Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association Newsletter
(April 17, 2016 - April 23, 2016)
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As I See It...
Thinking
As I sit at my desk playing catch up from when I was gone at the Annual MMBA Conference, I can't help but reflect of what a great few days we had together and the things we learned.

* Is Your House in Order was a great starting point for some new managers who needed some guidance as they enter their career in the liquor world.  
 
It was also a great refresher for some seasoned veterans in our industry to review some improvements or changes they could make in their own facility
 
* Don't Forget Your Change! gave us ways to process and handle our ever changing operating environment.
 
* Creating Your Signature Drink by Mixologist Jeff Rogers provided ideas  on how to create a drink that does not require a lot of time to make but increases our profits at the same time.
 
* Tom Shay once again got us thinking about different ways to price our products to increase profits and how to effectively advertise to increase our customer base and how it should fit into our budgets.

More information on Tom Shay and the calculators he referenced during his presentations can be found at profitsplus.org.
 
* Jim Langemo got us all thinking of where we should be advertising for employees, how to create job descriptions that emphasize the skills, experience & behaviors we desire in all of our employees.

He also gave us tips on what questions to ask so we could see the qualities we desire in potential employees come out in the interview process.
 
* The 1st Annual MMBA Biggest Loser Contest wrapped up with Virgene Shellenbarger from Hutchinson walking 1,863,259 steps & Stacy Schmidt from Savage losing 20% of her body weight.

GREAT JOB LADIES!!
 
The 2nd Annual Biggest Loser Contest will start on May 1, 2016.

If you would like to participate please email [email protected] to get signed up and for more details.

* Seminar handouts will be available on the MMBA website in the next week or so. 

* We had record attendance this year and the seminar rooms were full throughout the event.
 
* Any suggestions for making next year's conference even better are welcome.

Please let us know.

SAVE THE DATE!!

MMBA Conference April 29 - May 2, 2017

Thanks to everyone who attend the 2016 MMBA Conference and made it such a success!

Cheers!

Karissa Kurth
Buffalo Lake
Bemidji Liquor Profits Fund Parks, Repairs & Property Tax Reduction
Money

By Matthew Liedke, Bemidji Pioneer

The Bemidji City Council recently approved a series of transfers during its budgetary work session.

The council approved a resolution that authorizes $5,408,747 from the city's general fund to be designated toward cash flow and other unplanned expenses.

The resolution also transfers $410,000 from the refuse fund and $200,000 from the liquor store fund to the new South Shore Park.

Additionally, $88,000 was transferred from the liquor store fund to offset costs from water leak repairs at the Sanford Center and $74,375 from the general fund to the Sanford Center operating fund.

The transfer of funds through the resolution came forward after Bemidji Finance Director Ron Eischens discussed findings from 2015 financial results.

According to Eischens, in 2015, revenue exceeded expenses that resulted in a surplus of $312,460 in the general fund.

The added revenue, Eischens said, came from across city departments' cash balances, and he noted the city liquor stores having a successful year.

Eischens said the liquor stores had operating profits of $722,000, an increase of 2.6 percent from 2014.

The profits contributed $340,000 to reducing property taxes in the city, he said.
University Of Minnesota Announces New Wine Grape
 
      
By Annalise Gall, Minnesota Daily

The University of Minnesota touts a popular legacy of apple breeding, but earlier this month, the school debuted a fruit that fans can sip on.
 
The Itasca, a cold-hardy wine grape, will make its way to nurseries and licensed growers' vines in 2017. 
 
It will be about another four years until Itasca-based dry white wines will hit liquor store shelves, said University grape breeder and horticulture professor Matt Clark.

But when it does, he said, it will provide a needed complement to drinks derived from the six existing University varieties cultivated specifically for winemaking. 
 
"They're delicious wines, but they're not well-suited when you want a dry wine with a nice meal," he said.
 
While the University has bred fruit for over a century, Clark said their focus on wine grapes didn't burgeon until the 1980s.

