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May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Blue Cross wants to ensure group customers have the information they need to promote available mental health resources to their members.
May 16, 2024 – The Henry, Autograph Collection
The MichBusiness Women Thrive Conference is a day of celebration, informative panel discussions, facilitated networking opportunities, and knowledge-sharing. It is advised by a distinguished board of businesswomen and community leaders.
Glen Lake Community Schools students go through some two cases of apples and 20 pounds of bananas a day. Photo courtesy Glen Lake Community Schools
John Fields knows it pretty
quickly if staffers at Glen Lake Community Schools aren’t timely in their
handling of fresh fruit in the district’s school buildings.
As a participant in a statewide farm-to-school program that provides fresh fruits and vegetables to local schools, officials at Glen Lake hand out two cases of apples, a half-case of oranges and some 20 pounds of bananas every day, generally dishing it out until the end of the day.
Glen Lake Community Schools students go through some two cases of apples and 20 pounds of bananas a day. Photo courtesy Glen Lake Community Schools
If they’re late getting it
out there, or if they pull it back in too soon, Fields said students are pretty
quick to ask, “Why?”
“If we either forget to get
them out there in time, or if we pull them early, we have students coming to
ask, ‘Where is it?’” said Fields, the food services director for the 700-student
school located in Leelenau County. “For the working school day, we actually pull
them right around 2:30, and there’s guaranteed to be a few kids coming back to
the kitchen to pick up their fruit because they forgot to do it.”
Glen Lake students are among thousands of Michigan students who have access to fresh produce, thanks to the 10 Cents a Meal for School Kids and Farms program. This year, the program provided some 135,000 children with locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.
“I’m all about kids eating healthy food, and there’s nothing healthier than fresh produce that’s grown right in their home state,” said Diane Golzynski, the director of Health and Nutrition Services at the Michigan Department of Education.
Fruits and veggies Grant-winning school districts purchase fresh fruits, vegetables or dried beans grown in Michigan. The schools report how many meals they served that contained the fresh produce. And then the Department of Education reimburses the school district 10 cents for each meal, up to the value of their grant. The grant amount each school receives depends on how many meals they serve.
Locally grown produce
tastes better, and the students can tell the difference, Golzynski said.
“They love it,” she said. “They’re asking for it, they’re eating more of it and they’re throwing less away.”
The program, now in its
third year, continues to grow, according to a mid-year report. This year, 57
districts and 145 farms in 38 counties participated.
“We’ve added counties and
money every year, and I would like to see us be able to go statewide,”
Golzynski said.
Wanting in So would Kristen Hennessey, the director of Nutrition Services and Procurement for Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, which includes three high schools, five middle schools and 14 elementary schools.
While Plymouth-Canton is not currently a participant on the program, Hennessey said once the program expands, she’d like to jump in.
“This is a great opportunity to bring fresh produce from our community farms to our students,” said Hennessey, who also serves as food services director for Livonia Public Schools. “It has been a goal of mine to bring the mindset of a farmers market and school meals together. This would truly be a jump start for a program like that. It has been proven that students will try more variety if they know it was grown locally.”
The money for the program is
written into the state budget. For the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the program had
$493,500 for school food reimbursements.
Hennessey said the success the program has seen so far portends good things — and more access — for the future.
“I feel good that, with the
results they have seen, that they will expand to give access to more students,”
she said.
Teaching moment Glen Lake Community Schools brings in one to two deliveries of local produce every week, according to Fields, the food service director.
“Teachers take advantage of
it for learning opportunities as well as for nutritional value,” he said.
“Having children not hungry throughout the day has helped them with staying
focused on the task at hand.”
Locally grown produce
allows for a variety from season to season. It also provides an opening for
educational opportunities.
“Every so often they’ll ask
when are we going to have plums or peaches or nectarines again, and we use that
as an educational time to explain that there are certain seasons for it,”
Fields said. “Then we’ll show them other items that are in season.”
The program also gives
students a chance to try new foods.
“We take things that they
don’t typically enjoy, say like a squash, and we recreate it to be something
that is a little bit more kid friendly, and they find out that they actually do
enjoy it,” Fields said.
The schools aren’t the only
ones benefitting from the program. The farmers who grow the produce do, too.
Isaiah Wunsch, CEO of
Wunsch Farms in Traverse City, said the program has allowed him to venture into
new crops.
“It’s created opportunities
for us to grow some Asian pears and nectarines,” he said. “There’s not a huge
mass market for those in Michigan, so we pretty much just grow them for the
schools.”
The nectarines in
particular, he said, are a big hit.
Knowing that the produce
comes from a locally grown source gets kids more interested in it, Golzynski
said.
Everybody wins “I’m noticing that the kids like it when it’s a farmer that they know,” she said. “When they know that it’s their neighbor’s farm, they get really excited, and then they’ll try the produce.”
