In the second episode of MCAA’s Sponsor Spotlight series, MCAA President-Elect, Armand Kilijian, welcomes Rich Simons, Vice President and General Manager, Laars Heating Systems for LAARS, a Bradford White Company. The Sponsor Spotlight Series is a new way for MCAA contractor members to learn more about the Manufacturer/Supplier Council (M/SC) Governing Board members, their products, their relationship with MCAA, and what being a member means to them.
Rich Simons is the General Manager of Laars Heating Systems, a subsidiary of Bradford White Corporation. He is also a Vice President on the Bradford White Corporation Senior Staff. In his role he is responsible for all aspects of the Laars Heating Systems business. Before joining the Laars team, Rich spent 21 years with Honeywell in in roles of increasing responsibilities from Director of Engineering to Director of Marketing with roles in channel, product, and applications management. Generally spending his focus to the boiler controls business, Rich saw through the definition, development, and release of several generations of oil and gas combustion controls and boiler controls. Rich is named on six U.S. patents and been engaged in both U.S. and European markets.
Braconier adopted eSUB’s comprehensive software platform to standardize project management and operations, cutting processes such as timecard inputting and payroll processing from a full day down to minutes. The platform also helps Braconier document every aspect of their projects, which helps keep things running smoothly.
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website! You’ll see how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with productivity-enhancing and cost-saving applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Plus, you’ll find tips and ideas on other ways you and your company can save money and enhance your productivity.
Kori Gormley-Huppert, president of MCAA member Gormley Plumbing + Mechanical and chair of MCAA’s Women in the Mechanical Industry Steering Committee, is among those profiled as part of Stanley Black & Decker’s Maker Month Campaign. The campaign is designed to empower makers and tradespeople around the world. Stanley Black & Decker is the parent company of DEWALT and LENOX, both MCAA members.
In the interview-style profile, Kori talks about her company, her career and the mechanical industry. She also offers advice to those who are just getting started thanks to perspective gained from her own experience and her work on MCAA’s Career Development Committee.
In addition to profiles spotlighting a diverse range of makers and creators from tradespeople and engineers to philanthropists and innovators throughout the industry, the campaign shines a light on the trade skills gap, which is one of the biggest issues facing the workforce today.
“To help solve for the vast skills gap today, an issue made worse by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, businesses need to showcase and celebrate the wide variety of opportunities people can pursue across the skilled trades,” said Jim Loree, President & CEO of Stanley Black & Decker. He added “Maker Month is our contribution to this effort, helping to highlight the vast potential these careers offer.”
For ten years MSCA has been partnering with Convoy of Hope, a faith-based, nonprofit organization that provides disaster relief around the world. Our popular Packing Party is normally held every fall during the MSCA Education Conference. With the current pandemic keeping us from holding this year’s conference, MCAA staff decided to bring the party to our National office. In just a few hours, our staff packed more than 1,500 hygiene kits that Convoy of Hope will provide to disaster relief victims in need all across the country.
We hope you will join us in supporting Convoy of Hope’s efforts by making a donation at www.convoyofhope.org/msca.
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
Jay R. Smith Mfg. Co.® a Member of Morris Group International When you think of the Trap-Defender™, think of the number 3. This patented pressure-drop trap primer is activated by a pressure drop as low as 3 PSI and has a 3-year warranty. Learn more about the Trap-Defender and the entire line of Smith Fluid Controls™ Trap Primers and Distribution Units.
iBusiness Technologies Reduce costs and get paid faster with MobiliForms. Your identical, familiar forms now on iPad with signature and image capture. MCAA & MSCA members love MobiliForms because it pays for itself!
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
Many types of welding have been proven performers for a long time. Welding is, at its core, simply a way of joining two materials. While there are other ways to join metal (e.g., riveting, brazing, or soldering), welding has become the method of choice for its availability, high performance, and high strength. NIBCO INC. highlights the benefits of laser welding, including strength and efficiency. NIBCO INC. is an MCAA major sponsor.
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website! You’ll see how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with productivity-enhancing and cost-saving applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Plus, you’ll find tips and ideas on other ways you and your company can save money and enhance your productivity.
In this month’s Beyond the Classroom video, hear about the power of networking from former Wentworth Institute of Technology student, Nolan Rochler.
Nolan is now a Project Engineer at J.C. Higgins and credits his learning and growth in the industry to those he had met at networking events through his student chapter. Upon graduating, he found this network to be quite useful. “You have people who are there to help you. They help you find endless opportunities. By coming to these events, you are able to build such a strong network and basically go anywhere,” Nolan shared.
