08/23/2021
ELECTRI INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING RE-CAP
ELECTRI Meeting was held July 12 - 13, 2021
HERE’S THE RE-CAP – The ELECTRI Council meeting that was held July 12 – 13, 2021 in Salt Lake City, Utah was an outstanding success. The primary focus of the two-day event was to choose the recipients of the Early Career Awards. Updates were heard from ELECTRI Task Force Leaders and previous grant recipients. The schedule was also filled with industry experts and a tour was given of a local electric facility, which included a portion of the tour on prefabrication.
Re-cap of the Salt Lake City sessions:
WHERE ARE WE NOW? – Michael Parkes, Council Chair, and David Long, NECA CEO, opened the meeting by describing just how much ELECTRI had accomplished during the pandemic year. In addition to issuing several key reports, the Council and its three top committees worked non-stop and held frequent Zoom meetings to stay ahead of the curve.
HOW DO THEY DO IT? – ELECTRI held a live Council Room with industry leaders sharing lessons about how they put together partnerships and joint ventures. Our thanks to the panelists John Axelson, Jerry Hayes, Mark Mazur, and Todd Mikec.
NO ONE KNOWS IT ALL – Legal expert Karalynn Cromeens spoke about the importance of getting a contract right. She told the audience she has a wide variety of free materials available for contractors to review and use, including the Subcontractor Institute.
IS INNOVATION THE BEST PATH TO TAKE? Tauhira Ali, NECA’S Executive Director of Industry Innovation, shared her perspective on what it takes to be innovative and how making decisions to take new steps might be the exact right thing for your EC business to grow. She also introduced the new NECA Innovation Institute, a training program that develops skills and strategies to move the industry forward.
EARLY CAREER AWARD UPDATES – The Council received an in-person report from Sogand Hasanzadeh, Purdue University on her 2020 ECA project Examining a Latent Side-Effect of Electrical Safety Interventions among T&D Line Workers. Because of pandemic travel restrictions, Hala Nassereddine, University of Kentucky, was unable to return to the US from abroad. Josh Bone provided a synopsis of her project Allocating and Leveraging BIM Efforts for Electrical Contractors.
AND OUR NEXT ECA WINNERS ARE… Council did review the written presentations before voting and the ECA winners for 2021 are:
Russell J Alessi ECA: Knowledge-based Visual System for Ergonomics and Safety Monitoring in Electrical Construction, Mohamad Razkenari, State University of New York
Thomas Glavinich ECA: Satisfying the Need for a Systematic Incident Investigation Learning Program, Ahmed Al-Bayati, Lawrence Technical University
WHAT DOES NON-TRADITIONAL MEAN IN THE REAL WORLD? - Nate Wickizer, President, Cache Valley Electric, offered a wide-ranging explanation of how CVE approaches every aspect of its work. He provided an advanced peak into the inner workings of CVE – followed by an outstanding site visit to CVE right in Salt Lake City. Team leaders from the firm walked our Council members through several of their departments, including their prefab shop, Internet of Things, Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), Technology Solution Division, and office space.
GET READY... GET SET… Planning your personal schedule for Nashville? Keep this date/time in mind.
October 9 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM Electrical Contracting Innovation Competition
JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT – ELECTRI is honored to announce Don Campbell as the 2021 winner of the Foundation’s Wendt Award. Don recently completed a Think Like A Leader interview and you can access it here to understand more fully just how dedicated he is to the entire EC industry. Congratulations once again!
If you are interested in seeing the presentations from Karalynn Cromeens or Tauhira Ali please contact Josh Bone, ELECTRI International Executive Director, at josh.bone@electri.org and he will send them, separately.