The Progress - April 2015

Volume 35 , Issue 2

www.buttechamber.org

The Chamber staff and Board of Directors is excited to announce the dates for a full slate of your favorite Chamber Events for the year…

Mark your calendars for the following dates: 

April 2015

Tuesday, April 7th - 11:45 a.m.

Beautify Butte Kickoff Meeting @ Chamber Thursday, April 9th - 12 noon CVB Board @ Chamber Monday, April 13th– 11:30 a.m.

Chamber Executive Board Meeting @ Chamber Thursday, April 16th– 7 a.m.

Chamber Board Meeting @ Chamber

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Thursday, April 16th - 12 noon Chamber Ambassadors @ Chamber

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Tuesday, April 21st– 12 noon Advantage Butte @ Metals Sports Bar & Grill

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We look forward to spending so much quality time this upcoming year with our members! We’re so glad to connect with you!

Thursday, April 30th - 5:30 p.m.

Business Card Social @ Montana Tech

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Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce Visitors’ Center 1000 George St. Butte, MT 59701

Marko Lucich Executive Director mlucich@buttechamber.org Maria Pochervina CVB Director/TBID Executive Secretary mariap@buttecvb.com

Stephanie Sorini Marketing, Membership & Bookkeeping Director

marketing@buttechamber.org Cheryl Ackerman Receptionist/Staff Associate bsbchamber@gmail.com

(406) 723-3177

Shane McCarthy, Safeway

Don Peoples, Individual Member

Desiree Shogren, Comfort Inn of Butte

Cindi Shaw, Council of Commissioners

Ed Stepan, REC Silicon

Pat Fleming, Fleming & O’Leary Attorneys

Paul Tash, Tash Communications

Lynn Lloyd, Montana Standard

Alana Ferko, Butte Plaza Mall

Bill Melvin, Butte Civic Center

Linda Granger, School Trustee/Highlands College

Kevin Dennehy, St. James Healthcare

Town Pump Hotel Group

Paul Babb, Northwestern Energy

Chris Ackerman, Cherry Creek Radio

Ed Stepan, Vice President

Tami O’Connell, Stix & Stonz

Herb Kelsey, Farm Bureau Financial

Karen Corbin, KXLF TV

Judy Jonart, School District #1

Maura Uggetti, Copper Ridge Healthcare

Andy Zdinak, BLDC

Becky Sprunger, Human Resources Council, District XII

Jeff Gorman, McDonald’s Kristen Rosa, Butte-Silver Bow

Colin Higgins, MacKenzie River Pizza Company

Machelle LeProwse, Northwestern Mutual

Bob Bentley, Jr., Bentley Construction

Pete Akey, Glacier Bank

Matt Vincent, BSB Chief Executive

Marsha Foster, Individual Member

Donald Blackketter, Chancellor Montana Tech

Janel Morgan, Harrison Avenue Realty

Paula Ruark, Town Pump Hotel Group

Craig Tippett, Newland and Company, P.C.

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Pete Akey, President Glacier Bank

Colin Higgins, President-Elect MacKenzie River Pizza Company

Paula Ruark, Past President

REC Silicon

Bill Melvin, Vice-President Butte Civic Center/CVB President

Desiree Shogren, Vice-President Comfort Inn of Butte

Paul Tash, Vice-President Tash Communications

Chris Ackerman, Vice-President Cherry Creek Radio

My message this month is to honor a long time Butte businessman, Lew Rudolph. Lew was a tremendous businessman, community advocate and a person dedicated to his family. Owning Montana’s oldest furniture store was no small task.

Lew fought for his country and all that it stands for and returned to Butte to partake in the family business utilizing the same tenacity to keep the furniture store in existence. Lew worked until a few weeks before his 87th birthday, but remained a fixture at the store until most recently. In a 2009 article in the Montana Standard, Lew shared his thoughts on his seventy-plus years in the furniture business. “We’ve always tried to carry a good line of merchandise, and we’ve always tried to satisfy people,” he said. “That hasn’t always been an easy task with Butte’s economy.”

Lew had a beautiful relationship with his wife, Bev. They were always together and until recently they exercised a few times a week together. Lew was a compassionate and kind person who always had a smile on his face. Whenever you saw him, he always greeted you warmly and sincerely.