Wunsch said he sees the
program as a way to improve the health of Michigan residents in the long term.
“We know that if kids have
bad experiences with fresh fruits and vegetables because they’re getting a
lower quality produce, they’ll be much less likely to make fresh fruits and
vegetables a part of their diet when they’re older,’’ he said.
Golzynski describes the
program as a win-win-win.
“The school gets the extra
money to be able to buy the produce, the farmers get the extra business so they
can keep doing what they’re doing, and the kids get the fresh produce,” she
said. “This is one of those rare programs where it feels like everybody wins.”
Level One Bank, a Michigan-based community bank, has been named to American Banker Magazine’s list of Top 200 Community Banks in the nation. American Banker Magazine ranked Level One #100 on its list.
The electronic scooter phenomenon came in with a flutter, took on some juice and soon reached dizzying heights. And that assessment can only be drawn by the order in which service providers Bird, Lime and Spin arrived on Detroit city streets.
The latest micromobility trend swept through the Motor City and nearby Ann Arbor and Lansing with a remarkable degree of stealth late last summer, catching some municipalities off-guard while snatching newfound enthusiasts who went along for a ride.
Dockless scooters are rented for $1 to start and then 15 cents a minute. The transaction is consummated through a smartphone app.
Some 1,000 e-scooters were deployed in Detroit during the summer and fall while the city of Lansing has permitted Santa Monica, California-based Bird and San Francisco-headquartered Lime to roll out 200 devices each. The city of Ann Arbor approved Bird to deploy 200 scooters under a 90-day agreement.
Others want in.
Ride-sharing pioneers Uber and Lyft have entered the market while Ford Motor Co. bought Spin last November. Gotcha, a mobility service company based in Charlestown, S.C., plans to expand in various university-friendly “town-to-gown” cities such as Ann Arbor and Lansing.
The euphoria has been somewhat overshadowed by reports of injuries — and lawsuits — arising from scooter use.
“I think, as far as a transportation option, it definitely holds promise,” said Andrew Kilpatrick, public services director and traffic engineer for the city of Lansing, who worked on the initial agreements for Bird and Lime to operate there. “We’ve probably experienced the same type of issues that other places did, where sometimes scooters are parked right on sidewalks or blocking crosswalks or something like that, which I think both companies try and do a good job of educating the users on how to park them. But human nature being what it is people will just, you know, leave them anywhere (and) everywhere.”
Nearly 58 percent of Lime riders surveyed had not ridden a bike in the last month, and 26.6 percent of them hadn’t ridden one at all in the last year.. Photo by Kris Krug.
Navigating the marketplace While the e-scooters used by competing companies may be similar, the approach being taken to navigate the marketplace differs by company involved.
Starting with similarities, most, if not all, are produced in China and can reach speeds of 15.5 miles an hour.
And then there’s the approach of the individual companies.
As an example, Bird, whose founder and CEO, Travis VanderZanden, is a former executive at Uber and Lyft, has been fined for operating without permits in more than one city where it has deployed the scooters.
Its “ask-for-permission-later” approach has not endeared the upstart in certain municipal circles, whose leaders are grappling to regulate a whirlwind trend.
In Lansing, officials contacted Bird when the company’s scooters suddenly began appearing on city streets in the fall. The city and Bird reached a 60-day agreement, similar to a deal that had already been reached with Lime, said the city’s Kilpatrick.
“Lime approached us basically wanting to come into the area and work something out,” Kilpatrick said. “So we actually had an agreement in place with Lime before they started operating. With Bird, those scooters (just) started showing up. I think it was after we had an agreement with Lime, but before Bird had contacted us.”
When Bird began deploying scooters on the campus of Michigan State University in nearby East Lansing, officials in Lansing began to take note.
“Once we noticed them coming into the city, we got in touch with Bird and basically said that they can operate in the city as long as they sign the same agreement that Lime did,” said Kirkpatrick, who said the distinction was clear.
“Obviously Lime came and talked with us first and didn’t launch before they had an agreement; Bird launched on the periphery of the city before talking with us, and so we reached out to them and then they came in and executed the agreement.”
Lime’s approach also differed in that it used a launch event last fall, hosted by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. Mayor Andy Schor, along with Bradley T. Funkhouser, executive director of the Capital Area Transit Authority, and East Lansing city council members and leaders from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce were among those attending.
“Lime is differentiated by our commitment to community relations,” said Scott Mullen, director of Lime’s expansion in the Northeast. “We partner with city and community leaders so our multimodal fleet can best serve the needs of their residents and visitors. Being a part of the communities where we operate is fundamental to transforming transportation.”
Mullen said the company’s culture includes building strong relationships in the markets in which it operates.
“We hope to continue working closely with officials and community partners in the future.”
In Detroit, Bird, Lime and Spin have all played by the rules, said Mark de la Vergne, chief of Mobility Innovation for the city, who developed the ordinance for them to operate under.