Participating in MCAA’s Annual Student Chapter Competition was also an invaluable experience for Nolan. He says really learning, understanding and dissecting a real-life project, is unlike any other learning process. Nolan reminds current students to take these learning and networking opportunities and “make it whatever you want to make it.” People in this industry welcome you in, respect you, and give you the opportunity to learn and grow. Use them to help set you up for success–Nolan certainly has!
Upcoming Beyond the Classroom videos will continue to showcase opportunities available to MCAA student chapter members and MCAA members alike who choose careers in the mechanical industry.
Yesterday, Women in the Mechanical Industry (WiMI) Chair, Kori Gormley-Huppert led a lively discussion with mentor and mentees who are currently participating in the initiative’s Mentor/Mentee Program. Pattie Krippendorf, Vice President of the Service Division at Helm Group and a mentor in the program, shared her industry and life experiences, as well as offered her best advice to those newly navigating the industry. Mentees, Ali Brown, a student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Madelyn Conway, a project engineer at BMWC Constructors, Inc. and Michelle Mays, a Sales Operations Coordinator at Crockett Facilities Services, spoke to the value of being involved in this program, and how invaluable they have found the assistance from their mentors, women with years of experience in the mechanical industry, in career planning, networking and goal setting.
The WiMI initiative was created to enable women in the mechanical industry to further enrich their careers through networking, educational, mentoring and career development opportunities. Interested and want to get involved?
MCAA has recently made the difficult decision to cancel our 2021 Annual Convention and hold MCAA’s first ever Virtual Education Conference. This conference will feature all traditional, highly anticipated MCAA events including, top notch education seminars, our virtual trade show/exhibit, and of course, the impressive Annual Student Chapter Competition. While this will be a new format, MCAA is committed to setting each of the Final Four teams up for success as they prepare to present their projects. Below is a timeline that provides an overview of how the Annual Student Competition will run for 2021.
Monday, December 7th, all student chapter competition projects are due in Procore. All student chapters will be provided with their project results on Friday, January 15th. MCAA will then work with each of the Final Four teams to prepare for the Final Four presentations, including a technology requirement review and a thorough rehearsal. Final Four presentations will follow the standard time, twelve minutes per presentation, with ten minutes for Q&A. These presentations will be recorded then released to MCAA’s membership on Monday, March 22nd to kick-off MCAA’s Virtual Education Conference.
We understand this is new, but MCAA’s Career Development Committee will be there every step of the way. Stay tuned for more information and registration details. If you have any questions, please reach out to MCAA’s Director of Career Development, Megan Walsh at mwalsh@mcaa.org.
Over 450 attendees tuned in this week for MSCA’s Sales Reboot virtual program, Strategies for Navigating Change and Elevating Performance in the New Economy. Presenter Seth Mattison, internationally renowned author and expert on workforce trends and business performance, helped attendees understand how to better prepare for a world they will not recognize. Using data gathered from members in a pre-webinar survey, which included the fact that COVID has made building relationship more difficult, Mattison discussed the need for developing the proper mindset. He also emphasized the need for elevated performance through a growth audit, process discipline and future ready skills and attributes. As one viewer commented, “I think this was a thought-provoking webinar that presented some excellent ideas to research/develop.” Mattison has been a popular presenter at previous MSCA educational conferences.
The GreatFutures Virtual Fall Program has completed the sixth week with two presentations on safety and project risks. We have also covered a variety of topics including estimating, which highlighted MCAA’s WebLEM+Plus resource; project management, that covered how to properly staff and schedule projects; and fabrication, which emphasized the importance of how and why fabrication is used. All presentations are easily accessible on the GreatFutures Virtual Fall Program website for registered students to watch anytime if they are unable to attend the live presentations.
Next week, we will learn about Building Information Modeling (BIM) and why more and more mechanical contractors are utilizing the process. To understand why, we will look at the difference between Computer Assisted Design (CAD) and Virtual Design Construction (VDC). On Thursday, October 29, we have a special panel presentation highlighting MCAA’s Women in the Mechanical Industry (WiMI) Mentor/Mentee Program. Join us to hear from current mentors and mentees about why and how they got involved with the program and learn how you can get involved too. Mentees will speak to how valuable they have found the assistance from their mentors, women with years of experience in the mechanical industry, in career planning, networking and goal setting. Our mentors will share their experiences and offer their best advice as you navigate through studying and working in the industry!
Register for access to any of these upcoming sessions or to check out any of the previous presentations in the GreatFutures Virtual Fall Program. View the full schedule and register today!
