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www.dritechcorp.com A FUTURE IN THE TRADES Keeping You Dri May 2021 702-220-3401 IS THE TIDE CHANGING FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION?
t may be an old adage, but it’s true: Good help can be hard to find. And nowhere is that more the case than in the trades — the
school, and they might get it at home, too. When you look at the media that is created for and directed toward young people, it’s consistently encouraging the “get a degree and get out” mindset of the past half- century. For whatever reason, our society has decided that “get a job and stick around to help your community” is a harmful career move for most intelligent young people. Which is another harmful myth because some of the smartest people I know are in the trades. I really don’t know what else to call someone who can look at a problem and come up with a solution in real time — other than “smart.” And that intelligence is well- represented in our field. It may be that we’re finally starting to turn the corner on this mindset. Young people are beginning to realize how far their future can take them in the trades and how useful those skill sets are in almost any economy. They see the money someone their age can make without taking out student loans and realize that maybe, just maybe, the decision to enroll in college and eat rice and beans for years is not as great as it’s been made out to be when you could be saving up for a house and starting a life instead. Where young people go, society will follow, and in our region, we’ve got a great grouping of career and technical academies that prepare kids for a wider future than they might be getting at a traditional high school. Clark County School District alone
traditional, hands-on careers that used to be valued options for young people and are still necessary to keep our world built and in good repair. I’m talking about framers, electricians, plumbers, welders, concrete crews, and, of course, roofers. I can tell you one thing: The money is there. A young person with the right attitude and the ability to follow instructions can walk into a trades job with little to no experience and find themselves working for more money than some of their peers right out of college. If that young person also happens to be a self-starter and motivated, they’ll be out-earning many others in their generation without question, and all without the college degree that many “white collar” but low-paying jobs require of their entry-level candidates. With all of that being the case, what’s going on with trades employment among the younger set? We could blame it on their attitude, or laziness, or entitlement — but I think that the real source goes a lot deeper than that and isn’t nearly so complicated. Our society has spent the last 50 years or more telling young adults, and especially high schoolers, that working with their hands is a bad career choice — maybe even beneath them. They get that message at
has many career and technical schools and several arts-oriented schools, as well. They might be a better choice for some of the young people out there. I’m not saying all this to knock high school or the choice to attend college. Instead, I’m trying to build up the idea of a trades career, and the happiness and satisfaction that can come from it. It is my hope that we will continue to see more career and trade schools in our region, including ones that send kids on to lucrative, rewarding trades jobs. And I’d love to see shop class and other hands-on educational opportunities return to high schools as well, so that everyone is made aware that their future can be bright in many different ways. Certainly, there is no shortage of employers looking for solid, dependable, and experienced hands-on employees.
–Blaine DeBrouwer
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SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT WITH 5 ORGANIZATION HACKS
No. 2: Organize power cords with old bread tags. Have a chaotic power strip that’s impossible to navigate or reorganize on the fly? Luckily, you already have labels that’ll easily attach to any cord you have: bread tags. One side of your bread tag may list the “best by” date for your bread. The other side is blank! That’s where you can take a permanent marker, write down the name of the cord, and attach it to the cord near the power strip. No. 3: Repurpose old drawers to be under-the-bed storage. Most people will throw out their old wardrobes, but if you have leftover drawers, you don’t have to get rid of them. Refinishing them is optional — they make great storage containers as-is for under your bed! Store toys, board games, and more beneath your bed, sofa, or anywhere else that has a narrow opening.
No. 4: Convert an old wine rack into towel storage. It can be a tough task to stow your towels in a fashionable way. But as you begin to upgrade your home decor, you may find an extra wine rack on your hands, which happens to be perfect for storing rolled towels! No. 5: Use a hollowed book for remote control storage. Have a thick book that you’re about to get rid of? It might feel sacrilegious to repurpose a book, but it’s also one of the coolest ways to celebrate literature in a stylish, practical way. Hollow out a book and use it to store many things, including remote controls.
ou may want to throw away your bread tags, old rakes, and
shower curtain rings, but what if you can reuse them for a more sustainable, organized lifestyle? You’ll never lose your remote control or confuse your power cords again, and it won’t even cost you anything extra. No. 1: Use shower curtain rings to hang clothing items. Tank tops and delicates (like scarves) tend to scrunch and pile up in the corner of your closet or drawers. But if you’re replacing your curtain rings anytime soon, don’t toss your old ones — you can attach them to hangers and hang ties, belts, hats, and many other accessories!
We hope these tips will inspire you to reduce and reuse! See you next month!
