The mission of the Mobridge Chamber of Commerce is to provide able community leadership that will encourage and work for economic growth in business, industry and tourism; thereby enhancing the quality of life in the area we serve. The Chamber will represent the interests and January 2013 Edition advancement of its members while promoting responsible principles in the TABLE OF CONTENTS: conduct of business and government.” 1. Holiday Cash Promotion 2. Directors Desk Editorial Mobridge Chamber News 3. Directors Desk Editorial (cont.) 4. Smarts Challenge Competition Holiday Cash Promotion 5. South Dakota Fun Facts 6. Mobridge Economic Development Corporation 7. Guest Editorial by Robert & Cheryl Maisch December 8th / Winner 8. Ambassadors Report Judy Hough $500 9. Tourism Report 10. Chamber Board, Staff & Committee Information 11. Calendar December 15th / Winner Bertha Hahne $100 December 22nd / Winner Allen Little Eagle Jr. $100 Trina Little Bear (shown) 1 2013 - A New Year Since the end of my first full year at the Chamber has transpired, it is time for reflection on the Chamber's past accomplishments and also on the goals yet to achieve for the coming year. The following is a brief description of each of the Chamber committees and what they have accomplished. 3B Tax Committee - A solid budget was adopted that strives to provide funds to showcase our city as a friendly, outdoor, family oriented place that hosts many activities and events and is also a hunting and fishing mecca. The Director's Desk Editorial budget includes monies to attend trade shows and to co-op with the State on Michele Harrison shows that we cannot attend. The committee ordered USB drives containing the Chamber member directory and brochures with the same information to give out to the shows' attendees. A webcam was also installed in Mobridge so that not only can visitors watch our town from afar but also Keloland can use the camera to highlight incoming storms and thereby giving us more publicity. The Friends of Scherr-Howe committee was given funds to help with the start up of the Event Center and other activities that were partially funded by the 3B tax were Beef 'n Fun, the Mobridge-Pollock High School Powwow and the Smart Challenge Science Fair. Advertising in many magazines and newspapers was also a priority for the committee as was funding to the Mobridge Youth Organization. Ambassadors/Ag Committee - This committee was not as busy as the year previous when all the area towns had their celebrations but we still had quite a few ribbon cuttings and open houses and we served food at Beef 'n Fun and at the Eureka Big Q. Because of the weather last year in February, this group was not able to attend the Business Day at the Legislature but that event is a normal "must do" on the committee's calendar. Athletic Committee - We hosted the District B Boys & Girls Basketball tournaments at Scherr-Howe and manned the hospitality room. Coordination of volunteers for various jobs was completed. This year we will also be hosting the Regional B Boys Basketball tournament at the Scherr-Howe Event Center. Make it Mobridge - This is a new committee that will replace the old Retail Committee. The mission of this group is to promote and strengthen the active business community within Mobridge by developing new social events and growing existing events; and with the assistance of our media representatives, developing collective campaigns to advertise and promote the diversity of our local businesses' goods and services. Since we just recently organized Make it Mobridge, we have only had one promotion and that was the Holiday Promotion which had the ability to give up to $1,500 in Mobridge Cash and helped to bring shoppers to Mobridge. The group hopes to have city-wide promotions every quarter within such events as the Easter Egg Hunt, the 4th of July activities, Crazy Days and Beef 'n Fun. 2 Tourism - This group is a well established and well managed committee. Some of the events that this committee hosts is the Annual Ice Fishing Tournament, the Denny Palmer Walleye Tournament, Surf 'n Turf and the committee also attends a sports show in Omaha. The 2013 Ice Fishing Tournament has grown to 500 teams and brings thousands of tourism dollars to Mobridge. New to this year will be the Ice Expo which will be held in conjunction with the Ice Tournament. Administration - The Chamber administers the Mobridge Cash (Bonus Bucks) program, houses a fishing, hunting & history information center, funds the community Christmas street decorations, responds to requests for visitor and relocation packets and maintains the bookkeeping for all the different committees. We strive to keep the Community Calendar updated and we