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Quote of
the Month
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.
- Arthur Rubinstein
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Special Thanks to
Our Partners: | |
Government Partners
Nebraska City Utilities
Platinum Partners
St. Mary's Community Hospital
Gold Partners
Arbor Bank
Short-Elliott-Hendrickson, Inc
Omaha Public Power District
Cargill Value Added Meats Farmers Bank & Trust Co. VanderVeen & Goracke, CPA
Diversified Foods and Seasonings
Olsson Associates
Larson Motors, Inc
Silver Partners
American National Bank
Commercial State Bank
Hampton Commercial Construction, Inc.
Alfred Benesch and Co.
JEO Consulting Group
Concrete Industries
Schemmer Associates
Tri-State Office Products
Bronze Partners
First Nebraska Bank
Borns Financial Planning, Inc.
Professional Mortgage Services
Miller-Monroe-Farrell/Home Real Estate
Nebraska Business Development Center
National Arbor Day Foundation/Lied Lodge Conference Center
Peru State College Graduate Programs
LeGrand Financial
Kirkam Michael
Affiliate Partners
MAPCO, Inc.
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Nebraska City Hosts the SERN March 2013
Regional Meeting
The Southeast Nebraska Resource Network (SERN) is a group of development resource and service providers, and volunteers interested in the betterment of Southeast Nebraska. SERN members meet quarterly to share information about successes, initiatives, resources, and programs for the region. SERN meetings are an excellent opportunity for local community leaders, volunteers and municipal staff to be connected with Federal, State, and Local resource and service providers to discuss ideas and opportunities for potential projects in SE Nebraska.
If you are interested in finding out more about what's happening in Southeast Nebraska please join us at our first quarter SERN meeting on March 20th at the Morton James Public Library at 10 am in Nebraska City. This is an opportunity to meet and mingle with individuals from throughout the region and learn about what's happening in their communities. Lunch is served so an RSVP will be required by March 5th to director@nebraskacityareaedc.org.
The SERN Region includes the Counties (and their communities) of: Polk, Butler, Saunders, York, Seward, Lancaster, Cass, Otoe, Fillmore, Saline, Gage, Johnson, Nemaha, Thayer, Jefferson, Pawnee, and Richardson. Anyone with an interest in community and economic development in Southeast Nebraska may become a SERN member and attend SERN meetings. To be added to the SERN email distribution list or for more information about SERN, please contact Jen Olds at 402-475-2560 (jolds@sendd.org).
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From the Book Shelf:
"The Sapp Brothers' Story: Tough Times, Teamwork,
& Faith."
This book is a great insight into how some of Nebraska's greatest entrepreneurs think and work. Bill and Lee Sapp share their path from children of the depression to present day owners of the Sapp Brothers' many enterprises. A journey of hard work, persistence, family team work and faith, it is a great inspiration for any entrepreneur. The lessons the Sapp brothers learned are sprinkled through out and the rules for business success are the hidden golden nugget in this book that every business person will appreciate. It should be required reading for Nebraska entrepreneurs alike, a great mix of common sense and team work.
Thank you Bill and Lee for sharing your journey!
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Its All About Making a Positive Impact on our Region |
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| Greetings!
In an effort to improve communications with our partners, colleagues and residents, we publish this brief, monthly eNewsletter. If you have comments, questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact our office. We value your input. |
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From the Director:
In economic development it is passion for the job that keeps those of us in the business seeking the next project. Having a passion for this business means having a strong desire to find new opportunities or solve issues in your community or region. This newsletter touches on just two passions in economic development: Workforce Development and Developing our Youth.
Workforce Development Training:
Working with our local industries to help them provide employees with appropriate job training serves two goals: work skills improvement for employees while helping our employers by giving them an opportunity to fill positions with the current work force. A job training collaboration with our economic development counterparts in Southeast Nebraska, the Leadership Boot Camp taught through Southeast Community College, will provide critical training for employees in our region. This training will educate existing members of the workforce and open doors to new opportunities for employees.
Our Southeast Nebraska Partners for Progress (SEP4P), comprised of the five counties of Richardson, Nemaha, Otoe, Johnson and Pawnee, has been working as a consortium to bring critical training to Southeast Nebraska. We have found that our existing businesses struggle to find sufficient training to prepare their employees to move to the next level. Industry management representatives often comment that they have great individual workers, but the employees lack the skills to move up into leadership positions. Numerous studies by organizations including Gallup, Hay Group and Deloitte Consulting demonstrate that skilled supervisors/managers are essential to high performancing organizations and play a significant role in harnessing emerging competitive behaviors including talent retention and employee engagement.
Through our consortium, we have joined forces to offer a Supervisor Boot Camp Certification Course. Twentyfive of our region's potential leaders are signed up for this critical foundational leadership skills class which will be given February 25th in Nebraska City and will earn .9 CEUS in the process.
The Course Provides Training in:
- Transitioning more effectively into a new supervisory role
- Avoid the 10 most common pitfalls confronting new supervisors
- Learn three skills needed to master to become an effective leader
- Making the psychological and social transition from the line employee to supervisor
- Managing the Multi-Generational Workforce
- Keeping out of legal hot water with workforce issues
We are excited about the additional benefit of bringing this critical leadership training to Southeast Nebraska; this leadership training can help prepare these adult students to feel more comfortable in taking leadership roles within their communities.
A WIN -WIN for our communities and employers.
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First® Lego® League State
Qualifier Competition
Humboldt, Nebraska, Tuesday, January 22, 2013 planning, brainstorming, collaborating and teamwork is what the First® Lego® League (FLL) team members have been doing since September 2012. Their research, presentation and technical skills were put to test at the First® Lego® League State Qualifier Competition held at HTRS School in Humboldt on Saturday, January 19, 2013.
Eighteen teams from Southeast Nebraska competed in this year's First® Lego® League Challenge in Humboldt. The FLL Challenge has four parts: the "Robot Game", the "Project", "Robot Design", and "Core Value". In the "Robot Game", the teams design, build, program, and test autonomous robots to perform a series of tasks. In the "Project", teams research a real-world problem, create a solution and share their findings. In the "Robot Design", teams demonstrate their engineering skills. Within "Core Values", the teams demonstrate their ability to work together as a team. This year's FLL Challenge centered on solutions for senior citizens.
Nine teams will advance to the State Competition on February 16th at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Gretna. In addition to the state qualifiers, other awards were recognized. The Judges Award went to the Beasty Bots (Nebraska City Middle School) for their ability to program the robot with the ability to start from anywhere on the mat. First place overall went to the Southeast 7 (HTRS Middle School) and second place went to the Rainacorns (HTRS Middle School).
First® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. In 1998 Dean Kamen joined with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen of LEGO® to create the program, First® Lego® League, for 9 to 14 year olds around the world. More than 16,000 teams competed internationally in last year's competition and that number of participants is expected to rise this year.
For more information about the First® Lego® League program in Southeast Nebraska contact Deb Weitzenkamp, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Kimmel Education and Research Center, at 402-873-3166 or deb.weitzenkamp@unl.edu .
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Stephanie Shrader, Executive Director
Nebraska City Area Economic Development Corp. |
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