Pam Lake and Asbel Hidrogo of Arizona Sheet Metal JATC

After more than 20 years of keeping the SMART Local 359 JATC office running like a fine-oiled machine, Administrator Pam Lake is ready to retire and hand over the job to recently hired Asbel Hidrogo.

Anyone who has walked through the door of the JATC as a student, instructor, vendor, or associate knows Pam. You name it and Pam has handled it, and made it more efficient. Her regular duties included all administrative tasks ranging from bookkeeping and building management to coordinating the apprenticeship enrollment process.

“When school starts up and the application process starts, it’s really busy here,” said Pam.

Over the years, Pam said she’s worked with three different coordinators. She said they wondered if perhaps she needed a second pair of hands in the office. It didn’t take them long to see that even as a solo act, Pam accepted and conquered every challenge she met.

She’s also a big part of Arizona’s sheet metal industry family. She’s volunteered at SMACNA’s annual golf tournament and other events, where her friendships with contractors and union members flourished.

Pam said it’s exciting to see the adult children of some of the first apprentices she worked with now entering the apprenticeship program. Seeing the next generation of sheet metal workers share that same enthusiasm and pride in their work is priceless.

It’s not just fathers/sons who are joining today’s apprenticeship program; more women are applying and entering the path to journeyman status than ever before, offered Pam. In fact, six female apprentices represented Local 359 at the Tradeswomen Build Nations Annual Conference that was held in Las Vegas in late October where North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) marveled it was their biggest tradeswomen conference yet.

Asbel is just as enthusiastic to pick up the administrative side of SMART’s JATC. With an extensive background in human resources and payroll management, she sees the entry to handling a union-specific office as a rewarding challenge.

“I appreciate how everyone here is treated as family,” said Asbel, who started in June. “And it’s exciting to drive down the street and notice a construction project and know we’ve played a part in the creation of that structure.”

Although Pam’s projected retirement date is Dec. 31, she anticipates continuing to help Asbel with the transition due to the number of annual events and procedures she will tackle for the first time in coming months.

Pam said she’s looking forward to spending more time with her parents, children and grandchildren, the youngest of whom is just three years old. She also sees travel and taking cruises in her future.