The Marinette Menominee Area Chamber of Commerce

Using Social Media Without Hurting Your Career or Company

2011-12-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

Facebook and many other forms of Internet social media offer us a unique opportunity to enhance what should be a carefully crafted image for ourselves and our business. There is currently no cost for having a Facebook page.

Facebook offers an instant opportunity to communicate; your intended audience need not be sitting at computers to get the message. When a summer concert had to be canceled because or rain last year, we turned to Facebook to get the word out. We also used local print and broadcast media. It's certainly safe to say that online social media give us one more channel of communication.

So why do some people misuse this relatively new channel? I'm talking about the people who take personal beefs public by using Facebook. If you are perturbed with someone, call them, e-mail them, or write a letter. Keep it between the two of you. But don't put it out there for the whole world to see n Facebook.

When you do, the message you deliver is: "I'm so angry I can't see straight and I'm going to embarrass the person or persons I'm angry with by posting it on Facebook."

Few people would argue that this particular approach is just not professional.

Don't sabotage your career or your company image by letting your anger show. We still have other means of communication at our command. Use these to resolve problems and disputes. You only hurt yourself when you make it public.

Use Facebook to reinforce your company's brand and to communicate essential messages, including public thank you notes (do you still send written notes?). But it's not the place to argue with or embarrass someone.

Keep it businesslike!

Family Talk about Future Careers

2011-12-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

When I was a teenager, most girls had no idea how broad their career choices really were; we grew up in two-parent families with mothers who rarely worked outside the house. If they did, they were teachers, secretaries, nurses or retail workers. Not one girl in my high-school graduating class became an engineer, welder, architect or builder.

But they could have. Today, the choices for boys and girls are broad and wide and exciting. There are careers - web designer, for example - we never dreamed of a few decades ago.

There's a lot of talk and action in our community today that centers around training local people for local jobs. Company leaders say they want to hire local. But they - and we - need parents to talk to this children about the wide choices of jobs available locally. From CNC machinist to chemist, from welder to college instructor, our community offers a vast array of employment opportunities for people with the right training.

And we've got training, whether it's at UW-Marinette, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, in high-school shop classes, or on the job. You can get trained for a good solid career (and as a result, experience a high quality of life) right here in Marinette-Menominee.

But, kids and parents, you've got some exploring to do. And the holidays are a good time to start the process by talking and thinking.

Parents, find a natural opening in the conversation to bring up the subject of careers. Kids, think about what your interests are, what you like to do and how you want to live. Use the Internet to check local job listings. Check our Web page at www.mandmchamber.com for a list of jobs and a list of local companies.

Check with NWTC or UW-Marinette about training and education. Both campuses have experts on staff who can give you information to get you started. Don't forget the guidance office at your own school. Talk to neighbors and relatives. Call the chamber (715-735-6681) and we'll talk to you.

I'm betting most local companies would love to give you information about the jobs they offer. They may offer you a tour or hook you up with a job shadow or mentor.

It's never to early to start thinking about the future. It should be a conversation for parents AND children.

Get started now over Christmas dinner.

And Merry Christmas to you!

A Sense of Place - and a Sense of Belonging

2011-12-19T18:23:00.001-08:00

These days, nearly every city of every size has some combination of well-known "Big Box" stores and smaller franchises. These businesses offer value and give us a sense of comfort when we travel. We know what we'll find there.

But downtowns offer something different - a sense of place, or at least the place that once was. Because many downtowns have lost their retail stores and have turned into service centers. That's OK, because we all need those services, whether they sell insurance, offer the latest hair styles, or dinner on the town.

We're lucky here, because our local downtowns have retained more than a smattering of retail, along with those essential service outlets. In Marinette and Menominee, you can buy a book, a fashionable sweater or handbag, a piece of unusual jewelry or a home decor item. The merchant you buy from is your neighbor, your friend, your friend's neighbor, or the spouse of one of your son or daughter's teachers.

When you buy from them you are ensuring that 68 cents on every dollar you spend stays here in the Marinette and Menominee area. It goes to other local merchants, to non-profits, to church collection plates.

It builds community - that sense of belonging to something bigger, in our case, a lovely little town that happens to straddle a state line.

True, downtowns don't do what they used to do: Give you a chance to see everyone you know out shopping. But they still retain that sense of place, that unique feeling that says Marinette, Menominee, Peshtigo or further afield.

So in these waning days of the shopping season, please visit our downtowns as well as other local retail outlets scattered around Marinette and Menominee. There's no better way to recapture the feeling we had as kids, the wonderful feeling of wishing Merry Christmas to someone you know who happens to sell dishwashers or bracelets or paint - or whatever.

And remember that shopping doesn't end on December 24!

Dedicated to Making a Difference.

2011-12-09T14:09:00.000-08:00

Jon Kukuk of Nestegg Marine is retiring from his post as chamber representative on the Marinette County Tourism Alliance.

He will be missed.

Jon has been an integral part of the chamber for at least two decades. He has served on the board of directors and as the board’s president in 1998-99. He also chaired the tourism alliance, and has helped the chamber and the county work together through a contract to promote tourism, funded by a half-percent sales tax the county levies.

Jon been my go-to person for all things related to tourism since I joined the chamber staff in July of 2007. Did I mention that he was the first volunteer to pay me a visit on my first day of work? He was so early that I wasn’t even there yet.

That’s Jon – always above and beyond. He’s the best.

Three years ago, Jon gave up a weekend to build an office for our tourism director. He recruited a helper - an experienced colleague - and the two worked for several days to make two rooms out of one, building a wall and move numerous fixtures, including a door. Jon gave up a weekend to work on the project. A weekend just before Christmas, I should add. How many people would do that?

In my experience, Jon is a rarity.

He is persistent, works hard and tries always to take the high road. It is my understanding that he wrote our current chamber bylaws, which were approved about 18 months before I came on board. He’s a part of us and always will be, even though he's more involved now in professional marina and clean water projects.

Jon has truly made a difference for the chamber and the tourism community.

-Mary Johns, IOM, Executive Director/CEO

Business lessons from Steve Jobs, the Beatles and Wayne Gretzky

2011-12-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Being an unabashed fan and supporter of all things Apple and Macintosh, I joined the rest of the world in mourning the all-too-young death of technology entrepreneur and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs two months ago. I’ve never met the guy and I rarely gave him a second thought, even while using an iPad, an iPod and a Macbook Pro on a daily basis.

