Archive for the ‘News & Trends’ Category
2012 Lac qui Parle Calendars for Cash on sale now thru December 28
December 13th, 2011
$20.00 Each
162 Chances to Win!
ALL Entries are eligible for every drawing – even if you have already won.
$100.00 given away every Monday, every Wednesday, and every Friday in 2012 – 156 Drawings
4-$1,000 Drawings plus 2-$200 Drawings
Calendars are available in Boyd at the City Office 320-855-2242, Dawson at Minnwest Bank 320-769-2911, at the Madison Chamber Office 320-598-7301 plus several other locations – including the LqP EDA Offices. Check out www.calendarsforcash.com to see past and current winners.
If you need calendars mailed out – contact me and we will get them to you!
Buy Yours Today and support these communities of Lac qui Parle County.
Posted in News & Trends | Comments (0)
Four Tips for Business Women
November 18th, 2011
The Harvard Business Review recently published some great tips for business women based on results from dissecting hundreds of performance assessments.
One key finding is that women have low confidence. They indicate that this finding may be based on perception, interpretation and misinterpretation – but at the root of it, it reflects what business colleagues think.
The author offers four tips based on the research…
- Don’t be overly modest. Men are more willing to take credit for their success; women feel their actions speak for themselves. Sometimes it helps to amplify the message by speaking up for yourself.
- Ask for the promotion. You know the old line, you can’t win if you’re not in. Put yourself in the game by asking for that promotion.
- Don’t just blend in. Women have a tendency to want to blend – but standing out helps you get recognized for opportunities.
- Don’t remain silent. Speak up and be heard to get your good ideas and points across to a team.
Posted in News & Trends | Comments (0)
Need to Hire – Read this First
November 14th, 2011
The Wall Street Journal recently published an interesting article that looked at the difficulty businesses seem to have finding staff. If you’ve been looking for a job, some of this will sound familiar. If you’ve been looking for staff, this might be an eye opener.
One major issues seems to be that companies want to hire people who are ready to step into a position – but aren’t necessarily willing to pay for experience. The author contends that qualified people are available if you’re will to do some training…
Unfortunately, American companies don’t seem to do training anymore. Data are hard to come by, but we know that apprenticeship programs have largely disappeared, along with management-training programs. And the amount of training that the average new hire gets in the first year or so could be measured in hours and counted on the fingers of one hand. Much of that includes what vendors do when they bring in new equipment: “Here’s how to work this copier.”
The author offers three suggestions to help:
- Work with education providers: If job candidates don’t have the skills you need, make them go to school before you hire them.
- Bring back aspects of apprenticeship: In this arrangement, apprentices are paid less while they are mastering their craft—so employers aren’t paying for training and a big salary at the same time.
- Promote from within: Employees have useful knowledge that no outsider could have and should make great candidates for filling jobs higher up.
Posted in News & Trends | Comments (0)
Broadband Advocates & Budding Web Developers
November 6th, 2011
Dale W. Hammond and Lyndon Perry are students at Gonzaga University. They spoke with us a few weeks ago about our Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) program initiatives. They were taking a higher level look at what MIRC partners might be able to do to enhance the benefits of the MIRC projects and recently shared their report with us.
The students knew about a program in the UK where folks in rural areas were offered computer and Internet training and were comparing MIRC to that UK efforts. The good news is that the programs shared many successful traits – but the students were able to pull one difference from the UK program that might help us make the most of our efforts here.
They talked about adding to the MIRC initiative a concerted effort develop local advocates through a Hometown Advocate Program (HAP). The idea is to find HAP candidates who are broadband users and work well with groups, to encourage them to become local champions, provide them with tools they need and reward them. The local trainer becomes part of the local capacity that does not go away when the grant funding ends. So it’s an effective way to build lasting capacity.
Interestingly enough we already have one such plan in place with our Website Development Series starting this week. We have classes scheduled for Wednesday (8:30-10:30) at Dawson High School and (6:00-8:00 pm) in the Computer Commuter in the parking lot of Dawson City Hall. It’s a perfect class for anyone who likes to write, likes computer and is looking for a change in career. Call for more information 320-598-7976
Posted in Broadband Updates, Commuter Computer, Events, LqP in the News, News & Trends | Comments (0)