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Oct 25

Be Who You Are: Industry Women Speak Out

Three heavy-hitters anchored the NECA Women’s Peer Group Roundtable discussion yesterday —  Kristen McDonough, Director, Legislative Affairs, NECA; Rebecca Clark, Government Contracts Specialist, U.S. Dept. of Labor; and Alexandra Harrison, Executive Vice President – Marketing and Strategic Accounts, Ontility.

McDonough started the discussion off on an extremely positive note, talking about how, as a female lobbyist for the construction industry, she is often the only women in the room when speaking with Members of Congress. “I find it terrifically empowering,” McDonough said. “I know they’re going to listen to me because I’m different from what they’re used to.” McDonough backed up her observation with facts about how women control 80 percent of their household income and annually start up double the number of small businesses. “Basically, women are going to dream bigger,” she said.

McDonough challenged the women to get involved with advocacy, both through NECA’s political action and their communities. “If you’re not at the table, it means you don’t care,” she said. “This is the way you can make your voice heard on the issues that matter to you.”

NECA will host its annual Legislative Conference in May 2012, and McDonough encouraged more women to join the meeting. “Congressional leaders want to talk to more women, because they know the kind of change they can make happen. You’re only going to be intimidated once – the first time you go into meeting your legislator. After that, you can do anything.”

Becky Clark added her expertise and tough talk on Davis-Bacon enforcement as an enforcement agent for the U.S. Dept. of Labor. “If you want to know why we are so tough on Davis-Bacon now, it’s because the current administration believes in the philosophy that if you put a living wage in the hands of workers on a weekly basis, they will put that money back into the economy,” she said.

Clark also echoed a popular sentiment among electrical contractors: “When I get a company coming in to tell me they deserve an exclusion on a solar project, I ask them to the describe the work. And when they do, I tell them, “you know, that sounds a lot like electrical work. And that IS covered under Davis-Bacon. So you’re going to have to honor the prevailing wage.”

She asked that contractors assist DOL with the prevailing wage surveys. “This is where we get the information that makes enforcement possible. I spend a lot of my time explaining to contractors how it’s in their best interest to facilitate our surveys.”

Alexandra Harrison wrapped up the discussion with three primary points about women moving into executive management positions within the male-dominated construction industry. “If I had to break it down into three things – how I went from entry-level to EVP in six years – it’s accepting three things. One, life isn’t fair. Two, don’t shrug off compliments. Own what you’ve done well. And three, you have to show up. You have to work hard. You have to be at the table to take the risks to get ahead.”

The group also gave a standing ovation to Kathy Mazzarella, Executive Vice President and COO, Graybar, a panelist at last year’s first NWPG Roundtable. Mazzarella was recently announced as the successor to Graybar company president, and offered her famously frank counsel to the group: “Be who you are. It’s your best leadership strength.”

Oct 25

Joan Embery Walks on the Wild Side

When you think about San Diego, you undoubtedly think of three things – sun, surf and the animals of the San Diego Zoo.

And in lots of circles, Joan Embery is the San Diego Zoo. That’s why when she joined us for our lifestyle session, “A Walk on the Wild Side”, on Monday morning at NECA 2011 San Diego, she had the crowd enthralled with not only her life story, but also the 20-plus animals she brought with her.

A native of San Diego, Embery always wanted to do something with animals. After graduating from high school in 1968, she realized that there were no women working with animals – a glass ceiling that was entrenched in conservation programs and zoos all over the world. After several years of hard work, including a special relationship with a star elephant named Carol, it’s safe to say that was a ceiling she shattered.

After racking up more than 100 appearances on The Tonight Show (the second most in Tonight Show history), it’s easy to realize that she’s achieved everything she’s set out to accomplish.

The real stars of her show in the minds of NECA attendees, from aardvarks and armadillos to snakes and sloths and everything in between, held the audience captive for more than 90 minutes.

As smart as she is funny, her care for animals is unparalleled. Watching her during the session, the audience could help but come away with the feeling that they really learned more about a San Diego legend. Joan’s warm demeanor and truly entertaining show was absolutely an asset to this year’s NECA show.

For more photos, check out NECA’s Flickr feed >> 

Oct 25

Steve Farber is Following Me on Twitter Now

Permit a moment of “told you so” to anyone who didn’t believe in the communication power of social media. Beth Ellis,  NECA’s executive director of convention/expositions, took the bold step of adding a Social Media Wall display to the NECA Show floor, and it has been an absolute hit among attendees, exhibitors and guests.

With four wide screens continuously broadcasting clips from the daily NECA Newscast from San Diego, ElectricTV stories, Chuck Fazio’s incredible photos of events and people from around the trade show and convention on Flickr, plus everyone who uses Twitter with the hashtag #NECA11, the Social Media Wall has been a gathering place to get the latest information about events, 140-character Tweets on sessions, and special deals from NECA Show exhibitors.

I live-tweeted some of my favorite quotes from Closing General Session keynote speaker Steve Farber from this morning’s session, and within a hour, the extreme leadership guru himself was following my Twitter account. He has multiple bestselling books. I … don’t (yet). But in the world of social media, we were able to connect and follow each other’s 140-character musings. That’s the power of social media. And I hope everyone who’s tagged a Facebook photo, added a wall post, or watched the San Diego Newscasts on YouTube enjoys the same sense of connection to their industry as I have this year.

Let us know how you’ve used social media at NECA 2011 San Diego in the comments below!

Oct 25

How Do I Get My CEUs?

