MAR 20, 2012 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
Michael Langley
President DOUG BRUCE convened the meeting at 12:30 pm sharp, to a room full of nearly 120 Rotarians and guests.
DAVID LAIRD and DOUG HARTFORD led the group in singing America the Beautiful (theoretically in A Sharp), and JEAN VUKAS ROBERTS provided the invocation. President Doug thanked the scribe; DEB VOSS and MARIA MCLEMORE for greeting; and announced upcoming meetings. He also recognized ALYSON HARTLE as a “mover and shaker” in the Pioneer Press this week, and MARK “McSTUTRUD” and other Rotarians who marched in the St. Patrick’s Day parade last Saturday.
NANCY MCKILLIPS and JASON BRADSHAW took the microphone to the floor to introduce two visiting Rotarians, and then everyone welcomed 17 different men and women who were in attendance as guests, and prospective Rotarians. Nancy concluded with an overview of why joining Rotary is an important and good decision.
SCOTT VAN took the podium to promote participation in the packing shifts for Feed My Starving Children over the final weekend of this coming April. JERRY FALETTI did a great job of thanking JIM DELAMATER for his leadership, as Jim was presented with his sixth Paul Harris Fellow pin! Jim spoke about his family’s values as a perfect match with Rotary giving. Finally, lots of dollar bills were contributed by various Rotarians and collected by JIM KOSMO, as the Rotarians shared good news about family, health, and travel tips.
JASON BRADSHAW introduced the speaker, Michael Langley, who is CEO of “Greater MSP”, the Twin Cities’ regional economic development partnership.
Michael opened his presentation with a four minute video that made one proud to be able to live in this region. Aside from the natural beauty portrayed, the video spoke about our demographics, such as: #1 in civic engagement; #5 best city for business; #4 top job market; #9 ranked research university; #1 nationally for diplomas; 90,000 miles of shoreline (more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined); more theater seats per capita than anywhere but NYC; more golfers per capita; more Fortune 500 companies (per capita concentration) than anywhere; largest private company in the world; among top four states for workforce quality; and good food, schools and neighborhoods. You can see the video by going to www.youtube.com, and search for “Welcome to Greater MSP.”
Great MSP works to coordinate a regional brand across 13 counties across the Twin Cities region. Their vision is that we will be recognized as a globally leading economy – we are the 44th largest regional economy in the world, with $200B GMP, and 3 million residents. This initiative to create a regional brand for us is a very recent project, and we are coming to the table later than all other metro regions around the country.
Nevertheless, the story is powerful. Unemployment is 2% lower here than the national average over this past year, and companies are still coming here to get our superior workforce – estimated by many national companies to be 30% more productive than the national average. Our GDP growth has beat the national average, but is still slower than some regions that have been offering stronger incentives for relocating businesses.
Helping existing businesses to expand right here is also critical to the strategic plan: 80% of our future growth can come from investing in existing businesses.
Michael asked everyone to be an Ambassador for the Twin Cities – we are great now, but we can be greater!
John Andrews,
Scribe