In November, The Unified Group hosted its 2021 Annual Meeting & Owners’ Forum in historic San Juan, Puerto Rico. Owners, presidents, CEOs and more leaders from 23 member companies nationwide flew to Puerto Rico to take part in the informative sessions and enjoy the opportunity to reconnect with friends and meet new members in a beautiful island setting.

“If I didn’t attend this meeting, I would have missed learning from my peers, sharing my ideas and seeing my friends for the first time in a long while,” said Derren Saucier of Temperature Inc.

The first day began by extending a warm welcome to two new members of The Unified Group — Fez Mechanical in Lexington, Kentucky, and Wiegmann Associates in St. Charles, Missouri. Immediately after, guest speaker Patrick Donadio spoke about the importance of I.M.P.A.C.T communication (Intention, Methods, Personalization, Active listening, Clarification and Transformation). Following lunch, members attended a breakout session to dig deeper into the details of I.M.P.A.C.T. training. They also reviewed key topics from two sessions held earlier in the spring — the Virtual Service Management Forum and Virtual Human Resources Forum.

The second day of the meeting began with a recap of the 2021 Safety Directors’ Forum and 2021 Construction Forum. Later, Paul Thurston of Cox-Powell Corp. shared best ideas on how his company utilizes a new estimating software, while Gary Myers of Intech Mechanical covered the benefits of bullet journals. Another breakout session ended the day, with members tackling solutions to the industry’s nationwide recruitment challenges.

“The breakout group was amazing, learning that we have the same problems though they might be on a different scale,” said Jake Ramsey of FEZ Mechanical.

The final meeting day started with an Executive Committee recap led by James Sandoval of J&J Air Conditioning and The Unified Group business details led by Janet Kelleher of The Unified Group. Members then went into the final breakout for strategic planning, leading into the topic of cost control. After lunch, two more best ideas were shared by Eric Miske of EES Facility Services, who focused on the company’s mission statement and core values, and Mike Kerner of Cox-Powell Corporation focused on Connect, a service management software. The session ended with a recap of the 2021 Leadership Forum, followed by the presentation of the Member of the Year Award to CMC Corporate Solutions.

Overall, members gave positive and valuable feedback for the 2021 Annual Meeting and Owners’ Forum and are just as excited to attend next year’s event in the Grand Caymans.

“Apart from The Unified Group, I know of no other resource to access professional advice or ideas that are real and industry-tested,” said Jim Blauch of Blauch Brothers.