Forest Lake BRE

BR&E Commencement had ~60-70 attendees and very nice event

2011-12-09T17:23:59Z

BRE commencement mtg. was great. John let me use our 4 minutes of fame and I led a round of applause for John, and for Doug Borglund for all their heroic efforts. One of the most well rehearsed, festive and scripted commencements I've seen. Very impressive and a gang of Wyoming, MN big shots invited themselves to the event. So we schmoozed and promoted BR&E and CE with them in the afterglow. I think Matt had to be impressed by it all and I know he enjoyed it. He was reading your report the whole time Brigid. Good work team! Glad you're fired up John. That is what I love to hear. :-)

FL Leadership Team Meeting, September 1, 2011

2011-09-02T14:20:29Z

John met with the Forest Lake BR&E Leadership Team yesterday, September 1, 2011 at City Hall in the Council Chambers. The group met for approximately two hours to discuss how best to follow up with appropriate actions from the July 28 Task Force Retreat. The group received copies of the 3 priority projects that were selected at the Task Force Retreat. The majority of the conversation in the meeting revolved around Project #2--Business-City partnership for economic prosperity, and an unofficial project to hire a staff position for the city to work for the FL EDA.
FL likes the Hugo model of monthly networking meetings as part of project #2 and has plans to think about a similar possibility for local businesses and community members. The Leadership Team also plans to create a sustainable method of doing BRE work for the long run in the community. There was some discussion about not being satisfied with the results of the initial warning flag reviews and follow-ups to businesses, and 4 members were selected to revisit that process to do a better job of thorough follow ups to businesses that responded and may need more assistance.
Another group is meeting to dig a little deeper into the issue of finding more money to fund a staff position to solely work on economic development. The budget for the EDA over the next year is set for $15,000, which the BRE Leadership Team believes is not enough to fund a position appropriate for the current needs. They plan to pursue the issue with the City Council, Mayor, and other local organizations. Other options for this project that were discussed included the possibility of a student intern for this work, or possibly finding funding for a half time position.
Not much time was dedicated to discussing project idea's 1 and 3, but the group plans to do so at the next meeting. The team doesn't feel comfortable with planning the Community Commencement Meeting until significant progress has been made with these projects, but still hope to hold that meeting sometime before the end of the year.
The team with be convening again on September 15 to report on project progress.

Planning for Implement Step 3

2011-08-25T15:01:22Z

The retreat went well on 7-28 and now there are three projects. John is going to F.L. next week. He will encourage them to reset the Leadership Team, possibly with Colleen Eddy as leader plus the leaders of the project teams. Planning for the 3 projects needs to get going, a paragraph written for each, and then the Commencement can be scheduled. We can look for a ripple effect mapping evaluation discussion with them 6 mos. or so after the commencement. Plus all the other things in the "green zone".

Chapter 2 and Presentation

2011-06-28T17:54:51Z

Chapter 2 has been submitted by Rachel Vilsack from DEED.

Rachel has also agreed to present at the July 28th Task Force Retreat. We will need to give her a concrete time when we have set the agenda.

Leadership Team check-in mtg. - Retreat set for July 28th

2011-06-09T16:54:40Z

John and Michael met with the L.T. at City Hall on 6-9-11. Everyone was there except Judy, the co-Milestone Meeting person and Steve Stegner. Michael presented the flowchart, congratulating the team on getting to the middle of the "red zone", the Prioritize Step. He also assured the Forest Lakers that they are doing just fine with respect to their four suburban counterpart BR&Es. From Eagan to Hugo, the previous suburban N sizes have ranged from 52 to 38 completed visits, with response rates from 52% to 70%. So F.L. at 36 visits with about a 50% response rate is right in line with their peers. I also emphasized that they can be comfortable with their dataset of 36 businesses as speaking for those 36 businesses, which represent over a thousand jobs. All their suburban peer communities moved forward with datasets that didn't scientifically represent the businesses in the community and all of those BR&Es produced good results in the Implement Step.

Everyone seemed satisfied with the progress to date and we agreed on a retreat date of Thursday, July 28th, 4-9 p.m. Famous Daves will probably be the food served. This date appears to work for Michael and probably for John. John will be working with Mike and Judy to maximize attendance for the retreat event.

The one request that Jacki made is that the draft Ch. 3 be sent to her and Doug in advance of the meeting. Which I am fine with. That doesn't mean that we will let her get rid of stuff that she doesn't like. But if she has ideas or sees stuff that needs work, cool. We'll also want to loop her/Doug into Ch. 1 too, for obvious reasons.

Sample of Businesses - Data only represents the respondents

2011-05-08T18:05:50Z

In October John reported that the sample of businesses was going to include about 25 chosen nonrandomly for a convenience sample. The rest of the businesses were going to be randomly selected from the comprehensive list of all businesses. And the total visits desired was originally north of 80 but they settled for ~60 visits. Now, with a total of 36 responses from such a combined sample we can not in any way attribute characteristics from the sample to the greater business population. There would be too much nonresponse error with such a low response rate. So that would be an inaccurate use of the data. But the data certainly represents the 36 businesses and we can analyze these data as a credible and honorable source of information about some of the businesses in town. Including employers of over 1100 employees and distributed across 7 sectors (with 8% or more of the sample from each of these sectors).

