In This Issue:

  • Letter from PEARL President Dan Hook
  • Save the Date for 2020
  • PEARL Membership Levels


  • NFPA Meeting and NEC Revisions Recap
  • PEARL Online Tech Cert
  • Leadership Corner with Paul Grein
President's Letter
Dear PEARL Members,

It’s been nearly three months since our successful meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where our theme was Advancing Our Infrastructure . Hopefully everyone who attended took away as much as I did from the meeting. Our infrastructure is growing as we had 21 people get their certification training at the 2019 Annual Conference and another 135 at various other sites during the spring. We know our members value certification and it’s an important part to growing your career and business. To that end, work on our online technical certification platform is being led by Don West and we hope to roll it out by the end of the summer.

Thank you to our 2019 site host partners, P&F Supply Facilities and RNT Supply, Inc., for opening up your businesses and providing tours to all attendees. We believe it’s important to see what other operations look like and what can be expected when doing business with them. A primary function of PEARL is to connect its members, and site visits are a great way to share in-person knowledge and ideas.

The presentations from the meeting received very positive feedback. We aim to provide a range of knowledge levels and hope that you learn something new every year. I found Paul Reilly’s presentation on value-added selling particularly useful as something I could take back and implement with my company in Washington. Another session I’d like to highlight was that of Christel Hunter, who broke down the new NEC revisions . Read Howard Herndon’s related recap below of what happened at the recent NFPA meeting with those revisions.

PEARL should be particularly proud of the ANSI/PEARL Reconditioning Standard unveiled and discussed at the recent meeting. It is a testament to the hard work we have been doing and validation of our industry, four years in the making. We are right where we need to be as an organization, making an impact and seeing PEARL specifications being cited in bids. We have a long way to go, but getting the Standard approved was a huge step forward to industry acceptance. It brings PEARL additional exposure and gets us a seat at those tables so we are a force. Make sure to purchase and download the full Standard from the PEARL website .

We have a recent leadership change to announce. Howard Herndon has left his position at Nat’l Field Services, and has rotated off the board. Howard is the immediate PEARL past president where he implemented the two-track model for the 2019 Annual Conference, led the inclusion of PEARL into the 2017 NEC and raised the profile of PEARL as an organization. We greatly appreciate everything he has done for PEARL and wish him the best as he moves to his next role. To fill his vacancy on the Board of Directors, we have appointed our alternate BOD member, Paul Grein, as a full voting member of the BOD and appointed Winston Krauss, currently serving on the marketing committee, as the new alternate member.

Thank you for being a part of PEARL and please do not hesitate to reach out to find out how you can get involved. We are always looking for valued committee members to help drive PEARL’s mission.

Dan Hook, PE
President, PEARL
Save the Date - 2020 Annual Conference & Exhibition
Raising the Stakes Through Electrical Reconditioning Standards
PEARL is heading to Las Vegas in 2020 for its annual conference and we hope to see you there. Registration will open in the fall so save the date for the conference, April 2-4, 2020. More esteemed speakers. More diverse education. More innovation and exhibitors. More value.

We look forward to seeing everyone in Las Vegas, next spring!
NFPA, NEC Recap
Report on NFPA Meeting June 16-20
By Howard Herndon
PEARL Past President, Standard Committee-NFPA Liaison

We started off on June 17 with a meeting of the electrical membership enforcement officials. There was much discussion on the topic of reconditioned equipment and the 2020 NEC. I spoke out concerning PEARL’s objective to bring professionalism, quality, and standardization to this industry through the new PEARL EERS ANSI Standard and Technician Training programs.

On June 18, we met as an electrical industry membership to discuss what the critical issues were for the 2020 NEC. After the meeting, much discussion concerning reconditioned equipment was had with electrical industry membership including the inspections community and manufacturers.
The Technical Meeting was held on June 20. This was a very long 16 hour session with five, 20-minute breaks. Several industry partners were in attendance in support, including David Rosenfield from Romac, Ryan McClarnon from Utility Relay, and Tom Bishop from EASA. I brought 14 of the 16 certified Amending Motions to the 2020 NEC, to the floor of the NFPA Technical Meeting. These motions included the definition of reconditioning, removal of the NRTL Label on a reconditioned product, language prohibiting reconditioning of panelboards, switchboards, ground fault equipment protection systems (will affect CB reconditioning), fire pump controllers and transfer switches. These motions were all defeated and not modified, and were highly outweighed by the influence of the NRTL organizations, major manufacturers, inspection community and labor.

From here, we will file an appeal with the NFPA Standards Council and go before the NFPA Standards Council requesting these changes be reviewed in accordance with the NFPA/ANSI standard procedure. In my opinion, proper review and input of this material was not provided by the industry most affected, including industrial, end user and the electrical equipment reconditioning industry, (PEARL and EASA).

I would encourage you to get involved in the electrical industry in your business areas. Get involved in the membership and participation in NFPA, IAEI, IEEE and other industry groups. Make the NEC change information known, especially to industrial and end user customers who will be affected by the probation of reconditioned equipment on their business.
PEARL Membership Levels
Just a reminder for all PEARL members to make sure you are taking advantage of YOUR benefits. Download this brochure to keep up to date with the latest offerings, including the PEARL Link database . You also get discounted pricing to the new ANSI/PEARL Reconditioning Standard available on the PEARL website .

And remember, if you aren't a voting member, you can upgrade your membership at any time. The PEARL membership levels are:

  • Full Dealer Member - voting members who have met all the qualifications and requirements of full membership.
  • Full Service Member - voting members who have met all the qualifications and requirements of full membership except the inventory requirement. 
  • Provisional Member - non-voting members who have applied for full membership, but have not yet met all the requirements and been site certified or who do not wish to be full members. 
  • Affiliate Member - non-voting members whose interests are closely identified with those of the industry and PEARL, but do not otherwise meet all the qualifications for full membership. Includes persons or entities that deliver products or services to the electrical industry. 
PEARL Technician Certification
Online Platform
The PEARL online certification platform is currently under construction and should be ready in late summer. With it, you'll be able to log on through the PEARL website and get certified.

PEARL Technician Certification can extend your career path, open up new opportunities within your organization; give you a greater sense of professional fulfillment and gain the respect of your peers – both at work and in the electrical reconditioning community at large.

Leadership Corner
Paul Grein - New Board Member
Paul Grein has been with GroupCBS since 2008, working primarily at Circuit Breaker Sales in Gainesville, TX in the Dallas area. Paul has worked with industrial electrical equipment for over 20 years, beginning in the Navy as a Nuclear qualified Electrician on the submarine USS Topeka SSN 754 from 1996 through 2002, followed by positions in the steel industry through 2005. Paul graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Dallas (2007) where he earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of North Texas (2014). Paul is an active participant in several industry organizations, including the IEEE/ANSI PES C37 Standards Committee, which publishes and maintains the design and testing standards that govern the industrial power equipment industry. As Vice President his primary responsibilities at CBS and GroupCBS include managing operations, business development, engineering design and management, technical expertise, standards, and project management.