“Essentially, we heard that scooter (companies) were interested in coming to Detroit, like a lot of cities, and we are interested in seeing how they would help people get around,” de la Vergne said. “We developed an interpretation to our city code with how we felt scooters fit within them, providing guides in terms of fleet size, where they should be parked and things like that, and told companies if they were interested in being in Detroit and following the rules (to) give us a call.”
Gotcha scooters feature 10-inch wheels, as opposed to the industry-standard 6-8 inches, and a wider footpad for a more stable ride.
Under Detroit’s rules, 25 percent of scooters must be available outside of Grand Boulevard, which means they can’t be a downtown-only accessory.
Bird, Lime and Spin declined to share ridership numbers, in some cases citing competitive reasons.
Who are the riders? In Lime’s year-end report, 40 percent of riders said they used the company’s scooters during commutes to work or school. The study also found more than one-third of all users report making $40,000 a year or less.
“We saw popularity among all demographics of people choosing to use scooters to get where they need to go, whether it was for recreation or to cut down on a walk to the bus stop,” said Detroit’s de la Vergne. “People were using scooters for all sorts of different trips.”
Scooters also attract newcomers to the intermodal transportation realm, according to Lime’s report. Nearly 58 percent of riders surveyed had not ridden a bike in the last month while 26.6 percent hadn’t pedaled on a bike in the past year.
The overall goal is to encourage people to use scooters along with bikes and transit vehicles when traveling short distances, instead of relying on personal automobiles.
Micromobility a viable option Cities, which are eager to reduce traffic congestion, see the greater good scooters bring, Lime’s Mullen said.
“Each time transportation preferences shift, cities often have to adjust to meet those preferences and needs,” he said. “We’ve seen this nationally, as more cities incorporated sidewalks for pedestrians and, later, bike lanes for daily bike commuters. And we’re beginning to see these infrastructure systems now shift to support micromobility, like Lime scooters, as consumers demand it and city leaders determine that micromobility reduces traffic and improves transportation options for residents.
“By getting more bikes and scooters in use, we are helping increase the overall awareness of other mobility options. By using our anonymized data, the city can build a more efficient infrastructure for the future of transportation.”
Municipalities like Detroit see flexibility as being a positive approach.
“We are open to any way that helps our residents get around, makes it easier, safer and more affordable for them to do so,” said de la Vergne.
Sean Flood, founder and CEO of Gotcha, takes a holistic view of scooter transportation. What started out as a transportation company 10 years ago has evolved into a mobility outfit, which offers electric scooters, bikes and ride-sharing.
With that in mind, Gotcha has contacted Lansing about deploying scooters this spring. Flood says the number of devices to be rolled out will depend on how many the city will allow.
“We also think that these things should be deployed in mobility hubs, where you have designated locations to pick up and drop off scooters and shared bikes and things like that,” Flood said. “To give you an example, in Nashville we have a permit for 500 and I think we will start with a 200 to 250 number and continuously add scooters based on the ridership and build the order around those mobility hubs.
Former Detroit Lions great Barry Sanders attended a Spin-sponsored event at the Rusted Crow in December.
“I could see a similar approach with Lansing, as well,” said Flood.
Gotcha released its first e-scooter in late fall, a model that features 10-inch wheels, bigger than the industry-standard 6-8 inches, and a larger footpad, the idea being to create a more stable, balanced ride to enhance safety.
Gotcha’s teal branding may be eye-catching, but it’s not the first thing likely to lure riders.
“I think in a market where you have multiple products, where there are multiple providers, and there are obviously a lot of those, some of it in the beginning could just be kind of convenience and what’s in front of you,” Flood said.
Moving forward, Flood sees the market developing into the use of more “fleet-grade” products rather than the typical consumer-grade scooters.
Reliability is likely to be one of the key factors, says Flood.
“People will try a bunch of them and then they’ll land on the one that they feel safe with and that is in the right locations. The technology and the app and all of that has to work as well, (but) I think that’s the direction we’re going and it’s really why we’ve positioned ourselves as more the high quality product.”
Unlike other companies, which hire subcontractors to collect and recharge scooters, Gotcha has its own warehouse and crew to perform those tasks.
“It allows us to make sure that we have our eyes on these things daily and then provide a safer product,” said Flood, who adds that taking the mobility hub approach “gives us a chance to reset the system the way it should be on a daily basis. The more you do that, I think the more reliable it is and the more predictable it is for the rider.”
Safety concerns Flood’s Gotcha and other scooter companies are increasingly finding themselves addressing safety issues.
More than 1,500 people have been treated for scooter-related injuries in the U.S. since 2017, according to a Consumer Reports survey. An original investigation published in JAMA — the Journal of the American Medical Association — followed 249 patients who visited the emergency room with scooter-related maladies. Some 10.8 percent of those were younger than 18 and only 4.4 percent of riders were found to be wearing helmets.