But in the last two months I’ve learned a lot about him.

Turns out he was quite a layered character, at times both mercurial and deliberate, churlish and kind. Complex, as we all are.

Blunt and sometimes plainspoken, Jobs was had an interesting and often unconventional approach to both business and life. He was highly quotable. Arguably his most popular quotation is probably the advertising slogan “Think Different.”

These two words – though technically grammatically incorrect – can be applied to our changing and challenging life today. The past several years and the worldwide economic crisis have changed our lives, at least temporarily while we weather the storm. Our expectations may need to be adjusted; to meet whatever challenges face us, we need to think different, be more creative, try new strategies.

Sometimes our focus needs to be narrowed, our mission honed in on, in order to achieve success. Jobs understood this and when he retook the helm of a weakened Apple in the late 1990s, reportedly cutting back on the many items Apple was then producing, to concentrate on doing a few things well.

Early in life, I was exposed to this approach. My father, who was in the restaurant business, one told me to beware of restaurants with menus that went on forever. “The smaller the menu, the higher the quality,” he told me.

Sometimes – but not always – it is best to focus on what your company does best, and resist the urge to diversify. To do this takes a thorough understanding of your company’s product or service, its values and its customer needs. Listening to your customers is key.

(That wasn’t necessarily Jobs’ approach, I should point out. He eschewed focus groups, and considered himself and his company as tastemakers. “We’ll tell them what they should like,” was his philosophy.)

Jobs, a Beatles fan, once pointed out how the Fab Four worked as a team, complementing each other and working together to produce a great product: Music people of all ages know and love.

The Beatles were successful because they worked as a unit, Jobs noted.

“Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people,” he said.

One more thing: A few years back, Jobs said, “There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love. ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple.”

Think different, work together and skate where the puck is going to be.

-Mary Johns, IOM, Executive Director and CEO

(Reprinted from Memo, the chamber's quarterly newsletter.)

Building Community - by Committee

2011-11-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

December used to be a fairly quiet month here at the chamber. That is no longer the case. In fact, we have no quiet times - too much going on.

Our work increased - and we're happy about this - recently when our board decided, yes, we do want to build a strong committee structure. So we are asking our board members to serve on committees and task forces that help build a stronger chamber and a stronger business community.

Some people dread committees - I'm not one of them. I like working with people and I like the give and take that produces innovation and new ideas. Last summer, I took a bonus course at Institute for Organization Management that I think will help us organize and implement productive committees - and build teamwork along the way.

By its very definition, a chamber is an organization of people working together to help businesses flourish and to build the kind of community that fosters successful businesses. The latter is the very underpinning of good economic development. We've got to create the kind of community that nurtures success.

And our board members - the people who govern the chamber - will become leading participants in this nurturing process.

In addition to our executive committee, which is made up of chamber officers, and our Education & Business Partnership, which is made up of educators and businesspeople, we are creating a Business and Development Committee, a Chamber Development Committee and a Public Affairs Committee.

From these new groups will spring sub-committees and task forces that will help us build a chamber of substance and significance that truly serves the business sector and the community as a whole.

I'll keep you posted on our progress. Meanwhile, we are seeking chamber members to staff these committees. Please call me at 715-735-6681 if you would like to help.

Happy December!

What We've Done for You Lately - and What We're Doing

2011-11-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

I often get asked to define a chamber and what it does for business and the community.

This isn’t as odd as it sounds: Every chamber in the world is a little bit different from the others. It must be, in order to serve the unique community it represents.
Overall, a chamber of commerce is a business membership organization that promotes economic and community development, working in a collective manner through committees, networking and idea sharing.

Chambers of commerce bring people together to discuss and find solutions for common challenges. A good chamber works toward creating partnerships, so as not to duplicate efforts.

We do economic development, but it’s not necessary the part of economic development that you seen. It’s behind the scenes work, or as one of our Chamber Ambassadors put it, “It’s like an iceberg and what the chamber does is often below the surface.”

A good chamber evolves with the changing needs of the community and I think we’ve done a pretty good job in that area. One of the needs that we’ve been targeting lately is the need to make you people aware of all the training and job opportunities that exist locally. We’ve heard again and again that local industries want to hire area residents with a commitment to the community.

Our staff and volunteers work extensively with local schools to encourage connections between officials and business, teachers and businesses and students and businesses. One goal is to teach kids about careers, life management skills, business and local job opportunities.
We also strive to help young people develop valuable work skills and make connection with adults who can help mentor them or serve as role models. Another goal is to keep our young people in the community to get the education and training to fill local jobs.

The chamber supports buying locally and retaining local businesses. Our members have told us they want learning opportunities that give them the skills to keep their businesses well managed and their bottom line healthy.

The chamber supports tourism and small business as well as industry. We manage tourism under a contract with Marinette County. In 2008 we formed a small business council to bring learning and networking opportunities to small businesses. We work in tandem with NWTC and UW-Marinette to bring training opportunities and more to larger businesses.

A good chamber is a work in progress.

And we are.

Reaching Parents and Students

2011-10-05T09:37:00.001-07:00

Today's EagleHerald landed on the doorstep with an ominous thump. "Fed chief delivers grim news: Bernanke says economy is 'close to faltering'"

"America has a jobs crisis," the article went on to say.

Fortunately in our community, the news is more positive. Employment in local industries is generally up, after taking a tumble at the end of 2008.

We have jobs. Just about any job you can train for, we've got, from highly-skilled maintenance specialist to research and development engineer. Our factories are clean environments. Machines do the work now; workers run machines.

In our community, you can have a pretty good life working in the industrial sector. But it's not the only choice.

You can get an associate's degree in a variety of exciting fields at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. You can get a liberal arts education that prepares you for life by giving you the skills to think and solve problems. You can also get a four-year degree, thanks to UW-Marinette's partnerships with baccalaureate-granting colleges. You can take college credits in high school. You can try on careers by getting a summer job in a local business.

It's a pretty good time to be a young person in the Marinette Menominee area. Our challenge is getting the word out.

