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Upcoming Events
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May 20: 11:30AMLuncheon MeetingTopic: Hmong Culture and Economic Development & ImpactLegacy Funeral HomeSign up on EviteJune 1: Town & Country ClubGolf TournamentTickets & Info HereJune 11: 4:30PMJoint After Hours Event
Midway Chamber &
St. Paul Area Chamber
at the
Minnesota Boat ClubJazz Festival Kickoff SPACE LIMITEDRSVP to Travis today!June 17: 11:30AMAnnual MeetingTown and Country ClubSpeaker:
Stan Hubbard, Sr.
Hubbard BroadcastingRSVP to Travis today!
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Announcing the University Avenue Clean Team!
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Join the Midway Chamber, Midway Training Services and our amazing sponsors in keeping University Avenue clean of litter and debris! Get all the details and sign up here.
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New on MidwayChamber.com
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For more frequent information, check out the Midway Chamber's blog. It has news on everything that's happening in the chamber, information on new members, social media tips and information and you can comment and interact with other Midway Chamber Members there! Also remember to check out Midway Chamber Live for news not only from the chamber, but from your community and the business world. You can also access all of the Midway Chamber's Social Media Platforms from the links on the left hand side. And if you're a visual person, be sure to check out the pictures from chamber events on the Midway Chamber's Facebook page. |
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Midway on the Fairway!
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Want to win free golf? All new members this year will be entered into a raffle to win a twosome (2 winners). Not a new member? If you've recruited a new member before May 22nd you can win a free entrance too! We're looking for door prizes! Click here for more information.
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Staples Affinity Program
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There's now an easy button just for Midway Chamber Members! With 80,000 items to choose from and free delivery, what more could you want? You can get more information on this program here.
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Corporate Technologies Affinity Program
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Today a group of centrally located technicians can offer 1) better
care, 2) faster response, 3) more preventative maintenance for less
money than a dedicated full-time IT employee. A national leader in this new model of computer support is Corporate
Technologies LLC. Get more information here.
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11th Annual Twin Cities Jazz Festival
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Our June 11th After Hours will also be a kickoff event for the Twin Cities Jazz Festival! Allen Toussaint headlines the Friday, June 19th free concert in Mears Park. Other notables coming are Esperanza Spalding and Alex Han. This event is going to be huge and will definitely be happening at a location near you! Visit twincitiesjazzfestival.com for a full lineup of this exciting event!
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Greetings!
This is an exciting time with the Midway Chamber with many fun events coming up. We have have recently sponsored and created the University Avenue Clean Team, new content on the website, and information on all of our upcoming events, including how you can win free golf in the upcoming Midway on the Fairway Tournament. Read on!
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Chair's Article
by Bob Hughes, Pioneer Press
"The
only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
Vince
Lombardi
Greetings Midway Chamber Members!
Spring is a time of renewal and although
the weather has been slow to bring warm sunny days, we all know it will get
better and the grass, plants and trees will bloom! In the past spring had been kicked off by the
chamber's Annual Clean Up on University Ave.
Many tons of garbage have been picked up through this event, but it was
just one day a year, we knew a more long term solution was needed. I am please to announce a new partnership
between the Midway Chamber and Midway Training Services (MTS) to keep University
Ave clean from spring through fall.
Chamber member MTS is a non-profit
dedicated to training and supporting persons with disabilities in their quest to
become active, contributing and productive members of their communities. An enthusiastic team has been selected and
began work in late April. University Ave
has been divided into 5 districts, our goal is to have each district picked up 2
times per month through October. If you
are interested in sponsoring this program click on the Clean Team Pledge Form
found on our webpage at www.midwaychamber.com. This is great way to utilize eager MTS
workers, keep the Avenue looking it's best and be a good neighbor to our
surrounding communities! All funds will
be used for this program, if we exceed our target we will expand the scope or
frequency of the trash collections. Thank you to Aspen Waste (Rick Cook) and TDS
Metrocom (Kurt Daugherty) for providing the support to kick off this project!
More opportunities coming up to learn,
network and have fun at the same time!
Please join us on May 20th at the Legacy Funeral Home for a
innovative way to learn more about the Hmong culture and business dynamics, both
as entrepreneurs and as consumers. Enjoy
a great lunch in a beautiful chapel area provided by Mintahoe Caterers while Kou
Vang, owner of the Legacy Funeral Home and former chair of the Midway Chamber,
shares some great stories about the 4 days of ceremonies and activities that
take place during Hmong funerals. Our
keynote speaker, Dr. Corrie from Concordia University will give an informative
presentation on the Hmong business community.
This is a great way to gain a better understanding your Hmong employees,
customers, neighbors and friends!
The Central
Corridor Light Rail Line continues to proceed through an extensive process of
planning. Everyone agrees there will be
challenges for the entire area during construction and many businesses will face
more specific issues that will cause distress.
One major issue is the loss of street parking. There is much more work to be done but to see
the joint report by the city of St Paul and the Met Council and other
information found in the April 2009 edition of Met Council's "Making
Tracks". Click on the links below to
read the articles:
We will continue to represent business interests through the Midway
Chamber board, Economic Development Committee and representation on the Central
Corridor Business Advisory Council, where our President, Lori Fritts is
co-chair.
