Agenda - Economic Development Authority - 01/14/2021

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Economic Development Authority (EDA) Meeting Date: 01/14/2021 Submitted For: Sean Sullivan, Community Development By: Sean Sullivan, Community Development 4. 3. Title: Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce: Manufacture Cohort: 2020-2021 Renewal Purpose/Background: The purpose of this case is consider renewal payment for the 2020-2021 Manufacture Cohort Season Chamber Background The City of Ramsey is a member of the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce. 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. Manufacturing Coalition/ Manufacture Cohort Background In 2015, 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. NOTE: the Cities of Ramsey and Anoka share a roughly 1,000 acre business park that includes over 10,000 jobs --most of said jobs are manufacturing (or related to manufacturing). With this in mind, the Chamber began a "sub -group" known as the "Manufacturing Coalition" about five years ago. The group has now self identified as the Manufacture Cohort. The mission of the Manufacture Cohort 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 Cohort is a group of leaders from local manufacturers that meet periodically to discuss and address issues unique to their industry and identify an ongoing topic list. In some cases, meetings are purely the exchange of best practices. In other cases, the Manufacture Cohort asks the Chamber to implement and develop a service or product to help the group. The Manufacture Cohort, through Chamber Staff, has routinely facilitated outreach with Legislators, businesses, and school districts to drive initiatives developed by this group. Staff attended a Manufacturing Signing Day event held at Anoka Technical College in February 2019. This event was well attended by both businesses and high school students. The event is geared to educate potential future workforce about the manufacturing field and the demand for workers. Staff also attended a another Cohort event in May 2019. At this event, Mike Mulrooney gave a presentation on the state of manufacturing industry and trends. The businesses in attendance seemed engaged and the event was well attended. Staff has attended other events since and has found them to be engaging and helpful to Ramsey businesses. a list of Ramsey businesses that have participated in Cohort over the past year is included as an attachment. Although the Chamber does receive some funding for the Manufacture Cohort via subscriptions from manufacturing businesses, this initiative needs financial support to keep operating. The purpose of this case is to consider continued support of the Manufacture Cohort by providing $5,000 for the 2020-2021 program year. These dollars would be utilized for "facilitation/ operation" expenses related to the Manufacturing Cohort (meetings/communications/ etc.). NOTE: the City has supported the program 2016-2020. John LeTourneau has been asked to attend this meeting to provide information on what the Cohort has been up to and what lies ahead in 2021. He has provided attachments recapping the 2019-2020 year and a work plan for 2020-2021. The current focus is on workforce development, education and coordination. Mr. LeTourneau serves as