February 2012 Vol. 92 No. 2 The Experience A Newsletter for the Greater Burlington Partnership 2011 Annual Report p7 - p10 Greater Burlington Leadership p16 View The Experience at www.greaterburlington.com Existing-Business Calls Spring into Action 610 North 4th Street, Suite 200 Burlington, Iowa USA 52601 Phone: 319-752-6365 As we enter a new year, economists expect 2012 will be FAX: 319-752-6454 E-mail: [email protected] a better year than 2011. What does that mean for your Website: www.greaterburlington.com business? What are the challenges your business faces? Volume 92 No. 2 Do you have plans for future growth? What projects News should have the attention of our community leaders? 2012 Legislative Statements The Economic Development Division of the Greater Page 3 Burlington Partnership exists to add and retain We Need Your Connections jobs and help grow the tax base of Des Moines Page 3 County. To fulfill this mission, the organization Air Choice One Awarded must fully understand the local competitive business Additional Year Page 4 environment. As a result, the Partnership is again Member Profile of the Month calling on existing businesses. We want to hear from Page 5 you. Mark Your Calendars From now until April, the Business Retention & Page 5 Member Renewals Expansion (BRE) committee will be making visits. Page 6 The committee has set a goal of conducting 90 2011 Annual Report personal, one-on-one interviews with business Page 7 - 10 owners and managers of companies within Greater 2011 Existing-Business Survey Report New Members Burlington. In 2011, we conducted 83 of these visits Page 11 and shared the aggregated results at our Small Business Successes Business Appreciation Breakfast. Page 11 Calendar of Events Covered topics include product/service adjustments, workforce needs, political hot buttons, and even Page 12 questions about the future of the community. Although individual interviews are held in strict confidence, Member Information the data from each call will again be gathered and published in a trend report released at the Small Business Page 13 Appreciation Breakfast on May 18. Upcoming Partnership Events Page 14 If your business is contacted by a member of our Business Retention and Expansion Committee, please Partnership Calendar schedule an hour of your time to visit with them. Your input is extremely valuable. If you have any questions Page 15 or would like to participate, please contact Brenda Levitt at [email protected] or 319-208-0047. Greater Burlington Leadership Page 16 Kay Sackville Breuer Jason Hutcheson Sheila Newman Vice President Economic Development Existing Industry and Workforce Just A Thought 319-208-0041 Exec. Dir. 319-208-0043 Specialist 319-208-0048 Page 4 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Front Cover Photo: Ed Minard Steve Frevert Sherri Krause Beth Nickel 319-750-2873 Downtown Partners, Inc. Finance Manager Convention & Visitors Bureau edminardphotography.com Exec. Dir. 319-208-0056 319-208-0044 Exec. Dir. 319-208-0045 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Dennis Hinkle Kela Lehman Melissa Schwenker President & CEO Administrative Assistant Membership Director SUBSCRIPTIONS: Price is $24, which is 319-208-0050 319-208-0042 319-208-0046 included in annual events fees. Non-members: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] $3 per issue. Periodicals postage paid at Burlington, Iowa. POSTMASTER: The Experience is published monthly by the Greater Burlington Jaime Howard Brenda Levitt Brenda Wischmeier Partnership. POSTMASTER send address changes CVB Asst. & Welcome Center Econ. Development & Govt. Director of Marketing to The Experience (USPS 001-692), 610 North Coordinator 319-208-0052 Affairs Coord. 319-208-0047 319-208-0040 Fourth Street, Suite 200, Burlington, Iowa 52601 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] page 2 RiverPark Place • 610 North 4th Street, Suite 200 • Burlington, Iowa 52601 • 319-752-6365 2012 Legislative Position Statements The Chamber of Commerce exists to be a catalyst for economic business can and will overcome the impacts of rising taxes and fees growth and community development in Des Moines County. It is and increased regulation. We must remember businesses do have the imperative that a successful chamber work within the political realm option to do business in other communities, states and countries. to advocate positions important to business. The purpose of this set of position statements is to reflect those issues that this Chamber The 2012 “Political Action Agenda Survey” revealed serious of Commerce believes are in the best interests of the business concerns on the part of businesses in our community. Businesses community in Greater Burlington and Des Moines County. These feel threatened and uncertain about the future. When business lacks statements reflect the opinions of membership as measured by the confidence, decisions to expand and add employees are deferred. annual “Political Action Agenda Survey,” are recommended by the There is no sustainable recovery without a healthy, vibrant private Government Affairs Committee and are adopted by the Board of sector business climate. Full attention needs to be paid to creating an Directors. environment where business can compete and succeed. The federal government, State of Iowa and our local community must The 2012 Legislative Position Statements can be found on the do everything possible to encourage investment and job creation. Partnership’s website at www.greaterburlington.com/chamber_ There is an alarming trend to take business for granted and assume legislative.cfm. that the factories, shops and offices will always be there and that We Need Your Connections! The Greater Burlington Convention & Visitors Bureau is working to attract more meetings, conferences, and conventions to Greater Burlington. You can make a difference and be a connector for Greater Burlington. If you serve on a board, belong to a club or association, or serve on a committee you might be a Greater Burlington Connector! “Greater Burlington has had most success in booking meetings or events in the community as a result of having a local resident who served as a connector,” said Beth Nickel, Executive Director, Greater Burlington Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We are asking local residents to help us bring thousands of new dollars into our community.” Getting involved is simple. Visit www.greaterburlington.com and click on the Greater Burlington Connector button. Fill out a form with your contact information and a listing of boards, committees, clubs, associations, and/or groups you belong to and submit. Once your information is received the Convention & Visitors Bureau will take it from there. All residents who submit a connector form before May 15 will be entered in a drawing to win a Kindle Fire. For more information contact Beth Nickel, Executive Director Convention & Visitors Bureau at [email protected] or 319-208-0045. Brenda Wischmeier Director of Marketing 319-208-0040 [email protected] [email protected] • www.greaterburlington.com page 3 Cash welfare payments, medical assistance and yes, even unemployment insurance have moved into the category Air Choice of “expected” or “deserved” or “entitled”. In one, perhaps Just a two, generations we have moved from a time when a One Awarded person would do anything possible to avoid drawing unemployment or welfare in any form to a point where Thought many will accept it without reservation and for as long Additional Year as it will last. Recent reports indicate that many of those The Federal Department drawing unemployment will wait until they have about of Transportation has re- three weeks of benefits left before they begin to look for a selected Air Choice One job. That is true whether the unemployment benefit runs as the Essential Air Service Entitlement or Opportunity? 26 weeks or 99 weeks. provider for Southeast Iowa I have often said that the goal of parents should be to This is the case even though we have employers with jobs Regional Airport for a one- raise children to be responsible adults. Further defined, going unfilled. We have companies deciding to not make year period extending from the objective is not to satisfy every whim and wish, nor investments because they are not sure they can fill the job February 1, 2012 until January to make sure that the child has it easier than the parents slots. 31, 2013. Air Choice One did, and it is certainly not to ensure that the child never The key question of the political season in which we will continue to provide encounters any hardship or challenge. Of course families now are engaged should be how do we steer our nation are places of loveJason and Hutcheson, support, but Executive that should Director not commercial air service to both Economic Development back to a place where people expect and prefer to make Chicago and St. Louis. This overshadow the fact that parents have a duty to prepare their own way? How do we get back to a national spirit their childrenGreater to be capable, Burlington self-supporting Partnership adults. agreement may be extended of self-reliance and self-determination? How do we for an additional three years if begin to undo the sense of entitlement that has seeped so Before you think that I have lost my way and am headed Air Choice One implements toward a twilight career in family counseling, let me move pervasively into our culture? on. It is my view that government should take much the an electronic ticketing and Please do not misinterpret. This nation should be a baggage agreement with a same philosophy. The role of government is not to take place that takes care of those who cannot take care of care of huge numbers of our population by providing major carrier at Chicago themselves and it should be a place that provides a hand- O’Hare International Airport them income, food, housing, healthcare, etc.