In the inaugural episode of MCAA’s Sponsor Spotlight series, MCAA CEO, Tim Brink, welcomes Bill Hughes, Executive Vice President, End User Solutions for MILWAUKEE TOOL and Chair of the Manufacturer/Supplier Council. The Sponsor Spotlight Series is a new way for MCAA contractor members to learn more about the Manufacturer/Supplier Council (M/SC) Governing Board members, their products, their relationship with MCAA, and what being a member means to them.
Hughes started with Milwaukee Tool in May 2007 and was appointed Executive Vice President of the company in February 2020. He is responsible for Milwaukee’s Jobsite Solutions team, Service Operations and Customer Experience groups. As such, Hughes oversees Milwaukee Tools end user commercial strategy and execution for the company. He has over 22 years of experience in the management and development of the residential, commercial, electrical, plumbing, power utility and general construction end user verticals along with industrial distribution and retail channels. He has held key management positions with BLACK & DECKER®, and MASCO®. Hughes contributes an extensive knowledge of leadership, business development, team development and commercialization of sales and marketing activities.
The MCA of Eastern Missouri (MCA-EMO) has partnered with UA Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 562 and the Plumbing Industry Council (PIC) for CHAMPIONS, an innovative program designed to expand membership diversity in the city of St. Louis while also strengthening the Local 562 workforce.
The first class of CHAMPIONS, an acronym for Creating Hometown Advantages through Minority Participation in Our Neighborhood, recently completed an initial six weeks of intensive classroom training and technical introduction to the trades. Classes were held at Local 562’s new state-of-the-art training facility in Earth City, MO.
As part of the program, the 14 students committed to a multi-faceted course curriculum and engaged in weekly mentorship and evaluation sessions. By completing the requirements, the graduates were guaranteed a full year of employment with a CHAMPIONS Initiative contractor.
MCAA members Corrigan Company; Haberberger, Inc.; icon Mechanical; Integrated Facility Services; Murphy Company; and Charles E. Jarrell Contracting Company are among those that have committed to hiring the graduates. During their year with the contractors, graduates will continue their training as pre-Apprentices in the field, while fulfilling program requirements related to mentorship and performance evaluation.
“The CHAMPIONS pilot program was carefully designed and implemented in the best interest of the participants and our hiring contractors’ long-term success. The ongoing collaboration with our labor partners, and everyone involved, is unprecedented.” said Kristy Stephens, MCA-EMO executive director.
Steve Faust, business development and diversity coordinator for icon Mechanical, worked with Local 562, MCA-EMO and PIC to help develop the new program. “As we looked ahead at our industry’s work in the city of St. Louis over the next few years, we realized that we needed a continuing and larger diverse workforce,” said Faust. “We examined other apprenticeship training programs ‘out there’ and tried to adopt best practices that would ensure that enough craftspersons would be trained and available. In addition to the soft-skills and hard-skills training, we are excited that each person has two mentors — a seasoned journeyman as well as Fred Searcy, director of minority recruitment for Local 562.”
The participants went through a rigorous competitive interview and application process. “The initial cohort demonstrated an outstanding commitment to program terms and to Local 562; and formally agreed to be fully engaged in all facets of the program,” said Carly Carmosino, program manager for MCA-EMO, who helped to design and deliver the CHAMPIONS professional development classes as enrichment to the technical training.
She noted that, “We collaborated with several area not-for-profits, Mission STL and Prosperity Connection, as well as the St. Louis Community College Workforce Solutions Group and Dale Carnegie to provide essential tools and advice to our mentors and program participants.” She added that, “We focused on developing the whole person, so that throughout the program, participants strengthened both their technical and soft-skills aptitude.”
Scenes from Graduation
CHAMPIONS graduate and elected class speaker Desiree Baldwin delivers a heartfelt message to the graduates and their families.St. Louis County Executive Sam Page congratulates the CHAMPIONS for embarking on a new career.Missouri Governor Mike Parson and Plumbers & Pipefitters Local Union 562 Business Manager John O’Mara look on as CHAMPIONS participant Malik Johnson accepts his graduation certificate and a hard hat from his new employers, icon Mechanical Business Development and Diversity Coordinator Steve Faust and President Jeff Rush. Jeff is also President of MCA-EMO.
MCAA and CNA are pleased to announce that Postler & Jaeckle Corporation earned the association’s top safety award for 2019 in Size Category 4, 450,001 – 1 Million Work Hours. Postler & Jaeckle’s successful Service Specific Safety Committee set the company apart.
Recognizing that its long-standing safety committee could not adequately address both construction and service safety issues, Postler & Jaeckle established a service specific committee to fully understand and address service-specific safety issues. The new committee expands employee ownership of the safety program, with representatives from each service group location attending quarterly committee meetings. These meetings allow the group to collaboratively determine the most urgent service safety issues, prioritize them, and establish effective plans to address them. The initiative has been very successful and continues to help protect mechanical service technicians from workplace hazards.