Over the past several days at two separate economic development summits, I've heard local experts say that we've got to reach parents, we've got to tell them that there are many more choices locally than some of them realize.

Our Business & Education Partnership, a group made up of business people, local school officials and former teachers, already works with 8th graders, high-school sophomores, upperclassmen, new educators and school boards. Now it's time to identify ways to bring parents into the picture.

I'm looking forward to this challenge! Stay tuned: I'll keep you in the loop.

The Business-Education Connection

2011-10-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Kudos to our friends at Nicolet Bank for arranging a Business-Education forum that brought industry and school leaders together for a stimulating panel discussion on Sept 29 at Little River Country Club.

Even those of us who have been involved in the conversation between industry and schools for many years left that meeting with new ideas and new challenges. Preparing our students for the jobs our community offers is everybody's responsibility.

Earlier in the week, the chamber and its members welcomed more than two dozen new teachers at an early-morning breakfast. This year, we assigned guests to tables, ensuring that teachers were paired with business leaders. Our goal was to further open the channels of communication between plant managers, bank presidents, and business owners and the dedicated teachers who educate our children.

The conversation will continue Tuesday at the Northwoods Economic Summit at UW-Marinette. This annual event focuses on workforce and economic development. The topic has taken on greater urgency this year as many if not most of our industries are thriving.

There are jobs locally in just about every field, from CNC machining to accounting. We are fortunate to have two colleges that can train young people to do these jobs.

I've never been more excited about the future of our community! As an area native whose roots here go back to the 1860s, I'm happy my husband and I returned to our home towns to live and work. I'm proud of our thriving businesses and our dedicated educators.

I'm equally proud of the chamber volunteers who have worked diligently to forge relationships between business and education to help our students thrive. Read more about their efforts here.

One Community with a State Line that Really Doesn't Matter

2011-08-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

The Marinette-Menominee area may be the center of our world, but that's not the case for someone born, say, in Boston, Mass., or Fresno, Cal.

So when I was in college in Madison and I told someone from afar that I was from Marinette-Menominee, they asked me, "What's that?"

My reply was always the same: "It's two cities in two states, but really it's one big community."

I still believe that. In fact, I believe that more than ever. I know it to be a fact. So do a lot of other people.

That's what I was surprised a few weeks back when someone apologized to me for something happening on one side of the river and not the other. I didn't see a need for an apology, just because my house happens to be in Marinette.

What's good for one city is good for another. No one - well, no one who gets it - is keeping tabs on which city scores more new residents or more new jobs. For many years, people traveled across the state line to work, go to school, date, and marry. In fact, that's how I came to consider both cities my home town: My parents came from either side, went to Our Lady of Lourdes, and raised their four children in both states at one time or another.

I would be hard pressed to choose sides. In fact, I would not. I could not. But I have to live somewhere and my husband (a Menominee native like me) happened to own a home on the Wisconsin side.

The M&M Game is just two months away. Yes, this long-standing rivalry between Marinette and Menominee high schools is a lot of fun, and even for a Catholic Central alum like me, there's excitement in the air during M&M Week. It's one week out of the year.

Cheer for your team. Fight like crazy. But when something good happens on the other side of the river, cheer for that, too.

Because when one city wins, so does the other.

See you at Waterfront Festival!

2011-08-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

As my grandmother used to say, "There's big doings downtown this weekend."

Yes, this is the big weekend the entire community looks forward to: Waterfront Festival.

One the festival grounds are marked off by fences and the tents start to appear, the excitement is palpable, even a few days before the festival begins.

Downtown Menominee, a lovely place all year long, is especially exciting in summer when it's awash with visitors who come by boat or care to enjoy our marina and the natural air conditioning the bay offers on sweltering days.

But it's especially fun come Waterfront Festival.

The festival is now a few years away from entering its third decade. The chamber has always been involved, beginning back in the mid-1980s when Nancy Douglas and the former Menominee Chamber of Commerce spearheaded the event, which began when the city of Menominee celebrated its centennial in 1983. We were delighted last year when Nancy again became festival chairperson and we tip our hats to her and the hard-working committee, which includes our own Joe Plautz who ran the festival in 2009.

Each year brings some changes and a few tweaks, but Waterfront Festival has become one of the longest-running community institutions in recent memory.

Some people go down for the food, others the entertainment, still others to see and be seen by old friends who are back in town just for the festival. Even if you don't spend the better part of every day at the festival, it's exciting to know it's down there if you want it.

Summer weekends are always busy in our community, but somehow Waterfront weekend marks a turning point. It's high summer, and after this weekend, we'll begin to see hints of the coming season. And that's a whole other story.

Enjoy the festival. We'll see you there!

Continuous Improvement by Newsletter

2011-07-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

It's time to take a look at how we communicate with our members.

One of the first steps for us is a survey, which was sent our via e-mail to members on July 5.

We want to know how you want to hear from us.

Four years ago this month, we began making greater use of the Internet to get the word out about the fine work of our volunteers and staff in the community. We used a simple e-mail format to keep members up to date on chamber events, deadlines, new features, member services and other pertinent information.

The response was positive. "I never know how much the chamber did for the community," said one member.

Earlier this year, we abandoned our simple e-mail approach and turned to Constant Contact to help us get our weekly newsletter out quickly and efficiently.

But we still do a print newsletter. It used to be a monthly, but cost and efficiency have turned it into a quarterly. We use this newsletter to augment our e-mail blasts, Web site, Facebook page, radio and newspaper stories and this blog to get the word out to members.

It's time to make some changes in how we get information out to members. And our members get to help us make the decisions.

Members, check your e-mail! On Tuesday, your received a link to a survey under the subject line "Tell Us What You Like..."

That's what we want you to do. Tell us what you want in a newsletter and how you want us to communicate with you. Input from members is important to us.

Why Summer Concerts Matter

2011-06-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

As I write this, it's cloudy and not terribly warm outside, but after the lovely weekend just past and more good weather to come, a gloomy day is palatable - more palatable that it was a week ago when we had a string of gray days to endure.

Our first concert of the year on beautiful Stephenson Island in Marinette was postponed until a later date due to wind and rain, but skies should be clear on Thursday night for our first Concert in the Park on the Bandshell in Menominee's equally lovely Great Lakes Memorial Marina Park.

