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| MCAA National Update for June 22, 2015 |
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MCAA Announces First-Ever Field Leaders Conference...An Investment That Will Pay for Itself Many Times Over
As a part of its effort to meet the leadership development needs of all segments of our industry, a new program - Equipping Your Field Leaders for Success: A Results-Oriented Conference (October 14-16, Baltimore, MD) - is being launched to help you grow, develop and expand your business by creating field leaders who know how to manage your projects more profitably.Your key field personnel will learn skills that will make them an effective people motivator, team leader, communicator, and results-oriented manager. The conference will help them realize their value and importance to your business as a professional and as a member of your management team. And, most importantly, they will understand why and how to turn their focus to building the bottom-line. The faculty features foreman favorite Mark Breslin, communication expert Kevin Dougherty, Kirlin Mid-Atlantic's Bob Beavers and UA Training Director Chris Haslinger. For more information, contact Cynthia Buffington at cbuffington@mcaa.org or preview the conference details at www.mcaa.org/education/mcaa/fieldleaders.
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Launch of ALI-G Thrusts the ALI Experience to a New Level
Nineteen alumni of MCAA's Advanced Leadership Institute (ALI) completed the first-ever ALI-Graduates (ALI-G) program last week. The new program is the next
professional education step for ALI alumni who want to build on their ALI experience.
Tim Marken, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Breakaway Innovation Group, kicked off the inaugural session with a discussion about Customer Relationships. He challenged attendees to move from a vendor relationship with their customers to that of a partner. Dr. Scott Taylor took the group on a journey into the world of emotional intelligence and resonant leadership, a session that attendees found to be one of the most thought-provoking and eye-opening ever offered!
Peter Axelson, President of Garnet Consulting, Inc. (world-renowned experts on the subject of giving and receiving feedback), prepped the group for the Leadership Lab sessions. Class members were divided into four groups, each of which were required to complete a series of four discrete tasks. Each team member served as the team leader for one task. All participants were required to give and receive feedback on their own and their teammates' leadership styles and actions. Participants universally praised this activity and said they learned insights they would put into practice immediately!
The course ended with participant groups summarizing and reporting out their learning experiences. They met in groups to discuss specific problems and how they may use each other as resources as they worked through them. Many of the activities and lessons learned at the ALI-G will be incorporated into Course 15 of the ALI this September and November. For more information contact Dennis Langley (dlangley@mcaa.org).
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Mark Your Calendar for WebLEM Password Changes 
The WebLEM subscriber password changes every three months, and the next scheduled change will be on or about July 6, 2015. The new password will be sent by email to MCAA members' primary WebLEM contact. To ensure the password message moves through your company's spam filter, request that your IT Department add "mcaa@weblem.org,""support@weblem.org" and the "MCAA LEM Committee [support@weblem.org]" on the spam filter's "accept" list. The password is only sent to the primary contact, so be sure to share it with other WebLEM users in your company to ensure uninterrupted access to this valuable and free MCAA member benefit.
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Learn How to Ignite Your Life at MSCA 2015 with John O'Leary
Join MSCA on October 20 for a special General Session at the MSCA 2015 Educational Conference (October 18-21, Colorado Springs, CO). Guest speaker John O'Leary is proof that anyone can transform his or her greatest challenges into outstanding growth. After surviving burns on his entire body as a child, he has thrived personally and professionally as a college graduate, business owner, international speaker, husband, and father, just to name a few accomplishments. In his presentation, Rising Above to Ignite Your Life, O'Leary will empower you to determine how you can achieve a legacy of significance through three critical components. He will also participate in honoring the winner of the second MSCA Everyday Hero Award. View the conference brochure and registration form to register and learn more about this and other sessions, or sign-up online. The early-bird member rate ends July 17. To nominate a person in your company for the MSCA Everyday Hero Award, complete the nomination form. Contact Sobeida Orantes (saorantes@mcaa.org) with questions about conference and hotel registrations.
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Registered for Next Green Webinar? There's Still Time
 MCAA's next Green Webinar is on June 25 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time. If you are considering a project that involves sustainable building technologies, you may want to sign up for this webinar...and it's not too late. The webinar will focus on the industry's green market leaders, from healthcare to data centers (and beyond) to higher education and highlight the most progressive building technologies and practices for sustainable design and construction. Courtney France of France Sustainable Solutions, the webinar leader, will explain the different meanings of "green" to different building types and how far owners and developers are willing to push within budget constraints to achieve more environmentally responsible building projects in various regions of the country. The webinar is free to MCAA and MSCA members as a membership benefit. Go to https://mcaa.webex.com for more information and to register. Please contact Sean McGuire at smcguire@mcaa.org for more information.