Gotcha gives away helmets at product launches and offers them at a discount through a partnership with Bern, a protective-headwear manufacturer.
“We do a lot of education on the front end,” Flood said. “But I think this is one thing that, while apps are fantastic and you could do a lot of things digitally, this really is a hand-to-hand, a person-to-person education.”
Factors such as the newness of the phenomenon and the fact that people are not necessarily used to riding the scooters present their own set of challenges.
“You’ve got to really do a lot of education and technology can do some of that, but we believe that putting people in each of those markets, from a brand ambassador/street ambassador standpoint, in terms of educating, is important,” says Flood. “I think you’ve got to have a robust kind of ongoing educational plan in order to really move that needle, which I think we’re doing.”
Officials at Bird, which has given away more than 65,000 helmets, say the company strongly encourages all riders to wear helmets.
Bird is requiring riders to have a driver’s license and confirm they are 18 or older.
An in-app tutorial is included on how to ride the company’s scooters and how to park them. Bird has also formed a Global Safety Advisory Board.
In Detroit, there have been a few scooter-related mishaps, as riders, motorists and pedestrians attempt to share a confined space.
“It’s something that we ask everybody, whether you are on a scooter or you’re driving a car, or bus drivers, riding a bike, walking … everybody needs to be respectful of everybody and the streets stay safer,” de la Vergne said.
Any good
geography student in Michigan should be able to list the Great Lakes from west
to east: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
But
environmentalists and scientists are beginning to issue warnings about the
quality of water in what’s being called a “sixth Great Lake” by some.
We’re
talking about groundwater, 700 million gallons of which is being extracted on a
daily basis for drinking water, irrigation and industrial use in the state,
according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Those
numbers concern Liz Kirkwood, executive director of FLOW, a water advocacy
group based in Traverse City.
Kirkwood
says deep-well injections used to store hazardous chemicals underground are
among the concerns of her organization, whose initials stand for For Love of
Water.
“Even
though those injected wells are confined, there’s room for error and contamination,”
said Kirkwood. “If you mapped all the deep injection wells across the United
States, it’s sort of a pin cushion of a lot of toxic water right under our
feet.”
An issue that can’t be ignored Dr. Courtney Carignan, assistant professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University, said the contamination issue of groundwater is one that shouldn’t be ignored, especially given the persistency of a class of chemicals known as PFAS—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Courtney Carignan
According
to Carignan, the chemicals (which are used in certain types of paper food
packaging and consumer products) are also found in non-stick pans, unwaxed
dental floss, clothing that’s stain- and water-resistant, as well as textiles,
upholsteries and carpeting.
“Most
Americans have PFAS in their bodies, not just from contaminated drinking water
but also from widespread use of these chemicals,” she said.
While FLOW’s
Kirkwood calls the issue “a bit of a silent crisis,” it’s also one she says is
“not priority.”
Michael
Beaulac, a senior project administrator for the Michigan Office of the Great
Lakes, says part of the problem is that people aren’t seeing the problem, it
being “out of sight, out of mind.”
Limited resource But an even bigger problem, Beaulac says, is that groundwater is a limited resource.
“We’re
either going to run out in isolated areas due to overuse, or we’re going to
have a water quality problem, and a water quality problem is a water quantity
problem,” he said. Sinking new wells is one solution, but one that comes with a
price tag.
That said,
people like Courtney Carignan of MSU say health concerns related to chemicals
may be even more significant.
“These
chemicals [PFAS] stay in the body for a long time,” she said. “What that means
is that even very small amounts in our drinking water (at the parts per
trillion levels) over time will result in higher levels (parts per billion) in
the body.”
Michael
Beaulac says the kind of action needed to resolve the underlying issues should
begin with better data.
“We need a
better handle on the data if we can’t afford to sink monitoring wells—and we
can’t,” he said.
For
Kirkwood of FLOW, a key point is for Michigan to recognize the importance of
“protecting our groundwater with the same vigilance we protect our surface
water.”
The number of Michigan public colleges and universities creating shared relationships is increasing, a point made obvious by the posting of continuous updates by Michigan Association of State Universities from across the lower and upper peninsulas.
But someone had to be first and that came in 1986 with a relationship between the Grand Rapids Community College and Ferris State University.
The initiative, the first two-year/four-year link-up, is being credited to Grand Rapids Junior College President Richard Calkins and Ferris President J. William Wenrich as the GRCC Applied Technology Center was amidst funding and construction.
Storied collaboration The two higher education institutions celebrated the storied collaboration in Grand Rapids in late May when Ferris President David Eisler honored GRCC President Bill Pink during a “partner celebration” punctuated by success stories of recent grads of the dual programs.
