FROM THE BUSINESS MANAGER

Brothers and Sisters, I hope everyone is doing well as we transition into the month of October.  Summer always seems to fly by, but I don’t mind because Fall is my favorite time of year.  I know to a lot of our members Fall means hunting season, but to me it means football season.  Each to their own is the theme, but whatever your preference might be, please find time to get outdoors and enjoy yourselves. 

I’m hearing solid work reports and future projections that our construction members will have steady work throughout the end of the year and beyond.  Speaking of work, a few of our IBEW employers have been receiving grants securing upcoming work in our jurisdiction, that is a wonderful thing.  More to report soon as additional information becomes available.  In the meantime, recently I’ve had several conversations with employers and the common topic seems to be safe production.  As you’re aware, safety wears many hats, and two words seem to be repeating themselves in my conversations.   Number 1 is better communication and number 2 is teaching our apprentices.  As our work picture continues to build, we have got to be more intentional with improved tailboards and passing along our knowledge to the next generation.  Teaching and training our next generation of members is a must with a heavy emphasis placed on safety.  All Local 44 members, but especially our Journeymen, need to remember to slow down and take the necessary time to teach.  Sometimes, in my own past experiences, I would get too focused on producing and accomplishing the end product and not enough time on passing on my knowledge.  If we focus more on purposeful communication during our tailboards and encourage all crew involvement and feedback, I believe that will set the tone for asking questions and then teaching.  The apprentices I’ve talked to want and need that Journeyman mentorship.  In closing, please choose to be that person and give back to our next generation.

In Unity,

Scott Klungland

406-565-6839

FROM THE ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGER

“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.”

The above quote could be the opener for so many different topics, but for this month the topic on my mind is financial wellbeing. Many of you reading this may have had to sit through one of my rants on what not to do when it comes to money. My thoughts on this subject do not stem from a place of wonder or thinking of bad choices, they stem from living the first 8 years of my career making every poor decision with money a person could make! Well not every bad decision, we have never had a loan for a boat, we had a $4,000 loan for a bed with an 8% interest rate and almost all other loans, but never a boat! At that time in our lives we couldn’t pay the bills without getting at least a few hours of overtime and God willing I could get a couple more so we could buy food to put on the table. I had to put gas on a credit card and pay the minimum payment just to be able to drive to work! Hopefully everyone reading this is saying in their head “WOW what a dumb #$$.” If that’s you, feel free to stop reading! If you are saying “I know how this feels” or you are thinking of drowning yourself in debt like I did, then this is for you! The quote above and the quotes below are from a book that changed our life, and I have met many others who will say the same! I will leave you with these quotes and if you are hating debt and are sick and tired of being sick and tired, give this book a read. Heck give me a call and you can borrow my copy! I would rather you learn from my mistakes and you not make your own.

“Debt is so ingrained into our culture that most Americans cannot even envision a car without a payment, a house without a mortgage, a student without a loan, and credit without a card.”

“A new $28,000 car will lose about $17,000 of value in the first four years you own it. That is almost $100 per week in lost value. To understand what I’m talking about, open your window on your way to work once a week and throw out a $100 bill.”

“If you keep a $495 car payment throughout your life, which is “normal,” you miss the opportunity to save that money. If you invested $495 per month from age twenty-five to age sixty-five, a normal working lifetime, in the average mutual fund averaging 12 percent (the eighty-year stock market average), you would have $5,881,799.14 at age sixty-five.

 Hope you like the car!”
âۥ Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover

Learn from my mistakes,

Your Brother,

Kyle Hintz

(406) 565-3250   

khintz@ibew44.org

                     JOURNEYMAN UPGRADES

Local 44 would like to congratulate the following members for achieving Journeyman status:

Billy Birdwell – Journeyman Lineman

Max Christensen – Journeyman Gasman

Ryan Clampitt – Journeyman Gasman

Kelly Johnston – Journeyman Lineman

Tyler Peck – Journeyman Lineman

Great job and best wishes for a great career!

MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZER

Hope that everyone and their families are in good health and well-being and getting ready for the holiday season.  We recently had the annual Stan Dupree golf tournament in Fairmont.  The feedback we have received seems that everyone had a great time and enjoyed the weekend of golf and fun in the pool with their families and co-workers.  I know that Russ Nolan, Tim Newman, and myself had a blast going down the waterslide even though some kids may have been wondering who the full-grown men were, acting like kids themselves, screaming down the slide.  We had a near record breaking turnout with 22 teams totaling 88 players that participated in the tournament.  This participation shows the strength and unity of our local in the present time.  I can say that I greatly appreciate all the people that stepped up to help out and volunteer for what was needed to put on this event.  Special thanks go out to Jim Leding and his wife Jan for their efforts to gather items for the raffle and door prizes, it honestly would not have happened without them. Also, a huge thank you to Ron Davis’s daughter-in-law Dani, she stepped up and was a tremendous help the day of the event.  Paul Babb from NorthWestern Energy was unbelievable with the efforts he made to get the sponsorships from each division, so thank you Paul for that.  I have already talked with Fairmont about next year and they are tremendously excited about having us back again next summer.

Congrats to the top three finishing teams:

First place team: Jimmy Lane, Shane Bykonen, Bob Olson, Daniel Juneau

Second place team: Bob McCormick, Josh Stump, Mason Woods, Chad Lovdahl

Third place team: Dustin Graham, Brian Bullock, Jake Ferguson, Andy Dahl

Thank you to this year’s sponsors:

NorthWestern Energy - Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell, Missoula

IBEW Local 233

Continental Steel Works

Mountain Power

Jim Leding

Jeromy Donahue

Potelco

Raud Dogs House of Power (Mike LaFountain)

Montana Lineman’s Rodeo Association

Rocky Mountain Contractors

NettWorth - Bryon Bennett

Knotty Pine Woodworks

Billy Ryan

Scott Klungland

Colstrip Electric

Your Brother, Boe Shuman

(406) 533-8170 bshuman@ibew44.org

RETIRED MEMBERS

Local 44 would like to congratulate Lance Beto who has retired from the trade.  Best wishes for a long and happy retirement!

IN MEMORIAM

Local 44 mourns the loss of the following retired member:

Robert Berg – Journeyman Lineman – passed away 8/31/24

Our sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of this Brother.

OCTOBER UNIT MEETINGS

Havre                          Oct. 01, 2024              6:00 PM          Elks Lodge     

Lewistown                  Oct. 02, 2024              5:30 PM          NWE Service Center 

Billings                        Oct. 03, 2024              5:30 PM          NWE Service Center

Great Falls                   Oct. 07, 2024              6:00 PM          Great Falls Labor Temple

Bozeman                     Oct. 15, 2024              6:00 PM          Bozeman Labor Temple

Missoula                      Oct. 16, 2024              6:00 PM          Missoula Labor Temple

Butte                           Oct. 17, 2024              5:30 PM          Local 44 Office

Helena                         Oct. 21, 2024              5:00 PM          Helena Labor Temple