On behalf of the Butte Chamber of Commerce, I would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Bev, Mike, Pam and the entire Rudolph Family. Lew was a member of the Butte Chamber of Commerce and he will be missed. Thank you Lew for being such a wonderful example of how we approach life and business. You will be missed.

Sincerely,

Executive Director

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Butte Plaza Mall

1. How did you get involved with the Chamber and what keeps you involved?

I have always tried my best to clean up outside and the first Chamber campaign that interested me personally was the Beautify Butte campaign and its encouragement in making clean up a community effort. The Mall also hosts Business Card Socials and they are a great resource for networking with Butte's Business leaders.

2. What is your favorite event or program of the Chamber?

encourage JCP corporate to rethink their decision to close helped shore me up personally during those challenging days.

I love the energy of the Beautify Butte Campaign. You really see the results of the effort put out to clean up our community.

Dealing with the closure was like experiencing a death, and many Chamber members offered support to help us all get through it.

3. What are some of your other community leadership roles?

5. Finish these sentences:

I am a board member for the Butte Emergency Food Bank and very grateful for the service and care this organization of good people provides to those in need.

Never again will I.... ...miss an annual Chamber dinner!!

What makes Butte great is ...

I have been involved in my kids' activities and sports since they were in elementary school, and since they will both be graduating from MT Tech this May and my son's football days are over, it's time for me merge back into community activities.

...the copper running through our veins. It connects us all and it keeps us Butte Tough. I tease that I can never be too far away from Butte Montana for too long or all of the copper and heavy metals will leach out of my body and I will die.

4. What is your most memorable experience during your time working with the Chamber?

The best piece of business advice I've ever gotten is ‌

I was very humbled by the sincere concern shared when JCPenney announced their closure last year. The rallying of our local leaders to

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‌Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

Happy Spring!

The Butte TBID and CVB have partnered together on a Warm Season Campaign to promote Butte’s outdoor recreational opportunities with the assistance of The Wendt Agency. The beautiful creative pieces will be used in both print and digital outlets targeting the geotourist looking for unspoiled and accessible outdoor venues.

Around the beginning of May we can expect to see the new www.buttecvb.com website to be live and ready to use. A huge thank you to Amber Wood-Jensen for photo and content capturing; along with Kelly Sullivan for writing the actual content for the Butte CVB. At the end of May, the Visitor Mobile App, funded through a MTOT e-commerce grant, will be ready to use by our visitors. This project is the brain child of Justin Ringsak formerly at BSB, and continues to roll along to completion, under the capable hands of BSB’s Julia Crain and CVB board member. We are blessed to have the expertise of people like: Dick Gibson, Ellen Crain and Jocelyn Dodge to name a few, who compile and vet out information accuracy. This app will contain a minimum of 8 tours, allowing our visitors to choose a tour or two to learn about our mines, ethnicity, labor history and the outdoor recreation our area offers.

The Governor’s Conference on Tourism & Recreation was held in Helena on March 22–24, 2015. Along with wonderful educational sessions and networking opportunities, awards were presented for six (6) categories during the Monday night banquet. Butte-Silver Bow took home three (3) of this year’s awards. Congratulations to the following winners: Outstanding Tourism Campaign of the Year Fairmont Hot Springs Resort won this award for its outstanding use of social media in the promotion of the resort and the natural splendor of Montana. Fairmont’s social media marketing campaign reached over 1.75 million people on its pages and achieved total impressions of over 3.75 million during 2014.

Tourism Grant Project of the Year Headframe Spirits owners John & Courtney McKee won this award for their short film “The Orphan Girl” depicting realistic stories of Buttes mining heritage and local history. The McKees contributed financially and creatively to the production of this film.

Tourism Ambassador of the Year John and Courtney McKee took this award home for their work showcasing Butte as a tourism destination, their ability to intertwine a new business with Butte’s historical past and showcase our community as a location for innovative business development.

Summer is quickly approaching, here’s to planning wonderful times with family and friends!!

CVB/TBID

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Butte Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce 2015 Strategic Planning Session Friday, January 16, 2015 Butte Comfort Inn Pete Akey, President/Chair called the Strategic Planning Session to order at 8:55 am.