Our staff members Joe Plautz and Sandi Brumbaugh work had to make these concerts happen. Our members businesses generously sponsor them. We make a concerted effort to concentrate on local and area entertainers because we believe the concerts are all about appreciating our area's assets.

How many cities have both a riverfront and a bay shore? How many cities have an island in the middle of town and one of the most beautiful marinas on the Great Lakes?

We are darned lucky to claim these natural resources. We are fortunate, too, that good entertainment is within our reach. By choosing local and regional bands, we've found another way to shop local.

By attending an outdoor concert this summer - Peshtigo and Wausaukee have them, too - you are not only supporting our efforts to shop locally first, you are helping us create a sense of community.

That sense of community is what helps us work together. And that, my friends, is what chambers of commerce are all about.

Report from Midwest Institute for Organization Management

2011-06-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

>Whew! It's 92 degrees in Madison today, but inside air-cooled Grainger Hall (a new addition to campus since my graduation from Big Red), more than 100 chamber of commerce and association executives and managers are attending "chamber school," the Institute for Organization Management.

"Institute" teaches business leaders how to instill the very best practices in organization management: In the required 96 hours of courses, we are kept updated on legal, financial, governance, communications, leadership, electronic communication, advocacy, team-building, human resources and consensus building issues and techniques.

We hear each year how protecting the organization from costly missteps is one of the CEO's primary objectives. We learn how to do it the right way. We find out what we can do better to serve our members and to strive for excellence.

You can't run a chamber without it.

Our class started out in 2008 - the year floods inundated southern Wisconsin - as 30 chamber managers. The following year, our ranks diminished due to the weak economy, but we were joined by about 15 organization executives. We'll graduate together at the end of this session, but we will no doubt continue to share ideas by e-mail and social media.

It's always good to be back in Madison, even when it's sweltering and humid. It's especially exciting to face a second graduation here, and come away with ideas and strategies for building a stronger chamber to help our members grow and thrive into the future.

Your Business is Our Business

2011-06-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

Nearly 18 months ago, we asked you, our members, what direction you want us to take.

Here’s what you said: Spend more time on business development. Offer more opportunities to help us grow our businesses. Enlarge the chamber’s roll in local education efforts.

I’m pleased to report that we are moving in that direction. Many of the community events the chamber was coordinating in years past are in the capable hands of other organizations or individuals. We are concentrating on business!

Thanks to partnership with UW-Marinette and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, we’ve offered some great new programs.

In the past month alone, nearly two dozen members attended our Cross Cultural Communications Skills workshop at NWTC. During the workshop, conducted by Alem Asres, director of campus diversity for NWTC, participants discussed how to communicate appropriately with a wide range of people.

A week later, we held a workshop aimed at helping businesses determine if they should work with the federal government and its prime contractors. This was another great partnership with the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, the Procurement Technical Assistance Center of Michigan, the Small Business Association and NWTC.

Both of these programs are aimed at helping local businesses handle and benefit from the growth associated with Marinette Marine’s partnership with Lockheed Martin to build more littoral combat ships for the US Navy.

Our May Business for Breakfast featured Lisa Nyquist and Kathy Leone from Northern Initiatives, a Marquette, Mich.-based private, non-profit organization that offers small business loans and provides information and training for small businesses. (We liked the group’s Profit Mastery Class, a 16-hour training program that helps business owners use financial statements as management tools, understand and predict cash flow and plan for and manage growth. If this sounds like a course you can use, call us and we’ll put you in touch with Northern Initiatives.)

Finally, I’m delighted to announce that the chamber is piloting a Teacher Leadership Academy, similar to our Community Leadership Academy. Offered for the first time this summer, TLA will give teachers a chance to get inside area businesses and industries, develop relationships with plant managers and business leaders, share information gleaned from job shadow experiences, and finally, create a classroom project that links curriculum to area businesses.

This new program is a partnership with UW-Marinette’s Department of Continuing Education. Area teachers, school administrators, manufacturers and business people worked together to help develop it. Teachers will earn 3.2 Continuing Education Credits for their participation.
Finally, I want to mention how hard our Chamber Ambassadors have worked on a Shop Local awareness campaign that now includes lapel buttons urging people to buy locally. In the past, we’ve used billboards, Facebook, news releases and window decals. Now, you can show people everywhere you go that you care about local businesses. The buttons were donated by some of the Ambassadors themselves: That’s dedication!

We continue to solicit your input. We are currently working on revamping this publication. Watch for a readership survey sent to you by e-mail in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, drop by on weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., call, e-mail or message of via Facebook or our Website (www.mandmchamber.com). We want to hear from you!

Customer Service Jobs Can be Keys to Success

2011-01-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

I wasn't surprised when a majority of the responses in our Job Outlook Survey came from service provider businesses.

Sales and customer service jobs, it turns out, are going strong in our community.

We all provide one service or another, and even large industries have customer service departments. At the chamber, we consider ourselves a customer service office, and we like to think we make friends one customer at a time. Helping someone find a location on a map, helping them find a phone number, or referring them to a member business are some of the services we provide.

A few years ago, a woman came in looking for 12 copies of a Door County guidebook. Since we exchange promotional material with Door County, we had some to give her. We could have sent her to the Marinette Welcome Center, something we do when we don't have the tourism material that a visitor wants. But we had 12 copies so why not save her a trip? I knew she had recently experienced some health issues and I wanted to make obtaining these books convenient for her. That, to my way of thinking, is customer service.

Customer service related jobs can be stressful, to be sure, but they can also be extremely satisfying. There is nothing quite like helping someone obtain information, solve a problem, or get results. And that's what customer service is all about.

A good customer service provider is a gem. I've heard local employers say when they find a good one, they'll try hard to keep that person on staff. After all, good customer service is often what helps a business get ahead of the competition. I don't care if I have to pay a little more for an item if I know I will have good customer service after the sale.

In our survey, our members are telling us customer service jobs will be fairly plentiful this year. They may go by different names, so look carefully: Service rep, front counter, account manager, or community relations representative. All those jobs and others require customer service skills.

There will be jobs throughout our community in 2011 - and not just in the shipbuilding industry. That's good news for people who've been recently downsized, or are new in town because their spouses fund work here.