Chapter 2

2011-05-06T18:09:20Z

Rachel Vilsack has graciously agreed to author Chapter 2. Her job status is uncertain past June 1, but she will complete the chapter by then. We may have to present ourselves at the Task Force Retreat.

Rachel also mentioned the availability of new business creation/dissolution/retention data. She will include in the Forest Lake report.

Campus Review Summary

2011-05-06T17:51:18Z

Campus Research Review Meeting was held on May 5th, 2011 at the St. Paul campus.

Attendees were (list amended by Michael):
Laura Kalambokidis - Applied Economics
Ed Dieter - MN Trade Office
Doug Borglaund - City of Forest Lake
Rachel Vilsack - DEED
Colleen Eddy - Forest Lake Area Chamber
Hans Muessig - MIRC
Jackie McNamara - Forest Lake EDA
Stev Stegner - Forest Lake Former Mayor
John Bennett - Extension
Michael Darger - Extension
Brigid Tuck - Extension
Lee Munnich - UM Humphrey School
Ward Nefstead - UM Applied Economics

Survey results were reviewed. A SWOT analysis was conducted. A lively discussion ensued. Blue sheets were submitted to Brigid for research report.

Campus Meeting Lineup

2011-05-03T15:16:52Z

This is my test of trying to be an author of an entry in a blog.

Re: May 5th Research Review Meeting.
It has been kind of a revolving cast of possible attendees from F.L. As it stands now, it looks like attendees will be Jackie McNamara (co-overall coordinator); Doug Borglund (co-overall coord.) and ED. staff for city; and Stev Stegner, former mayor and champion of this BR&E. .

Survey Entry Complete

2011-04-21T14:48:24Z

All 36 surveys have been entered. Friday, April 22nd will be the cut off for surveys to be included into the data for the campus review and the report. Any surveys received after then will be entered into the spreadsheet, but will not be included in the totals.

Forest Lake Team Update

2011-04-19T18:20:37Z

John, Michael, and Brigid participated in a phone update on Friday, April 15th.

At this time, we are planning on a mid-June Task Force Retreat. John will work with the Leadership Team to select a date.

Brigid will contact Rachel Vilsack (DEED) and request that she author Chapter 2 (demographic and economic profile) for the Research Report.

John will begin to prepare the items he needs to submit for the report. These items include dates of key meetings, Task Force membership list, the list of businesses visited, and the sponsor logos.

We discussed the use of this blog as a project management tool.

John suggested we may want to revisit the design of the Research Report.

Survey Update

2011-04-19T18:19:29Z

As of 4/19/11, Brigid has 36 surveys in her office. The goal is to have all surveys entered into the spreadsheet by Wednesday, April 30th.

Survey Collection/Entry Update

2011-04-13T17:43:10Z

As of 4/13/11, Brigid has 34 completed surveys in her office. Support staff has entered 25 into the spreadsheet.

Sponsors/Funders

2011-04-13T17:22:22Z

1. City of Forest Lake EDA
2. Connexus Energy
3. Xcel Energy

Forest Lake Press Release from 4/5/11

2011-04-13T17:20:22Z

PRESS RELEASE

The City of Forest Lake Business Retention & Expansion (BR&E) Continues to Visit Local Businesses

The City of Forest Lake BR&E Leadership Team continues to meet with local business owners as part of the business retention and expansion program. The process began two months ago with BR&E volunteers and team members working together to interview many of our local businesses. The initial interview results have been positive and also informational bringing to light specific issues some business owners want to have addressed. The Leadership Team and city staff has been addressing some of the immediate issues. A compilation of common and more detailed issues will be addressed when the final project tabulations are presented to our BR&E Team by U of M facilitators.
BR&E Leadership Team members have been excited by the process and subsequent outcome.

Leadership Team member Judy Huntosh says, "As a former small business owner in Forest Lake for 25 years, I am passionate about making the business atmosphere in this city as positive as it can be. All current business owners need to feel that the city wants to assist them in all ways to be successful and happy to be in business in Forest Lake. As outside business people explore the possibility of establishing in this area they need to feel wanted and know that the city's goal is to work with them in every way possible to make Forest Lake their choice. The Business Retention and Expansion program is a vehicle for local business owners to express their thoughts about the current business atmosphere. This is our opportunity to be an active part in making Forest Lake a city we all can take pride in. This is an opportunity for a 'new beginning' and I am honored to be a part of making a difference."
Leadership Team member Bob Morehead says, "The BR&E survey has given me an opportunity to determine what concerns local businesses may have and how we may address them. Most of the businesses seem to be satisfied for the most part, and they seemed happy their input was considered important. Some of their concerns will be easier to address than others, but all will be and should be considered."
If you are interested in learning more about this program please call EDA President Jackie McNamara at 612-867-0184 or Community Development Director Doug Borglund at 651-209-9734.

CITY OF FOREST LAKE
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
BUSINESS RETENTION & EXPANSION PROGRAM RAM
21350 Forest Blvd. N
Forest Lake MN 55025