Pete introduced Ray Rogers as facilitator of this year’s session. Thanks goes out to Ray for taking time out of his busy schedule to be our facilitator.

Ray began with stating that the theme of today is “Engagement”. Our mission was to set goals, review the Mission Statement & establish committees.

Ray reviewed the agenda.

Ray showed a slide of the Strategic Planning Process.

Ray started with a review of our Mission.

Ray introduced the Akey/Lucich Plan.

The planning session began with an exercise in which each board member wrote what they thought the Mission Statement was. There was a review of these thoughts and then what the actual Mission Statement. Members were not far off for the most part.

Board members shared what they did last year to make the organization better. This created some good discussion. Examples of some of the comments made were: Volunteerism, recruitment of physicians, hospitality rooms, ribbon cuttings, promote events, communication among members and standing behind each other.

Lynn Lloyd shared the role that the Montana Standard played for the Chamber. This included fair and balanced reporting, the Community Report, offering a venue and opportunities to publish articles and opinions. They played a role in helping keep community leaders involved and up to date of happenings in the area.

Ray stated that a Mission Statement is a collection of words. It is what actions we do and take with them.

Maria Pochervina gave a CVB/TBID update. Maria review handouts from Voices of Montana Tourism and explained the structure of the Chamber, CVB & the TBID. She also reviewed the Accommodations Tax and the TBID Tax. TBID is governed by a Board of Butte Silver Bow Hotel Owners or their designees. She also explained how the money is collected and used to promote Butte Silver Bow and bring in Business for Butte Silver Bow. She explained the Warm Season CO-OP Marketing Campaign that is being funded by the CVB, TBID and MTOT (Montana Office of Tourism). This budget is $100,000 collectively. She then reviewed the 2015 Fiscal year CVB budget and Projects. She talked about the “Bring Your Meetings Home Campaign” being funded through the TBID. There is also a campaign to go to Helena and do a Sales Blitz to bring state associations, state offices and meeting planners to Butte Silver Bow as well. Paul Babb mentioned that he has a thorough list of community leaders with their contact info for Maria to use for her “Bring Your Meetings Home Campaign”.

Bill Melvin, CVB President mentioned the TBID Tournament Assistance and how it helps with funding to bring in tournaments and complete with other cities.

The Butte Chamber and the Butte Civic Center are going to be attending the MHSA (Montana High Schools Associations Annual Meeting to promote Butte and secure more tournaments. Marko, Bill Melvin and Desiree Shogren will be attending.

Pete explained the structure of Envision Butte and the vision of the group. Envision Butte is working with Pat Dudley on securing grants for a community interpretive center/ Igloo. Chamber representatives on the Envision Butte Board are Marko Lucich, Pete Akey, Paul Babb, Colin Higins and Paula Ruark.

Marko Lucich talked about the Leadership Butte Program. It has not been active for a few years now. Marko would like to get this program started again. He is asking for approval to pursue this. Kristen Rosa is also working with a group to begin a youth leadership in Butte. They would collaborate their efforts. Colin made the motion to approve this request and Karen Corbin seconded. All approved.

Paul Babb suggested that we offer this program as a Southwest Montana Leadership Program to drive more participation.

Pete Akey reviewed last year’s Strategic Planning Session Goals which are listed below.

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Upgrades and repairs to the Berkley Pit viewing stand. Much of this was done with the help of Envision Butte.

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Membership growth and retention. We will continue this effort. Stephanie has been able to get a firm and current membership number to make measuring more accurate. We have 320 active and current members.

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Community Calendar. This effort was a success.

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Pete shared compliments regarding Stephanie and all of her hard work. Over the last year she brought in 25-30 new members. Discussion was also had on the write off of inactive members. This is something that the new committee will help fine tune.

Pete expressed the importance of the Board roles and responsibilities. Review of the slide and handout recap. Flow Chart and committees discussed once again. Marko expressed the importance of the board attendance at ribbon cuttings. There was also discussion on member recruitment from the board. Marko will have Stephanie email out the current membership application to the full board. Colin suggested having a link on the website to the application as well. Lynn will look into this since the Montana Standard hosts the website.

Ray Rogers talked about “Success through Engagement”.