The key is remaining flexible. The skills you acquire and fine tune in a customer service job will help you in whatever job you end up in down the line. With a customer service job, you learn to build relationships, listen, solve problems, think creatively and build a reputation for your employer. Every single one of those skills is applicable to just about every job in the world.

Many years ago, I found myself downsized from a publishing job with an Atlanta company. I explored job openings in marketing, editing, technical writing, graphic design and other areas I was familiar with, but ended up in a customer service job. I helped patients find doctors, and then I helped them resolve issues they ran into while receiving care. The skills I gained and polished have stayed with me for more than two decades. It wasn't the easiest job, it certainly wasn't without its stressful moments. But I left the office every night feeling good. And I learned a lot.

In grade school I read a story about a teen-aged girl who learned from a famous violinist to do everything well, no matter how important or unimportant it seemed. The idea was to do it well. Some people may think customer service jobs lack prestige.

I disagree. I don't think there's any job as important as the one that relates to helping people.

How to Survive a Job Search

2011-01-26T18:22:00.000-08:00

I'm reading Help Wanted ads these days, hoping to find job matches for a growing number of friends and acquaintances who have recently found themselves downsized.

A few years back, our large industries took a hit, laying off workers by the dozens. At one point, by my calculations, we had hundreds of people out of work. It's gratifying to report that many of those people have been called back to work, thanks to contracts and expansions.

But now, a fair share of people in marketing, customer service, sales and management are out of work.

Earlier this year, the chamber added a Help Wanted page to its Web site (www.mandmchamber.com). We post ads for our members at no cost - it's a benefit of membership. We've also added corporate Web sites for several area companies that offer job listings and we will continue to do so.

Meanwhile, what if you've been laid off? Now what?

The experts to tell you not to give in to the desire to mourn your job by wallowing in self pity, hiding out at home, and eating comfort food. They tell you to hit the ground running in your search for another job. We agree. But we also think a few creature comforts might be in order. Certainly a bit of comfort food helps!

Here are a few tips, gleaned from a variety of sources:

Keep busy. Once you've got your resume updated and are actively looking, find some small projects that are doable and will give you a sense of satisfaction upon completion. Clean a room or a drawer, clean out a closet - whatever. Make sure you get something done every day.

File for unemployment immediately. Having money flowing in will alleviate the stress of not having an office to go to every morning. If you have debts, call your creditors and make payment arrangements. Make sure you have health insurance lined up, if that's an issue.

Get out of the house. Fight the impulse to hibernate. You are not alone. Maintain friendships and professional relationships. Make sure you get some exercise, too.

Network like crazy. Put the word out that you are looking. Ask everyone in your professional circle to keep an eye out for a job that fits your experience.

Learn something new. If you can afford to, take a non-credit course. Read up on branding, or search engine optimization. Keep your skills current, and obtain new knowledge of technology or the Internet. Take up a new hobby, one that keeps your hands busy and eases stress.

Consider a temporary gig. Take on project work, sign on with a temp agency, or start a modest consulting business. One laid-off professional lined up a consulting project even before leaving her job.

Volunteer. Make new friends by reaching out to the community. Help somebody. You may gain new skills and new confidence in yourself.

Keep your chin up. Tom Jackson, a job search guru popular in the 80s, used to say that a successful jobs search is a series of NOs that ends in a YES. Every rejection letter brings you closer to that letter of hire.

You will find a job eventually. It may be different from your last job. I took a job I thought would be temporary - and ended up staying 10 years.

The Perfect Pairing

2011-01-16T08:44:00.001-08:00

Occasionally I am asked why the chamber does a wine tasting every year.

The answer is simple!

Our wine tasting is a fund-raising event for chamber operations. Chamber are only partially funded by dues investments. An important part of our operations budget comes from special events and management contracts. Some chamber experts say organizations like ours ought to be 60-80 percent funded by a non-dues revenue stream as a hedge against hard times when some businesses might founder or even go under.

The popular wine tasting and our equally popular golf outing help us raise money to support the chamber's daily operations. Thanks to these events, we've been able to put a new roof on our 43-year-old building and insulate our attic. We've also been able to initiate new programs that help our local business climate thrive.

Moreover, tasting wine has an indirect benefit to many business people. Who hasn't had to take clients out to dinner, or mix and mingle with company bigwigs at social events? Knowing a little about wine so you can order with confidence is an advantage.

About five years ago, I found myself seated next to a CEO at dinner. This world traveler was well-versed in exotic foods and loved to tour wineries. Had I not known a bit about wines, we might have struggled for a suitable conversation topic. As every successful business person knows, keeping abreast with many topics is a must when networking!

Besides, it's just plain fun. The event is always held on a Thursday, a night when the bulk of the work week is behind us and we can all kick back a little bit.

This year's wine list is exciting. The wines are rich and robust. I'm especially excited about an Argentinian Malbec that will pair perfectly with steak. There's also a Riesling I'm looking forward to tasting.

Come join us on Feb. 10 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Lauerman House Inn. Tickets, $35 per person, are available at the chamber. Chef Joel Peterson promises tasty finger foods that pair nicely with the wines.

Have fun and support the chamber, too!

Everybody Wins!

2010-12-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

These are exciting times for our community.

The biggest news is the LCS contract has finally become reality for Marinette Marine, a Fincantieri company, and Lockheed Martin. This could mean as many as 1000 jobs at the shipyard, many of which will be new jobs.

The second piece of good news is the proposal for Anna's Vineyard on Green Island, a stunning vision of resort, recreation and vineyard that may result in 250 construction jobs across 25 trades and once operational, approximately 150 jobs for business operators, vendors, resort employees, vineyard workers and service personnel.

Don't forget the new research facility at Tyco and the new Walmart Supercentre. Other projects are likely to occur over the next year or so.

It's all a very heady prospect. The only thing I can compare it to is the lumber boom that crested in the 1880s when the railroad came to town, brining with it many families seeking a better life.

It's not pushing the envelope to imagine unprecented prosperity for our community. With that will come some challenges, too, but our organizations and municipalities are equal to the task.

What can you do to help enhnace economic vitality? The answere is simple: Shop local. Support local businesses.

When you buy from a locally-owned business, $68 of every $100 you spend stays here. And when you shop at a chain store or franchise, more than $40 stays here.

