Author Archives: Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber

1,500 Cedar Valley Students To Take Part in National Manufacturing Day

The Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber, Hawkeye Community College and area school districts are partnering to coordinate tours for 1,500 area 9^th grade students to tour manufacturing facilities on October 4^th, National Manufacturing Day.

CEDAR VALLEY of IOWA (September 17, 2013)—On October 4^th, ninth grade students from nine, Cedar Valley area schools will see manufacturing and engineering careers in action as part of National Manufacturing Day (www.mfgday.com). The event is sponsored by the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber and Hawkeye Community College.

The Cedar Valley is home to the highest concentration of manufacturing companies and careers in the state, and the demand for future employees in manufacturing is projected to be extremely high. Some area companies have been hiring 15 to 25 people per year to keep up with retirements, so the Alliance & Chamber partnered with Hawkeye Community College, the leading advanced manufacturing training center in the state, and the local SME Chapter (Society for Manufacturing Engineers) to conceive an event that gets students into local businesses.

More than 14 manufacturing companies will participate and open their doors to groups of 15-40 students and chaperones showing off their advanced technology, innovative designs and leadership opportunities to a new generation. “It’s important for us to debunk the myths of manufacturing careers that can exist with students, and even their parents. These are no longer the dirty careers of years past. These are now careers that involve critical thinking, high-technology, and some of the most important products to our economy,” said Britt Jungck, Director of Business Services and Workforce Development for the Alliance & Chamber.

After the event, students will have the opportunity to respond to an online survey to capture what they learned and how their attitudes about manufacturing careers changed as a result of seeing the facilities first-hand. This data will be extremely useful for area school districts in career counseling and high school programming.

“This is just another example of how the business and education communities in the Cedar Valley are creating meaningful partnerships that will enhance our workforce and quality of life,” Jungck added.

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UNI to begin Regional Entrepreneurship Project

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The University of Northern Iowa’s Business & Community Services (BCS) division will introduce a statewide Regional Entrepreneurship Project later this year. The program, funded through a $150,000 grant from the United States Economic Development Administration’s University Center program, will work with communities and regions across Iowa to establish a framework that fosters entrepreneurial development and small-business growth.

“The goal of this project is to refocus regional efforts to encourage the entrepreneurial development and provide them with the tools to make that happen,” said LaDene Bowen, associate director of UNI’s Institute for Decision Making and director of the Regional Entrepreneurship Project.

The project will explore factors including economic distress, recent layoffs and plant closures to initially select two regions within Iowa to establish a framework. One more region will be added annually for the duration of the five-year project. Within each region, BCS will implement a four-phase effort that includes an assessment of the region, educating regional stakeholders on best practices to cultivate an entrepreneurial support system, the development of a strategic plan, implementing the plan and continued support.

For more information on the Regional Entrepreneurship Project, please visit www.bcs.uni.edu/IDM, or contact Bowen at 319-273-2969 or ladene.bowen@uni.edu.

Iowa Business Leaders to Meet with Policy Makers in Washington, DC

Iowa Association of Business and Industry Leaders Embark on First Ever Washington, DC Trip

On Wednesday, September 18, Steve Dust, CEO of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber along with eleven other ABI leaders will depart Des Moines International Airport for a three day trip to Washington, D.C. During the visit, members will meet with Iowa’s Congressional delegation and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The packed agenda also includes briefings from U.S. Health and Human Services on health care reform, National Association of Manufacturers, BIPAC, and the Immigration Reform Council. During the meetings ABI members will hear the latest political and policy insight from our nation’s capital. ABI leaders also look forward to sharing their ideas on tax reform, health care, immigration and other issues with the Congressional delegation. Look for tweets and photos by following #ABIDC13 on twitter September 18-20. Upon return, expect a full report from ABI Public Policy staff.

