Winter 2024 Report on Business Launch with Missing Column

Have you seen the latest issue of Report on Business? If not, the electronic version is available. The theme of this issue is theme is Employee Benefits & Retention. We are featuring content from Blue Cross Blue Shield North Dakota, TechND, the US Chamber, and Williston State College. 

As usual, we announce this with the missing column of our VP of Operations and Outreach, Amanda Remynse's column.

Missing Column from GNDC's Report on Business:   Knuckle Ham Sandwich and Pile Drives

I’ve written about my dad in past columns … he is the fabricator of my work ethic and appreciation of a job well done. He is methodical, patient, and mechanical. People that know him know of his sense of humor – it’s a bit snarky, it’s a bit dry, and where him and I differ, it’s a bit slapstick. Growing up there are a couple phases that stand out as parts of my childhood.
 
When he wanted to send a playful message of warning. Not a serious tone, but more like a prelude to horseplay or wrestling.
He would say he was going to make me a knuckle-ham sandwich, which is not a real sandwich but more of a reference of a pow to the kisser. Until the day I die, I will be able to hear the jovial tone to which he delivered this line and usually the fake out sound of his hand, fist hitting the opposite.
 
The veiled warning that I was stepping out of line.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I was a pretty decent kid. I kept curfew 99% of the time. I understand consequences and I kept my nose clean (literally and figuratively). However, if I was ‘getting too big for my britches’ my dad would become a future predictor and remind me that behaviors within the line would result in a pile drive.  My knowledge of pile driving is from the 90’s. I understand it to be a smash into the ground. I’m assuming it came from my father’s occasional observations of WWE. I grew up listening to the Rock constantly cooking something – if you know, you know. Come to find out, a pile drive is not just a move Dwayne Johnson loved – it’s legit.
 
Recently, I came across a LinkedIn post from one of our members about a webinar hosted by the Pile Driving Contractors Assoc. Instantly I was fascinated! The PDCA is an organization of pile driving contractors that advocates the increased use of driven piles for deep foundations and earth retention systems. I love it! This type of specialization allows for education and advocacy in a specialized subsect of an industry. This group is hosting webinars, facilitating networking, utilizing and supporting research, and engaging in their lane – driven piles.
 
GNDC loves trade associations – we even consider ourselves a mix of trade association and chamber of commerce. We are a business trade association but trade associations, like PDCA, are specialists. They know their industry, they support their members on specific issues, they can get into the weeds and the deep foundations of the details. They watch for regulation and industry standard impacts. They convene the professionals of their industry together for advancement. Again, GNDC does the same but we are proud that we cross industry, location, and size but have the commonality of general business issues plus North Dakota. In full transparency, I’m not sure what happens more, we going to trade assoc. partners or them coming to us to collaborate and talk through issues. We are all players on the same team, to ensure business has a path to grow and win.
 
Now, my dad wasn’t wrong in his use of the pile drive phrase but I don’t have the heart to tell him that Macho Man Randy Savage is not the Executive Director, Frank Peters is… and I have a feeling he’s responsible for a lot more earth being moved and stabilized infrastructure.


WINTER ISSUE OF REPORT ON BUSINESS: DEI