That's not true when you drive somewhere else to shop.

We're not suggesting you forgo shopping trips to Green Bay or Escanaba. Those cities are part of our region. Who doesn't appreciate a road trip, especially on the first nice Saturday of February? What we are suggesting is that you shop locally first.

By shopping locally, you help create a market for more goods and services. And you support business owners who support our community and its organizations. You support your friends and neighbors. And you help create a sense of community in our lovely little area.

Resolve to shop locally in 2011 and beyond. When you do, everybody wins!

A Christmas Gift to Our Community

2010-12-22T01:05:00.000-08:00

It's official now. The U.S. Navy will build 10 littoral combat ships at Marinette Marine in partnership with Lockheed Martin.

It's been a long time coming. Officials from Lockheed Martin and Marinette Marine met with the chamber's board of directors in August 2009. At that time, everyone believed a decision in the then-winner-take-all contract could come as early as July of August 2010.

But these matters rarely happen without setbacks and obstacles and the contract was no exception. The purchase proposal changed to a split between our local shipyard and one in Mobile, Ala., with 10 ships built at each yard. And now it's reality: Good news indeed after a protracted recession that economists insist ended in June 2009.

The contract will create jobs at Marinette Marine and allow company officials to bring laid off workers back to the job. Some of this will happen in early 2011, the rest will occur over a period of years. In addition to new jobs at the shipyard, it is expected that 4,000 to 5,000 jobs will be created in supporting industries across Northeast Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

This is reason to rejoice during this season of good cheer and gratitude. Our community - like the rest of the country - has experienced unemployment. At one point, the percentage was high: Between 13 and 14 percent on both sides of the river.

In the fall of 2009, the chamber pulled a small group of economic development people together for lunch. The group made the decision to target lawmakers to get the job done in Washington. Those lawmakers - from both Michigan and Wisconsin - came through for our community and our region with fling colors.

We are grateful for their support.

Many of these same lawmakers are leaving office this month. But they will do so on a high note.

And so we will celebrate the winter holidays on a note of optimism and gratitude.

And when the lighted tree is once again hoisted on the shipyard crane - a long-standing tradition - we will know it's Christmas for certain.

A Reason to Rejoice

2010-12-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a generous community and an outstanding committee, the annual Holiday Charity Ball, a project of the chamber foundation, raised about $20,000 for the Twin Counties Free Clinic.

That was our goal: To bring our total gift back up to 2007 and 2008 levels after a challenging 2009.

Thanks to you, we were successful.

We have much to be thankful for in the runup to 2011. The past few years have created challenge for our local, regional, national and global economies. But in challenges lie small triumphs and we have seen our share.

Our community remains compassionate. We saw that recently as community members rallied around the family of a troubled young man who took his own life. It is easy to take pride in how community members provided support in the wake of a tragedy.

We are proud, too, of Marinette Marine and its employees who recently launched another littoral combat ship for Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy. We are thankful to the lawmakers who have shepharded a bill for more LCS vessels through Congress and hope their Senate colleagues will join them in a desire to create more jobs for our region, and especially the Marinette Menominee area.

Find a reason to rejoice this season, as we have many.

And thanks for helping us help the Twin Counties Free Clinic.

A Night to Shine

2010-12-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

We're expecting more than 160 people to attend Friday night's Holiday Charity Ball at Schussler's in Peshtigo.

And why not? It's a chance to dress up, to have fun and dance, and to raise money for the Twin Counties Free Clinic.

The clinic serves uninsured and underinsured residents of both Marinette and Menominee counties. Since 2002, the chamber foundation, our charitable arm, has organized the charity ball to support the clinic. The committee, chaired this year by Diane Becker of Stephenson National Bank & Trust and Barb Van De Hei of Bay Cities Radio, began working together in August. Holly Meyer is the chamber staff liaison to the event, and she works closely with Candy Sheridan, the clinic director.

Everyone on the committee works hard to solicit donations that keep operational costs down so more money can find its way to the free clinic. Committee members seek silent and live auction items, sell raffle tickets, solicit cash donations for the clinic, and perform a myriad os other tasks large and small.

This year for the first time, the event has a them - other than holiday giving - that offers up a few surprises. As usual, auctioneer Nellie Beland of Superior Auction & Appraisal, has some fun up her sleeve.

Board member (and local attorney) Arthur Baron will be master of ceremonies, doing his best to imitate Dean Martin (he does a great job). A few other "stars" will also make appearances. (Did I mention the decorations are truly stellar?)

Holly and her team have this event choreographed down to the smallest detail. Chamber staffers Donna Zeratsky and Sandi Brumbaugh will be there to greet you and Joe Plautz will be our guy who gets things done.

It's going to be a fun evening. And better still, it's going to raise money for a good cause. Cash donations are already about twice the level as last year.

We live in a generous community.

Time to Pull Together

2010-11-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

By its very definition, a chamber of commerce is a group of people working together.

We form committees to do just that. The committees are made up of chamber members, and representatives from the community. Our committees perform many tasks and tackle many challenges, from organizing programs like Mini Business World and Career Opportunities Expo to developing relocation materials for area companies to use when they recruit workers or Shop Local efforts to encourage area residents to support local businesses.

We actively seek partnerships with other organizations. We work closely with UW-Marinette, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Marinette County, and many other organizations. Recently, we've begun to build stronger partnerships with the M&M Area Community Foundation.

In other words, we collaborate. We pull together to harness the power of people working together.

Our community has just experienced a tragedy in one of its schools. It is time to pull together in a bigger way so that the healing can begin and we can prevent such tragedies in years to come.

It is too early to predict how we will work together in the future. Community needs gave birth to the Healthy Youth Coalition a decade ago and the DAR Boys Club (now the Boys and Girls Club) nearly a century ago. But we will work together and we will pull our community through the heartbreak of a young life lost and other lives endangered.

If you are called to serve in any way, please do so. What side of the river you live on is not important. The future of our community - and our young people - belongs to all of us.

Shop Local First

2010-11-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

As Thanksgiving Day winds down, many of us are gearing up for Black Friday, the biggest and busiest shopping day of the year. Retailers dubbed it "black" because it's the day that puts them in the black for the fiscal year.

