March Member News

MONTHLY MEMBER NEWS

MARCH 2022

Your Member Liaison | P: 712-898-0083 | E: [email protected]

February 9th was an action-packed day for ABC of Iowa's Board of Directors, which started with visits to the Iowa Capitol.

Board Members met with Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, Senator Jake Chapman, House Speaker Pat Grassley, and House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl to talk about our support for unemployment reform, tax reform, and other issues affecting our members.

Following the Board meeting, from 5-7 PM, we were pleased to have a large group of members and legislators together for our annual Legislative Reception.

Members of the Board of Directors meet with Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver.

Spring is rolling in, and so are the events, seminars and continuing education opportunities we are pleased to offer our members. You'll find March's events as well as registration links on the bottom portion of this newsletter.

APPRENTICESHIP & EDUCATION

Ginny Shindelar, VP of Education and Training Services

P: 515-985-1175 | E: [email protected]

IOWA COMPETITORS

HEADED TO NATIONALS

Coming up on Wednesday, March 16th, ABC of Iowa’s four first place winners from our Craft Championships event (held this past December) will go on to represent ABC of Iowa in the National Craft Championships competition, held in San Antonio, TX.

Electrical: Residential/Commercial

Cody Clark

BKE LLC

HVAC

Alex Bisegger

All Seasons Heating & Cooling, Inc.

Electrical: Commercial/Industrial

Josh Traverse

Shaw Electric, Inc.

Plumbing

Sam Richter

Proctor Mechanical Corp.

Three apprentices employed, trained and sponsored by ABC of Iowa member, Interstates, will also be traveling to San Antonio for the National competition.

(L to R):

Kevin Grothaus (Instrumentation Fitting)

Brenden Hansen (Electrical: Residential/Commercial)

Matthew Schwab (Electrical: Commercial/Industrial)

UNI Team Headed to ABC National

Construction Management Competition

ABC of Iowa also sponsors a team of six students and faculty advisor from the University of Northern Iowa to compete in the ABC National Construction Management Competition taking place during ABC Convention in San Antonio, TX.

The students competing this year include Andrew Welty from Epworth, Iowa; Ethan Reed from Des Moines, Iowa; Dirk Clark from Decorah, Iowa; Lucas Roland from Grinnell, Iowa; Matthew Jackson from Johnston, Iowa; and Camden Brunkow from Ankeny, Iowa. All six students are upperclassmen in the UNI Construction Management program. The team’s faculty advisor is Randy Sharp, recently retired from ABC of Iowa member firm Estes Construction of Des Moines.

2022 Graduation Ceremony

Mark your calendars: We are looking forward to celebrating all of our apprentices' accomplishments at graduation on June 3rd at the Riverside Casino & Hotel in Riverside. More information will be coming soon.

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

Sandi Conlin, Government Affairs Director

P: 515-321-8358 | E: [email protected]

Legislative Reception Recap

We held our annual legislative reception on Wednesday, February 9^th. We host this event each year to give members the opportunity to network one-on-one with state legislators in a casual environment.

We were pleased to see so many of you at the event! For those of you who couldn't make it, we hope to see you next February!

MEMBERSHIP

Greg Spenner, President & CEO

P: 515-985-1171 | E: [email protected]

Mark Your Calendars

You're invited to join us as we celebrate our members' most innovative and high-quality construction projects. The date is set for April 8th at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, starting at 5:30 p.m.

Even if you have not submitted a project in this year’s competition, we encourage you to attend. This evening is a terrific opportunity to network with other members in our association as we celebrate the achievements of our contractor members.

Formal invites and registration will be coming soon.

Mental health is an invisible crisis in construction.

Before and after the pandemic, construction has had issues with mental health, substance misuse, overdoses, and suicide. Nationally, in the construction industry, more workers die

annually by suicide than by all occupational injuries combined.

Learn how a culture of caring and wellbeing can reduce the serious risks of substance misuse and suicide.

This session focuses on WHY these topics are imperative for construction leaders at all levels. Learn what you and your organization can do to help promote mental wellbeing and reduce the risk of suicide among your workforce and our industry.

Attend the Free Seminar

Join ABC of Iowa member company, Holmes Murphy, for a candid conversation discussing mental health and suicide prevention in construction.

Wednesday, March 9 (Waukee)

Thursday, March 10 (Cedar Rapids)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30TH

Iowa has one of the strictest and most complicated drug and alcohol testing laws for private employers in the United States. Adverse employment actions will not survive legal challenge, and protests of unemployment claims will be lost if a drug/alcohol test was not lawfully conducted.

This is a training you can’t afford to miss if you are an ABC member who is conducting—or wants to start conducting—drug or alcohol testing on your employees.