Cecil "Buddy" Satterfield, Special Assistant to the International President for Membership Development, retired effective May 1.

Initiated into Washington, D.C., Local 26 in 1969, Brother Satterfield served as assistant business manager from 1983 to 1989 and business manager from 1992 to 1998.

The son of a member of the Sheet Metal Workers Union, Satterfield says, "I was told by my father at a young age to get into a trade and join a union. He told me that union craftsmen are respected for their skills and make a decent living. Now the union is my passion. I'm giving up a career, but I'm not giving up that passion."

A native of Washington, D.C., Brother Satterfield graduated from Northwestern High School in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and attended Stroudsburg (Pennsylvania) State Teachers College. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 to 1967.

Appointed International Representative in the Construction and Maintenance Department in 1998, Satterfield became director of the CIR, Bylaws and Appeals Department in April 2003. In November 2003, Satterfield was appointed Special Assistant to the International President for Membership Development.

During his tenure as special assistant, the IBEW launched the successful Florida Initiative and completely reorganized membership development efforts, leading to impressive gains, despite economic difficulties and unprecedented resistance to change.

"Organizing work is the key to the IBEW and always has been," says Satterfield. "But we haven't properly educated the members of our branches as to what this means."

Responding to criticisms from unemployed construction electricians who contend that organizing is undermining their reemployment possibilities, Satterfield adds, "We live in an economic system based on free enterprise. People aren't going to hire union contractors who employ union electricians just because it's the right thing to do."

"We need to showcase the union's skills and productivity," says Satterfield, but the union also must establish composite crews with competitive rates to take on nonunion contractors. That's the way to organize the work and put members back on the job, he says. "If our union signatory contractors are not competitive and therefore can't win bids against nonunion contractors, there will be no jobs for our journeymen wiremen and apprentices."

Praising the leadership of International President Edwin D. Hill and numerous mentors, Satterfield says, "I believe the times today are just as tough for our union as they were when Henry Miller and others founded the IBEW, but we can thrive again if we're smart and organize work."

He is looking forward to traveling with his wife, Vicki, and spending more time with his family. Satterfield is also writing a book on his family's history. Rounding out his newfound spare time, he will golf, practice the piano and write music.

On behalf of the entire union membership, the officers and staff wish Brother Satterfield a long and healthy retirement.

Director of Construction Organizing Kirk Groenendaal was appointed Special Assistant to the President for Membership Development, effective May 1. Groenendaal replaces Buddy Satterfield, who retired.

Last December, Groenendaal was appointed Director of Construction Organizing, replacing Kirk Brungard, who was appointed executive assistant to Liz Shuler, the newly-elected Secretary- Treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

Initiated into Erie, Pa., Local 56 in 1977, Groenendaal was elected business manager in 1995 after serving in several other capacities.

"We all need to remember what it felt like the first time we volunteered in support of our local union, or the first time we were elected to a union office. We did those things because we believed in the IBEW," says Groenendaal. "It is with that same driving force and enthusiasm I look forward to the new challenges ahead of us all."

The officers and members wish Brother Groenendaal great success in his new position.

The IBEW is saddened to report the February 27, 2010, death of retired Tenth District International Representative Lloyd Lynch. He was 67.

Brother Lynch was initiated into Little Rock, Ark., Local 295 in 1962, where he worked as an inside wireman and served on the executive board, negotiations, JATC and COPE committees before being appointed assistant business manager in 1972.

Nine years later he joined the IBEW staff as an International Representative, organizing and servicing local unions in Arkansas. He retired in 2007.

"He was completely dedicated to the organization," said Tenth District International Representative Jim Springfield, who described him as someone who worked hard without complaint. "It was strictly business when he had a job to do. If it was an assignment, he put it under his arm and finished it, and then went on to the next one."

As devoted to his family as he was to the IBEW, Lynch enjoyed retirement, spending time with his wife, Shirley, two daughters and four grandchildren.

A 1961 graduate of England (Ark.) High School, he attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and took labor-related courses at the George Meany Center in Silver Spring, Md., and the Maritime Institute for Training and Graduate Studies near Baltimore. Lynch was a member of the Masonic Lodge, Scottish Rite. His hobbies included archaeology, history, hunting and fishing.

The IBEW members, officers and staff send our deepest condolences to Brother Lynch's many friends and family.