Alliance & Chamber Seek Investor Input to 2014 Legislative Policy Agenda

As the Government Relations Committee begins deliberating on the 2014 GCVAC Legislative Policy Agenda, I want to extend a special invitation to an Investors’ Legislative Issues Forum on Monday, September 16, 2013 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cedar Falls from 8:00-9:00 am. This year, the Alliance & Chamber is offering an opportunity for investor involvement in legislative priority identification through this forum. Please come to hear from other investors what is on their minds as we begin crafting our 2014 agenda. Our hope is that this forum will give us an important head start and strengthen our efforts in identifying and prioritizing issues important to business in the Greater Cedar Valley as we build the Alliance & Chamber’s legislative agenda for the next session.

The October 11 Friday Forum will be at the Five Sullivan Bros. Center and the November 8 event will be at the Waterloo Center for the Arts.

Alliance & Chamber encourages voters to renew Hawkeye Community Collge Maintenance Levy

Board of Directors of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber resolve to support the approval of the renewal of the Hawkeye Community College Maintenance Levy, and encourage the voters within the 10-county HCC District to approve the renewal on September 10, 2013.

Hawkeye Community College (HCC) delivers educational opportunities to students from all over the Cedar Valley Economic Area, and beyond. HCC serves as an important bridge into higher education for high school students wishing to advance their technical and general education, and presents educational options to high school students at a critical point in their educational experience. Further, HCC delivers 50 specialized career training programs developing a broad range of skills that are important to the continuing growth of the Cedar Valley economy and contribute to increasing the incomes of talented Cedar Valley people. These include such areas as health care technicians and nursing, teacher preparation, advanced manufacturing and basic industrial operations, green and sustainable construction and energy technologies, logistics and large vehicle drivers training, web design and information technologies, and more. HCC also collaborates closely with the University of Northern Iowa, Allen College, and other schools to ensure that higher educational programming is coordinated to deliver maximum productivity in the student’s experience, shorten the time the student must be in the formal educational setting as they seek to get into the job market quickly, and employers seek students to acquire basic skills to fill immediate openings in well paying, skill-based jobs.

To deliver these economy-building educational programs both efficiently and effectively, HCC must continuously maintain and improve its physical facilities. Since the primary programs of HCC are focused on the fast changing industries, continuously investing in more advanced technologies and methods, so too must HCC continuously invest in state of the art educational and training facilities to fully prepare the students to maximize their income when they enter the job market. For instance, Hawkeye has recently delivered facilities that, using advanced virtual technologies, reflect modern hospital and clinical conditions for healthcare technologist training; a center housing advanced driving simulators for logistics and large vehicle training; and are preparing to open, this fall, an advanced manufacturing center to ensure our production-oriented operations are receiving new employees with needed skills to advance the productivity and profitability of Cedar Valley industrial employers, as well as ensuring graduate building and energy technicians are well prepared to deliver the highest levels of expertise in energy efficiencies in construction and energy generation.

HCC has proven to be a good steward of the existing Maintenance Levy funds. The Levy has been authorized for nearly 50 years. The funds generated by the small levy have been used to continuously modernize and maintain the efficient campus.

HCC is highly beneficial to the Cedar Valley economy. It has an enrollment of over 6,000 students in college-credit programs. HCC also plays a significant role in establishing the Cedar Valley as an

ideal location to build a “second career” through lifelong learning and adult education courses. HCC is very efficient for Iowa: fully 94% of graduates stay in Iowa to contribute to our economy and participate in our communities. Cedar Valley businesses benefit from HCC’s $106 Million in annual economic benefits delivered, including over 1,300 jobs.

The impact of the extended levy of $.2025 per $1,000 of assessed value will cost the average district homeowner less than $11 per year, yet deliver over $1.7Million of revenue targeted to facilities improvements on the HCC campuses only.

Based on the high levels of reliance the Cedar Valley businesses have on the success of HCC, and that HCC’s role in skills training and higher education is increasing as talent and skills are what drives economic growth, that HCC has proven itself a good steward of the Maintenance Levy funds, and it is to the benefit of the Cedar Valley in greater skills delivered, converting to higher incomes and stronger communities throughout the economic area, delivered to students who primarily work at Cedar Valley businesses and institutions and live in the Cedar Valley, and the levy is a continuation of an existing levy that is well managed, the Board of Directors of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber resolve to support the approval of the renewal of the HCC Maintenance Levy, and encourage the voters within the 10-county HCC District to approve the renewal on September 10, 2013.