In reality, it all starts the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when the EagleHerald lands on our doorstep with an especially audible thump, chock full of fliers from every big store in town, from hardware stores and drug stores to big-box retailers. It's a good thing we've got a holiday on Thursday because it takes two days to pore over all the shopping circulars.

Rest up and eat well on Thankgiving because you'll need to sustain yourself on Friday. Go to bed early too, because some stores open in the wee hours of the morning, or earlier. One chamber staffer vows to be up and shopping at 4 a.m.

Think of this when you shop: Every time you spend $100 at a locally owned store, $68 stays in the community. When you shop at a local chain store, nearly $50 stays in the community. It's a good deal for everyone.

We're not telling you not to drive to Green Bay or Escanaba to shop. Those cities are part of our region, and some of our neighbors commute to jobs in those cities. But shop locally first; if you can't find it locally, then make that road trip.

On the other hand, as one of our members asked recently, "If you can't find it locally, do you really need it?"

Happy shopping.

Good-bye to an Old Friend

2010-11-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's sad to see any business close, but the Globe is near and dear to the chamber's heart. So the closing of this venerable furniture store in downtown Marinette leaves a bittersweet feeling.

Tobias Kirmse founded the Globe in 1888. His son, Walter, was one of the founders of the former Marinette Area Chamber of Commerce in 1939. The Marinette chamber is one of our two ancester organiations, along with the Menominee/River Cities Chamber of Commerce.

Two of Walter descendents, John Plouff and Mary Plouff McCarrier, served as chamber presidents in 1968-69 and 1997-98 respectively.

Times have changed in the last 122 years. But through that time, the Globe has remained a retail destination for people who sought high-quality furniture for their homes. It has remained an anchor for downtown Marinette, even when our retail center gradually shifted to the south side of town.

We will miss this established family business, but we are pleased for Mary McCarrier and her family who will now have time to pursue other interests.

Downtown Marinette will survive, and morph into another kind of business center. We are extremely optimistic! The chamber was contacted recently by several businesses considering downtown locations. We are pleased that some of our members have shown interest recently in downtown's revival and we are exciting about working with them in the new year. We don't have to look far to find inspiration: Downtown Menominee!

Meanwhile, we salute the Globe and we thank the Kirmse-Plouff-McCarrier family for its belief in our community.

Celebrate the End of Road Construction Season

2010-11-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

Winter is nearly here.

That means an end to the "other season." You know: Road Construction.

In 2010, road work was everywhere. We coped with dust and detours, barricades and big machinery. We grumbled, we laughed and we counted the days until deer hunting season, because that's when we knew it would finally be over. And it was.

We can now drive down Menominee's 10th Street and Marinette's Hall Avenue. Did we mention Shore Drive, 14th Avenue, Cleveland Avenue, 1st Street and County Trunk T?

It's done. For the time being. And we owe a huge thanks to the crews, from departments of transportation in two states to project overseers to the guys who made it happen by operating heavy machinery, laying sewer pipe and wiring street lights. We offer our kudos as well to the businesses who sweated it out, who called us when they had problems, who made us aware of new challenges.

The chamber raised money on the Menominee side to erect way-finding signs on 13th Street so drivers could locate 10th Street businesses. On the Marinette side, we had a modest amount of money left over from 2004-2005 road work, and we used that to create signage. Sometimes our efforts took longer than we - or businesses that were impacted by detours - would have liked. It wasn't perfect. But we did what we could with a combination of radio ads, signs, newspaper stories and Facebook posts. Chambers are generally wealthy organizations, so we had to make a small amount of money go a long way.

We also offered a low-cost customer relations workshop and created printed tip sheets aimed at helping our members create must-visit destinations that would draw in customers, regardless of road work and barricades.

The businesses who took our advice - and the advice of other members who'd been through major road projects - reported positive results. One of our members made it a point to make friends with the road crews and go our of his way to offer top-notch customer service. He happily reports that his business did well during the 7 1/2 months of road construction.

It's over now. I drove through the new Highway 64/180 roundabout today - easiest thing in the world and a real time-and-gas saver. I cruised down 10th Street - smooth.

Yes, it was a rough year. But the wait was worth it.

What is the chamber foundation?

2010-10-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

For years we’ve been giving our members the option to make small donations to the Marinette Menominee Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation with their dues investment. We are grateful that so many have been so generous.

This generosity has funded scholarships for college-bound graduates in Marinette and Menominee counties. It has also created scholarships so that area non-profit employees and volunteers can attend the chamber’s Community Leadership Academy and funded a citizenship award for a deserving UW-Marinette student.

We will continue to give you the option of giving to the foundation when you renew your dues investment. We want to make it easy for you help us reward students for their achievements and train emerging community leaders.

Currently the foundation is working with a committee to raise money for the Twin Counties Free Clinic with the annual Holiday Charity Ball, set for Dec. 3 at Schussler's Supper Club in Peshtigo.

Because the foundation is a 501 (c) (3) organization, according the U.S. Tax Code, all donations are tax deductible. Our goal this year is to raise more cash donations as the free clinic, which helps uninsured and underinsured people in both counties access basic medical care, has experienced an increase in usage in the past several years.

The charity ball also includes live and silent auctions and many other opportunities to help the free clinic. Tickets are available at the chamber's office, 601 Marinette Ave. in Marinette.

Holly Meyer is event coordinator while Barb VanDeHei of Bay Cities Radio and Diane Becker of Stephenson National Bank & Trust are co-chairs. They are assisted by a hard-working committee, many of whom are affiliated with local health-care organizations.

Call us at 715-735-6681 for more information.

The Characteristics of a Good Volunteer

2010-10-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

Within the definition of a chamber of commerce is the notion of working collectively to accomplish a goal.

We saw this recently at our July 10 Aurora-MACC Walk/Run, an event that requires the time, energy and talents of a great deal of volunteers. The beauty of this event is while a relatively small committee works very hard, beginning in January and ending in July, most of the volunteers are able to take small pieces of the event and do them successfully.

There were volunteers who helped with road markings, volunteers who served refreshments, volunteers who staffed the water stations and volunteers who help with cleanup. One volunteer delivered brochures all over Upper Michigan.

As a result, we had an especially well-run and implemented race this year, by all accounts, and the number of runners increased by 25 percent.