Almost every pre-convention workshop, management seminar and technical workshop at NECA 2011 San Diego offered Continuing Education Units for participants who got their badges scanned when they entered and exited the sessions. Retrieve the records of CEUs earned at NECA 2011 San Diego can be done two ways:

1. ON-SITE: The CEU Counter at the NECA Registration Desk can print out a copy of your CEUs earned from Friday, Oct. 20-Monday, Oct. 24. CEUs earned today, Tuesday, Oct. 25 WILL NOT be included on this record.

2. ONLINE: NECA will email all NECA 2011 San Diego convention registerees on Thursday, Oct. 27 with a link to the website where they can log in to retrieve their CEU record for the event. If you don’t receive the email, go to www2.cmrreg.com/neca11ceu. You will be prompted to enter your name, NECA username ID, or badge number (so don’t throw those badges out when you leave San Diego, just in case you forget your name!) The website will not be live until Thursday, Oct. 27, so don’t panic if you can’t retrieve the information yet.

Please note, not all courses at NECA 2011 San Diego may meet your state’s requirements for continuing education credit. Check with your state authorities to confirm eligibility.

Oct 24

2011 Fellows Inducted into Academy of Electrical Contracting

While General McChrystal encouraged NECA members to look forward and never give up at yesterday’s Opening General Session, the Academy of Electrical Contracting honored nine new Fellows for their decades of service to the association.

  • Gregory Davis (Bob Davis Electric, Shreveport, Louisiana)
  • Thomas Driscoll (E.S. Boulos Company, Westbrook, Maine)
  • Charles Ewton (Lawson Electric, Chattanooga, Tennessee)
  • John S. Frantz (Sidney Electrical, Sidney, Ohio)
  • Bradley S. Giles (Giles Electric, South Daytona, Florida)
  • Thomas Ispas (Daniel’s Electrical Construction, Fontana, California)
  • Thomas G. Moore, Jr. (J P Rainey & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Alex Owen (Brooks-Berry-Haynie & Associates, Mableton, Georgia)
  • Daniel Palmer (Tri-City Electric, Davenport, Iowa)

The Academy of Electrical Contracting honors outstanding leaders in the electrical contracting field in order to preserve the wealth of experience and ability these leaders have developed through their years of dedicated effort, to the benefit of the entire construction industry. Their service is continued through membership in the Academy as the voice of experience for NECA and ELECTRI International. Congratulations to the 2011 Class of Fellows!

Oct 24

Labor Relations General Session: Pension Plan Update

Today’s Labor Relations General Session was a departure from the traditional panel discussion. Rather, the session focused on the important, if somewhat hard to hear, news about multiemployer pension plans.

Randy DeFrehn, Executive Director of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, kicked off the session with a run-down of the legislative action NCCMP has pursued to protect local pension plans in the face of the economic downturn, including a freeze on plans’ “Zone” status, options for small plans to merge, “partitioning,” and some technical corrections.

“There’s a misconception that multiemployer plans’ benefits are too high,” DeFrehn said. “That’s not the case. Yes, some plans will have to make strategic decisions to cope with rising benefit costs to make these plans more stable. But Congress is trying to give us the breathing room to make those changes.”

Labor Relations Task Force Chair and NECA President-elect Dennis Quebe echoed DeFrehn’s comments. “When we look at our so-called ‘benefit burden,’ we want to ask ‘who’s to blame?’ To me, blame implies that at the time, someone knew there would be negative consequences.  But at the time, they were the right thing to do. I still think they’re the right thing to do. But we need to change how we do them. The impact will be significant, but not overwhelming.”

NEBF Executive Secretary/Treasurer Larry Bradley make a great report on the fiscal health of NEBF. “NEBF’s actuaries have certified our plan in the Green Zone since the law was passed in 2006, and I’m proud to report that even through the recession, we have remained in the Green Zone.  Our actuaries remain optimistic of the future health of the plan.

“What’s important to us are the people behind the plan – the lives we touch and the very real ways we can help them,” Bradley concluded. He also mentioned that NEBF’s website will soon have sample disclosure forms for contractors to use to meet the revised FASB reporting requirements for pension plan withdrawal liability, now based solely on publicly available plan information.

Oct 23

The Beauty of Plywood: General Stanley McChrystal on Leadership


When a four-star general boasting a 34-year military career, including bringing together dozens of disparate defense organizations under the Joint Special Operations Command, offers some advice on leadership, you want to sit up a little straighter and listen closely.

Few leaders can claim to have overcome obstacles as large as those faced by retired four-star General Stanley A. McChrystal. McChrystal has been praised for creating a revolution in warfare that fused intelligence and operations as the former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan and Director of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) that captured Saddam Hussein and killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. With McChrystal at the podium, NECA’s 2011 Opening General Session today was a frank discussion on what it makes to be an honorable leader in difficult times.

“Leadership is responsibility,” McChrystal said. “It’s being responsible for what people do, and for what they fail to do. 9/11 was a collective failure of leadership, and a grievous price was paid for that. Leadership demands accepting responsibility.”

McChrystal made three essential points about leadership:

  • Change is necessary – but hard.
  • There is always another way to get something done.
  • People are often the hardest part of leadership.

McChrystal also talked about “plywood leadership.” In this philosophy, the leader is the glue that binds the planks together, producing something whose strength and efficiency is far greater than the sum of its parts. “In Iraq, everything we built was made out of plywood,” he said. “You can put it up quickly and cheaply, you can change it easily. When you’re working on plywood, it’s easy to remember you’re there for a reason. You have a function.

“But the longer I worked on plywood, the more Zen I became about it. It’s made of thin pieces of mid-grade lumber that you can break easily with your hand. But when those pieces are glued together, they have extraordinary strength. That’s what organizations are like. You take ordinary people, put them together in teams, bound together with the glue of leadership, and they can do extraordinary things. Plywood is much greater than any individual.”