Further, the Board of Directors asks the CEO and his representatives to distribute its reasoning and action to the investor-members and general public through appropriate means and media.

Resolved unanimously by the Directors present at the Board of Directors meeting on July 21, 2013.

Tom Penaluna, Chair of the Board

Steven J. Dust, President & CEO, Secretary of the Board

Produce Iowa seeking all Iowans involved in media production to register their services

New statewide online database promotes local film crew and businesses

DES MOINES – Produce Iowa, the State Office of Media Production, launched a new online tool today that will enable the local media production workforce and support service companies to showcase their skills and facilities to producers considering film and media projects in Iowa.

Produce Iowa ReelCrew is a web-based production directory that is part of the ReelScout platform – an online software utility created for film offices to provide state-of-the-art crew and location management. It is used by more than 60 film offices and commissions in the United States and Produce Iowa is the first to introduce this feature to Iowa.

“We are proud to partner with ReelScout to offer this national service to Iowans,“ said Liz Gilman, executive producer of Produce Iowa. “It has become an industry standard for databases and will help bring our state up a notch and give media producers considering Iowa as a potential project location a more accurate inventory of the talent and skills we have to offer.”

Iowa residents with production experience can go to www.produceiowa.com to set up an account and register their information free of charge. Once an inventory is created, Produce Iowa will release the information to the public complete with a search engine on its website. Media professionals will then be able to effectively track, manage and promote local crew and businesses in order to grow the production industry in Iowa.

“The IMPA is pleased to support the Produce Iowa website with our resources,” added Stephen Jennings, president of the Iowa Motion Picture Association. “It is clearly an important tool to further develop and foster Iowa’s media industry. There cannot be too many marketing tools for professionals and businesses in our state to aid in the re-emergence of the creative economy.”

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Produce Iowa, along with the State Historical Society of Iowa, State Historical Museum of Iowa and the Iowa Arts Council, is under the direction of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). The DCA is responsible for developing the state’s interest in the areas of the arts, history, preservation and other cultural matters. Mary Cownie serves as its director. More information about Produce Iowa and the DCA can be found at www.culturalaffairs.org.

Cedar Valley’s CUNA Mutual Group and Veridian Credit Union collaborate, fund implementation of Leader in Me in two area middle schools

Cedar Valley of Iowa – Two regional financial services organizations are collaborating to help ensure an effective leadership development initiative reaches the students of two more Cedar Valley area schools. CUNA Mutual Group and Veridian Credit Union have pledged to contribute a total of $105,000 to the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber’s Leader Valley initiative to further implement The Leader in Me program

The Leader in Me builds valuable 21^st century personal skills that correlate to success in education and the workplace. As students put into practice the principles of Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, they become more self-confident and take ownership for their lives. Schools where The Leader in Me is implemented successfully see higher academic achievement, fewer discipline problems, and increased engagement among teachers and parents.

CUNA Mutual Group, through its foundation, committed $75,000 to sponsor implementation of The Leader in Me at George Washington Carver Academy Middle School and Kittrell Elementary, both in Waterloo, Iowa. Veridian Credit Union committed $30,000 to Kittrell Elementary. Veridian also participates with Kittrell Elementary in the Partners in Education program. The sum will be distributed over a three year term. Initially, the gift will provide extensive training and materials to the staff and educators at these sponsored schools.

The addition of Kittrell and Carver the total number of participating schools in the Cedar Valley is currently 14, with an anticipated impact of 6075 students and 842 educators during the upcoming 2013-2014 school year. This number represents more than one third of total students and educators in the Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Valley Catholic Schools.

“At Veridian Credit Union, we believe that everyone is a leader,” said Jean Trainor, Veridian Credit Union’s CEO and Chief Inclusion Officer. “The Leader In Me program demonstrates that same belief and benefits our entire community as much as it does the students who participate.” Reid Koenig, Vice President of CUNA Mutual Group adds, “When one interacts with students who have been impacted by The Leader in Me, you quickly realize the effect the program is already having in transforming their lives. Our communities and businesses will reap the benefit of building great citizens and leaders for years to come.”