While the unique West Michigan
collaboration continues to be celebrated almost 30 years later, its most
important aspect was underscored by Pink: “The product of that intentionality
is an educated citizen.”
FSU President Helen Popovich celebrated
the beginning of the collaboration in 1991 when Ferris first opened classrooms
in GRCC’s new Applied Technology Center (a project which, itself, brought together several
economic development, community investors and leaders in storied Grand Rapids
partnership style. Former Cascade Engineering CEO Fred Keller raised cash and
in-kind contributions of equipment and furnishings from 173 individuals and
companies).
Remarking on his predecessors, Eisler noted, “They did something that had never been done before. … A student can begin their education right at home at GRCC and then — in the same building — continue with their education… still taking GRCC courses and taking FSU courses at the same time. That’s the beauty of this arrangement,” he said. And then he stressed that while the opportunity is commonly used by traditional-age students, Eisler added, “It’s a lifesaver for adult learners,” who budget time and resources between jobs, families and education. “We’re creating an educated workforce for Grand Rapids and West Michigan,” he emphasized.
Pink noted GRCC is the oldest community college in Michigan and one of the oldest in the country. He half-joked that after taking the office of president two years ago and seeing how the partnership worked, he wanted to call former colleagues to say, “Hey, guess what we’re doing!
Being intentional brought results “It’s all about intentionality,” Pink emphasized, “That follow up must be there and must be sure. That’s what this partnership is all about, intentionality. It was a whole other thing (back then) to move into one’s building and then have people in that (shared) building collaborate.”
Pink pronounced, “The product of that intentionality
is an educated citizen. A graduate. Someone who walks across the stage, walks
into a job, walks into a career that is meaningful. And that’s why this
partnership works.”
In 2001, the institutions signed a concurrent enrollment agreement and 10 years later inked a reverse transfer agreement that allows coursework completed at a four-year university to be transferred back to a community college, satisfying requirements for an associate degree.
The schools have also partnered to offer 2+2 and 3+1 programs that allow students to move more efficiently toward the completion of a degree.
The ATC (renamed in 2008 to honor the financial support of David and Michelle Bottral and Tom and Joyce Wisner) houses labs for a litany of fields, among them CAD; plastics technology; computer applications; electronics; robotics; energy management; machine tooling; air-conditioning, heating and refrigeration; materials testing; hydraulics and pneumatics; the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education; nuclear medicine; molecular diagnostics; respiratory care; digital animation and game design; and digital media software engineering.
Sustainability took a step forward with the 2007 installation of a “green roof” on GRCC’s building.
The two institutions re-signed an agreement in September of 2016, committing to continued learning opportunities for West Michigan students. And in early May of this year, GRCC Foundation campaign leaders celebrated having raised $12 million toward a $15 million community-based fundraising goal. The public-facing effort follows support from the State of Michigan and Foundation for scholarships and a 20,000-foot expansion of the ATC.
“Our work engages partner organizations that in turn make our programming more robust and valuable to students,” said officials from Ferris State. “The celebration showcases how FSU and GRCC work together to have a transformative effect and change lives — the positive difference innovative collaboration makes for area families.”
Both presidents left the podium of the May event, perhaps only rhetorically asking, “What’s next?”
Do meetings at your company sometimes feel like a big waste of time? If yes, you’re not alone. More than 11 million formal meetings are held each day in America, and according to a survey by Microsoft, nearly three-quarters of the attendees feel those meetings are not productive. Add to that the nearly 40 percent who admit to dozing off at some point, or the 90 percent who fess up to daydreaming for a portion of these sessions, and you can see why meetings have earned such a bad reputation.
There are many ways to keep your meetings on-track and
worthwhile, however. To get you started, here are a few of the most common
meeting-related problems and how to
fix them:
Meetings never start on time Time is money. So, when your staff comes dragging in, even just a few minutes late, it’s costing you. Let everyone on your team know, in writing, that being late to a meeting is not an option. Be kind, but clear. Those attending should be prepared and ready to go, even if it means arriving 10 minutes early. Your meetings should always start on time, no matter how many people are missing.
Nothing gets accomplished, except scheduling another meeting Set an agenda, and stick to it! If someone goes off track, it’s your job as a leader to reel them back in. If an issue isn’t resolved, assign someone to work on it, to report back by a certain date, then move on.
No one pays attention In our society, the average attention span is about 10 to 18 minutes. Even a quick, half-hour meeting can cause people to check out. Keep your team engaged by asking for input. Avoid lectures, too. These are sure-fire attention killers. If you must schedule a longer meeting, include one or two breaks.
Also, a meeting scheduled too
early or too late can kill its effectiveness. If you plan a meeting near noon,
make sure lunch is provided. Nothing gets someone off track as much as hunger.
The meetings run long Have you ever been in a meeting that just goes on and on, taking twice as long as necessary? We all have, which is why it’s a great idea to set a time limit. Then, if the session gets off-track or someone feels the need to endlessly talk about a situation, you can gently (but firmly) remind everyone that time is limited.
