Author Archives: Bloomington Chamber Staff

Shopping Local for the Economy this Holiday Season

Last month we had the pleasure of co-hosting the 2011 Business Outlook Panel and Lunch, a presentation forecasting the economy in the upcoming year by a panel from the Indiana University The Kelley School of Business. Their forecast was, for the most part, “optimistically pessimistic.” Though my take on our local economy is more along the lines of “cautiously optimistic,” their outlook prompted me to think about our economy, and what, if anything, we can do to stimulate growth. I quickly realized, the holidays are coming up, which presents an excellent opportunity for the local economy to get jump started.

Our area businesses are geared up and ready for the holiday-buying season. Inventory stands ready, as do expectations. Nationally, the buzzwords around this year’s buying season include “lackluster” and “muted”. Such rhetoric does nothing to build consumers’ confidence nor does it encourage shoppers to venture out within their communities to celebrate all their hometowns offer. Such rhetoric doesn’t help to get the economy rolling. So while we may not be able to make a major difference in the economy nationally, we all play a role in shaping our local economy by the decisions we make as to where to make our holiday purchases. I challenge you to take an active role by consciously making the decision to stay IN Bloomington and buy local this holiday season. Continue reading →

The Chamber’s Position on the 2010 MCCSC Referendum

The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce supports the MCCSC referendum. After surveying our members and vetting this important issue through our volunteer committee and board structure, The Chamber felt compelled to support the referendum. We must invest in the education of this and future generations of Monroe County students. Our schools need stable, reliable funds that will be used to decrease classroom size by restoring classroom programs and teaching positions.

Recent budget cuts have caused the elimination of more than 60 teaching positions; increased class sizes at all grade levels; reduced programs for the most at‐risk students; and cut district stipends for all extracurricular activities.

The Chamber has been, and will continue to be, active in discussions regarding the referendum. Following the November 2^nd vote, we intend to communicate support for monies being spent to decrease classroom size, increase the graduation rate, and funding for reform measures where appropriate. We believe that the referendum money is critical to the future of our students, our workforce and our economic vitality. Bloomington must remain competitive by investing in our schools.

For more information on the referendum, including a tax calculator, visit: http://2010referendum.info/

Chamber Launches New Tiered Membership Investment Structure

It’s all about choice…and improved membership benefits.

After careful consideration by The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, staff and the Membership Committee, The Chamber is changing the way members will invest. Like many chambers during the past decade, we are moving to a tiered dues system which provides benefits based on the investment level a member selects.

In the past, businesses joined and paid membership dues solely based on the number of employees in their organizations. This criteria is still applied but in the new structure, members choose the benefits that they want and need, then invest accordingly. The Chamber’s new “tiered” system provides increased benefits with comparable dues – plus many new benefits, even at the Classic entry level .

Why?

You’re probably wondering why The Chamber would make such a change in the way we do business. Continue reading →

Public Hearing for Section 4 of I-69 This Week

I-69 is likely to be a hot topic this week as several highway related meetings are scheduled to take place.

A public hearing is set for 5:00-9:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 26^th at the Eastern Green Middle School gymnasium. At this hearing, INDOT will present the preferred alternative route for Section 4, the stretch of highway that connects CRANE to SR 37 in Southern Monroe County. Public comment will be accepted on the Section 4 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) during the meeting and may be submitted to INDOT through September 28^th.

The Technical Advisory Committee of the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) met this morning with I-69 related business on the agenda. INDOT is asking the local MPO to amend its Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to include preliminary engineering, right of way, and construction phases for I-69 due to the 1 ¾ miles of Section 4 highway that falls within the MPO’s planning jurisdiction. The Technical Advisory Committee, tasked with reviewing the requested amendment and making recommendation to the Policy Committee of the MPO, voted unanimously in favor of the amendment. The Citizen’s Advisory Committee meets this evening at 6:30 to discuss and vote on the amendment. The Policy Committee will make its decision on September 10^th.

Glaciers and Guidance Counselors

I recently had occasion to vacation in Glacier National Park. Did you know that according to recent predictions, the glaciers in the park will be completely melted by 2020? Rangers (darkly) joked with us that they’ll need a new name for the park.

But did you also know that a similar change is happening to guidance departments in public schools? A new report just released by the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center includes a startling look at what guidance counselors actually do – and don’t do – in today’s schools. As it turns out, their traditional role has melted away just as surely and inexorably as have those pearly caps on our American Alps. So much so, in fact, the title “guidance counselor” may no longer be appropriate.

Bigger Mountains = Smaller Glaciers

Let’s start with the core issue: Guidance counselors are completely overloaded. According to the report, the national average ratio of counselors to students is 467 to 1. This is actually down from a ratio of 506 to 1 in 1997.

Things are worse in Indiana, which ranks 44^th with a ratio of 543 to 1. The recommended ratio is 250 to 1, but only four states (Louisiana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming) actually meet this guideline. But impossible caseload ratios only tell part of the story.