Steve Dust, CEO of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber is encouraged by the additional participation of the business community, “One of the Alliance & Chamber’s primary goals is to develop a strong, highly talented and skilled workforce to help businesses of all sizes grow and prosper in the Cedar Valley. This significant investment by two of the Cedar Valley’s most engaged and visionary businesses, underscores the recognized value and effectiveness of the early results from The Leader in Me initiative. It is very important that businesses of all sizes, as well as individuals and other organizations join Veridian Credit Union, CUNA Mutual Group, and CBE Companies as Leader Valley sponsors. It is only through gifts like these that it will be possible to expand The Leader in Me throughout the region.”

The combined contribution of $105,000 will be presented Aug. 15 at the New Teachers Breakfast to be held at Hawkeye Community College, Tama Hall. To accept the check on behalf of the Alliance & Chamber is Board of Directors Chairman and Leader Valley champion Tom Penaluna, CEO of CBE Companies, Inc. , who said; “with this kind of forward thinking funding from Foundations and businesses such as CUNA and Veridian, The Leader in Me can change, in a very positive way, the results of education in the Cedar Valley!” Representatives from CUNA Mutual Group, Veridian Credit Union, the Alliance & Chamber, and the Waterloo Community Schools will make comments.

About The Leader in Me

The Leader in Me incorporates leadership lessons into Cedar Valley school’s curriculum and everyday language. With reference to Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Leader in Me prepares students with key life skills, self-confidence, and accountability.

The Leader in Me, offered through Leader Valley, is an initiative of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber. Through Leader Valley, strong partnerships amongst Cedar Valley businesses, school district administrators and school boards, parents, and the community are being built to make the Cedar Valley a better place for students to excel and become well prepared for citizenship and their future careers.

ABOUT THE GREATER CEDAR VALLEY ALLIANCE & CHAMBER

The Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber is a private, non-profit corporation representing and advocating for the interests of business, industry and institutions operating in the Cedar Valley. The Alliance & Chamber was created to coordinate the resources allocated to economic development in the Cedar Valley, and provide a platform for shared services wherever possible. Alliance & Chamber programming includes Business Growth and Recruitment, Workforce & Talent Recruitment and Development, Downtowns, Districts, Tourism, and Chamber. This work is coordinated through more than 10 organizations, and in partnership with many other organizations whose purpose is to encourage economic growth in the Cedar Valley of Iowa. More information is available at www.cedarvalleyalliance.com.

ABOUT CUNA Mutual Group

CUNA Mutual Group insurance, retirement and investment products provide financial security and protection to credit unions and their members worldwide. With more than 75 years of true market commitment, CUNA Mutual Group’s vision is unwavering: To be a trusted business partner who delivers service excellence through customer-focused products and market-driven insight. More information on the company is available on the company’s website at www.cunamutual.com.

ABOUT VERIDIAN

Veridian Credit Union, founded in 1934 in Waterloo, Iowa, is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members. The credit union offers a full range of consumer financial services and employs more than 560 Iowans throughout 26 branches. For more information, visit www.veridiancu.org or call (800) 235-3228.

Links to media Coverage

CONTACTS

Melissa Reade, Leader Valley Program Director, Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber
mreade@cedarvalleyalliance.om, (312)232-1156
Steve Dust, CEO, Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber
sdust@cedarvalleyalliance.com,(312)232-1156
Tom Penaluna, CEO, CBE Companies; Board Chair, Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber
nmhamer@cbecompanies.com, (319)234-6686
Reid Koenig – CUNA Mutual Group
Reid.koenig@cunamutual.com, (319)352-1000
Andrea Hudnut – Veridian Credit Union
AndreaLH@veridianCU.org, (515) 289-5561
Crystal Buzza – Waterloo Community Schools
Buzzac@waterloo.k12.ia.us, (319)433-1800

Alliance & Chamber/TechWorks Campus Partners to Compete for Lightweight & Modern Metals Manufacturing & Innovation Institute (LM3I) Designation

The US Dept. of Defense has issued a RFP for the creation of an industry institute focused on discovery and commercialization of new lightweight modern metals, related products, and manufacturing processes. The goal is to deepen and strengthen the U S defense supply chain of modern lightweight metals products and production capabilities, while ensuring the same technologies and capabilities have commercial application for US industrial competitiveness.