Meetings don’t have to be brain cell-killing, time-sucking gatherings. If done right, they will increase productivity and communication—despite the time they take!
Pioneering women provided the framework for the keynote remarks delivered at Inforum’s 57th annual meeting by Michelle Howard, U.S. Navy Admiral retired. Howard, the first woman to become a four-star admiral in the Navy and the first African American woman to captain a U.S. Naval ship, counseled the audience of 600-plus to look at women in history for tips on how to succeed in life and work.
Howard’s career includes many highlights; certainly one of
the most intriguing is leading the rescue of Richard Phillips, the captain of
the container ship MV Maersk Alabama, who was held hostage April 8 – 12, 2009
by Somali pirates. The incident was made famous by the 2013 movie “Captain
Phillips” starring Academy Award winner Tom Hanks.
The packed room at The Henry Autograph Collection in
Dearborn gave a standing ovation to the native from Colorado as she wove her
personal story into the following “pioneering tips” drawn from notable American
women from the 1800s:
Commit to the journey: don’t let the journey get to the
point of “burning the wagon.”
Travel light: let go of the mental baggage.
Develop stamina: be sure of yourself
Keep a sense of self and a sense of humor.
Stay connected with people who have similar skill sets.
When asked by Inforum President and CEO Terry A. Barclay for
a final “lesson learned,” Howard’s parting
piece of advice was, “Listen to your mother.”
Rochester Hills, MI (May 21, 2019) – Spalding DeDecker, a leading civil engineering and surveying firm headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, is pleased to announce that Larry Dropiewski, PE has joined our team as a transportation senior project manager.
The 2020 U.S. Census will be the 24th population count in the nation’s 220 years. This massive yet rare event has been successfully repeated every 10 years since 1790 despite the nation’s involvement in war, economic strife and political turmoil.
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Fla., came to Detroit in early June to help reporters, editors and media of all kinds from Michigan learn about the Census, how it will occur in 2020 and how to write about it in a way that educates readers and citizens.
Why should people, businesses and governments care? Put simply, Poynter and Census officials said data from the 2020 Census will be used to determine representation in Congress as well as how funds are spent for roads, schools, hospitals and more.
The Census was created in the 1787 Constitution to apportion seats in the House of Representatives and Electoral College among the states. But it also offered the demographic history of the United States in terms of population growth and change – and how it directly affects the political system.
Why count?
The mission of the U.S. Census Bureau is to serve as the nation’s leading provider of quality data about its people and economy. The bottom line is this: It helps ensure that everyone in a community is counted. Detroit is specifically affected because the city has lost population and Michigan could lose Congressional representation due to population decline.
D’Vera Cohn, a senior writer and editor who focuses on immigration and demographics at the Pew Research Center, told the crowd of about 40 journalists that the first Census count will begin in remote areas of Alaska in January 2020. The first numbers (state apportionment counts) will be release in December 2020.
Local data will be released beginning in February 2021. This includes counts down to the block level. The Census Bureau expects to count more than 330 million people in 140 million units – it counts by household or other places where people live. Counting has always been done by household, and tabulation and publication have always been done by the federal government in Washington D.C.
The 2020 Census form will ask only six or seven data questions, Cohn noted. Detailed questions about income, education, commuting, housing value and more will be included on the American Housing Survey. The American Housing Survey (AHS), the most comprehensive housing survey in the U.S., provides up-to-date information on the size and composition of the housing stock in our country.
What we learn Every census typically asks the same questions, focusing on age, sex, race/ethnicity, location and household composition. This has been the same since 1790 or the first Census, explained Margo Anderson, professor of History & Urban Studies, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
The Census also asks questions such as work, education, disability, family relationships, wealth and income as well as domestic and international migration. Questions about housing crept onto the Census by 1940, asking type of residence, ownership, selling characteristics and appliances, Anderson said.
The nation has come a long way since punch cards and rooms full of computers, Anderson noted. But it is still an “incredibly labor-intensive process” that has significance and importance to the country and its residents.
The big issues for 2020 are the multiple modes the Census Bureau will use to collect its data. It will seek answers on phone, paper, human census taker or a “smart” device, Anderson said. Other issues are whether Americans will respond as they have in the past, the accuracy of the count and whether citizenship will be a question on the Census.
Gleaners is one of 35 food banks across the U.S. who has received funding from the Morgan Stanley Foundation. The $50,000 grant will fund its School Food Mobile Pantry Program, which provides a readily accessible source of healthy and nutritious food for children and families.
Looking for a way to get your employees to open a 401(k), save more or set up an emergency fund? One East Lansing credit union recently created a campaign that proved effective in getting young people to save – and it may have larger ripples for people of all ages.
