15th Annual Sporting Clays Shoot

The Chapter’s 15th Annual Sporting Clays Shoot at Old Vermillion Trails, just north of Duluth. There were 41 participants and the evening saw Adam Moslowski, of Duluth Electrical, win both the Sporting Clays event (with a score of 44) and the Annie Oakley Shoot afterwards.

2017 Chapter Golf Outing - Hidden Greens Solon Springs, WI

Our 2017 Chapter Golf Outing was held June 2nd at the lovely Hidden Greens Golf Course in Solon Springs, Wisconsin. The weather was in our favor, with a nice cool breeze taking the edge off of the +80 degree temps. Two teams came in with a final score of -6 par. The first of the two teams consisted of Peter Clark (Parsons Electric), Blair Mahan (Benson Electric), Peter Mellin (Mellin Promo), and Mike Vavra (Graybar) with the second made up of Karl King (Parsons Electric), Mike Larson (Belknap Electric), Lance Moreau (Belknap Electric) and Dennis Pelletier (Viking Electric). A coin toss determined the day's winning team, with the team of Clark, Mahan, Mellin, and Vavra coming out the winner. A big thank you to all of the NECA member companies that participated: Parsons Electric, Belknap Electric, Benson Electric, and Holden Electric. Also, a huge thanks goes out to our associate members who contributed prizes for the raffle: Graybar,  Eaton Corp, Viking Electric, Mellin Promotional, and Paul Buckley of Morgan Stanley. 

Standardized Wage Forms

The Midwest Regional Office of NECA has made available online the wage rates for all 73 IBEW jurisdictions within its boundaries. The wage info has been compiled in an easy-to-read standardized form. If you need any information that is not on the form, please contact our Chapter Office. To access, click the link below. You will need your log-in information to access the National website.
http://www.necanet.org/mwregionneca

2017 National Convention Video

Join your fellow contractors in Seattle for the 2017 NECA National Convention. The Convention is the perfect mix of travel, education, and entertainment. The convention offers educational courses with subjects from Business Management to Technology, Process, and Innovation. Walk the floor of the Expo Show to see what the industries suppliers have to offer. Listen to amazing speakers like Amy Saunders, an author and Paralympic athlete and take part closing ceremony featuring Huey Lewis and the News!

Register Online: www.necaconvention.org
Registration Opens June 1st, 2017

NECA INTRODUCES THE PROJECT EXCELLENCE AWARD

In an effort to showcase the exceptional work being performed by its member-contractors throughout the country, the National Electrical Contractors Association has launched the Project Excellence Award, a new award program that will recognize companies for their outstanding commitment, professionalism and ingenuity in delivering an electrical project across 11 different market sectors. NECA will begin accepting submissions for the 2017 Project Excellence Award on January 1, 2017, awards will be based on whether the electrical/technology portion of the project is valued under or over $1 million for each market sector, except for overhead transmission and substation/interconnection and must be based on projects completed in 2016.

Award Program Rules & Submission Requirements

1.      A NECA member must perform the installation.

2.      Projects completed between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016.

3.      Entry forms to be received between Jan. 1st and March 31st, 2017.

4.      The competition will consider eleven categories based on the type of project and its dollar value: Commercial/Institutional, Design Build, Educational, Energy Solutions/Green Building, Health Care, Industrial, International, Overhead Transmission, Residential, Street Lighting/Traffic Signal, Substation/Interconnection.

For each project category, except for Overhead Transmission and Substation/Interconnection, the award will be based on whether the electrical/technology portion of the project is valued under/over $1,000,000.

1.      Please select the category that is most appropriate for the project that you are submitting. In the event that a project may qualify for more than one category, or its category seems unclear, the awards committee will make the final determination as to the category it falls under.

2.      Members may submit one entry per category.

3.      Projects completed as part of a joint venture are acceptable, as long as all joint venture partners performing electrical work are NECA members.  Winning projects will be awarded in the name of all joint venture partners, but only one award will be handed out.

4.      Each entry must be submitted with a project photo(s), preferably in a PNG or JPEG file format. Projects submitted without project photo(s) will not be considered. It is the applicant’s responsibility to obtain permission from the project owner.  NECA National reserves the right to reuse the pictures for the purposes of promoting the Project Excellence Awards.

5.      The awards committee will make the award selections based on criteria including originality, aesthetics, difficulty of installation, quality of workmanship, and application of technology. At most, two awards (over $1 Million, and under $1 Million) will be presented per category.  At the committee’s discretion, all awards in all categories may not be awarded. 

6.      Awards for the winning projects in each category will be presented at NECA Seattle 2017.

Please complete and return the below entry form along with a project photo(s) to Mir Mustafa at Mir.Mustafa@necanet.org. NECA National must receive completed forms and photo(s) no later than March 31, 2017. We will not be able to accept entries after this date. Click here for a digital copy of the form. 

 

EARLY REGISTRATION FOR NECA NOW 2017 ENDS FEBRUARY 16TH! GET IN ON THE LOW PRICE!

Early registration for the NECA NOW Executive Leadership Summit ends on February 16th (with standard registration closing on February 27th).  This year the NECA NOW program will be held at the JW Marriott Hill Country in San Antonio, Texas, March 27-29, 2017.

The Conference opens with key note speaker, technologist James Benham of JBKnowledge, Inc., and sessions topics include The Big Cloud, Local Data Threats and Managing Risk with James Benham, Help Wanted: Recruit and Retain Your Future with John Finch,  and Illuminating a New Path to Profits with Jon Zelinsky. Evening entertainments featurefood, drinks, and entertainment.

Remember, each member firm in good standing to the Chapter may elect to send the accredited representative of the firm, who is recognized by the Twin Ports Arrowhead Chapter, to either the National NECA Convention and/or the Midwest Regional Conference.  The Chapter will reimburse the cost of the registration to the member firm, provided the member firm has no arrearages to the Chapter as per the current By-Laws. To register for the conference, go to www.neca-now.com.  If you plan on attending, please let the chpater office know

Last Chance to Register for the 2017 MEI Course: Managing Field Productivity

There are still two spots left for the February 22nd MEI Class “Managing Field Productivity”. The class will is being held at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Downtown Duluth and from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. A light breakfast will be offered followed by lunch, a snack, and refreshments.

The course will be FREE for one person from each Chapter firm, and will cost $150 for each additional attendee. Contact the Chapter Office to reserve your spot today.

Class Summary: Electrical contracting is a high-risk and labor-intensive industry and the most volatile cost element facing contractors is field labor productivity. This course will focus on ways to plan, measure and take corrective action to increase field productivity. This course will be facilitated by Dr. Awad Hanna with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.