respond | preferences | login | unsubscribe

Dear PEI Member:

The PEI Board of Directors met late last month in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made a number of important decisions related to membership services and association operations. Here is a summary of the actions taken by the group.

New Programs to Aid Service Companies. PEI distributor and service companies face unique challenges with respect to finding, selecting, training and retaining quality service technicians. The PEI board approved three programs designed to help members meet those problems. Over the next 12 to 18 months, PEI will:

• Produce a high-quality recruitment video that would be made available to PEI members at no charge;
• Develop an industry-specific skills aptitude test to help members better evaluate entry-level service technician job applicants; and
• Develop an introductory training course to help entry-level service technicians understand the basics of the job within the first 30 days of employment. An online test designed to measure the technician’s mastery of the material also will be made available.

No New Recommended Practices This Year. The board agreed with the Recommended Practices Topic Advisory Committee that none of the three topics proposed by PEI members as a subject of a new recommended practice be developed as a standalone document. Work on PEI’s newest recommended practice on LNG fueling facilities will begin this month.

Distributor Profitability Survey and Employee Compensation Survey. Both surveys of PEI distributor members were approved (Distributor Profitability this month and Employee Compensation in January 2016). Recognizing that both surveys have been suffering from low participation, the board acknowledged that future results may yield insignificant data and recommended that future surveys be discontinued if a substantial increase in participation is not achieved.

PEI Board Meeting

OMB Approves Federal UST Rule

PEI Women Conference

Respond to this Newsletter

by e-mail to the editor, Robert Renkes at rrenkes@pei.org

or join the discussion in the Petroleum Equipment Forum

to unsubscribe or change preferences see below.

Other Board Action. Reports from PEI’s Education and Convention, Strategic Long Range Planning, Safety, Investment and Young Executives Committees were reviewed. Here is a summary of the action taken by the board of general interest to PEI members. 

• A budget of $3,342,579 for the 2015-2016 fiscal year that began April 1 was approved. That budget includes the hiring of additional PEI staff to better serve the current and future needs of the members of the Institute.    
• A series of short (three-minutes or so) safety videos will be produced and made available without charge to all PEI members. Topics for the first group of videos are likely to include fit test for respirators, confined spaces, barricading the worksite, inspection of personal protective equipment and changing filters.
• A mentoring program for PEI members will be established.
• The scholarship program for those PEI members who attend the University of Innovative Distribution will be continued.
• A two-day conference for Purchasing and Inventory Managers will be sponsored by PEI in 2016.
• A thorough evaluation of PEI’s 10-Group Program will be conducted this spring/summer.
• The number of Priority Club members will remain at 20 companies.
• PEI members in Mexico, Central America and South America will be surveyed to determine their specific needs that PEI may address.

Kevin McKinney, Mobile, AL, presided at the midyear meeting. Other officers, directors and staff attending the meeting included:
Steve Trabilsy, North Aurora, IL (vice president)
Phil Farrell, Kansas City, MO (immediate past president)
Craig Hoyer, Denver, CO (treasurer)
Bob Renkes, Tulsa, OK (executive vice president)
Susan Scott, Trenton, NJ (District 1)
Ben Hieber, New Oxford, PA (District 2)
Joey Cheek, Jacksonville, FL (District 3)
Andy Mercer, Jackson, MI (District 4)
Susan Maples, Knoxville, TN (District 5)
Tad Cooper, Marion, IA (District 6)
Jason Munson, Sioux Falls, SD (District 7)
Steve Dixon, Wichita, KS (District 8)
Ryan Rethmeier, San Diego, CA (District 9)
Lucy Sackett, Greensboro, NC (District 10)
Jeanne Murphy Murck, Herndon, VA (District 11)
Brad Baker, Pacific, MO (District 12)
Dick Basham, Charleston, WV (District 13)
Dave Cousminer, Chesapeake, VA (Affiliate Division)
Ron Kingsbury, Ownings, MD (Service & Construction Division)
Rick Long, Tulsa, OK (general manager)

UST RULE REVIEW COMPLETED BY OMB
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed its review of the final Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule revising underground storage tank (UST) requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act on April 29. As proposed, the rule would require secondary containment systems on most USTs, expand tank owner and operator training requirements, and require owners and operators to periodically inspect and test tank components.

