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1. Congressman Ron Kind’s Small Business Taxes Workshop Feb. 5 Small business owners, community leaders and the public are invited to join U.S. Rep. Ron Kind in a roundtable discussion on challenges and opportunities facing small business in western Wisconsin on Feb. 5 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Kinnickinnic River Theater in the University Center at UWRF.
As a member of the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, Rep. Kind is seeking input on issues facing small businesses and what reforms could be made to help them grow. He is working on a small business agenda to identify measures that will help small businesses lower their health-care costs, free up capital to reinvest into their businesses and save for the future.
Joining Kind in the discussion will be Bill Rubin, executive director of the St. Croix Economic Development Corporation; Eric Ness, Wisconsin State Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration; and representatives from the area economic development organizations and small businesses
For more information about the discussion, contact the office of Rep. Kind at 1-888-442-8040.
2. St. Croix River Basin Conference on April 15
With the 40th anniversary of the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 as the coordinating theme, the 9th annual St. Croix Basin Protection Conference will focus on land use, water protection initiatives, municipal efforts, and policies that affect the St. Croix River and its watershed.
Co-sponsored by the St. Croix Basin Team and UWRF, this accessible conference provides an ideal opportunity for representatives from municipalities throughout the St. Croix Valley to catch up on watershed research, modeling, and management efforts relevant to this region.
The conference will be held in the University Center on the University of Wisconsin-River Falls campus. For more information, please contact Jim Harrison, conference organizer, by email.
3. Free Community Classroom Presentations in February and March
"Jerusalem: 3000 Years of Holiness" is the featured presentation at the Community Classroom event on Monday, March 10, at the River Falls Public Library.
Key to the foundations of the three great western religious traditions, Jerusalem holds a special place in the hearts of Jews, Christians and Moslems. Today, in light of the constant, ongoing archeological research, Jerusalem has remained on the front page of the world's newspapers.
At this free event, UWRF art lecturer Steven Derfler will guide you on an archeological journey that traces the nature of the city and its spiritual importance to millions of people today.
Also don’t miss "Montessori Education: 100 Years" on Tuesday, Feb 19.
Outreach and Graduate Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences offer the Community Classroom series each fall and spring. University faculty share their expertise through informal presentations on a variety of topics. All lectures are free, begin at 7 p.m. and are held at the River Falls Public Library lower level on the corner of Main and Union streets.
A list of scheduled sessions is on the web or contact the Outreach office by email.
4. Green Communities Energy Conference May 20
UW-River Falls will host a regional conference to explore a variety of topics related to energy on Tuesday, May 20. Please plan on attending this one-day conference featuring Richard Heinberg, author and Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and Alexis Karolides from the Rocky Mountain Institute.
The conference will be especially of interest to municipalities, businesses and the public sector agencies such as schools, hospitals that use large amounts of energy. Watch BizNews for more information in coming editions.
5. March 27 Lunch N Learn: Professional Communication
Dr. Mialisa Moline, assistant professor at UWRF, will be presenting a workshop on professional communication. This interactive workshop offers advice on email etiquette and choosing appropriate channels for communication (e-mail, phone, memo, letter, face-to-face). The workshop will include an interactive PowerPoint presentation, workshop activities relative to written workplace communication, and a Q-and-A segment as time permits.
This event is jointly sponsored by the River Falls Chamber of Commerce, UW- River Falls Outreach Programs and Chippewa Valley Technical College - River Falls Campus. For more information and to register online, visit the River Falls Chamber web site.
6. UWRF to Participate in Pilot Sustainability Rating System
UWRF is among more than 90 college and university campuses selected to participate in the pilot phase of a rating system for sustainability in higher education developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
The self-assessment system, called STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System), will launch on Feb. 4. Participating college and university campuses will test the system over the course of 2008, and provide feedback to AASHE that will inform STARS version 1.0, planned for release in spring 2009.
UWRF faculty and staff who will spearhead the STARS pilot program at UWRF say they excited to be a part of the process. “It will give our campus an opportunity to directly shape how efforts toward campus sustainability are guided and assessed nationwide,” says Kelly Cain, director of the UWRF St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development. “Participation will provide a meaningful framework for benchmarking and tracking our own sustainable community development goals, especially since we have the current energy goal of being one of four Wisconsin schools that are ‘off the grid’ by 2012, as announced by Gov Doyle in 2007.”