Ray showed and discussed a “Nonprofit Board Performance Survey” conducted May 2011 by JD Coaching & Consulting. It contrasted the difference between high performance boards and low performance boards. He explained that working together will help us achieve a high performance board. With that said we will achieve engagement through committees. He also stated that there is a huge difference in “Doing Things and Doing Things Right”.

Pete reviewed the Five Committees:

Membership

Finance & Budget

Public Relations

Events

Hospitality

Ray Rogers asked everyone to choose two committees each. Committees were presented and Committee Chairs were appointed.

Ray developed a sheet to guide our objectives, strategies, tasks and implementation.

Committees did an exercise to identify objectives, discuss strategies, assign tasks and an implementation plan. This proved to be very successful and everyone was very engaged.

Marko wanted to touch on some upcoming events and deadlines.

All Start Game will be held March 18th as the MAC. Annual Dinner will be in October. Date TBD. Color Dash – Pat Fleming has reviewed the contract and is not a no compete clause so we will be doing our own race and rename it. All proceeds will then go the Chamber unlike last year where there was a split with the Color Dash Organization who helped.

Duck Races – Will be held at the Quality Inn. Date TBD. Business Card Socials each month. Businesses can co-op with each other and also use the Chamber as a venue.

Annual Report Deadline is the end of March.

Economic Outlook Seminar will be held on February 5th at the LaQuinta from 7:45 am – 1 pm.

Bill Drury Seminar. Date TBD. One assignment was that the Event Committee helps with the TBD dates.

Ray asked for Final thoughts and questions.

Closing remarks and wrap up of the session.

Pete and Marko expressed a huge thank you to Ray Rogers for being our facilitator and the Board for their participation and dedication.

Meeting adjourned at 11:55 am.

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Membership: Desiree Shogren (Chair) Marko Lucich Stephanie Sorini Bob Bentley Paul Babb Karen Corbin Becky Sprunger Bill Melvin Machelle LeProwse Public Relations: Paul Tash (Chair) Marko Lucich Stephanie Sorini Colin Higgins Marsha Foster Linda Granger Paula Ruark Lynn Lloyd

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Finance and Budget: Craig Tippett (Chair) Marko Lucich Pete Akey Chris Ackerman Herb Kelsey Jeff Gorman Kevin Dennehy Ed Stepan Andy Zidnak Kristen Rosa Maria Porchervina

Events: Pete Akey (Chair) Marko Lucich Stephanie Sorini Bill Melvin Jeff Gorman Linda Granger Machelle LeProwse Kevin Dennehy Subcommittees: Annual Dinner: Bill Melvin (Chair) Ed Stepan Colin Higgins Becky Sprunger Marko Lucich Stephanie Sorini

Color Dash: Linda Granger (Chair) Bob Bentley Andy Zdinak Paul Babb Marko Lucich Stephanie Sorini

Golf Tournament: Jeff Gorman (Chair) Kristen Rosa Paul Tash Marsha Foster Chris Ackerman Marko Lucich Stephanie Sorini

Quack Attack: Machelle LeProwse (Chair) Lynn Lloyd Karen Corbin Marko Lucich Hospitality: Kevin Dennehy (Chair) Paula Ruark Desiree Shogren Maria Pochervina

Big Sky Senior Living 3701 Elizabeth Warren Ave Butte, MT 59701 (406) 494-4900 bigskyseniorliving.com

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The Butte Chamber of Commerce in partnerships with Advantage Butte and the Silver Bow Hospitality Association provided superb hospitality rooms for the Class C Divisional Basketball held at the MAC (February 25-28), the State Swim Meet held at the Butte YMCA (March 6-8) and the State Class AA Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball tournament held at the Butte Civic Center (March 12-14). Advantage Butte and the Hospitality Association made very generous monetary donations to help defray expenses for this cause. The common comment throughout the three weekends from all corners of the state is “The Butte hospitality rooms are by far the best in the state.”

game. Thank you Don Peoples Jr. and Tane Schulte for your assistance in making this year’s game a huge success at the MAC. After all expenses, we will start the year with $3,800.00 as seed money for next year’s tournaments.