About six weeks later, it all came together again for our golf outing. Thanks to about 50 volunteers and the cooperation of Mother Nature, we showed 30 teams of golfers a good time.

The magic of people working together is happening right now as Holly Meyer, our program coordinator, works with the Holiday Charity Ball committee to raise money for the Twin Counties Free Clinic.

Obviously, we have some really wonderful volunteers at the chamber - about 200 of them. We have one person who brings wonderful ideas, bites off a small piece and gets it done, time after time. We have another volunteer who does unexpected small things that make a big difference - again and again. We have one who takes great pride in helping recruit new members. The list goes on and on.

Someone asked recently what the chamber looked for in volunteers. Here are some of the characteristics:

A commitment to the project at hand. A commitment to the chamber as an organization is a big plus.

Organizational skills and the ability to document facts, tasks and data.

The ability to share the credit with other volunteers.

A willingness to learn, to absorb new ideas and tackle new skills.

A willingness to listen to another's point of view, and sometimes give up your own ideas to make someone else's ideas work.

Respect for others and the ability to work in a team.

High ethical standards. A good volunteer never does anything to put the chamber in a bad light.

The ability to live up to promises or commitments in a timely manner. Or failing that, the ability to find a solution when this is not possible.

Transparency. A good volunteer does not have a personal or hidden agenda.

A cheerful disposition and positive outlook.

While the chamber has many opportunities for volunteers, there are still more in our community. Our friends at the Tri Cities Area United Way will host a Volunteer Opportunities Fair on Oct. 14 at NWTC in Marinette from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Visit us there and find a place for you!

How Chambers are Funded

2010-07-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

We're working on final plans for our annual golf outing, set for Aug. 31 at Little River Country Club.

About a year ago, a chamber member asked me why we held a golf outing. This particular member thought we ought to concentrate on business development.

We agree. And that is exactly why we hold a golf outing every year: To raise money to fund our business development programs.

Chambers have two basic sources of income: Dues revenue and non-due revenue. The latter category includes money raised at special events, management fees, and sometimes rental.

Our annual golf outing falls into the special events category, along with our wine tasting and several other events. (For the record, the contract we have with Marinette County to manage tourism falls into the management fee category and the rent we receive from Don Clewley, executive director of the Marinette County Association for Business & Industry falls into the rental catergory.)

The golf outing raises an average of $10,000 annually. That money goes into our general fund, but it covers expensees associated with programs. Salaries are covered by your dues investment.

A smart chamber gets about 60 percent of its revenue from events and contracts and about 40 percent of its income from dues. That's roughly where we stand. Some chamber experts recommend different ratios, but generally a 60/40 ratio either way is considered healthy.

Many people assume chambers receive annual allocations from taxpayers or the government. That is simply not the case, unless the chamber has a contract as we do with Marinette County for tourism. A situation like that is not unusual.

No matter where our funding comes from, we work very hard to use it wisely.

And we look forward to our golf outing, a day to kick back and have a little fun - and raise money to fund programs like our new Web site job listing page and other online efforts to serve members.

Another new member benefit

2010-07-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

We were excited this week to roll out another new benefit for chamber members: The ability to post Help Wanted ads on our Web site (http://www.mandmchamber.com/).

So far the response has been positive.

Last fall we launched another chamber member benefit: Cell phone discounts through Cellcom. That too brought a very positive response from members. One of our board members pointed to a $10 per month savings on cell phone calls. That adds up!

What we've heard from our members is that they want benefits that help their bottom lines, especially in these challenging economic times.

We will continue to seek ways to serve our members through benefits such as these.

There is no greater thrill for me as a director than to find ways to help your business flourish.

What exactly is a chamber of commerce?

2010-07-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

I'm always glad when someone asks that question. It's a chance to talk about who we are and what we do.

We are first and foremost a business organization that serves its members. We have 420 members; serving as a resource for their success is our top goal. We do this by providing learning, networking and promotional opportunities. We make sure our members communicate with each other and we try to provide benefits that impact their bottom line.

We are also a community organization in that we look for opportunities to work with our member businesses to create the kind of community that's a good place to live and work. Often this involves coordinating special events, like the upcoming Aurora-MACC Run and Walk, which give people a chance to get out and get fit - together.

Our summer concert series is another example: It provides entertainment in what are arguably two of the loveliest natural settings in our community: Menominee's bayshore and Marinette's riverfront.

Much of our work involves bringing people together and creating a sense of pride in community. It is that pride that propels others forward to create other opportunities, like farm markets and art fairs.

It's a joke among seasoned chamber staffers everywhere that chambers hand out maps. We do that and we do it with pleasure! Every time someone new visits our office to learn about our community, we have another chance to make a friend.

Often, people are surprised to find out a chamber is not part of the government. We are not funded by tax dollars but by membership investments, special events profit and management contracts. We often work with government officials, but we are not attached to city, county, state or federal governments in any way.

If you have any questions about who we are and what we do, please contact me. I love to talk about what we do and how we are changing to better meet the needs of our members and the community.

Welcome to our chamber blog!

2010-05-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this, you've probably accessed our new Web site (http://www.mandmchamber.com/).

As with most Internet projects, it's a work in progress. That is how it should be. A chamber must be a constantly evolving organization because the world we live in is constantly evolving. In order to meet the needs of our members, we've got to be nimble.

Electronic communication is nimble. If we want to get a message out to our members, we've got three fast options: E-mail, our Website and our Facebook page.

A blog is a different type of communication. It's fast, to be sure. But it's not necessarily the best method for quick communication.

Blog posts can be used to communicate longer messages, a bit like the director's message on the second page of Memo, our now quarterly newsletter.

It is our intent to use this blog to provide useful information to our members. Perhaps you'll find a post describing a member benefit, or a post clarifying what a chamber of commerce is and what it can do for members. (Some people think we are part of the government. Others think we give away free money. There are misconceptions out there.)

We could use this method of communication to offer tips to our member businesses. When we did a member survey last January, many members said they wanted us to provide useful information to help them manage their businesses, usually in the form of workshops or seminars. This blog could be another source of useful information.

Please check back frequently. Please talk back: There is space below each posts for your comments.

Our goal is to make our Website interactive and communicate better with our members, without bombarding them with e-mail. We think blogging is one way we can do that.