The location of the Institute headquarters and center of manufacturing and acceleration operations in the Cedar Valley would attract the interest of those engaged in all aspects of metals design, use and production in the U.S. Iowa, and the Cedar Valley, will become a center of thought and action on development of the leading edge lightweight metals for a myriad of applications. It also cements a number of relationships with technical, business, and STEM centers and programs across Iowa and the Midwest that are beneficial to the Iowa Advanced Manufacturing Center development and operation, also located in the Cedar Valley.

Iowa Innovation Corporation (IIC) is leading a team that is competing for that designation. As I write this, the IIC team led by its President Jack Harris, is completing the Concept Paper.

To assemble the components of the concept paper, the IIC assembled a team representing metals and production technologies, corporate partners, Midwestern manufacturing extension programs, industrial technical centers, trade associations, and community college representatives from the Cedar Valley, Iowa and the US for a workshop in the Cedar Valley on July 30. If the Dept. of Defense selects the IIC proposal, the LM3I Institute, which would be national in scope, would be headquartered in the Cedar Valley at TechWorks Campus Tech 1 building, utilizing the assets of the Iowa Advanced Manufacturing Center (IAMC) and additional space.

Along with the “headquarters” of the Institute, the Cedar Valley would also be the location of the manufacturing innovation center of operations – where the manufacturing processes used with the new materials are refined and commercialized. The Institute would also utilize and support accelerator services for new manufacturing businesses emerging from the work of the Institute.

Contact Alliance & Chamber CEO Steve Dust for additional information regarding the IAMC and LM3I initiatives.

Iowa Advanced Manufacturing Center Takes Shape:

During the 2013 session, the Iowa Legislature stepped up with bipartisan support to approve funding for the creation of the Iowa Advanced Manufacturing Center (IAMC).

The IAMC is being established in partnership with the Iowa Innovation Corporation and Iowa Economic Development Authority. It will be a center of collaboration among those organizations listed above and many other “partners” and “users” such as many programs and centers within UNI and Hawkeye Community College, Wartburg’s manufacturing engineering program, ISU’s CIRAS/MEP, and others. It will be available to you and other Iowa manufacturers and product innovators to increase competitiveness and commercialization of new products.

“The realization of the IAMC moves the TechWorks Campus plan ahead, said TechWorks board Chair Tim Hurley. “ IAMC creates the center of thinking and action, physical and virtual, that has always been a part of our vision, he said. “ We could not have accomplished this without the leadership of Waterloo’s Sen. Bill Dotzler and enthusiastic bipartisan leadership of our Cedar Valley delegation and support throughout the legislature, IIC and IEDA for manufacturing’s leading role in Iowa’s economy. That it’s happening in TechWorks is our dream coming true,” Hurley concluded.

The IAMC is programmed to include such uses as these examples:

Owned and operated by UNI’s Metal Casting Center, a large format 3D printer will be installed in the existing industrial lab space of the Tech 1 building on the TechWorks Campus. The large scale equipment, using polymer media, will be among the only of its kind in North America. The Metal Casting Center will provide access to this highly sophisticated equipment to manufacturing firms on a contract basis.
The Alliance & Chamber and TechWorks are collaborating with UNI to make existing lab facilities available to Iowa firms on a fee-for-time or project basis.
It is expected to install one and perhaps two 4 and 5 wall Computer Aided Virtual Reality Environment structures in the lab floor.
Improve the Tech 1 building:
- Docks and overhead doors will be installed, along with required mechanical and electrical improvements.
- Space will be available for advanced manufacturing operations to lease, and
- Hawkeye Community College is establishing its green/sustainable construction methods program

Planning is underway for improvements, which will be underway later in 2013. Contact Steve Dust or Cary Darrah regarding IAMC programming.

Grow Cedar Valley