Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association Newsletter
(September 8, 2013 - September 14, 2013)
 Click Here
for the
As I See It... 

Meeting  

 

It is hard to believe summer is over after it took forever to get here. We will soon have those crisp fall days that most look forward to after the hot and humid days of summer.

 

The change in seasons also means it is MMBA Regional Meeting Time. If you have never attended a Regional Meeting, you are missing out on some valuable networking and information.

 

I am always interested in hearing about what is going on with other facilities. It is fun to hear about what promotions managers are running to increase business, what promotion increased traffic in their building and how managers are drawing crowds from neighboring towns by holding what may sound like the most ridiculous event, but people were so curious they had check it out.

 

Of course with all of the fun stories told, there are serious situations in facilities we discuss as well. Situations may be with employees, city council, customers, distributors, inventory, etc. When these stories are told, there is always someone that has "been there / done that" and can offer some good advice on how to handle the situation.

 

With any issue going on in your facility it is nice to know someone else has been in the same situation. It sometimes can make things seem a little better when you can talk about it with people who can relate to you.

 

Regional Meetings are not intimidating at all. They are a smaller scale compared to Boot Camp or the Annual Conference. Sometimes it can be intimidating when you are in a large group of people, to ask the questions that are on your mind or give an answer to a discussion when you are not sure it is right or wrong.

 

I know I have been one of those people in a large group who would rather not ask a question or add to a discussion in fear of what people may think of me. With groups being much smaller at Regional Meetings, there is a chance to ask the questions you need to or offer your input in conversations that are conducted.

 

Staying informed is another important reason to attend a Regional Meeting. We always discuss legislation and what is going on with the issues we work so hard to fight against. For example, it makes me very proud of how hard we work to fight against Sunday Liquor when there is a big support group out there in favor of it. Yet when it gets brought up at the capital each year it is defeated.

 

We also discuss hot products and trend out there and what is selling. There have been a few products I have put in our store because of the feedback I got at Regional Meetings.

 

At Regional Meetings you also get a chance to meet some of the MMBA Directors.   Although not all of us will be attending all of the meetings throughout the state, it is still nice to put a name to a face that you see so often but don't really know. As MMBA Directors, we enjoy meeting all of you and hearing about all the things going on in your facility, whether they are good or not so good.

 

Regional Meetings reenergize me to do a better job in my facility and pay attention to things I may be overlooking. Each year as I drive home I think about all the things discussed and how I can implement them in my store.

 

It may be to rearrange my Off Sale so customers have to actually shop it instead of walking right to the item they want or to take the time to sit down with my staff and teach them about wine so they know what they are selling to customers or something as simple as dusting the pool light.

 

For those of you who would like to attend a Regional Meeting, it is not too late to respond. Meetings are held in various locations throughout our state to accommodate members. All of the information is on the MMBA website for dates and locations of each meeting.

 

I look forward to seeing you and hearing about what is going on in your facilities at this year's MMBA Regional Meetings!

 

Cheers!

 

Karissa Kurth

Buffalo Lake

 

Kenyon Position Opening

Jobs  

The City of Kenyon is seeking applicants for a full-time Liquor Store Manager.

 

This position manages the City's on and off-sale municipal liquor store operations.

 

Minimum qualifications: a high school degree or equivalent, 3 - 5 years of liquor store, restaurant or similar business management experience, cash management skills, knowledge of POS systems, and strong supervisory skills.

 

Starting salary range is $18.69 - $21.49 per hour (depending on qualifications) with an excellent benefits package.

 

For an application and job description contact City Hall at 507-789-6415, or visit our website at www.cityofkenyon.com.

 

Return completed applications to: City of Kenyon, 709 Second St., Kenyon, MN 55946.

 

Applications accepted until 4:30 p.m. on October 4, 2013.

Vikings Stadium & Electronic Pulltabs
Electronic Pull Tabs  
by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
  

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Gamblers would love electronic pulltabs. Cash would flow and the state's cut from the new games would pay the public share of a new Vikings stadium. That's what Gov. Mark Dayton and other politicians predicted.

