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Emerging Leaders
A program designed to foster the growth of tomorrow’s leaders sent young sheet metal workers to their first Partners in Progress Conference. Here’s what four of them took away from the event.
By / Michael McConnell
It’s no secret the union sheet metal industry is facing a critical labor shortage. There are too few new entries to the field, experienced workers are retiring in ever-greater numbers, and current workers are sometime uncertain about responsibilities of leadership.
Emerging Leaders, a jointly-funded program, aims to address the leadership vacuum. Through it, workers under 35 who demonstrate management potential are selected in a variety of ways and co-sponsored to attend the Partners in Progress Conference.
We spoke with a few of 29 Emerging Leaders who attended the 2024 conference about their biggest takeaways, learning moments, and in some cases, where they see their careers in the future.
Adam Sohm, 35
Employer: MechOne Inc. • Membership: Local 9
Adam Sohm got his first taste of HVAC while working as a Sears repair subcontractor. Later, when he was in the US Army, he performed HVAC service on military vehicles while stationed in the Middle East. Those experiences led him to enroll in SMART Heroes as he was preparing to leave the service. Thanks to an intensive class schedule, Sohm was able to finish his first-year apprenticeship in just seven weeks.
Today, the 35-year-old is a third-year apprentice at MechOne Inc., a mechanical contractor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Sohm was chosen as an Emerging Leader through SMACNA Colorado’s Elite Academy, a 40-hour program that helps train selected third- and fourth-year apprentices who show management potential.
Sohm says he was only given one instruction before heading to Orlando: “‘Mingle as much as you can.”
“I was advised to just sit down with people,’” he says. “To talk and find out what’s important to them, what their roles are, and what they have to say.” He took that advice and had a conversation with Lisa Davis, fund administrator for the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI). Davis gave presentations on opportunities for testing, adjusting and balancing, as well as indoor air quality work.
“Being on the service side of the industry, I found it eye-opening to hear what she had to say about advances and improvements in the industry,” Sohm says.
Conference attendees were very approachable, he adds. “Everybody was super welcoming and had that eagerness to help, give guidance, and talk,” Sohm says. That included SMACNA President Carol Duncan. The CEO at Oregon’s General Sheet Metal had a 45-minute conversation with Sohm, and it impressed him. “She was attentive and eager to talk,” he says. “I appreciated that.”
Cole Chaney, 26
Employer: Local 24
Like many in the industry, sheet metal work is a family tradition for Cole Chaney. His grandfather was a union sheet metal worker, and he shared with Chaney that a career in sheet metal meant steady work, good pay, and benefits.
“My grandfather set up the interview so I could come down to the hall,” he says. “He had been a member since 1964. I went through the interview process, tested, and got placed quickly.”
For about seven years, Chaney worked for DeBra-Kuempel, a major design-build mechanical contractor. But he was always interested in working for Local 24 in Dayton, Ohio—the same union his grandfather belonged to. For a year, he served as its
president, and in 2023, he became business representative. Chaney says he’s proud of his work advocating for members to have better working conditions, wages, and benefits.
The session on generational differences presented by Tonia Morris called “Bridging the Gap: Courageous Conversations Across Generations” was relatable, he says. “There’s a stigma about how we don’t want to work, are lazy, and are always on our phones. I’m in that generation, but I definitely don’t identify with that idea.”
The message he took away was that older workers have always complained about the habits of younger workers. Chaney also liked the session on mentorship titled “Build a Local Mentoring Program: Nurture Talent and Strengthen Our Industry” presented by Lisa Davis of NEMI, and Tammy Meyen of the ITI. “I think that’s something that our local could really use,” he says. “We don’t currently have a mentorship program in the Dayton area. It’s something I’m going to work on developing.”
Drew Yagelski, 36
Employer: US Engineering • Membership: Local 9
Drew Yagelski had a house and a family. “My little piece of the American Dream,” he says. The one thing he didn’t have was time to enjoy any of it. A grocery store manager for 17 years, he was usually at work every Friday and Saturday night and most Sunday afternoons.
Craving work-life balance, he started thinking about a career sheet metal because it offered the environment, pay, and stability he was after. Now, four years after switching careers, Yagelski is almost through with his apprenticeship, and he is working at US Engineering in Johnstown, Colorado. Like Sohm, he was named an Emerging Leader after graduating from SMACNA Colorado’s Elite Academy.
Yagelski liked the “big picture” industry view that many of the conference sessions demonstrated. “When you’re in the shop, you’re just focused on the next task,” he says. “It was great to kind of ‘zoom out’ a bit and broaden your focus to see how industry leaders think.”
“Beyond the Basic: A Renewed Approach to Mental Health and Wellness,” delivered by Chris Carlough, SMART MAP/ SMOHIT, and Ben Cort, Cort Consulting, was especially impressive, he says.
The session discussed a new Employee Assistance Program focused on how to best approach helping employees or coworkers who are suffering with addiction or family crises. “It was interesting to see just how seriously they take that sort of thing and the amount of pride they have in making a great program,” Yagelski says.
“Attending the conference made me feel inspired to work toward my professional goals,” he adds. “I hope to one day become a foreman or an instructor at a JATC.”
Lorin Lennard, 34
Employer: Cascade Metal Design • Membership: Local 280
Before entering the union sheet metal industry, Lorin Lennard was managing a restaurant. “Hospitality can sometimes be a thankless career,” Lennard says.
A conversation with a co-worker led him to change his professional path from food service to sheet metal, but it’s not as though a career in trades was a shot in the dark—his father was a carpenter and his grandfather was a machinist.
Today, he’s a Red Seal foreman at Cascade Metal Design Ltd. in Surrey, British Columbia, which specializes in ductwork for high-rise projects.
As a Local 280 trustee, he was nominated to be an Emerging Leader by the former Local 280 business manager, Richard Mangelsdorf. He was a first-time attendee at Partners in Progress, and he enjoyed learning about what other Locals and contractors are facing and how they are tackling their issues.
“It was a great opportunity to take lessons from other organizations’ experiences and implement them in our Local,” Lennard says. For example, he recalls discussing with an Emerging Leader from Washington state the difficulties Local 280 is having recruiting workers.
“We were talking shop about how hard it is to get apprentices to show up to work,” he says. “And he talked about some of the different ways they incentivize people to show up, because it’s tough out there right now.” ▪
Michael McConnell’s experience encompasses B2B and B2C copywriting, online journalism, and newspaper reporting. The former editor of a monthly magazine for HVAC and sheet metal contractors, he’s always interested in finding out the stories behind interesting people and projects. Contact him at mrmcconnell36@gmail.com.