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MSCA 2015 Benchmark Survey Is Now Open
 With rapid changes occurring in the marketplace, it has become increasingly important to know the industry's key performance indicators (KPIs). MSCA recently launched its 2015 Benchmark Survey to gather this data so that you can accurately assess your own company's operations and processes as compared to other MCAA/MSCA member companies. Please take the time to complete the survey and provide accurate responses; the results will only be significant if a significant number of companies participate. Only those who take the survey will get a copy of the results, which will be revealed and interpreted during MSCA's 2015 Bonus Program at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO, on October 18. The survey results will also be made available after the MSCA 2015 Educational Conference for those who took the survey but did not attend the Bonus Program. Responses will be accepted through June 26, 2015. If you are interested in participating, contact Barbara Dolim (bdolim@mcaa.org) to obtain the link, if you have not already received it. |
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Pension Reform Update - Treasury/IRS Guidance Released
Last week, MCAA participated in a conference call with a Treasury Department official and pension reform coalition stakeholders on the release of the Treasury/Internal Revenue Service Guidance, Revenue Procedure 2015-34 on Application Procedures for Approval of Benefit Suspensions for Certain Multiemployer Defined Benefit Pension Plans under Section 432(e)(9) - the provisions of the Kline/Miller 2014 Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA). The document allows plans in "critical and declining" status (certified to become insolvent within 15 or 20 years) to suspend and cut vested benefits under carefully controlled conditions and only to the extent necessary to preserve benefits above the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) levels that plan participants would otherwise receive (and only so long as PBGC remains solvent). This document lays out the details that plans can use, including model notices to participants and forms, to begin the application process at Treasury as soon as June 19. Treasury/IRS also released temporary regulations to facilitate that application process and proposed rules that will be finalized, with comments due August 18. A hearing has also been scheduled for September 10 to issue final regulations on the process. Plans that begin the process under the temporary rules will have to make adjustments after September if the final regulations include changes from the temporary rules. Treasury officials explained that they were adopting this expedited regulatory approach to ensure that plans in critical and declining status could begin the remediation process as soon as possible.
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) issued interim final rules on the PBGC partition procedures
that are designed to help critical and declining plans needing PBGC partition of orphan beneficiaries in addition to Treasury-approved benefit suspensions to meet the benefit preservation aims of MPRA. The regulations are aimed at implementing the intent of the statute, as outlined in the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP) coalition comments to the regulators, to issue the regulation expeditiously to allow the greatest number of plans to preserve the greater amount of benefit by acting this year. Treasury also announced the appointment of a Special Master, Kenneth Feinberg (Special Master in the 9/11 and Gulf Oil Spill claims procedures) to oversee the benefit suspension processes that include: plan amendment applications; Treasury review applying the Administrative Procedure Act standards for "clearly erroneous" assumptions and not applying de novo examinations of actuarial assumptions; and, the participant and beneficiary notice, comment, and voting procedures required before final implementation of approved benefit suspension only to the extent necessary to forestall plan insolvency and greater benefit cuts in the future.
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This may pave the way for smoother enactment of Phase 2 of pension reform this year,
that is, winning Congressional approval of new types of defined benefit plan designs that provide defined benefits to participants and beneficiaries, while at the same time removing the unbalanced funding volatility risks (withdrawal liability) on contributing employers. Progress toward that goal is slow and steady, with hearings held in the House Education and Workforce Committee in April, and plans for another in the House Ways and Means Committee in the near future. Discussions continue on finding a way to increase the PBGC insurance premiums without driving well-funded plans out of the system because of the inequitable levy of insurance to bail out other plans. MCAA has commissioned an analysis from Horizon Actuarial Services of the effect of the use of the benefits suspension process by large critical and declining status plans and the future need for added PBGC premiums. The Horizon analysis concluded that a slow and gradual assessment of the impact of the remediation process on the PBGC deficit is prudent to avoid driving plans out of the system with steep and immediate PBGC premium increases. MCAA concedes the goal of the legislative sponsors, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline and others, that the PBGC solvency issue must be solved in the process of overall multiemployer system reform - but argues that caution and circumspection are most effective given the overall instability in the system. That position also is supported by the general discussion of the PBGC's Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate in the first annual report.
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Ken Marino Contributes to MCERF
Ken Marino of Wayne Crouse, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) and former member of MCAA's Board of Directors recently contributed $2,500 to the Mechanical Contracting Education & Research Foundation (MCERF), raising his total contributions to $8,500. He also designated 50% of his contribution to the MCERF Scholarship Fund. The MCERF Board of Trustees is very grateful for the contribution which helps the Foundation continue its education and research activities that enable the industry to grow and prosper. Find out more about MCERF and its programs by visiting its recently enhanced website at www.mcerf.org or contact Dennis Langley at dlangley@mcaa.org.
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The MCAA National Update is is a weekly publication of the
Mechanical Contractors Association of America
1385 Piccard Drive, Rockville, MD 20850.
Questions? Contact Ann Mattheis, Editor, Phone: 301-869-5800; Fax: 301-990-9690
Copyright © 2015 MCAA
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