Illinois Construction Stuff and Stuff
Illinois Construction Stuff and Stuff Norm Cowie, CCE
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his little story starts with the first time I went to an electrical distributor’s group meeting. Or, more precisely, when I tried to. I was brand new in Chicago, having moved here from Michigan, so I was still learning my way around town when my boss, Bill, asked me to represent our company Wesco at the monthly electrical distributor’s meeting held in the dining room of a golf country club outside the city. This was before we had computerized voices in our cars and cell phones to help guide us around, and I’m going to really date myself because it was also before cell phones themselves. Yeah, it was a bit harder to get around town back then. But Bill said it was an easy drive with just a few streets. He said, “Just take 94 to the Kennedy and…” Which to this day I say was his mistake, because where I came from, a highway had one name, not several. I knew where Route 94 was since I took that highway every time I went back to Michigan. And I knew where Kennedy Avenue was because it was the first exit in Indiana, also on the way to Michigan. I knew nothing about ‘the’ Kennedy, which I knew only by its other name, Route 90. An hour later, much to his amusement I called him completely lost from a phone booth in Indiana. After that belated attempt, I started attending the meetings where I got more and more uncomfortable at what some of our competitors were saying in the meeting. There was talk of future action, and other things that made me think of antitrust liabilities, so I went back to Bill and suggested we pull Wesco out of the organization. When I told him my concerns, he agreed, and we reluctantly pulled out of the group, despite the many benefits that came from being able to exchange information on joint customers.
Soon after that, I took the job of Credit Manager at Evergreen Oak Electric (prior to our merger with Paramont to become Paramont-EO), but kept in
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former competitors in a new Electrical Distributors Credit Group, now as a part of NACM, or CMCMA as it was called back then (told you I’m dating myself).
So over all those decades, I became a leader rather than a follower, and NACM has always been so supportive, so open to new ideas and concepts, and frankly, just there for me.
touch with my old boss, since I left on very good terms. One day we were talking and Bill mentioned NACM might be a good fit as a moderator for a new distributor’s group. I didn’t know much about NACM back then, but agreed we should give it a shot. So we contacted NACM, who gladly hosted our old group for an informational meeting, and we quickly decided it was a good fit, since NACM would help make sure we were in compliance with the anti-trust laws. Bill and I happily were able to reunite Wesco and Evergreen Oak with our
THE INTERCONNECTION
Once I learned what NACM was all about, I started getting involved. One of my interests has always been law, so I joined the Legislative Committee and started regularly attending. Then something happened that changed me from a participant to a leader. The Bulk Sale Act, part of the UCC laws, was repealed in Illinois … without much backlash or really any input by our committee. The Bulk Sale Act protected trade creditors by making it a requirement for a company that was selling off its assets to inform its creditors. This usually indicated an insolvency might be ahead and a JULY/AUGUST 2021 PAGE 12
