Who Burned the Houses Down?
Add comment September 28th, 2008
Thanks to one of my blog comments, you gotta see this!
Archive for September, 2008
Isn’t this Ironic?
1 comment September 28th, 2008
 Isn’t it ironic?
Barney Frank 2003: “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis”
Excerpted from NYT article ^ | September 11, 2003
See the story here…
A Reminder….
Add comment September 26th, 2008
. . .of the following schedule for focus group meetings with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, Ltd., a search firm that specializes in assisting boards with the identification and selection of superintendents.
The RPS School Board invites you to participate in the identification of Leadership characteristics by attending a focus group and/or completing a Leadership Profile Survey form (see below).
  Focus group schedule - in 3 rooms at 201 S. Madison:
    Monday Sept. 29  8:00am    Higher Education
                                9:00         Community Organizations
                                                 Faith based organizations
                                                 Government Officials
                                10:00         Legal Community
                                 11:00         Business Community
                                4:00pm      PTO leaders
Â
     Tuesday, Sept. 30 1:00pm    Other Educators (outside RPS, Regional, Retired..)
                                  4:00         Student leaders
Â
If you are unable to meet with the consultants at your focus group time, please note that you will be able to share your thoughts with the consultants at one of the open Community Forums. The seven Community Forums, which will be facilitated by a member of the consultant firm, will be held on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 8am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, and 7pm at the District Administration Building, 201 S. Madison, rm #207, Rockford, IL and also at 7pm Monday at Booker Washington Community Center (1005 S. Court) and St. Elizabeth Community Center (1536 S. Main Street).
Please complete and bring the Leadership Profile Survey form to a Forum. If you will be unable to attend a Forum, please see the Rockford Public Schools web site www.rps205.com or mail/fax your completed form directly to the address/fax number indicated at the bottom of the form by October 1, 2008. Â
Thank you in advance for your assistance with this most important task.
Sincerely
Nancy Kalchbrenner
President – Rockford Public Schools Board of Education
Wall Street: A Blow to U.S. Prestige?
Add comment September 26th, 2008
 The surprising answer is no. Most business people still view the U.S. as a beacon of free enterprise and praise its swift response to the crisis.
See what they say here….
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_40/b4102000602863.htm
Sweden -4 Tour days
Add comment September 25th, 2008
The days of tours in Skovde and Lidkoping were the biggest reason we would go on this trip. Those who had gone on trips before us had come back and told of some of the techology and innvoation centers we would see. It made us want to see it for ourselves.
Both areas are up to twenty years ahead of us in using alternative energy and decreasing C02 emmissions. Personally, and in our business, Thom and I are interested in making “lifestyle” changes that will move us in that direction. We believe that some of these changes will someday be mandetory and that many of the changes us can help us keep costs down, so that we can be competitive in a global market. For the last two years we have been doing research about technology that can be used in our home and at SJTI. In Sweden we found history of the use of some of these processes. We were able to ask the users questions we had been accumulating. We were able to experience the warmth or lack of it on the floors of different heating processes, see up close the equipment needed —where do you dump the ashes? How heavy is that bag of pellets? Does that plant where they burn garbage smell or not? What do gas stations look like– that have all these fuel options? What does the real price difference look like? Are the users happy and have they really saved money?
Afab is a group of new techology companies that have come together to showcase, test and market their new alternative energy ideas. If we would move forward with some of our future ideas we believe that we could participate with these companies to bring this technology to the region. Stay tuned. By the way—they will be at an Alternative Energy conference in Minnesota next week, you don’t have to go to Sweden to speak to them!
One of the most fun parts of being in manufacturing is the manufacturing tours. Touring Volvo Powertrain was no exception. Anytime I get to tour a big facility I always get ideas of how to handle material and get to see first hand some automation or other processes I have been reading about. This company employs three or five thousand people in a region very similar to ours. Our tour guide, a woman, had been employed by them for 32 years. They are building a new Forging house the will open next year. It will be one of the largest in the world. We discussed just getting material to keep that place running….a hot topic all over the world as China continues to use up alot of the worlds material supply! I really couldn’t have told you if I was in the USA or Sweden—excellent English was spoken and they have the same issues as we do!
