The poet Carl Sandburg memorably dubbed Chicago the “City of Big Shoulders.” Chicago has long cultivated its reputation of being a place where people tackle the big, tough jobs. So, it is no wonder Chicago boasts the largest number of member businesses of any Machinery Dealers National Association (MDNA) chapter. And Jake Josko could not be happier about that.
 
Josko has been part of the MDNA for more than 25 years and now chairs its Chicago Chapter. He grew up in the auction business — his grandfather and father sold high-end antiques up and down the East Coast — and he started his own auction house in Connecticut fresh out of the military. Before long, Jake’s family worked its way to Chicago and put down roots there, in part, because “you’re about three hours from everywhere in the country.”
 
Josko is the Windy City’s representative for New York-based Apex Auctions USA, which specializes in online and on-site auctions, appraisals, and liquidations of industrial equipment. He joined the MDNA leadership in the late 1990s when his late father, John, was the Chicago chapter chair. John was a strong proponent of the MDNA and the values it represents, and Jake took the cue.
 
“I’ve felt that our gift in life, our bequest from others, is listening’’ he says. “For a long time, I listened to others refer to the benefits of joining the MDNA. Now I am a cheerleader — at chapter & board meetings, conventions, & networking with members, the message remains the same, if you actively participate you will benefit more than just monetarily.”
 
He has plenty to do, given the chapter’s size and geographic scope. Most of its forty-six member businesses are in outlying communities. Josko’s office, for instance, is in Crystal Lake, in the city’s far northwest suburbs.
 
“The good thing is, we’re all colleagues,” he says. “The size of the chapter allows you to leverage hundreds of industry experts’ knowledge at any given moment. And as colleagues, we help each other become more knowledgeable about the distinct types of equipment we each individually have expertise in appraising or monetizing.”
 
Josko finds the willingness to share expertise as the most satisfying aspect of his MDNA association.
 
“The MDNA becomes sort of your second family,” he reflects. “There are always people coming into this industry, always a lot going on, and as an association we must maintain a profound foundation of knowledge in all industrial verticals available to assist members and prospective members. We have that here in the MDNA.”
 
Chicago Chapter meetings often attract 30 to 40 attendees, he adds, which often results in profitable conversations.
 
“Over the years, I’ve learned that if you can help other people make money, it helps you, too,” he says. “It always comes back around.”
 
 
 
 

When a blaze broke out seven winters ago in an enormous warehouse in the Midwest, it was not your standard industrial mishap. In fact, there was almost no structural damage. And nobody was aware of the fire when it was burning. It wasn’t discovered until several days had passed.
 
But the bizarre experience taught John Taucher some valuable lessons.
 
Taucher owns Portage Packaging Systems, Inc., an MDNA member business that operates from four Ohio facilities — two in Hiram and two others in nearby Ravenna, all located not far from Cleveland and Akron. Batteries ignited in a truck parked inside in a 70,000-square-foot building in Ravenna, in the dead of winter with conditions so cold that the heat from the resulting flames actually dissipated before it could reach the fire alarm sensors on the 42-foot-high ceiling. But where there’s fire, there’s usually smoke — and there was plenty of that.
 
“We turned the lights on and everything inside was very dim, because everything was covered in black soot,” Taucher recalls of the mess that greeted him when he returned from an out-of-town trip.  “Trucks, loaders, machinery — everything was coated. The garage doors were damaged, but that was about it.  The real work was clearing out and cleaning up.”
 
Before long, Taucher realized that his $50,000 business interruption insurance benefit fell well short of covering the cost of moving everything into a rental warehouse.
 
“It was a logistical nightmare,” he says. “That insurance works better in a retail setting that it did for us.”
 
Negotiating the ins and outs of the insurance and finding temporary quarters to keep Portage’s parts and installation services to the packaging industry operating smoothly took around nine months. Taucher hired independent insurance adjustor Neil Novak, of the Alex Sill Co., in Cleveland, to represent Portage in talks with insurers, and agreements were worked out. He was so pleased with the results that he later invited Novak to address in MDNA National Convention audience on dealing with business insurance challenges.