During National Credit Union Youth Month in April, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) encouraged youth members to add to their savings through two different youth-focused contests. The top prize was a $100 1-Year-Add-On Certificate.
The results were amazing; more than $1 million was deposited throughout April, surpassing the total of youth account deposits made in 2018 by more than $300,000.
“Each April, we focus on sharing financial information with our young members, teaching them savings strategies so they can achieve their dreams,” said Deidre Davis, MSUFCU’s chief marketing officer. “This savings contest, as well as the career goals photo contest, are creative ways we helped them look forward to their futures and envision their goals.”
More than 2,500 deposits were made into MSUFCU youth accounts during the promotion. Youth members could enter the career goals photo contest by submitting a picture of themselves dressed for their dream job, with one winner receiving $250. In addition, all youth members who visited a credit union branch during April received a free gift.
“It’s been proven that when we acknowledge and record our goals for the future, they’re more likely to come true,” said Michelle Kamke, marketing projects manager at the Credit Union National Association. “By encouraging our youngest members to get into this habit, we foster their ability to save for their futures.”
Founded in 1937, MSUFCU has 19 branches, more than 275,000 members, nearly $4.4 billion in assets, and more than 900 employees.
Dr. Jerry Davis, associate dean for business + impact at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, said the school is launching a part-time MBA program on-line. Photo courtesy University of Michigan
Dr. Jerry Davis agrees, for the most part, with recent research done by the Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association that shows working with businesses to help them be more sustainable will be a top priority for business schools over the next five years.
Dr. Jerry Davis, associate dean for business + impact at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, said the school is launching a part-time MBA program online. Photo courtesy University of Michigan
Davis, associate dean for business/impact, Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker Professor of Business Administration and professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, said sustainability “is going to be an underlying theme.”
“The other thing changing the shape of organizations is digital transformation,” said Davis, who earned his PhD from Stanford in 1990. “We can’t underestimate how much that’s changing business practices. Our biggest recruiter is usually Amazon … that’s going to look really different with, say, auto manufacturers.”
Top priorities In a turbulent global marketplace, business school deans and decision makers have outlined what they deem to be the biggest priorities for corporates, and how these will invariably affect their own strategies.
Considering the wider business environment, 71 percent of business school decision-makers felt that the ability of companies to innovate was an important priority for the next five years, followed by embracing cleaner and more environmentally-friendly technology (67 percent); big data and analytics (61 percent); and how companies adapt to digital technology (59 percent).
The research launched at AMBA & BGA’s Global Conference reports that nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the 151 deans and business school decision-makers polled by AMBA & BGA cited organizational development as a priority for businesses over the next five years and only 20 percent said the marketing of new products, services and ideas is likely to be high on the corporate agenda in the medium term.
When asked about the issues that would be most important for their own organizations, the top priority for the business education community, cited by 76 percent of those surveyed, was the impact business schools have on how businesses work in a sustainable way followed by innovation in program delivery (70 percent); and quality of teaching (64 percent).
That’s where business schools can really help, according
to U-M’s Davis, a self-proclaimed “researcher at heart” who says research can “really
guide best practices and come up with new practices.”
“Business schools are in a really unique situation, kind
of an estuary between the fresh water of academia and the salty water of the
real world,” Davis said. “That could be a fruitful area. We think about problems
in the real world, but we can draw on our disciplines to figure out what’s
coming three years out, five years out.
“Businesses can’t really do that,” he added. “If you’re fighting your daily fight, you can’t always step back and look at what’s coming in the future. Research would be Job 1.”
B-school challenges Will Dawes, research and insight manager at AMBA & BGA, said the research shows business school decision-makers see technology and transformation as “being major forces influencing business in the next few years.”
“This chimes with the innovation challenges these leaders foresee for their own business schools, namely business sustainability and program delivery,” he said. “Many of the prevalent themes highlighted, such as cybersecurity and big data, are relatively new concepts, but are now very much in the consciousness of business school leaders. This should not necessarily diminish the importance of other issues raised, such as equal opportunities and recruitment, which while not being at the forefront of minds, are still regularly cited.
For Davis, the author of four books on business, the biggest
challenge facing business schools represent two “somewhat conflicting sides” of
the same coin: Bringing the program to students “wherever they are” and making
sure the on-campus experience is as valuable as it can be.
“We have the technology to reach students around the world online,” Davis said. “We’d love for students living in Marquette or in Holland to be able to get a degree with us. We’re launching a part-time, online MBA program to try and make education accessible to broader constituencies.
“The flip side is, how do we make sure what we do on-site is as valuable as possible, so that it’s worthwhile for you to be in Ann Arbor, where rents are high and it’s cold in the winter?” he added. “We want to make the experience here as valuable as it can be. We focus on action-based learning where you need to be where it happens, be with your peers. We want to make it a real-world experience and not just something you could have gotten by watching a YouTube video.”