The Chamber would not be able to do provide this outstanding hospitality without the help from so many people who volunteer their time. I would like to extend a special thank you to our board members, ambassadors and the Civic Center crew who spend countless hours welcoming guests and replenishing the food. This year, the Chamber Board of Directors’ implemented a committee system to accomplish the many tasks that have to be completed. The hospitality committee consists of Chair Kevin Dennehy, Paula Ruark, Desiree Shogren and Maria Pochervina. This committee was a life saver this year and please know that you are very much appreciated.

Prior to the All Star Game, the Chamber would seek donations from local business to provide hospitality rooms to our guests. This year, as a result of all of us working together, the Chamber was able to purchase in excess of $6000.00 from local businesses the majority of the food for these hospitality rooms. I would like to thank everyone for their support in making Butte the best place in the State to host major athletic events.

The All Star Game is the event that raises the money for our hospitality rooms during the course of the year. Don Peoples Jr. initiated the concept of the All Star Game and thanks to him we are able to purchase 90 % of the food for the hospitality rooms.

Through the generosity of Don Peoples Jr., the MAC and concession stands were donated for this year’s

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The following individuals and businesses helped to supplement our hospitality rooms: Harrington’s Pepsi, Montana Broom & Brush, Mike Thatcher from CCCS, Bill Melvin and the Civic Center, Mile High Beverage, Colin Higgins and MacKenzie River Pizza and Pintler Catering. As a result of your support, the Butte Hospitality rooms are second-to-none in the state of Montana.

As a community, we appreciate the powers to be in awarding us tournaments and other events. They are a major boost to our local economy.

ALL STAR BASKETBALL PHOTOS

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PRESENTS THE 1ST ANNUAL Butte History Night at the Archives THURSDAY, APRIL 16TH, 2015 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

REFRESHMENTS FROM 6-7

PRESENTERS: Dan Matteucci

Growing Up In Butte

Joe McBride

Tom Jefferson Davis

Jean Matteucci

The Granite Mountain Speculator Fire

Ellen Crain

Women of Butte

Chris Fisk

Spirit Tailings

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Custom Apparel

1842 Harrison Avenue Butte, MT 59701

(406) 475-0338 Contact: Mark Huntington, Owner Restaurant & Bar

217 W. Park Street Butte, MT 59701

(406) 299-3570 Contact: Janel Madrazo, Partner

dining@park217.com

www.park217.com The locally-owned, uniquely urban Park 217 restaurant offers a fresh take on fine dining.

The Copper Tee is a custom apparel printing store. They can design and place any logo onto shirts, hats, pants, sweatshirts, etc.

The Copper Tee specializes in helping businesses to create their own logoed apparel for great marketing opportunities, making shirts for events such as charity runs, and just making shirts for fun.

All dishes are classically prepared on-site with the freshest ingredients.

If you have had any changes to your business name, address, website, management or contact information, please make sure that the Chamber has been informed!

Please remember to send an email to marketing@buttechamber.org with your new details so your listing can be updated!

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/orediggers

@MTechDiggers

/montanatechathletics

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PERIODICALS U.S. POSTAGE PAID BUTTE, MT

1000 George St. Butte, MT 59701

POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to: Chamber of Commerce, 1000 George St., Butte, MT 59701.

Membership investment includes $3.00 per year subscription. The Progress (USPS 124-550) is published monthly by The Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce, 1000 George St., Butte, MT 59701. Periodical Postage Paid at Butte, Montana.

CONSTRUCTION Year to Date

EMPLOYMENT Labor Force Unemployment Unemployment Rate

MONTH/YEAR

MONTH/YEAR

%

February 2014

February 2015

CHANGE

1,329,792.25

1,747,145.43

31.4%

We can’t promise that we can include everything that we receive, but we do promise to carefully consider all submissions.

1,664,761.74

2,345,179.05

40.9%

bsbchamberprogress@gmail.com

17,948 1,046 5.8%

17,069 859 5.0%

3.3% -17.9% -13.8%

2 1

12 0

500% -100%

MAIL Tourism Requests General Information

If you have ideas, suggestions, or submissions for The Progress, please send them in! We accept news & information, photos, information about events & functions, and more!

The Progress is the voice of our members and we are dedicated to keeping you informed and connected!

The Progress is published monthly and delivered mostly electronically.

For advertising opportunities, please contact Stephanie Sorini.

marketing@buttechamber.org Visit your Chamber online:

www.buttechamber.org