ABC-SEMI Issue 1 2020

2 Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. Friends, The ABC Southeastern Michigan Chapter recently celebrated our 47th anniversary. Things have changed significantly in recent years. When I arrived as President/CEO nearly four years ago, we had nine members of our ABC Board. Next year, we will be at our full complement of 15 board members, but only three of the original members remain. Two long-time contributors, Dave Sheffield (Onslow Sheffield, Inc.) and Dale Belsley (Summit Company) passed away this year. In addition, Jim Struble (RCI Electric), has elected to step down while remaining on the CET/SEMCA Board. Cort Niemi (Lighthouse Insurance Group) is also stepping aside so that he could join the CET/SEMCA Board. Our biggest chapter accomplishment this year was hiring our first ever Director of Safety, Kim Gamet. We are offering an initial safety assessment of your company free of charge as an included benefit of your membership. For those of you who don’t have the resources to hire your own full-time safety professional, Kim can be a valuable resource to save you money. Feel free to reach out to her at kgamet@abcsemi.org or 248-298-3600. You can also ask her how your company can get involved in our new Safety Committee. We’ve dramatically enhanced our networking opportunities by creating several new groups— Emerging Professionals, which is designed to expose the younger leaders of your organization to the larger industry in some fun social settings, and our Women in Construction Committee, to encourage women to get fully engaged and feel at home in a traditionally male-dominated industry. We also just launched our first student chapter through Lawrence Tech University, drawing students from the Construction Management program, which ultimately may lead to employee recruitment opportunities for ABC Member companies. Nearly 20% of our membership is now actively engaged in one of our boards or committees. As you can see, it’s a great time to get more involved in the association. Let’s get started. Sincerely, Keith Ledbetter, President ABC Southeast Michigan Chapter KEITH LEDBETTER ABC SEMI President Upcoming Events President’s Letter