In order to develop grapes suitable for Minnesota wine, he said, they would have to be able to withstand the state's harsh weather. 
  
Because of their bred resilience, the cold-hardy grapes fill a gap in Northern wine markets, where traditional grapes can't survive. 
 
The low-acidity, high-sugar Itasca grape was created by cross-pollenating the Frontenac gris grape with an unnamed Minnesotan wild grape, said Peter Hemstad, the University grape breeder who began the project. 
  
Itasca's minerality is punctuated by tones of pear and melon, Clark said. To others on the team, he said, the flavor evoked notes of violet and starfruit. 
 
"It was a target for us for many years, and we finally found one that had good disease resistance, had very nice cold-hardiness and made a very nice, neutral white wine," said Horticultural Science professor and University fruit breeder Jim Luby. 
 
Growers on the East and West coasts - as well as Canada - make wine from University-developed grapes, since some states, among them Vermont, don't have their own grape-breeding programs, Hemstad said. 
 
University Senior Economic Impact Analyst Brigid Tuck said she expects Itasca's reach will be similarly continental. 
 
"It gives us an opportunity to brand cold-hardy wines as being equal in quality and taste to other wines out there," Tuck said. 
  
Minnesota's wine market has grown significantly over the past few decades, Tuck said, bounding from two established wineries in the 1970s to the now more than 50.
  
After releasing the Marquette grape, the University noted upticks in the local wine economy, she said. 
 
"We're headed into a more mature industry," she said.
  
President of the Minnesota Farm Winery Association Linda Seppanen said she's eagerly anticipating Itasca's engineered superiority compared to other market grapes. 
 
"It is an improved grape, and with better chemistry, we can keep on improving the style of wine that we provide," she said. 
Efficiency
Husband & Wife

The efficiency expert concluded his lecture with a note of caution.

"You don't want to try these techniques at home."

"Why not?" asked someone from the back of the audience.

"I watched my wife's routine at breakfast for years," the expert explained.

"She made lots of trips to the refrigerator, stove, table and cabinets, often carrying just a single item at a time.

'Hon,' I suggested, 'Why don't you try carrying several things at once?'"

The voice from the back asked, "Did it save time?"

The expert replied, "Actually, yes. It used to take her twenty minutes to get breakfast ready.

Now I do it in seven."


Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't

Future Dates to Remember


Legislative Session
End


May 23, 2106
Ask A Director

Gary Buysse
Rogers
763-428-0163

Cathy Pletta
Kasson
507-634-7618
  
Bill Ludwig
Paynesville
320-250-3325
  
Nancy Raines
Longville
218-363-3249 
  
John Jacobi
Isanti
763-444-5063

Nanette Serbus
Olivia
320-523-2730

Steve Grausam
Edina
952-903-5732

Chris Arnold
Bagley
218-694-2542
E-Mail Me

Tom Agnes
Brooklyn Center
763-549-3710
Brenda Visnovec
Lakeville 
952-985-4901
 
Bridgitte Konrad
North Branch
651-674-8113

 Karissa Kurth
Buffalo Lake
320-833-2321
 
Paul Kaspszak
MMBA
763-572-0222
1-866-938-3925
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The SMART campaign: Supporting Minnesota's Alcohol Regulations and Traditions, is a renewed public education and grassroots advocacy effort in support of Minnesota's current alcohol regulations and three-tier system.

 

We believe Minnesota's current alcohol regulations are smart, balanced, and supported by many citizens and our local small businesses.    

    

They work well for Minnesota!

 

The SMART campaign functions to help you engage in advocacy efforts with state legislators and others in support of Minnesota's current alcohol regulations, and to oppose issues-such as Sunday alcohol sales.

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Take action and send an email to your state legislators today through the new SMART campaign website.   

 

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10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation
When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations - and that most of us don't converse very well.

Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening.

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"Go out, talk to people, listen to people," she says.

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