John Sieberlich (second from right) of Sieberlich Trane is presented the ABC Delaware Diversity & Culture in the Workplace Award by (left to right) Diversity committee Co-chair Tricia Clendening, ABC Delware Chairman Doug Johnston and Diversity Co-chair Joe Swarter.
(Photo by Eric Crossan)
Victor Ventresca (second from right) of Ventresca Brothers is presented the ABC Delaware Diversity Utilization Award by (left to right) Diversity committee Co-chair Tricia Clendening, ABC Delware Chairman Doug Johnston and Diversity Co-chair Joe Swarter.
(Photo by Eric Crossan)
ABC Delaware presented two new awards this year reflecting diversity and the changing workforce in construction today.
“Joe Swarter and I have had the esteemed pleasure of launching and co-chairing the Diversity Committee with an incredible team. This important imitative for ABC Delaware was brought to the forefront, by Doug Johnston, as a major component of his 2009 chapter goals,” said Diversity Co-chair Tricia Clendening.
“Throughout the year many have asked what Diversity is. In short, diversity deals with the qualities, experiences and work styles that make individuals unique. Some of these dimensions are: age, race, religion, disabilities, national origin, education, generation, family status, life experiences and language to name a few. It’s important for organizations to understand how they can leverage those qualities in support of business objectives.”
The Diversity & Culture in the Workplace Award recognizes the company that best represents embracing diversity in all aspects of their organization. It’s the CEO’s Commitment and involvement in diversity and how their employees are motivated towards enhancing diversity in their organization. It consists of how people are recruited, developed and promoted. It is how effectively and what mechanisms the company utilizes to work with diverse organizations. And lastly, it speaks to corporate social responsibility. Seiberlich Trane was presented with the award.
The Diversity Utilization Award defines the company that utilizes diverse suppliers and has a significant percentage of their procurement budgets spent with diverse suppliers. The recipient of this award continuously goes above and beyond to support MBE, WBE and DBE businesses as a normal business practice. This company has coached, mentored, and educated organizations so that it would have the opportunity to be successful bidders on projects. Ventresca Brothers was honored as the Diversity Utilization Award winner.
The newly formed ABC Delaware Diversity Committee accomplished one of it's goals in a big way October 1 by joining with the City of Wilmington for Mega BizFes, where two ABC Delaware members were honored.
"Tricia Clendening and Joe Swarter, co-chairs of the committee have done a great job this year and this new partnership proves it," said ABC
Delaware Chairman Doug Johnston. "We have a solid foundation on which to build and we are so pleased to have, to use the Mega BizFest slogan this year, connected the dots. It is these connections that will keep ABC Delaware moving and growing in the right direction for years to come. Special congratulations to our members Rahim El and Victor Ventresca for their accomplishments."
"Thanks to all the members who attended the event's activities," said Clendening," from the breakfast where our members were honored through the afternoon session of business networking/match-making where our members had the opportunity to meet with minority contractors and learn about their companies. And having many of those participants join us at the ABC dinner with our national chairman was a great way to end the day."
Scenes from the Mega Biz Fest
ABC Delaware member Rahim El of Moorway
Management receives his first to two awards at Mega
BizFest from Jayne Armstrong of the SBA (above), who
presented Rahim with the Minority Enterprise Development award. Below: Rahim receives his second award
in the Business Plan competition from
Vincent White (right), a check for $5,000.
ABC Delaware Board member Victor Ventresca (center)
is congratulated by ABC Delaware President Ed Capodanno
(left) and Keith Booker of the City of Wilmington as one
of the finalist in the Prime Contractor category for the
2009 Achievement Awards.
ABC Delaware President Ed Capodanno and
Mega BizFest Committee member Vincent White (right)
following the official announcement of the new partnership between the City of Wilmington and ABC Delaware.
The newest ABC Delaware standing committee, the Diversity Committee is up and running.
“One of my four goals this year is to diversify ABC Delaware at all levels, “ said ABC Delaware 2009 Chairman Doug Johnston. “I view this in a much broader sense than what typically comes to mind. We must diversify in all areas such as age, gender, industry classification, etc. Any level of diversification will provide new opportunities for ABC Delaware in membership growth, educational training programs, and more political clout by reaching further into our community. I am proud to say that we have formed a diversity committee, new this year, to help ABC and its members in the monumental task of keeping up with our ever-diversifying community and work force. I would like to thank Tricia Clendening and Joe Swarter for agreeing to be co-chairs of this important committee.”
The first committee meeting in January was an educational session for committee members on what diversity means. The committee decided to make educating the membership on the meaning of diversity one of the priorities for 2009.
"There is more to diversity than gender and race differences," said Clendening. There are three major dimensions of diversity: Internal; External; and Organizational. Each dimension has characteristics that help one identify with individuals in different ways. The Internal dimension includes: Age, Gender, Sexual orientation, Physical ability, Ethnicity and Race. The External dimension includes: Geographic location, Income, Personal habits, Religion, Educational background, Work experience, Appearance, Parental status and Marital status. The Organizational dimension includes: Functional level / classification, Work content / field, Division / department / unit / group, Work location, Union affiliation and Management status. Diversity is not limited to the obvious characteristics of gender and race. Many different traits characterize an individual."
Click here to download Clendening's Diversity Info presentation.
The committee meets the second Friday of each month at 12 noon at the ABC Delaware office. For more information on joining the new committee, contact Jean Toman at 302-328-1111 or
jtoman@abcdelaware.com