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FOREMAN TRAINING COMING TO ARIZONA THIS MONTH

After stops in Southern California, Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and Hawaii the WICA Foreman Training program will be coming to Arizona in February. Kathy Crosby will be giving her two-day presentation to your foreman at the Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix Airport Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona on February 26-27, 2010. Friday’s meeting will run from 7am-4pm and Saturday’s meeting will be from 6am-3pm. For the first time ever, WICA has secured a rooming block at the hotel and will happily add any participants who wish to attend to that block. With close proximity to the Phoenix Airport, we hope that this seminar will attract foremen from our entire membership, as well as those located in Phoenix. Registration for this seminar is $250 per person and registration forms can be downloaded here. Return completed registration forms to the WICA Office no later than one week prior to the event. Help us as we strive to bring all our industry foremen up to speed so they can be the most efficient and profitable in the industry.

CAST YOUR LINE! WICA FISHING DERBY REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

It’s time once again to launch our boats and spend a day enjoying the outdoors. The Western Insulation Contractors Association’s Annual Fishing Derby is now open for registration. Join us for a great day of fishing on the Columbia River as we fish for Spring Chinook Salmon. Boats will be launched out of the 42nd Street James Glison Boat Launch in Oregon on April 19, 2010 at daybreak. We are pleased to offer this opportunity for $225 per person which includes fishing guides, equipment, food, beverage, and preparation services to get your catch ready for the trip home. Although this event will be held mid-April, the registration deadline is March 29, 2010. We encourage all to attend. Register by downloading the registration form here and return it to the WICA Office.

WICA-WSC SPRING LABOR MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE SCHEDULED: April 15-16 Palm Springs, California

The WICA-WSC Spring Labor Management Conference has been scheduled to be held April 15-16 in Palm Springs, California. Conference attendees will discuss a number of innovative labor-management programs as well as address some of the industry’s “hot button issues”. Plan now to join many of the industry’s leaders for this great conference. The actual program will kick-off at noon on April 15th with a group golf outing at the Doral Desert Princess Resort followed with a group dinner that evening. The actual L/M meeting will be on Friday, April 16th from 8:00am to 2:00pm. The conference will be held at the Doral Desert Princess Resort, 67967 Vista Chino, Cathedral City, California. The WSC has negotiated a great room rate of $134 a night, the room block will be held under the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators & Allied Workers. Please note that the Hotel Registration Deadline is March 1, 2010, reservation can be made by calling (888) 386-4677. All WICA contractors are encouraged to attend or send a company representative to lend their leadership at developing a “pro-active” L/M relationship.

WICA ANNUAL SPONSORS SECURED AND LOOKING FORWARD TO A BENEFICIAL YEAR

The WICA Annual Sponsor registration closed yesterday and the Western Insulation Contractors Association has secured five companies as Annual Sponsors this year. We are thrilled to announce the following sponsors; PLATINUM LEVEL: Johns Manville GOLD LEVEL: Industrial Insulation Group, LLC SILVER LEVEL: Armacell, LLC Midwest Fasteners, Inc. Knauf Insulation K-Flex USA Venture Tape Corporation Each company has secured a number of hole sponsorships at golf tournaments throughout the year and a number of sponsorships for our Annual Convention. We would like to thank these companies for their commitment to sponsoring WICA Events and we look forward to working with them throughout the year.

HEADS UP-MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!

By way of reminder, the WICA has a busy and productive year planned. Due to the high popularity of our events, we are pleased to have dates locked up so that you can add them to your calendars and plan to attend. The below list is of the most current dates for our upcoming events. Friday and Saturday, February 26-27, 2010 WICA ARIZONA FOREMAN TRAINING Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix Airport Fri, 7:00am-4:00pm; Sat, 6:00am-3:00pm Thursday and Friday, April 15-16, 2010 WSC-WICA LABOR MANAGEMENT SPRING CONFERENCE Doral Desert Princess Resort, Palm Springs, California Monday, April 19, 2010 WICA PORTLAND FISHING DERBY Portland, Oregon Daybreak Boat Launch Monday, May 17, 2010 WICA NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GOLF TOURNAMENT Crow Canyon Country Club 12:00pm Shotgun Start Friday, July 9, 2010 WICA PACIFIC NORTHWEST GOLF TOURNAMENT Location TBD Shotgun Start TBD Sunday-Tuesday, October 17-19, 2010 WICA ANNUAL CONVENTION Grand Wailea, Maui, Hawaii

ANNOUNCING THE 2010 WICA OFFICERS AND BOARD

We would like to thank our WICA Officers and Board this past year. An organization like this thrives off the participation and support of our membership and it shows in our well thought out events and activities. Our 2010 WICA Officers and Board are as follows: WICA OFFICERS & BOARD President | Robert Jeffries of E.J. Bartells Vice President | Craig Rossi of Bayside Insulation Treasurer | Ken Gritter of Hudson Bay Insulation Immediate Past President | Paul Lane of Insulation Contracting & Supply Board Members | Brian Campbell of Insul-Therm International, LLC Brian Farnsworth of E.J. Bartells Dave Niehaus of Nomaco Insulation Dennis Gray of Summit Contracting Gary Hashbarger of Performance Contracting, Inc. Mark Hammer of Farwest Insulation Contracting Myron Nakata of Acutron Company Rick Dunlap of Merit Insulation, Inc. Rick Sutphin of Performance Contracting, Inc. Ron de Rue of Farwest Insulation Contracting NIA Representative | Tim Stout of Hudson Bay Insulation Finance Committee Chair | Patrice Reynolds of Farwest Insulation Contracting

National News

CONSTRUCTION UNEMPLOYMENT NEARLY DOUBLE OVERALL RATE

Construction industry unemployment reached 19.1% in October (62,000 jobs lost), nearly double the country's overall unemployment rate of 10.2% (190,000 jobs lost) and close to double the industry's 10.7% jobless rate of one year ago, according to the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The construction industry's job loss rate is down from its 67,000 job loss per month average over the past six months, still better than the 117,000 average monthly job loss rate for the industry logged in the previous six-month period.

OSHA PROGRAM WILL TEST CHARGES OF UNDERREPORTING

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced a new National Emphasis Program on recordkeeping that will test its ability to assess whether employers are under reporting workplace-related injuries and illnesses. The program, which became effective September 30, directs OSHA inspectors to scrutinize all 2007 and 2008 injury and illness records for a sampling of employees at selected workplaces in historically high-risk industries. OSHA said that the program was prompted by several recent academic studies that have asserted underreporting of injuries.