Agenda - Economic Development Authority - 10/08/2015

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Economic Development Authority (EDA) Meeting Date: 10/08/2015 Submitted For: Patrick Brama, Administrative Services By: Patrick Brama, Administrative Services Title: Consider Support of Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce Manufacturer's Coalition 4. 2. Purpose/Background: The City of Ramsey is a member of the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce (http://www.anokaareachamber.com/). The Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce has a rich history of success in catering to the needs of retail, food, and professional service industries. The Chamber specializes in events, marketing, and networking. A few years back, the Chamber identified the need to better serve the large "manufacturing" sector physically located in the Chamber's service territory. Commonly, the Chamber's standard "events/ marketing/ networking" opportunities do not provide significant value to manufacturers. With this in mind, the Chamber began a new "sub -group" known as the "Manufacturer's Coalition" about two years ago. Here is a link to their website: http://www.anokaareachambermanufacture.com/). The mission of the Manufacturer's Coalition is to: become a catalyst for strengthening community manufacturing; accelerating transformation into a more efficient and powerful engine of innovation, job creation and economic growth. In summary, the Manufacture's Coalition is a group of leaders from local manufacturers that meet periodically to discuss/ address issues unique to their industry (they create the topic list). In some cases, meetings are purely the exchange of best practices/ discussion led by the Chamber... and in some cases, the Manufacture's Coalition asks the Chamber to implement develop a service/ product to help the group. In 2015-2016, the #1 topic the Manufacturer's Coalition would like to address is workforce. Although the Chamber does receive some funding for the Manufacturers Coalition via subscriptions from manufacturing businesses, this new initiative needs financial support to get up and running The purpose of this case is to consider supporting the Manufacturers' Coalition by donating $5,000. These dollars would be utilized for "facilitation/ operation" expenses related to the Manufactures' Coalition (meetings/ website/ communications/ etc.). Notification: NA Observations/Alternatives: NA Funding Source: EDA Fund (2015-2016 sponsorship) Recommendation: