Ray Kasmark, a third-generation IBEW member, the founding director of the Business Development Department and one of the union's great optimists, retired Sept. 1.

From where he sits, infectious optimism is the only rational position to take about the future of the Brotherhood.

"We see things two to five years out. We know what the opportunities are," he said. "That is why I am so optimistic: Everything is being electrified, and that is us."

Four decades ago, when Kasmark started at his grandfather and father's local — Gary and Hammond, Ind., Local 697 — times had been equally optimistic.

"I met old timers in 1981, guys who started work right after the war, who told me they had never missed a day of work they didn't want to miss," he said.

Even so, as early as the '60s, Kasmark said, the leaders of his local were aggressively organizing, and not just workers and contractors. They were organizing the work, reaching out to customers long before projects were ready for bid and joining the Chamber of Commerce and development boards.

But by the time Kasmark joined in 1982 — after earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Utah — the American economy had changed.

"Everything started to go in the toilet in '81," he said. Instead of working in a boom, most of my career was in a period of cyclical contraction — booms followed by bigger busts, one following the next."

Local 697 was better off than many other locals, he said, because it never stopped organizing the work.

It wasn't until 2008 or 2009, Kasmark said, that he heard this tactic called "business development." Marvin Kropke, then Los Angeles Local 11's business manager, was giving a presentation at a Construction and Maintenance conference describing almost exactly what Local 697 was doing but using this new term.

By then, Kasmark was the business manager of Local 697, a position he had held since 2004. Before that, he was the staff organizer for eight years. Kasmark said he turned to his assistant business manager, Ryan Reithel (now senior executive assistant to the international secretary-treasurer), and said, "I guess we're changing the name."

In 2011 at the International Convention in Vancouver, the entire weight of the IBEW got behind business development. The delegates passed a resolution requiring the creation of a national team "to aggressively seek and secure work for all IBEW members by building strategic partnerships and engaging in customer outreach."

In 2013, that team began to take shape, and Kasmark was brought in as an international representative in the Construction and Maintenance Department. Two years later, a stand-alone Business Development Department was created, and Kasmark was hired to be the first director.

At first, Kasmark said, much of their time was spent hunting through construction databases like Dodge and IIR and reaching out to locals about projects coming down the road. But very quickly, they realized that this was holding the telescope the wrong way around.

"There just weren't enough of us to do a good job of giving people fish. We needed a tool to teach people how to fish — to use these resources be proactive on their own," he said.

By 2019, they had their tool.

Every construction local's business manager has access to IIR and Dodge. The SPIRIT — Sustainable Project Information Resource Inventory and Training — program Kasmark and his team developed teaches them how to use those tools. Week after week during the pandemic, the Business Development team trained local leaders to stay in front of development in their own jurisdiction, what actions to take on their own and when it was time to call in Kasmark and his team.

"We never want to be back where we are combing through and sending leads to locals, and usage of the online databases is way up," he said.

Kasmark said the Driftwood gas pipeline project exemplifies what the department can accomplish. The Louisiana project is managed by a contact Kasmark first made almost a decade ago. The contact was then working for Energy Transfer Partners, overseeing the Rover and Dakota Access pipelines.

"I had heard that in sales it takes seven touches to make a connection. It took all seven times before he finally called me back," Kasmark said. "I told him we would help with advocacy publicly and politically if we could get an MOU on the pump and compressor stations, valve stands — all the electrical work. He agreed."

Fast forward to 2021. The contact had moved to a new company, building Driftwood. This time, the contact called Kasmark.

"The key was we delivered everything we promised, and he remembered," Kasmark said. "That's my measure of success: when they start calling us."

And because of the IBEW's massive political victories over the last 18 months, the entire union must be ready for the phones to ring off the hook.

"The number one challenge we face is convincing our people to be optimistic. We live in a new world. We are back to the postwar era, when there was 30 years of no unemployment in our industry," he said. "We can shout all we want: 'Exponential growth! There's more jobs and more of those jobs are electrical!' Local unions have to hear us. The first question we get when customers call us is 'Can you provide the workers?' not 'How much does it cost?'"

But this is for the next generation of IBEW optimists.

Ray and his wife, Teri, are moving to within an hour's drive of their four kids and five grandkids. He plans to get back into the woodworking shop, get back on his bike and get into the woods.

Please join all officers, staff and members in wishing Brother Kasmark a long, healthy and sunny retirement.

International Representative Jeffery Carter, whose helpfulness during arbitration sessions was "legendary" in the Sixth District, retired from the IBEW effective Aug. 1.

"I've been a union member since I was 17," the Marion, Ind., native said proudly, noting that he worked for organized businesses for two years before he became a welder and machinist at the RCA plant represented by Marion Local 1160 in 1978.

Carter was initiated into the IBEW when he was hired, and within six months, Local 1160's leaders had asked him to consider becoming a shop steward, a job he officially took on two years later. He performed so well in that role that his fellow members encouraged him to become increasingly active in the union.

Carter joined key Local 1160 committees, such as bylaw, overtime, apprenticeship, negotiating and organizing. He also served on the local's executive board, becoming its chairman in 1993. Three years later, Carter was assistant business manager, and in March 1999, he was elected business manager.

These were tough times for Local 1160. In the mid-1970s, it represented nearly 4,000 workers at that Marion plant. By the time the factory was purchased by Thomson Consumer Electronics in 1987, global trade policies that were destroying the U.S. manufacturing industry also were behind Local 1160's tumbling membership numbers. By the late 2000s, the local was defunct. Carter's membership was transferred to Indianapolis Local 481.

In 2002, International President Edwin D. Hill appointed Carter as an international representative in the union's Sixth District, which covers Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Indianapolis Local 1048 Business Manager Brad Plank has known Carter since then. "I always liked having Jeff come into our locations during negotiations," Plank said. "He always had a good way of being able to be firm with companies and explaining to members how something was going to impact them in everyday terms, breaking it down so they could understand."

Among his favorite retirement presents is a Damascus knife in a wooden box bearing the message: "The legend has retired."

Among his favorite retirement presents is a coffee mug he received from a contractor that bears the message: "The legend retires." Carter said "it's nice to be appreciated," though he didn't realize anyone considered him a legend.

"He was always available," Plank said. "It did not matter if you called him while he was on vacation. He might not answer right away, but he always got back to me. He never made me feel like I was bothering him."

Shane Walker, a Local 1048 steward, agreed. "He's extremely good at what he does. He's educated me so much," Walker said. "He fully cares about working-class people. I'm going to miss having him around."

Many IBEW retirees travel when they retire, but Carter does not plan to be one of them. "The pandemic ruined me about travel," Carter said. "Being home [during the lockdowns], I realized what I was missing" when I was traveling for work.

Instead, Carter hopes to spend quality time with his wife, Lori Jo, and their family, including his five grandchildren, most of whom live within a few hours' drive of his home.

Golf also figures into his retirement plans, as does using his decades-honed skills as a welder and machinist to restore a couple of classic Chevrolets: a 1967 Chevelle Super Sport and a 1970 C-10 Longbed. "I've got a little machine shop set up, with drill presses and a lot of tools," he said.

Carter has two nieces who are IBEW members. One is a journeyman inside wireman with Fort Wayne, Ind., Local 305, and the other is a fifth-year apprentice with South Bend, Ind., Local 153.

Please join the entire IBEW membership in wishing Brother Carter a long and happy retirement.

Bruce McNamara, a First District international representative known for his big personality, command of the facts and dedication to his far-flung Ontario locals, retired Aug. 1 after 43 years of service.

Formerly the business manager of Sudbury Local 1687 in northeastern Ontario, McNamara spent the past 11 years servicing mainly construction locals throughout the province.

"Bruce became very critical to me as a confidant — someone I could really rely on," said Travis Merrett, another former Local 1687 business manager, who stepped into his mentor's shoes on the international staff Sept. 1 after nearly six years at the helm. "He's been a huge resource, and I know he'll continue to be."

The son of a union crane operator, McNamara still lives in the small Sudbury Basin town of Chelmsford, where he was raised with a twin and four other siblings. After high school, he spent a year at Cambrian College studying electronics and instrumentation.

"I realized that wasn't what I wanted to do," he said. "My passion was to work with my hands and work in the electrical industry."

Within months of applying to be a Local 1687 apprentice wireman in 1980, he landed on his first construction site — a federal taxation data center that brought 1,200 jobs to Sudbury. Later, he would serve as a steward at many of the area's more traditional worksites, including heavy commercial and industrial plants, paper mills, smelters, refineries, and mines.

The mineral-rich region is in a boom period today, and Merrett said McNamara has been invaluable in helping the local's young staff capitalize on it.

"We can't rely on our own memories for what happened the last time we were flush," said Merrett, who at 39 was the oldest on staff at the local. "So to have access to Bruce, for him to be so free with his time has been vital. He's an encyclopedia of our history."

McNamara took an early interest in union politics. "As apprentices, we were highly encouraged to attend membership meetings," he said. "I didn't really have a background in it, but I was intrigued by things like the jurisdictions between the trades and enforcement of the CBA."

He became Local 1687's treasurer in 1992 and recording secretary in 1995. That same year, he began an 18-year run as a trustee for the health and welfare fund and the pension fund — roles he is reprising as a retiree at Merrett's request.

Hired on to the local staff as an organizer in 1996, McNamara was appointed business manager in 1999 and elected three times until joining the First District staff in 2012.

His assignments took him to the far reaches of Ontario's 1 million square kilometers. "I loved to be able to help business managers with the day-to-day operations of their locals," he said, even when that meant eight hours or more behind the wheel one way.

McNamara also savored collective bargaining, describing "the thrill of the whole negotiation process, starting from the beginning and working your way through and coming out with the best deal for our members."

Every three years, he took a leading role at the table as one of 11 business managers who make up the IBEW Construction Council of Ontario. Later, he guided the talks as the group's international representative.

A friend and colleague, Sarna, Ontario, Local 530 Business Manager Frank Harris, said McNamara's knowledge and straightforward approach made him highly effective in each of his roles.

"He's a standup guy," Harris said. "His presence will be deeply missed at the international level and local level, and at the Construction Council. In my eyes he's a big part of our success because he keeps us on track."

Those capabilities earned McNamara a nickname: Sarge. "It's affectionate, but also legitimate," Merrett said. "It's a testament to his grasp of what his professional responsibilities are. But we have another name for him, too — the Friendly Giant. He's a very tall guy and very jovial."

McNamara doesn't mind either moniker. "I've been called Sarge forever because of my assertiveness, because I take charge, and I can be serious when I need to be," he said. "But I also like to have a lot of fun and joke around."

One of his greatest joys away from work is snowmobiling. He's excited about having more time for it in retirement, along with renovating the home he shares with his spouse, Penny. He said he's had enough travel for now after so many years on the road but wants to eventually join his brother for a trip to Ireland, the family's ancestral home.

McNamara said the IBEW is the reason that's all possible for him at age 62.

"People really need to look at good-paying union jobs when they're looking at a career," he said. "When you belong to a union, you have the security of knowing that everybody is getting paid the same for the same type of job, you've got a set schedule, and health and welfare and pension benefits. The IBEW has been a fantastic career choice for me."

The officers, staff and members of the IBEW thank Brother McNamara for his decades of service and wish him a long and happy retirement.