This could help Manufacturers
Add comment September 24th, 2008
 McCain suspends Campaign, asks for Debate delay….see the story…here…
Democrats Agree to let Offshore Drilling Ban Expire
2 comments September 24th, 2008
Late last night, the House agreed….see the story….here. Good news for manufacturers!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092400316.html
Up and Running
Add comment September 24th, 2008
It’s now five weeks into the school year and the ACE High School students have been to the IMTS Show, participated in hands-on activities at Rock Valley College, listened to guest speakers, taken a trip to the Burpee to view and test Rock River water samples, and have a trip planned to the electricians’ union.
In this time, the teachers and staff continue to work on the soft skills so many employers desire. We realize the best trained or educated worker adds no value to a company if he/she cannot show up on time or shows little respect for what goes in the work place. Our golden rule at the school is “Respect First.”
Many in the community have asked how they can help make ACE a success. As we look ahead, we will need places for students to experience a full work day their junior or senior year. If you desire to build a relationship with a student who can become a potential employee please contact the school at 815.966.3036.
Sweden-3-E-days
Add comment September 24th, 2008
E-days is sponsored by SACC, the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce. They have a conference every six months for the sole purpose of promoting Economic Development between these two very alike countries, alternating between USA and Swedish locations. We didn’t go anywhere that they didn’t speak English—all we had to say was “Hello”.
E-days has a format of Speakers, Trade Show space, and organized matchmaking sessions. Plus one planned evening event—the 20th Anniversary celebration at the Nordic Museum. The speakers focused on doing buisness between these countries including a panel discussion about the current economic conditions—which were in peril last Monday and Tuesday! Some of the suggestions they gave about the Swedes connecting in the USA would work for any USA company trying to move into a new region and have relationships with those companies—-I will take their advice!Â
We had four matchmaking events.  All four were interesting but two of them were more productive. We were interested in speaking to people who could help us with two things a- bring a new product to the US that we could manufacture in Rockford and b- new green technology that we could install in a new project where we could showcase this new technology. I have already had some e-mail activity as a result of those 15 minute meetings. We will see. Â
On Sunday evening before the event started we were invited, along with a 100 or so others to the home of Swedish Ambassador Woods. As we went through the greeting line the Ambassador stopped Thom and told him he had  viewed our web-site, was very impressed with it and our company! That was a fun surprise. We were impressed.
During the E-days there was time to connect with the Rockford delegates. This was a very interesting group of people wanting to help lead our region into the future! Each person took advantage of this opportunity to expand their horzions—we will all benefit!
Home from Sweden-2
Add comment September 23rd, 2008
One of our first goals was to catch up with a Swedish family we have interacted with several times over the last 10+ years. Maggie came into our lives as a foreign exchange student who became best friends with our youngest daughter. It was fun to show her our area and we took her on several trips around the USA. It was just as fun for she and her family to return the favor in Sweden. They were there to pick us up at the airport—no time to fret over our luggage that didn’t arrive with us :-)! We stayed at the flat of Maggie and Andreas but visited the Villa of her parents. They took us to Church with them—an old Porcelain factory, that is one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm. We enjoyed all the wonderful Swedish food they put out for us each day. We didn’t sleep much in Stockholm because of E-days and then visiting and site seeing with Maggie.
Maggie went home to Sweden to get her Masters degress in Mechanical Engineering—-all education in Sweden is free. Andreas is a Policeman. Her father is a College Professor of Business who oversees the Doctorate Program and Doctorate students at a University in Northern Sweden. He communtes by plane. Her mother is the principal of an elementary School. Very interesting conversations about manufacturing, community—immigrants from Iraq, Higher education and Elementary education. At 28, Maggie works for Skania, with several employees under her. She is involved in design and projects where there might be a quality issue. Her first assignment was to discover why a new model was catching on fire and then fixing that problem…right up our alley of interest!
In Stockholm we walked and rode the train….lots of stairs from the train to their 4th floor flat, with no elevator. A flat like theirs would cost 1 Million US dollars. It had been remodled to take in the flat next door so that there could be 3 small rooms, a kitchen, a very small bathroom and a small utility room with a sink and toilet. It was adorable and had beautiful wood floors everywhere. Wood floors were the norm all over Sweden….Thom and have laughed that we need wood floors at home! In Sweden the health care and retirement are also free. But they have lots of taxes. We never were able to ask what type of salary these jobs paid but we found a lovely life where everything —- including the papertowels and toothpicks are smaller than here in the US. This was the back drop of our E-days time in Stockholm….
