The following Club E meeting will be held Monday, June 3. Jeff Krage of Okoboji Works will be the featured speaker. His topic will be Do You Need an App for That? - trends in use of smart phone applications.

Our first "Good Life Iowa" Business winner is Northwest Bank, submitted by Paul Daniels. Read his story about why Northwest Bank is deserving of the Good Life Iowa designation: 

My family and I moved to this area five years ago so I could continue my career with a very well established corporation in the area; I had worked for that company for a total of 9 years and enjoyed it very much. We fell in love with Northwest Iowa and all the many great experiences it had to offer. The things we valued helped us to make the decision to stay in this area were the strong school system for our children, opportunity for lots of community involvement, a thriving business presence and a community that was committed to shopping local, friends with similar values; great hunting and fishing opportunities, countless entertainment events, and so many other wonderful things made Spencer and Northwest Iowa a unique and inviting place to live. As time moved on with my career, I knew that I wanted new challenges and more of a work/family life balance. To find that with the corporation I had been with, I would have had to move somewhere else in the state or even the country.

I had been personally banking with Northwest Bank for a couple of years and liked the experiences and the way they treated me. Even more importantly, it actually felt like the people at the bank cared about us as people. I knew they probably treated everyone in this caring way by seeing their community involvement through their donations and the number of people who volunteered at so many events; I thought Northwest Bank would probably be a great place to work. I knew someone who worked at Northwest and told him that I was looking for a change but wanted to stay in the area. He suggested I talk with Dean Jacobsen, the president of the branch in Spencer. I called Dean (who I barely knew) and told him of my situation and what I was looking to do. Dean asked to have me meet with him and the Regional Market President, Dan Hassman, to sit down and talk about myself and what I was looking for. We ended up meeting for an hour and I basically talked about myself and why I was looking for a change, and that I wanted to stay in Spencer. They explained that they didn't have any open positions that would apply to my skill set since I didn't have any banking experience, but they would keep me in the loop if a position would open. This conversation with them really solidified my thoughts about what type of place Northwest Bank would be to work for. The fact that these two really busy individuals were willing to take more than an hour out of their day to talk to me about myself really showed again how much they cared about people in the community.

A year had almost passed from that point and no jobs in this area had opened that would be a good fit for me. Finally, an open position became available at Northwest Bank that I thought I might be suited for. I went to Dean and asked about the position and he said it probably wouldn't be one that would fit my skill set, but there may be a position opening that might fit my experience and he would let me know when it was available. Eventually, I applied and went through the interview process and was offered the position!

I began my new position at Northwest in September 2012 and have loved every minute of it. Everything I have thought about this organization and people that work for it was proven correct. This organization is filled with dedicated and caring individuals who work for a company with the values of hard work, respecting your neighbor and living with integrity. This growing company and the people who work for it believe in building relationships and exceeding the expectations of both its customers and business partners. In my short time here I have had the opportunity to talk with the two owners and have even sat down to a family style lunch with them at their headquarters. You can tell by the way they treat their employees and customers that they were brought up in NW Iowa and haven't strayed from those morals and ethics in their business approach.

I feel very blessed to have been given this opportunity and to be able to call NW Iowa and more specifically the Lakes Corridor Region, "home." Some of those that have lived in this area all their life probably don't realize how lucky they are. My roots began in Eastern Iowa along the Mississippi and I have progressively moved west. I feel fortunate to have lived all of my life in Iowa; I think we all might feel this way after watching just a bit of the national news each night. But, I can tell you without reservation, that this area is a special place, it is the best of the best!