Innovative Learning Group, a performance-first learning company, announced today that Graphic Designer Zach Swisher has joined the company. Swisher has more than 10 years of experience developing digital and print graphics for learning and performance support materials.
Rehmann is proud to announce that Chris D’Agostino – assurance associate in the Firm’s Troy office – has been honored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants with the prestigious Elijah Watt Sells Award. The award recognizes outstanding performance on the CPA Exam.
Pictured is Executive Director of Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars, Christa Funk and Barry Griswell, Chairman and Retired CEO of Scholarship America.
Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars is the only Michigan organization to receive honors from Scholarship America on May 15, in Washington D.C. DFS also presented at a Partner Summit to discuss students’ needs and how to enhance existing scholarship programs.
Pictured is Executive Director of Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars, Christa Funk and Barry Griswell, Chairman and Retired CEO of Scholarship America.
Private equity firm Huron Capital announced today that its portfolio company StayOnline, a manufacturer and distributor of a wide selection of highly-specialized power cords and cables, has appointed Mark Panico as CEO to lead the company into its next phase of growth.
Tuft & Paw, an ecommerce seller of high-quality cat furniture, offers buyers of cat beds a 50% discount if they donate the cat bed to an animal shelter. Its Donate a Bed program seeks to help endangered cats.
The Association for Corporate Growth Western Michigan has won the national organization’s “midsize chapter of the year” award for the third consecutive year. Western Michigan is the only chapter to win the award three times. Chapter members received the award at the ACG annual meeting on May 6.
Stratacomm, a full-service communications agency, announced an internal restructure in Detroit. Kristin Calandro Tyll, partner and senior vice president is promoted to managing director. Sharon Hegarty, senior partner and senior vice president, is named partner responsible for agency-wide marketing.
This is “all hands on deck” time for Grand Hotel President Dan Musser III – this week is the Mackinac Policy Conference, which brings more than 3,000 people to Mackinac Island and to his hotel in particular for conversations about Michigan, the economy and more.
Musser said his staff of more than 700 employees is ready for the crowds, the service demands and the technology needs of the Detroit Regional Chamber, who hosts the event at the historic hotel. Having a supportive partner in the Chamber as well as devoted employees will make the days ahead busy yet exciting, he added.
This season has already been busy – over the winter, the Grand Hotel completed what it calls the Cupola Suites project, officially restoring the 1887 roofline with a row of 24 dormers lining the entire roof. Believe it or not, this was a project Musser himself suggested decades ago, and he is glad to have the extra space for guests and families.
Grand Hotel has been owned for three generations by the Musser family. President R.D. (Dan) Musser III runs the hotel alongside his sister Mimi Cunningham and mother Amelia Musser. Since 1933, the Musser family has made it their mission to give every guest a grand experience.
Dan started full time at the hotel in 1986 and worked his way up through every department to gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of running the hotel. He served as kitchen assistant, bellman, bartender, bar manager, front desk clerk, front desk manager, reservations manager and vice president. He was named President in 1989.
Q: What kind of effort does it take to put on the Mackinac Policy Conference? A: The Chamber is our largest customer. We have some groups that have more individuals that come – one example is the Knights of Columbus, but that’s a different type of conference. The Chamber and its conference requires us to do everything that we can do. Every function space is used. Spaces that are not usually function spaces are becoming function spaces. We will be doing everything from served meals to buffets to cocktail parties to box lunches. We do everything that we’re able to do in a three- to four-day period.
Q: How do you make it happen? A: I just finished up a meeting with our head waiter, chef and others to go over the notes for the week one more time. We have a regular managers’ meeting every Monday, but we go over our notes several times for the Chamber event. For this group, we double down. We go over it and over it. Because things change even up to the date of the meeting, I want to make sure they’re all on the same page. Do we have enough ice, food, beverages? It all has to be on the island when we need it.
Q: What are the challenges of doing this on an island location? A: We don’t know any better – we’re used to it to a certain extent. It forces us to get to our A game immediately. That’s great for the business because gets us to our best right at the beginning of the season.
Q: What kind of role does the Chamber and its employees play? A: We could not do it without the chamber and the chamber staff. Of all of our groups, they’re brilliant at looking and dissecting the meeting. They focus on the good stuff and they change the stuff that needs improvement. It’s forced us and me to look at our business as well and change it. Then we can pour gas on what’s great and change what’s not working.
Q: What is new at the Grand for 2019? A: When I was in college, about 30 years ago, we were rebuilding the pillars that hold up the third and fourth floor. I suggested at the time we should put not just steel in the pillars to hold up the roof, but we should go in and redo the foundation to put rooms up on the fourth floor. … So this is a 30-year plus project –and it is finally done! It looks like they’ve always been there. We’ve also updated more than 150 guest rooms with wallpaper, drapes and carpet. We’ve also updated bathrooms with glass showers and all tile.
