Elevator Industry Group Of Southern California

President Allan Lloyd called the meeting to order. First order of business was election of officers for next year. There being no nominations from the floor, it seems that the offer of the present officers to “re-u p”, except for Vice President, was accepted. Mike Shaw volunteered to serve in that post and there was no objection, therefore Mike was elected by acclimation.

Allan indicated that he had lined up some speakers for next year, including CE Electronics and Imperial Electric. New elevator unit Chief Debby Tudor has promised to make a presentation sometime in the next six months.

Allan inquired about an opportunity to have members e-mail added to the list who receive notice about changes from the state. There seemed to be no objection from anyone, so we will pursue it further.

While we were eating lunch, a slide show was presented depicting a “Safety Rider” presentation recently done by Allan and Leslie Malloy. The kids seemed to enjoy it and they did as well.

We concluded with our regular raffle for a great group of prizes provided by Doris & John Brannon, Stan Schultz, Steve Grainer of MITSUBISHI, Jack Parker, Allan Lloyd of DRAKA, Larry Jones of CED, Leslie Malloy of WESTCOAST PADS, Michael Shaw of ACCURATE CONVEYANCE TECHNOLOGIES, Andrew Ryan of INNOVATION, Carloyn Chavez of EECO and Marilyn Look of LOOK STAIRCHAIRS.

The winners were: Harvey Ledesma, Marilyn Look, Mike Shaw, Gerry McKinnon, Doris Brannon, Bernie Tillipman, Peter Callas, Barry Friesen, Woody Wright, Leslie Malloy and Randy Thurston.

President Allan Lloyd called the meeting to order. First order of business was nomination of officers for next year. Allan indicated that the present slate of officers had agreed to serve again, if the members so desired, except for the office of vice president.

There were no nominations from the floor, so final nominations and elections will take place at the November 17 meeting. All the positions should be considered available. If you feel you’d like to do a particular job, or know someone who would, feel free to make arrangements to place that person’s name in nomination in November.

 Steve Grainer gave us detailed report about the recent meeting in San Francisco to cover the changes made in the elevator unit of DOSH. He indicated that he was impressed with the new chief, Debby Tudor. He feels she is a “progressive” person, who will work well with the industry.

 Prospects are that the state will adopt the Performance Based Code (ASME A17.7). It is up to the Standards Board, which is expected to act soon.

 Allan Lloyd gave us a report on INTERLIFT, the trade show held recently in Augsburg, Germany, supported by numerous color “slides”. We saw that many American companies, as well as International ones, were exhibiting.

 We concluded with our raffle, prizes provided by Brian GAA of CED, Bill Adrian of Republic Elevator, Marilyn Look of Look Stairchairs, John and Doris Brannon, Allan Lloyd of DRAKA, Mary Thomsic of ALPS Wire Rope, Steve Grainer of MITSUBISHI, Leslie Malloy of WESTCOAST Pads, Ray Miller of SEES and Mark Keelan of SCHUNK GRAPHITE.

 And the winners (including several multiples) were:

 Brian Gaa, Mark Keelan, Bill Adrian, Mary Thomsic, Andy Duzich, Steve Grainer, Leonard Patito, Marilyn Look, Allan Lloyd, Leslie Malloy and Gerry McKinnon.

This month’s attendance prize went to Steve Grainer.

We were happy to welcome Jack Stroup, new Western Sales Manager for Alps Wire Rope.

Due to the absence of our President and the late arrival of our Vice President, the meeting opened with a report from Golf Chairman Scott Dutton. Scott explained that due to the slim turnout (low sixties), we dispensed with prizes, trophies, etc. and simply played golf and had dinner.

After totaling all the receipts and disbursements, we found that the former exceeded the latter by about $4000. Accordingly, we are issuing a check to the Elevator and Escalator Safety Foundation for $3000. The “other” $1000 will be retained as “seed money” for next year’s tournament. Though we failed to meet our goal, which was a $5000 donation to EESF, disaster was avoided. Good job, Scott!

A presentation was made by Victor Palma, Sales Manager for VideoComm Technologies. VideoComm is a supplier of wireless video systems, based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Focus of the presentation was their model EV-L2R5803 wireless elevator video system. This comes in a “kit” form, containing transmitter, receiver, power supplies, antennae, twenty-five feet of video cable, mounting brackets, remote control, corner mount video camera and necessary instructions. System is covered by a one year warranty and costs under $3000; no maintenance or inspection is required. Basically, the camera mounted in the car transmits signals wirelessly to a receiver which can be mounted top or bottom of the hoistway, eliminating the need for travelling cable. From there, the signal is hard wired to the desired location, typically a security office. The signal is fully encrypted, preventing “hacking”.

Interesting product, Victor. Nice presentation!

We concluded with our raffle for a nice group of prizes, provided by: Stan Schultz, Gerald McKinnon, Patricia Howard of Janus Elevator, Andrew Ryan of Innovation Industries, Scott Dutton of CED, Sam Farooqi of Par Paint, Mary Thomsic of Alps Wire Rope and Leslie Malloy of Westcoast Co.

And the winners were:

Gerry McKinnon, Dave Altman, Mary Thomsic, Bill Adrian, Andrew Ryan, Jack Parker, Jack Stroup and Leslie Malloy.

After a most pleasant hospitality time, President Allan Lloyd called the meeting to order with thirty two members and guests attending. There being no significant business to transact, we proceeded to a delicious lunch.

As dessert was served, Allan introduced our speaker of the day, Guy Gruppie of Murchison & Cumming. Our society has been called litigious. Guy presented statistics that did nothing to dispel that notion. The United States has more lawyers per capita than any other industrialized nation. The U.S. has 1 lawyer for every 265 citizens,  the comparable figure for China is 1 in 8000.

Accordingly, it is almost inevitable that anyone in business will be involved a lawsuit (or several of them) somewhere along the line.

Further contributing to the abundance of legal actions is the U.S. contingency fee system, with the attorney taking a percentage of any recovery as their fee. Typically, the percentage is one third to one half. Also, unlike many countries, the U.S. has no system where the loser pays the costs of suit, contractual provisions lacking.

Closer to home, there are certain areas designated as “legal hellholes” due to the proliferation of lawsuits. Los Angeles County is number one on that list and Clark County Nevada is number 4. Some others are Cook County, Illinois and Southern Florida.

Guy meticulously outlined the steps to protect against suits and what to expect from your lawyer in preventing, preparing for and defending them.

Thanks, Guy for your work in preparing such an excellent program just for our group. Thanks also to your able staff, associate Marianne Zakarian and IT expert Bob Leon. Great job!

Lastly, we had our raffle for a terrific group of prizes provided by Brian Gaa of CED, Steve Grainer of Mitsubishi, Tim Hawkins, Ed Trudeau and Gordon Simpkins of GMS. Mary Thomsic, John and Doris Brannon, Allan Lloyd of Draka, Jack Lawson, Patricia Howard of Janus and Leslie Malloy of Westcoast Pads.  SEE’s provided some very nice fabric tote bags for all attendants.

The raffle prize winners included:

Harvey Ledesma, Jack Lawson, Mike Barnum, Gordon Simpkins, Andy Duzich, Leonard Patito, Jo Wheeler, Ray Miller, Elizabeth Courtney and Woody Wright. This month’s attendance prize, a Fifty dollar gift card for Bev-Mo, provided by the group, went to Ray Miller

NEXT MONTH – OUR GOLF TOURNMENT – FRIDAY, JUNE 19 – DETAILS ON OUR WEB SITE