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| September Issue Post Date 9/22/05 | www.mcelroy.com | |
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Note From The Editor Chris Greggs pulls me over during a picnic/cocktail party and points across the way to a gentlemanly looking fellow and begins to tell me the man’s life story. The gentleman owns one of McElroy’s distributorships. The story is reminiscent of the many stories Chris has told me in the past about one of our distributors who built his company out of a garage or the trunk of his car the way all of the characters do in Zig Ziglar books. All I knew up until this point was that the fellow was a fair hand at horseshoes. The story struck me as they always do but this time it made me realize that Chris has a personal relationship with almost all of the men and women in McElroy’s distributor base which is probably the reason he is our National Sales Manager. The picnic is one of the festivities of the 25 th Annual McElroy Distributors Management Conference. The who’s who of the polyethylene fusion industry is clustered in Tulsa Oklahoma pitching horseshoes, eating good food and mingling with each other while bouncing their heads to the beat of a southern rock band that is banging out “Gimmy Three Steps.” Over 70 men and women from around the world are here for three days to learn about McElroy’s plans for the future and to discuss market trends and strategies needed to impact the future success of their businesses. The distributors are the key element in McElroy’s global approach to serve the worldwide demand for pipe fusion products and customer support services. The conference is also a great place for McElroy to learn about the service and support needs of its distributors in their respective areas and countries. Some of the attendees present are from the UK , Canada , Russia , South America , China , Mexico and Spain , as well as every corner of the U.S. The conference provides the perfect forum for McElroy to showcase its latest developments and services that will be released later this year. Of particular interest to attendees is McElroy’s new online tool that makes it easy to find fusion machine parts and request them from a McElroy Distributor. “This new parts finder is going to really make our distributors excited,” Chris tells me as we pick up a set of horseshoes and have apparently been partnered together for the next match. “It will give machine owners the ability to search for parts the way an auto mechanic does when he is repairing a car.” “The real reason we have this event is to personally thank people like him,” he says pointing to the above mentioned fellow. “McElroy’s goal is to make ourselves into what we need to be for the future,” he continues, “and our distributors are the perfect sounding board to help us understand what that is.” I think about telling him that I need him to become a horseshoe player right now before we get pounded like a watermelon in a Gallagher concert. I decide not to, and he plays the match as if he doesn’t know that close actually counts in horseshoes. He can’t pitch shoes worth a flip. In fact, he may be the worst player to ever toss a shoe. He threw a shoe one time that made a ringer on the mike stand of the lead singer. Ok, that really didn’t happen but only because he couldn’t find a ringer to save his life. I’m telling you the boy has trouble with horseshoes. But that’s not what McElroy has him for, and I think our distributors appreciate the real reason.
Drew L. Wilson; Editor McElroy In The News Infrastructure Links North American Society for Trenchless Technology American Water Works Association American Society of Civil Engineers Foundation Newsletter Links Water World - Receive news from WaterWorld, Industrial Waterworld and Water & Wastewater International. Water Tech Online North American Society of Trenchless Technology Insider and Pipeline Newsletter If you would like a link to your newsletter posted in McElroy Connections, contact Drew L. Wilson at 918-831-9286 or McElroy Connections welcomes your feedback, story ideas, tips, or anything else related to PE Pipe and Pipe fusion. Please email your comments and story ideas to: FOR NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, visit http://www.mcelroy.com/fusion/forms/newsletter.htm McElroy Connections is published by McElroy Manufacturing Inc. The information contained within each issue is meant as a service to our customers, distributors, and those involved with Polyethylene Pipe applications. |
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