The 90-plus participating campuses were selected to represent a wide range of institutional types, sizes and geography. They include public and private schools, community colleges and research universities.
STARS organizers say the program is designed to help gauge the progress of colleges and universities toward sustainability in all sectors, from governance and operations to academics and community engagement. The program allows for meaningful comparisons across institutions as well as benchmarking within institutions and will create incentives for continuous improvement toward sustainability, facilitate information sharing about sustainability practices and performance in higher education, and build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.
6. "Green" Energy Survey of Public Organizations to Be Launched
Recent spikes in consumer energy prices, uncertainty over future supplies, record-setting crude oil prices, and concerns about global warming have brought energy issues to the forefront of policy debates in Washington, D.C., and communities across the country. These same factors are at issue in Wisconsin and other states, where perceived economic development opportunities and the desire to sustain rural working lands are fueling a growing interest in renewable energies of wind, solar, hydro and biomass.
To begin to assess current and future demand for renewable energy, the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is sending a survey Jan. 14-18 to selected organizations in the region.
The UWRF Survey Research Center, with UW-Extension county agents Andrew Dane (Chippewa and Barron counties) and Pete Kling (St. Croix County), are sending surveys to 150 city and county administrators, facility managers for universities and technical colleges, and leaders of hospitals and school districts in the seven counties included in the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. The survey is being funded by a grant from the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, a national resource organization for value-added agriculture.
David Trechter, director of the Survey Research Center and chair of the agricultural economics department at UWRF, says the survey is opportune. "Renewable energy is an important potential regional economic development opportunity for western Wisconsin," says Trechter. "Things such as biogas produced in manure digesters, electricity generated by wind turbines or furnaces fueled with bioenergy from wood or switch grass represent potential new 'crops' for farmers in the district."
This could mean more jobs for local people and more income in the local economy. Trechter also notes that increases in demand for this type of energy would be expected to drive innovation that will make energy from renewable sources ever more cost competitive with conventional energy sources such as oil and coal.
Organizers say the survey is a first step in quantifying expected future demand for renewable energy in one key segment of the energy market--public organizations. 7. Professor Helps Create Pierce, St. Croix Geological Atlas
UWRF geology Professor William Cordua is working with the Wisconsin State Geological Society and the Natural History Survey to create a new geological atlas in Pierce and St. Croix counties that will serve as an information baseline in the area for years to come.
The atlas will include a detailed color map of the Rock Elm Disturbance in Pierce County's Nugget Lake County Park, which is an unusual outcroppings of rocks that Cordua has studied for 20 years.
In 1998, along with a fellow geologist from the Smithsonian Institution, Cordua verified that a meteor impacted the site hundreds of millions of years ago.
The atlas will include the geological maps along with descriptions and will serve as a resource for many people, including landowners, developers, farmers, scientists and others.
Contractors can use these maps to determine the best place to locate a development or farmers can use them in creating nutrient management plans, says Cordua. The atlas will include the cross sections and descriptions of the areas, and show where the bedrock is exposed in Pierce and St. Croix counties. The bedrock controls the slope and should be a part of the planning process if a development were to be constructed on top, Cordua says.
This project is funded through the U.S. Geological survey, and preliminary maps should be available for the public in 2008.
"The soil does not change much over time, so these maps can be used 500 years from now," says Cordua. 8. Reception To Showcase UWRF Creative and Scholarly Works
A reception to honor the scholarly and creative output of UWRF faculty and staff is Feb. 19, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Chalmer Davee Library atrium.
"Each year the library collects and displays a wide variety of materials that showcase the research, scholarship and creative achievement of faculty and staff across the University," said Library Director Valerie Malzacher. "The library plays an important role in supporting the research activities of our faculty and staff, and it is an honor to celebrate their achievements with them through this annual event."
Since 2003, the Celebrating Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement group on campus has encouraged submissions ranging from journal articles, books, playbills and newsletters to art pieces and research posters for the annual showcase.
The items are then displayed in the Harriet Barry Gallery and throughout the library so the campus and community can view the work.
Additional CRSCA information can be found on the library's web page .
9. Key Business Contacts
Don't know where to start to find help on business matters?
Try these contacts:
UW-RF BizNews is produced by the College of Business
& Economics, Outreach and Graduate Studies, Career
and Counseling Services, and the Office of Public Affairs.
Questions, comments or suggestions about this BizNews
E-mail? Contact Mark.A.Kinders@uwrf.edu.