The MCAA/CNA Safety Excellence Awards Program began in the 1990s when MCAA partnered with CNA Insurance. It is a fiercely competitive program in which only the best of the best compete for the awards.
Participants are required to describe their safety programs in detail, including how they achieved safety excellence and why they believe they deserve the award. The Safety Awards Selection Taskforce, which is led by CNA, carefully evaluates each submission looking for safety leadership, an advanced safety culture, effective leading indicators of safety performance, and innovative safety initiatives that helped the company achieve an exceptionally high degree of safety excellence.
MCAA and CNA congratulate Postler & Jaeckle Corporation for earning such a high degree of safety excellence in 2019.
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
Uponor, Inc. New Uponor ProPEX® Copper Press Adapters are the industry’s first PEX expansion to copper press transitions for ½” to 3″ sizes.
Appion Inc. A longtime leader in refrigerant recovery, the Appion G5Twin is more reliable than ever, and has received several significant internal design changes, plus an all new fan, resulting in huge performance increases (verified by UL to AHRI 740). Once again the fastest, lightest, most reliable recovery machine on the market.
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
MCAA, in conjunction with the UA, recently led the development of a new American National Standards Institute (ANSI) industry consensus standard on pressure testing safety. The new standard, ANSI/ASSP A10.35 Safety Requirements for Pressure Testing Steel and Copper Piping Systems, was published on October 16, 2020. The voluntary industry consensus standard is based largely on the MCAA Guide to Steel and Copper Piping System Pressure Testing Safety. The standard’s safety requirements address planning, procedures, checklists, and other items for both hydrostatic and pneumatic pressure testing on steel and copper piping systems.
The CDC recently reported that airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 can occur in rare cases under just the right circumstances. In most cases, the virus is transmitted from one person to another in droplet form, and occurs when affected individuals are less than six feet away from the source for 15 minutes or more. That’s because the “droplets” are heavy enough to fall to the ground, and do not stay suspended in air. However, new research indicates that when exposure occurs in enclosed spaces, exposure time is greater than 30 minutes, and some kind of expiratory exertion is taking place, such as shouting, singing, or exercising, the virus can be transmitted in aerosol form (smaller particles suspended in air). Social distancing, use of masks, hand hygiene, surface cleaning and disinfection, ventilation, and avoidance of crowded indoor spaces are effective protective measures for both forms of transmission. However, adequate ventilation and avoidance of crowded indoor spaces are especially important when work is being performed in enclosed spaces where circumstances can increase the concentration of suspended small particles carrying the infectious virus. If you believe your workers could be exposed to airborne transmission of the virus, MCAA recommends that you revise your COVID-19 Exposure Control Plan to ensure adequate ventilation and avoidance of crowded indoor spaces in affected work areas.
Meet Marie. California State University, Chico Faculty Advisor and MCAA Career Development Committee member, Marie Patterson, shares how she got her start in the Mechanical Contracting Industry and what excites her about still working in the industry today, in this month’s Beyond the Classroom video.
Marie emphasizes there are endless opportunities for students who hope to work in the Mechanical Contracting industry, highlighting fun, cool, everyday venues and structures such as wineries and breweries, as mechanical construction. Marie likes to put her efforts to working on a pharmaceutical product, or a mechanical contracting project, that she knows at the end of the day will save or improve people’s lives.
Upcoming Beyond the Classroom videos will continue to showcase opportunities available to MCAA student chapter members and MCAA members alike who choose careers in the mechanical industry.
MCAA and CNA are pleased to announce that P1 Group, Inc. earned the association’s top safety award for 2019 in Size Category 5, More Than 1 Million Work Hours. P1’s successful “Why Not Zero” campaign set the company apart.
P1 presented employees with a single small goal: going accident free as a company one day at a time. Each morning started with the same small goal presented during a Daily Safety Checklist. The goal was further reinforced in safety training sessions and on employee T-shirts with the Why Not Zero logo.
The MCAA/CNA Safety Excellence Awards Program began in the 1990s when MCAA partnered with CNA Insurance. It is a fiercely competitive program in which only the best of the best compete for the awards.
Participants are required to describe their safety programs in detail, including how they achieved safety excellence and why they believe they deserve the award. The Safety Awards Selection Taskforce, which is led by CNA, carefully evaluates each submission looking for safety leadership, an advanced safety culture, effective leading indicators of safety performance, and innovative safety initiatives that helped the company achieve an exceptionally high degree of safety excellence.
MCAA and CNA congratulate P1 Group for earning such a high degree of safety excellence in 2019.