are continually upgrading the website www.mobridge.org. Director's Desk Editorial Michele Harrison (Cont.) Within each of these committees there are numerous advances to be made. Not only is the tourism industry extremely important to our commerce but also important is our quality of life and the current big ticket item that everyone is ready to rally around is the new aquatics center. The Chamber will be making that a priority for 2013. Annual Chamber Banquet Friday, February 8th, 2013 Reserve your table of 8 now $300 includes meals, wine, reserved table, special recognition for your business and great entertainment REZA Recognized as one of the Nation’s Top Illusionists, Reza has been featured before millions of people on television, radio, and live shows broadcasting in 31 Countries around the World. Astounding audiences from Denver to New York…Orlando to Los Angeles, critics hail Reza as “One of the Nation’s Top Illusionists,” leading the way in a new era of magic. 3 Smart Challenge Competition Scherr-Howe Event Center January 30, 2013 9:30am - 3:30pm This competition is sponsored by the Smarts Challenge Competition Mobridge-Pollock High School and many surrounding schools have been invited to attend. Each team will consist of 10 students from grades 9-12 and they will compete in 6 events that will test their skills in problem solving, direction following, creativity and engineering skills. Make a point to stop by the Event Center to watch our kids in action. Dining Establishments - Make sure you schedule extra help for this day as they are planning to let the teams go out for lunch! CONTACTS: Martin Looyenga [email protected] Pam K. Wells [email protected] 605-845-9200 4 Family Farms 98% of farms in SD are family owned/operated. Product 2010 National Average size of a farm in SD is 1,374 acres. Rank Average age of SD farmer is 55.7 years. ---------------- ---------------- There are 46,000 producers on 31,800 farms. Alfalfa 2 Each producer raises enough food to feed 155 people yearly. Sunflowers 2 Oats 3 Flaxseed 3 Hay 4 FACT FACT Ethanol 5 SD has more than South Dakota Wheat 6 92,000 dairy cows, has nearly 5 Corn 7 producing over 1,8 beef cattle for Soybeans 8 billion pounds of every state milk per year. resident. South Dakota Fun Facts Milk SD Cash Receipts 2010 4% Data courtesy of USDA, NASS, SD Corn, USDA Wheat Hay NRCS, SDSU, SD DOR and SDDA 9% Sunflowers 1% Turkeys 2% 1% Hogs 6% Cattle 26% Soybeans 21% Corn 27% Other 3% Average Annual Crop Yields 160 140 120 100 80 60 1960s 40 20 1970s 0 Corn Soybeans Wheat 1980s 1960s 70.53 24.85 26.36 1990s 1970s 89.64 28.06 31.37 2000s 1980s 105.9 30.3 35.81 1990s 123.34 36.72 38.64 2000s 147.37 40.32 41.47 4.5 million acres of corn FACT 4.1 million acres of soybeans South South Dakota 3.6 million acres of hay has over 2500 Dakota farms that have 2.7 million acres of wheat been in the same 2.2 million acres of alfalfa Acres family for more 495,000 acres of sunflowers than 100 years. 105,000 acres of oats Harvested 60,000 acres of millet 11,300 acres of pulse crops 5 Mobridge Economic Development Corporation Anyone considering starting their own business should really check into By Christine Goldsmith what the Mobridge Economic Development Corporation (also known as Executive Director MEDCO) organization has to offer right here. Perhaps you didn’t realize: MEDCO provides loans to area businesses that have unmet financing needs or are just starting out. The organization has loaned out over $1 million since its inception to small businesses that invested over $3 million into the economy, hiring local people and doing business with other local companies. The smallest loan MEDCO made was $1,500 and the largest was $150,000. Loans have been used to meet needs for inventory, equipment, and expansion, with the interest proceeds re-invested to make dollars available for the next new business. MEDCO operates in a 4-county area (Walworth, Campbell, Corson, and Dewey), supporting regional economies. MEDCO recently launched a new website and blog at www.makeitmobridge.org which includes useful information and forms. Entrepreneurs can obtain free help from MEDCO for any aspect of starting a new business. Membership in MEDCO reflects businesses from all areas – retail, service, manufacturing, and construction. Special loan funds are set aside to improve storefronts for as little as 4% interest, with no down payment, and available to businesses throughout Mobridge. MEDCO partners with Job Service to continue making employment info locally available to area businesses. MEDCO will be 27 years old. It has been investing in companies and jobs in this area for decades and is well positioned to continue many more years in the future.