Modesto Gospel Mission provides nutritious meals, warm beds and a place of safety for thousands of poor and homeless men, women and children. The Mission receives no government funding and depends completely on the gifts of generous donors. This year, Brian Gini (Collins Electrical Company, Inc.) and Ryan Sarna delivered a $7,500 donation to the Modesto Gospel Mission.

Aldea Children and Family Services improves people’s mental health so they can strengthen their relationships and become engaged in the community. Through critical mental health treatment, foster care, and adoption and supportive services, Aldea helps more than 3,900 people annually in Napa and Solano Counties who face obstacles to accessing and receiving effective treatment. This year, Greg Armstrong and Scot VanBuskirk presented Aldea with a $7,500 donation.

For the 17th consecutive year, Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area Foundation received a portion of our golf proceeds, this year totaling $10,000. Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. In 2018, Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area celebrates 34 years fulfilling magical wishes. During the first year of operation, in 1984, the chapter granted 27 wishes. Now one of the largest chapters nationwide, the Greater Bay Area grants over 375 wishes per year and has granted nearly 8,000 wishes to date. The Chapter covers 17 Northern California counties and its goal is to grant a wish to every eligible child in its territory. Micaela Walden with Make-A-Wish met Chapter staff at our NorCal NECA office to be presented with the $10,000 donation!

To provide more resources to members, NECA has partnered with online training provider Open Sesame to offer some of the more than 20,000 courses in their online training catalog. To kick off this offering, NECA has curated a list of 40 general business and office courses for our membership. This includes courses on: Communication, Conflict Resolution, Creating Strong Team Culture, Employee Motivation, Individual Listening Skills, Management Skills, Managing Different Generations, Microsoft Introductory and Advanced Training, Planning and Prioritizing, Sexual Harassment, Time Management, and Writing Letters and Emails.

A full list of courses can be viewed on the NECA Learning Center. Course prices vary based on length, with more than half under $20 and all under $40!

NECA looks forward to releasing additional curated courses in the weeks ahead. If there is a topic you’re looking for, let us know at education@necanet.org.

 

ELECTRI International has published a new report that investigates the impact of owner-supplied or GC-supplied material and equipment. This investigation was conducted by MCA, Inc., and focused on evaluating the value transfer throughout the construction supply chain to the end user.

In this research report, contractors will learn more about ways the issues of cost, time and quality can be used to explain to developers and GCs why direct purchase may not be the best (profitable) route to take. The ELECTRI report details how cost reduction is a collaborative approach to information sharing and cost reduction when the waste of resources is reduced and productivity and throughput are increased. Click here to see the brochure and click here to see the full report.

Eddie Bernacchi, NECA’s Legislative Lobbyist in Sacramento, put together the attached Politico Alert for our NECA Members. We would like to express our appreciation to Eddie Bernacchi and his team for their tireless efforts in Sacramento on behalf of our contractors!

On July 12th, our Chapter hosted Brian Perlberg (Executive Director and Senior Counsel for ConsensusDocs) and Carol Bionda (Vice President and General Counsel for Nova Group, Inc.) to discuss the advantages of ConsensusDocs contracts. Brian and Carol identified what attendees need to know about ConsensusDocs, which helped attendees understand the differences between the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) and ConsensusDocs contracts.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a direct final rule on May 4 clarifying aspects of the beryllium standard for general industry as it applies to processes, operations and areas where workers may be exposed to materials containing less than 0.1 percent beryllium by weight. Because OSHA did not receive significant adverse commentary during the submission period, the direct final rule is set to go into effect on July 6th.

OSHA said it will begin enforcing certain requirements of the beryllium final rule, including the permissible exposure limits in the general industry, construction and shipyard standards; and the exposure assessment, respiratory protection, medical surveillance and medical removal provisions in the general industry standard.

The agency plans to issue a proposal to further extend this compliance date for the ancillary provisions to December 12th.