Thank you for your continued participation and support of the Midway
Chamber! Don't forget we have the best
golf tournament in MN coming up on June 1st at the prestigious Town
and Country Club! Sign up to golf online
at www.midwaychamer.com today or consider being
sponsor!! See you soon, make it a great day!
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Want To Do Some Free Advertising On www.midwaychamber.com?
Here is an opportunity for chamber members to do free
advertising on the Midway Chamber Website! If you already have a
twitter account and are fairly well versed in how to use twitter you
can go ahead and skip to the bottom of this article. For those of you
who are new to twitter keep reading.
The first thing you're going to need to do is get a twitter account.
Go to twitter.com and make an account. It's free and takes just about
no time. I'd also recommend filling out the rest of your account. The
more attractive your twitter site the more likely it is that people
will want to interact with you. You can check out www.twitter.com/midwaychamber as an example.
The next step is to start following some people. Since you're
already at the Midway Chamber's twitter page, why not follow us? Then
check out some of the people we're following or that are following us.
You will definitely recognize some familiar faces and names. Follow
them too. Now if you click on Home at the top of your screen you will
see a feed of all the people you've started following.
While this is great, social media is more than just a news service
(though Twitter is becoming the fastest way for news to get out - the
terrorist attacks in Mumbai and the airline crash in the Hudson river
were broadcast around twitter before any conventional media) and you
should use twitter to communicate a message to those who have chosen to
follow you.
Keeping a balance between broadcasting, receiving, and interacting
with followers is important. There are many schools of thoughts on this
and I can't answer what balance is appropriate for you or your
organization, but it's something to consider.
There is, however, a widely adopted consensus that using a third
party application to use twitter is the best way to use twitter, and I
would wholeheartedly agree with this. The Midway Chamber uses a program
called TweetDeck which is very popular amongst twitter users. Other
popular clients are Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop, and the newly popular
Tweetie (Mac Only). There are a slew of other programs and tools you
can use to interact with twitter. Search Google and you'll find more
than you could possibly imagine. But a basic one you should familiarize
yourself with is search.twitter.com (For more info on the growing relevance of twitter search, see this article from Mashable).
Try searching for #MCCE. This is what is called a hashtag. It's a
way that people group twitter messages together. In this case, #MCCE
refers to Midway Chamber of Commerce Events. As you can see there's not
much there...That's where you all come in.
For those skipping to the bottom, start reading...
Do you have an event coming up that you'd like to share with other
chamber members? Post it with twitter and make sure to include the
#MCCE hashtag. Now go to the Midway Chamber Live Page- You should see your message in the Midway Chamber Events box. And so
will anyone else that checks us out. You'll also notice that we've
created a #MCCD hashtag for anyone looking to share a deal with Midway
Chamber Members. Check back often to see other deals and events coming
up!
These tools are works in progress and I am definitely open to
suggestions from all of you on how to improve these features. Or maybe
there is a feature you'd like to see us have available for you but
don't already...leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do. If you
have any questions on the material I talked about let me know and I'll
get back to you ASAP.
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Member Notes
AUSA Night with the Saints! -
Join the Saints on Tuesday, May 19th at 7:05 for a Special night. This $30 Ticker Package includes General Admission ticket, voucher for Hot Dog and Drink, A Saints Baseball Hat, and a special AUSA coin. A portion of all sales will go to the Gen. John W. Vessey Jr. Chapter of AUSA. For more information call 651.644.6659 or go to saintsgroups.com and enter 'AUSA' as the password. American
Engineering Testing, Inc. (AET) a leading engineering consulting firm
congratulates Thomas P. Venema on earning his LEED AP accreditation. Mr. Venema
is a Principal Engineer/Vice President in AET's Construction Services Building
Division. He has been with AET for 25 years, performing construction and
geotechnical engineering services, along with being the office manager in AET's
Chanhassen office during the new HWY 212 construction.  Rheinfest Winefestival on the MississippiEnjoy a fun-filled evening of music, dance, fine food and fine wine on
the Mississippi River. Live music will be provided by the Bavarian
Musikmeisters on shore and on the upper deck, and by the Alpensterne on
the lower deck. Other entertainment will include The Royal Order of the
Klondike Kates, , a buffet dinner
and wine tasting will be provided during the cruise. More information at rheinfest.org
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New Midway Chamber Member, Liesch Associates
See all of our new member profiles on the Midway Chamber Blog!
Main Contact for the Chamber: Eric
Hesse, PE, LEED AP
Title: Shareholder/Environmental Engineer
How long has the company been in operation: 40+ years
What do you hope to gain from your Chamber
membership:
Be involved in issues critical to the Midway area and
at the same time make solid business connections.
Accomplishments/Company Background Information:
Liesch is a multi-faceted environmental consulting firm employing civil
engineers, chemical engineers, geologists, hydrogeologist, biologists,
environmental scientists, computer aided design and GIS specialists. Liesch
provides a wide variety of services including brownfields development
assistance, solid and hazardous waste facility permitting and construction
oversight services, environmental due diligence services, mergers and
acquisition services covering environmental issues, air permitting and
emissions control design, soil and groundwater remediation system design and
operations, airport environmental services, legal expert witness services,
industrial wastewater services and water
supply services.
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Remember we have a Chamber Luncheon on May 20th. Check out the Evite Here and we'll see you there!
Sincerely,
Lori Fritts
Midway Chamber of Commerce |
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