From Icebergs to Sno Cones Continue reading →

Imagine That! Five Ways to Put Imagination to Work for You

Last week I felt stuck, like I didn’t know what to do next. Not because I didn’t have work to do – my ‘to do’ list was a whiteboard without any white visible. It just felt like everything was equally urgent. It felt like trying to decide what to eat for lunch, but everything in the fridge is in identical shiny cans marked “to eat”.

Then my mind did a short circuit and tried a different approach. Instead of telling myself what I need to do, I imagined how I would explain to someone else what needs to be done. This slightly different way of looking at things broke up the logjam, and by Friday I was back on track.

The problem was that I was standing too close to my work, and couldn’t see how the tasks immediately in front of me fit into the larger picture. Sometimes we just need to look at the situation from a different perspective. Imagination is powerful tool for doing this, one with unlimited applications. Here are a few mental gymnastics to challenge your current mindset.

1. If you were hit by a bus…

This is the one that worked for me. Imagine you are suddenly taking a different job and have to leave instructions for your successor. What would be at the top of the list for him or her to do their first week on the job? Those should probably be your priorities right now.

This line of reasoning is also applicable to ‘succession planning.’ What things depend on you and you alone, and no one else could do them? Hopefully that last one is a short list. How about your key employees? If you lost one, how long would it take to get the next person up to speed? Is there information that would be forever lost? Healthy organizations have written procedures in place to offset this risk – does yours? Continue reading →

10 Reasons to Use Evidence-Based Programs

Many youth service providers feel they need to invent their own unique program. Not so. Plenty of proven, off-the-shelf models and programs are out there just waiting for the right application. Odds are, some of them are designed to produce the exact outcomes you are looking for.

Here are 10 reasons to check them out and find one that works for your clientele.

They Work. ‘Evidence-Based’ means it’s based on research. In addition, there has usually been some kind of quasi-experimentation involving pre- and post-testing and comparisons with control groups.
They’re Fundable. Over the past ten years, funding agencies, especially federal funders, have increasingly called for evidence based programs. Sometimes they even provide a shopping list of programs that they are willing to fund.
Just Add Water. There’s no need to spend time developing procedures, creating forms, and designing programs. All these have already been developed, probably by someone who knows more about what works than you do.
Instructions. The manual is already written, usually in step-by-step format. Continue reading →

Social Media, Scotty Wise, and his Brewhouse

The following is a guest blog from Scott Wise, a Chamber member and owner of Scotty’s Brewhouse. All of the views and opinions expressed in this post are solely Scott Wise’s and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. To submit a guest blog e-mail DeJohn Rose for more information.

Since opening the first Scotty’s Brewhouse in Muncie in 1996, I have experienced the highs and lows of the restaurant business. After the initial success of Scotty’s, I opened a fine dining restaurant in 1998, where I lost nearly a million dollars in three years. Needless to say that was one of my low points, but I think I learned more from that failed venture than I’ve learned from any of my successes. When we closed that restaurant down, we opened our Bloomington Scotty’s Brewhouse location in 2001. West Lafayette opened in 2004 and the northside Indianapolis (96^th Street) location opened in 2007. We opened our downtown Indianapolis location (at Virginia & Pennsylvania Streets) in 2009. Scotty’s Lakehouse just opened this summer and we’ll be opening our Brewpub, Three Wise Men Brewing Company in Broad Ripple in late 2010. We also have a project we are planning to launch in 2011 in Fort Wayne. We’re looking to locate in left field of Parkview Field, home of the Minor League Fort Wayne TinCaps.

A big part of our recent success and expansion, despite the down economy, can be attributed to our presence on social networking websites. A year and a half ago, when the economy crashed, we were looking for ways to cut costs without laying employees off. At the same time social media was really taking off, so we eliminated every single piece of outside advertising, no print, no radio, no other types of traditional media, and shifted our focus to e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. In the past, we would spend about $250,000 each year in football ads, newspaper, and radio during Christmas time to promote gift cards. We eliminated all of that.

I realized that without a marketing budget, my use of social media was the only way to get our message out. You can’t walk into a business and say, “If you spend $500 on this ad, I can promise you that you’ll generate X amount of dollars back”, that’s why marketers rely on impressions and views and all of those similar metrics. The reason that social media has been so successful and the reason I jumped on board was not just because I had to, but I felt that the world had already shifted over to social media. Recently I gave a talk to a young professionals group in Muncie about social media and I asked the attendees to raise their hand if they subscribed to the newspaper. Of the 50 people I was talking to, only 2 raised their hand. Then I asked them to raise their hands if they had a Facebook account. Every single person raised their hand. I said “You guys just made the point for me – I could leave right now and this would be a successful talk”. The world changes and you have to change along with it. Continue reading →

Chamber Events a Great Way to Get Involved

The summer months are traditionally a time of life slowing down for a while, especially for those whose lives are ruled by the academic calendar. The kids are home and, most likely, suffering from various levels of boredom. The parents, though still occupied with their regular jobs, have a reprieve from shuttling children to and from their many activities. In addition, the hot temperatures and high humidity cause a certain amount of lethargy in most individuals, causing a natural slowdown in scheduling.

Despite the heat, we at The Chamber are not slowing down with our many events. Our Golf Scramble was held on June 16, followed by the June Business After Hours, both held at the Bloomington Country Club. Continue reading →

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