EPA released the proposed UST regulation in 2011 and sent the final rule to OMB for review in late September 2014. The final rule is expected to be printed in the Federal Register by June. EPA may sponsor some type of online presentation after release of the rule but before publication in the Federal Register. If EPA plans a briefing, we will notify you when and how that will occur.

INAUGURAL PEI WOMEN CONFERENCE
Eighty-five people attended the association’s first PEI Women Conference last week in Denver. The conference was an unequivocal success, with 95 percent of the attendees giving the two-day event an “excellent” evaluation.

The PEI Women Committee met after the conference in Denver and planned a PEI Women session (October 11) at the 2015 PEI Convention in Las Vegas, tentatively selected New Orleans as the location for the 2016 PEI Women Conference and agreed on the topics to be covered at the meeting, and provided input on PEI’s soon-to-be-released mentoring program. The committee also fined-tuned a new program designed for all PEI members that would organize and make available industry-related instructional videos through PEI’s YouTube channel. More on that program this summer.

DEATHS
Charlotte Caroline Renkes, mother of the editor of this newsletter, died April 23 in Atlanta, Georgia. She was 87. Mom was an avid reader of this newsletter when we sent it through the mail in a printed format. In fact, she boasted to her friends that for decades her son would write her a four- or six-page typed letter twice a month without fail. In addition to her son, Bob, she is survived by another son, David, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.         

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS
Fuel trailer and equipment manufacturer. Gas Trailer Petro2Go, LLC, 1755 East Matthew Drive, De Pere, Wisconsin 54115, has applied for manufacturer division membership. Keith Kittoe is president of the firm, which was established in 2011. The company manufactures fuel trailers and equipment, which are sold through distributors. Sponsored for PEI membership by John M. Elllsworth, Ellsworth, Milwaukee, WI. www.gastrailer.com
California tank cleaning firm. Advanced Fuel Services, Inc., P.O. Box 1346, Morro Bay, California 93443, has applied for service and construction division membership. Ron F. Sickels is president of the firm, which was established in 2008. The company cleans tanks, polishes fuel, and installs and repairs aboveground and underground tanks and piping. Sponsored for PEI membership by Don Petroni, PtrMktgEqp, Placencia, CA. www.advancedfuelservicesinc.com
Saskatchewan maintenance firm. Capital Petroleum Services Ltd., 500 – 4^th Avenue East, Regina, Saskatchewan S4N 4Z5, Canada, has applied for service and construction division membership. Arlene Wright is general manager of the firm, which was established in 1982. The company installs and maintains service station and bulk plant equipment. Sponsored for PEI membership by Paul McKay, KellrEqLtd, Calgary, AB. www.capitalpetroleum.ca 

ADMITTED TO PEI

• ASI Fuel and Fluid Management, Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada (mfr)
• El Chintolo USA Inc., Heber, CA (aff)
• Bestworth-Rommel, Inc., Arlington, WA (aff)
• Operadora Comercial Fares S.A. de C.V., Guadalajara, Jal., Mexico (aff)
• Pan-Pacific Mechanical, Fountain Valley, CA (S&C)
• Liberty Auto & Electric, Inc., Bridgeport, CT (S&C)
• Center for Testing & Engineering, Newnan, GA (S&C)
• Steel City Fueling Systems, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA (S&C)
• Erika Cuellar, Stripes LLC, Corpus Christi, TX (O&E)

 

Manage Your Subscription

This newsletter is a member benefit of the Petroleum Equipment Institute intended for %full_individual_name%. To unsubscribe by email click here or manage all your newsletter subscriptions online at www.pei.org/membersonly.

Do not reply to this message.
This newsletter is sent from an unattended mailbox.
To respond to this newsletter use these options.

PEI® and the PEI mark are registered trademarks
of the Petroleum Equipment Institute.
Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.

© 2015
Petroleum Equipment Institute
P. O. Box 2380
Tulsa, OK 74101-2380

The TulsaLetter (ISSN 0193-9467) is published two or three times each month by the Petroleum Equipment Institute. Robert N. Renkes, Executive Vice President, Editor. Opinions expressed are the opinions of the Editor. Basic circulation confined to PEI members.