 

A year later, that billion-dollar promise has mostly been a bust. Revenue is down nearly 100 percent from projections. Bar owners dismiss e-pulltabs as not worth the cost and hassle to install. Gamblers say the electronic games just aren't that much fun.

 

A fiscal train wreck? More like a plane crash, Dayton told MPR News.

"The National Transportation Safety Board says that in an airplane crash, there's seldom just one factor, one mistake that is the sole causation, and I would say in this case as well," Dayton said in a recent interview. "You know, there were multiple errors made, and in hindsight, obviously we were terribly wrong. But everything, as far as I know, was done in good faith with the best of intentions."

 

The NTSB typically identifies who's at fault in plane crashes. A year into e-pulltabs, people are still picking through the pieces, trying to understand what happened.

 

"We all agreed that we didn't want to use general revenue funds, so this was a new source of revenue, and one that everyone who was involved appeared to believe," said Dayton, who backed a hike in cigarette and corporate taxes to finance the Vikings stadium bonds after it was clear e-pulltabs were falling short.

 

These projections were as good as anybody could do."

 

Few see it as clearly now as former Republican State Sen. Amy Koch.

As Senate majority leader in 2011, she was among the inner circle debating a stadium deal, and eventually voted to approve the plan in the Senate. After she left the Legislature she bought a Maple Lake bowling alley and the bar and grill attached to it, complete with an e-pulltab business.

 

Koch says the state got some key things wrong when it banked on electronic pulltabs.

 

First was the expectation that 2,500 bars would install more than 15,000 games as fast as they could plug them in. The latest count has about 300 bars and only about 1,300 games.

 

"The bars, it's incredibly expensive to put them in," Koch said. "I'm not a big bar. There are smaller bars, yet. There's no way they're going to be able to afford to buy equipment and take six, eight months to pay off your investment and then see maybe a couple hundred bucks a month. It's not worth the trouble."

 

Meanwhile she says many customers still prefer paper pulltabs.

 

That's been true all over the state. As electronic pulltabs have flopped, regular pulltabs are actually booming. Charitable gambling revenue overall was up by 8 percent last year over the year before.

 

[On the other hand...]

 

..."The problems though, aren't a reason to give up on electronic gambling," said Al Lund, who heads Allied Charities of Minnesota, which represents about half the state's charitable gambling operators. 

 

"The distribution, accounting and playing experience of electronic pulltabs have a clear advantage over the paper games and will likely give charities more money for more causes in the long run," he said.

 

"If there were no examples of people that had taken this new technology and run with it and had great success, I would be in the camp of people that said maybe this wasn't a good idea," Lund said.

 

 "But I looked at the top 10 sites in August and they netted $81,000. I would call that good. Is it as good as we'd hoped? Absolutely not."

 

Click Here for Full Story

  
If we want to achieve anything in this world, we have to get used to the idea that not everyone will like us.
Future Dates to Remember!!

2013 MMBA Regional Meetings

 

 

September 25

 Walnut Grove

 

September 26

Duluth

 

October 9

Thief River Falls

 

October 16

Alexandria

 

October 24

Rochester

 

October 30

Roseville

 

Click Here for Regional Meeting Information

 

Ask A Director

Gary Buysse
Rogers
763-428-0163

Cathy Pletta
Kasson
507-634-7618
  
Vicki Segerstrom
Milaca
320-983-6255
  
Candice Woods
Hutchinson 
320-587-2762
  
Nancy Drumsta
Delano
763-972-0578

Lara Smetana
Pine City
320-629-2020

Michael Friesen
Hawley
218-483-4747

Lisa Kamrowski
Nevis 
218-652-3135

Steve Grausam
Edina
952-903-5732

Toni Buchite
50 Lakes
218-763-2035

Brenda Visnovec
Lakeville 
952-985-4901
 
Bridgitte Konrad
North Branch
651-674-8113
  
Shelly Dillon
Callaway
218-375-4691
  
Karissa Kurth
Buffalo Lake
320-833-2321
 
Paul Kaspszak
MMBA
763-572-0222
1-866-938-3925

 
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