History of the Equipment Managers Council of America

The EMCA as we know it today had it’s humble beginning in fall of 1991.
Five individuals, from five different companies, who were involved in contracting and excavating equipment service had found that
they benefited from each others experience and expertise. They decided to start an organization dedicated to member to member networking
and to put together training meetings to better themselves professionally.

November 12 1991 - Bill Smith, Paul Rollinson, Jeff Merle, Tim Coss and Mike Mermini each threw in $100 for start up funds.

They started what was then the Equipment Maintenance Council of New Jersey and were affiliated with a national organization at that
time, the EMC. After many phone calls to muster a membership, by the following March 18 they rented a hall at The Elks Club in Jamesburg, NJ
for their first meeting. Guest speaker was Stan Zelinski of Yonkers Contracting and he spoke about the Equipment Manager’s role in a successful
construction company. The first meeting had 32 attendees.

The organization continued to grow and continued to have monthly meetings at the same Elks Club for a while, but as they grew several things
ended up needing to change. First was the desire to hold meetings at differing locations in NJ to make easier accessibility to members from different areas and also to allow meetings to offer hands-on training with different equipment and to offer training that included tours of facilities such as hydraulic repair & re-chrome shops, oil analysis labs, and dealership shop operations etc.
The other result of our growing was that we were not on the same wavelength as the national EMC in several areas and wanting to have our members
decide what we do and how we do it we elected to split ties with the national Equipment Maintenance Council and reform as the Equipment Managers Council of America.

In the years that followed as our membership grew we were able to expand what we offered with a membership to include a monthly newsletter and this website. We had full day seminars dedicated to a single topic designed to bring participants up to speed on the latest pratices, troubleshooting techniques, and regulatory compliance such as Haz Mat / Right to Know certification. We worked out a relationship with George Washington University where they underwrote our program to become a Certified Equipment Manager. We also added an annual full day meeting with day long events featuring multiple session tracks of 1 to 2 hour courses with breakfast and lunch and ending with an awards dinner.

In an early setback to our organization one of our strongest proponents of continuing and meaningful education passed away.
Ed Pawluk Sr was the Equipment Manager for George Harms Construction and as Vice President of the EMCA was very involved and was sorely missed. Ed put together and put on
some great courses and meetings and was respected by all. Realizing that Ed would kick us in the pants if we didn’t keep up what he
had worked so hard to help build we began our Ed Pawluk Sr Memorial Scholarship program with a grant from George Harms Construction
and with funding from our 50/50 drawing proceeds. In this annual award we offer a monetary grant to several selected applicants who are in an accredited course relevant to heavy equipment repair or management to help offset the cost of their education and to encourage further education.

Fast forward to today, and we have continued to grow and offer many opportunities for members to better educate themselves, to better improve their
professionalism and value to their employer and to our industry. As important as we feel keeping knowledgeable and current is to our careers, we also very much place a strong emphasis on building camaraderie and a strong bond of faith and trust among ourselves. We promote strong values such as love of country, pride of our industry, and faith in each other.

We now find ourselves just beginning a new chapter in Pennsylvania as our membership grows not only in numbers but also in geographic location.
We look forward to a reinvigorated economy and industry. We know we have seen tough times and challenges before and we opt to work through these times in support of each other and making sure we are prepared to take advantage as things improve and to weather thru future challenges that surely will come as well.
Thank you for taking the time and interest to learn about our history, now we invite you to join us and learn for your future.
                                                                                                               mike eder