NECA Transmissions Blog Features 2008 Chicago

What I Brought Back From Chicago
by John Grau

The just-completed NECA Convention in Chicago was my 31st. That doesn’t even come close to the record set by former NECA President Bob Colgan of Toledo, Ohio. This was his 57th!

Bob was recognized at both the Convention Opening General Session and at a special Academy of Electrical Contracting Reception marking its 40th anniversary. Bob Colgan and Bob Higgins, my predecessor as NECA’s Executive Vice President, are the only founding members of…

To Read more of John’s recent post featuring the NECA 2008 Chicago Convention, visit NECATransmissions.org or Click here.

Guest Post: Producing Positive Local Relations

by Ellie Collinson, The Raben Group

While some attendees were enjoying Art Smith’s cooking presentation, today’s General Session focused on labor relations and highlighted the need for local control and local opportunities for partnership.

Ed Hill, IBEW International President, spoke about the importance of 8-hour days and responsible use of CW/CE classifications. Both Hilland NECA Vice President for Labor Relations (and newly inducted Academy Fellow) Geary Higgins underscored the value of communication and action at the local level to the future of building market share.

Higgins stated that it is critical to the future of the NECA/IBEW working relationship that as NECA leadership pushes for changes and cooperation at the national level, they are able to demonstrate the value of these initiatives at the local level. To the extent that local chapters and members have success stories and data to share, I hope you will keep in touch with Geary and his team. NECA members can also read and subscribe to Geary’s labor relations column Between the Lines here. Feel free to leave a comment (anonymous if you prefer) to this blog post as well.

NJATC Executive Director Mike Callanan also highlighted some of the changes at NJATC to increase local market specialization and to provide responsive flexible skill training programs in addition to increased use of technology for national curricula.

And lastly, the Ps seem to have it: members of the NECA Task Force on Labor Relations, along with Geary and Mike, all spoke on a panel and fielded questions from the audience about what issues are primarily percolating across the country. Two problems (or perhaps opportunities for change) seemed to affect members across the country: portability and pensions. Political Leadership Council leaders pushed for increased participation in future pension planning and policies at the federal level.

Maybe I’m getting punchy from trying to see everything going on here at NECA 2008 Chicago!

Guest Post: Opening General Session Recap

by Ellie Collinson, The Raben Group, and Jennifer Neuhaus, NECA staff associate, Midwest Region

While I wasn’t sure how many people would make it dutifully to this morning’s General Session after last night’s spectacular opening party on the Navy Pier—complete with fireworks! I was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of the full house at Arie Crown Theatre this morning.

NECA President Milner Irvin spoke about the many initiatives he and NECA’s staff have taken on to improve the NECA member experience during his tenure as president, most notably the leadership conference call series and advances in labor relations. Many NECA members will also miss Milner’s “From The President’s Desk” column published monthly in ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR. As he so aptly put it, progress has been made and progress will continue to be made under incoming president Rex Ferry’s leadership.

Speaking of progress, the rest of the program included presentations by Jerry Nixon, NECA’s Political Leadership Council Chairman, about the impressive growth of NECA’s political action committee, ECPAC, to nearly $2 million, making ECPAC one of the Top 50 Federal PACs and amplifying the voice of NECA’s Government Affairs program. Jerry, the ever consummate fundraiser, invited interested NECA members to visit with Lake Coulson and the Government Affairs Team at the NECA booth throughout the convention and to consider a gift to ECPAC as an investment in their business’ operations.

And the highlight of today’s general session was of course the truly titillating performance by The Second City, complete with NECA-inspired sketches about competing bids and apprentices.

They had contractors laughing hysterically with their skit about the project manager dealing with his delinquent boss, who was willing to do anything to win the job, even if it meant dropping three zeros from the overall cost. Second City even offered crowd participation as part of their performance, in which audience participants Chris and Jean added a little bit of their own improv to the show.

The Second City group was established in Chicago in 1959. It was the starting point for some of the most famous comics of our time, including John Belushi, Mike Myers, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner. The next time I get roped into playing charades, I hope I get a member of Second City on my team!