Tariq Tongue: Making the World a Little Safer EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
“For a private company, safety means a lot,” says Tariq Tongue, CSP. Tariq is Dri Tech’s safety manager, and this last year has really been trial by fire. But, as he says, safety is too important to ignore. “Obviously, the most important part is nobody getting hurt. But we have to also stay in compliance and mitigate risks because if we don’t, we can get in real trouble.” And as Tariq will tell you, legal trouble for a company of our size could be a really bad situation. Like most Dri Tech team members, Tariq has been in his field for a while — since 2014 — as safety personnel for several different cruise lines in Miami. “Then I got the chance to cut my teeth on a real high-rise project,” he says. After that, he got big jobs, like overseeing safety while they expanded the third-largest mall in America. Eventually, he ended up here. “Friday the 13th, 2020, actually,” he says, “I got here to join my wife, and then everything got shut down.” Suddenly, Tariq found himself in a new situation, and with a whole new level of safety to worry about. “I’d never worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before,” he says. When he isn’t working, you’ll find Tariq at home with his wife. They’re expecting their first child this year, and he’s very excited about the prospect. “I cannot wait for that,” he says. Tariq is also an avid football player — he was a wide receiver for Penn State back in college — and is a member of a coalition flag football team that travels the country, representing all of Las Vegas.
Thank you, Tariq, for all you do!
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702-220-3401
Project Berry, In-Depth PROJECT SPOTLIGHT:
A few months back, we mentioned working on a warehouse for Amazon’s Project Berry. As you can imagine, it’s a big project with a lot of different moving parts — and contractors — on a giant site. Although large and impressive architecture has long been a hallmark of Las Vegas, it’s still impressive when we visit the warehouse we’ve provided roofing, sheet metal flashing, sheet metal paneling, and ACM panels for. All of those products are our responsibility to source, deliver, and install correctly. To top it off, Amazon entrusted us with a challenge they haven’t given to anybody before: This is the first Amazon warehouse with an associated walkway canopy. That walkway canopy includes TPO roofing on the top, with ACM panels for the fascia and soffit. Of course, given the size of the warehouse, it’s an extensive element of the job, which is roughly 375 feet long and includes more than 140 ACM panels. What specific challenges is Dri Tech having to meet? This job went down to the wire. We were handed all our metal work just weeks before the project completion date. We completed 6 weeks of work in just 4 weeks with crews working on Saturdays and Sundays just to meet the completion date.
Will this project impact/benefit the larger community? If so, how?
This new warehouse will create hundreds of new jobs for Las Vegas!
TAKE A BREAK
At the Round Table
A TRUE HOMECOMING
Knights Fans Return to the Fortress
Back in March, fans were able to return to the Fortress for the first time in a year, albeit at 15% capacity. Since then, the number of vaccinated Americans has only grown — and so has the percentage of fans allowed into the T-Mobile Arena to watch the Golden Knights do what they do best! We look forward to the summer ahead, when most of us are vaccinated and can really “storm the Fortress” like in the old days — but that doesn’t mean these first months aren’t a wonderful beginning!
BLOOM CINCO COMIC DERBY EMERALD GEMINI
GRADUATION LILY MEMORIAL MOTHER PARANORMAL VETERANS
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www.dritechcorp.com
702-220-3401
5340 W. Robindale Rd. | Las Vegas, NV 89139
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A Future in the Trades
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Reduce and Reuse With 5 Organization Hacks!
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Employee Spotlight: Tariq Tongue
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Dri Tech Project Spotlight: Project Berry
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Our Vegas Golden Knights
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Winning the Bluetooth Wars
WINNING THE BLUETOOTH WARS
When Apple introduced their AirPod Bluetooth earbuds a few years ago, a major player emerged onto the burgeoning Bluetooth audio scene. But that scene wasn’t new: Earbuds, headphones, and speakers can all utilize Bluetooth tech, with every manufacturer jumping into the pool. But as anyone over 30 can tell you, Bluetooth was originally a wireless headset product, not a type of connectivity. And that’s raising questions about the viability of the Bluetooth market as well as the future of the current war for customer dollars in the market. Bluetooth audio tech was designed to wirelessly connect your phone with an in-ear speaker and tiny headset. But spoken-word audio isn’t the same thing as a vibrant musical experience with a range of high and low sounds, depth, and bass. You wouldn’t want to listen to a concert through your cellphone; in the same way, Bluetooth isn’t set up to transmit music to a speaker, headphone, or earbud. Manufacturers have developed workarounds, and the quality of their
work determines how good (or bad) the end result sounds. Bluetooth is obviously capable of a lot more than it was designed for, and its near universality makes it an attractive choice.
But it still wasn’t designed for music.
What does that mean for most listeners? Likely not very much — if a good manufacturer made your headphones or speakers, their clever workarounds to the “Bluetooth problem” will likely mean little decrease in quality compared to “wired” options. Most of us can’t tell the difference. But for true audio fidelity, we still have to hook up with a cable. And as manufacturers vie for market share, a smart company that designs a brand-new wireless tech based around music instead of talk could gain much — and leave Bluetooth behind in the process. And whoever does that will be the real winner of the Bluetooth wars.
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702-220-3401
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