPA and PGI events with Richard and continues to attend events with his family based out of Alabama. He’s dedicated to helping pyros stay in compliance with federal explosives laws and has a Facebook group dedicated specifically to getting and maintaining an ATF explosives license or permit. Joey has an ATF Federal Explosives License (FEL) for manufacturing and a type 4 magazine on his property. Joey is interested in expanding his magazine collection to include a type 2 magazine for high order explosives.

Paul Smith has a degree in chemistry and currently works at Purdue University in Chemical Education. He has over 30 years of experience in demonstrating pyrotechnic chemistry in the classroom and the evening sky. He is a contributing author for the PGI Display Operator Certification Study Guide, a Certified Instructor for the Display Operators Course since 2004, and continues to serve as the PGI President.

John Steinberg, principal author of the PGI Shooters Certification course textbook is a licensed lead operator for 25 years. John serves on the NFPA SFX TC and is a principal member of the NFPA Technical Committee on Pyrotechnics, which writes NFPA-1123, NFPA-1124, and other documents and he will be happy to answer any code questions you may have. Contrary to a popular cultist belief, John is not an anarchist and, in fact, he takes his MSDS very seriously, and brushes after every meal.