Membership
Report
(Click here
to go to the Membership page)
We are sad to report that Brian Verbraken
resigned from MABE today. He has sold his business and
will be moving his family back to Kansas City soon. We
wish him the best!
Brian Bailey of Emergency Restoration
visited our group this morning. He does emergency fire and
flood restoration. Lisa Wolfe, his sponsor, hopes you will
never need to give him a lead.
Click here to view his
application.
Social Report
(Click here to go to the Social Event page)
The MABE spring fling will be at 5pm on
May 6th. We will have a BBQ picnic with hotdogs,
hamburgers and marshmallows. Lisa will also have
non-alcoholic drinks available so if you are so inclined...BYOB. Sign up by
sending an email to
Lisa Wolfe.
The cost is $7.00/Adult. Visit the
social page for a map to
the party.
Speaker Coordinator Report
(Click here to go to the Speaker Schedule)
No report.
Treasurer Report
No report.
54-23, 46-44, 35-34, 29-03, 29-13, 29-31,
29-16, 12-34, 12-15, 12-10(x2), 24-23, 10-32, 11-24, 11-40,
38-32, 04-48, 04-41(x2), 14-41, 43-53, 43-13, 40-41.
This week's
leads focus...
- Barbara
Kollman
- Bill LaLonde
- David
Lathrop
We will vote on the new
bylaws at next Friday's meeting.
Robert Busch would like to
know if anyone has any experience with Eschelon, an alternative
to Qwest.
The board will be appointing
a new board member to fill the vacancy being left by Brian
Verbraken.
John
Passante
Passante
Electric
John Passante gave his first speech today as a member of MABE.
He began by telling us about his family. He has been
married for 14 years to his childhood sweetheart, Amy. He
has 3 children. They are originally from Wisconsin.
John went to
college right after high school. He studied electronics
for a year. He lost interest in sitting at a bench
so he left and went to work for a company doing cable
installations. After almost 5 years of this he was ready
for another change. He thought about joining his
father-in-law in the plumbing business but he already knew so
much about electrical work that he decided to stick with this
trade.
John made two
attempts at a union apprenticeship but his applications
were denied. He then went to a technical school to get
more training. Unfortunately, this did not help as his 3rd
application was also rejected.
Frustrated, he
decided to try a non-union apprenticeship training program.
It was the same type of program but with a lower pay scale.
He immediately got a position but was laid off after only a few
weeks.
Fortunately he
was able to then get a job with another company were he got
experience doing both residential and commercial projects.
After 4.5 years working for this company, he felt his pay was
not enough. By this time he was able to get a job with a
union company and his pay doubled overnight.
John learned a
lot working for this large company but he hated the union and
how their system worked. His last year for this company he
could "see the writing on the wall." They were
laying off people every Friday. John's pink slip was
coming soon. He and a buddy decided to go to school to get
their masters certification. His buddy passed but John
failed twice.
The pink slip
came on a Friday. With no job, 2 failed attempts to get
his certification and a family depending on him, John was lost.
That Saturday the results of his 3rd attempt at certification
came in the mail. He passed! The next Monday he got
his license and incorporated.
The economy was
slowing down in Wisconsin. John and his wife decided to
move to Arizona where work was plentiful. John was shocked
at how things work here. There were no shortcuts in
Wisconsin. You had to pull a permit for every job and
skilled inspectors looked at every job carefully. Not so
in Arizona. Because the process is so inefficient here,
John urges everyone to use only licensed contractors. You
do get what you pay for. Be especially attentive when
doing remodels.
John would
eventually like to grow his business and take on an apprentice.
But for now, he is an owner-operator with a dual license so he
can do both commercial and residential.
[membersonly/archives/former_members/passante_john.htm]
