Letter to the Editor

Rusty Wolfe, Tree II, 2018.  Lacquer on MDF, 24 x 24"

Dear Editor, I am a small business owner, and I am scared.  My revenue has fallen off a cliff.  While I am worried about my own ability to keep my business open, honestly, I am as worried about what this means for the hundreds of small businesses that make up the fabric of our community.

One thing that the quarantine has crystalized for me is how much we all need social interaction – how much we need community.  Our small businesses are the vehicle that provides much of that opportunity.   We are incredibly lucky to have the diversity of businesses that we enjoy, but it is in jeopardy.

We are going to lose businesses, but we can start today to mitigate that.  Well-meaning citizens can’t do it by themselves.  The industry must play a role. The government needs to play a role.   

If you are in charge of purchasing anything at the company where you work, start sourcing the things that you are currently buying online at local businesses.  If you are a supervisor, empower your employees to purchase everything they can from local businesses.  Whether it is cleaning supplies or copy paper, buy it from a brick-and-mortar store in Marinette or Menominee Counties.   This will take effort.  It will take time.  But, it will make a difference.  If we lose more small businesses, it hurts our giving to non-profits, funding municipal services, and support of local newspapers,.  It will make it even harder to recruit new workers

Take the example of what would happen if we lost our local newspaper. Locally-produced, independent news is crucial for civic engagement.  We cannot take our newspapers and local radio for granted.  In 2018, economists at The University of Illinois at Chicago presented a study that examined how local newspaper closures affect public finance outcomes for local governments.  The conclusion is surprising: the cost to a community that loses its local paper is enormous, $650,000 per municipal issue.  (For example, think about financing a project the size of the REC Center).  Municipal borrowing costs increase with a lack of civic engagement because a project that is not planned and executed in the golden light of day is a risky project for a lender to finance.

If you don’t have a subscription to the Eagle Herald, Peshtigo Times, or The Menominee County Journal, get one today.  If you have a lobby at your office, purchase a second subscription for your customers in place of national magazine’s subscriptions

This isn’t about my bottom line or that of any particular locally-owned business.  It is about preserving the opportunities we have in our great community.  It requires each of us to do what we can.

Sincerely,
Kim Brooks

The Eye of the Storm

Sculpture Eye of the Storm shown here
was created by Rusty Wolfe and  is located at
The Stephenson National Bank & Trust, Marinette

The Eye of the Storm is where you and I, with 7 billion other people, find ourselves in this earth-shaking and challenging hurricane. It is a storm that pits healthy lives against livelihoods. A catastrophic whirlwind that has us huddled in two camps.

In camp one, we find those of us that have time to disinfect our homes daily.  Our brass doorknobs now silver from the rubbing.  We’re tasked with in-home childcare and have a growing appreciation for teachers. We’re striving to prove that working from home is not an oxymoron. We are sheltered, idle, and worried in anticipation of what comes next.  

In the other camp, we find ourselves feeling emotional and exhausted from being deemed “Essential.” We don’t have time to bake bread. Our only choice is to keep trudging.  Ever mindful that our duty poses an essential risk to ourselves and the lives of our families.

If this storm’s eye was the size of a football field, we are on the 50-yard line.  We’re at the halfway point. Now is the time to decide what to do. What are our options?

·      We could close our eyes and see what happens. But chance can be a cruel mistress. Just ask the captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

·      Or we can seize this rare opportunity. History proves that when we have the odds stacked against us, people pull together.  Faced with a challenge, we will find the courage, the resources, creativity, and the put-a-man-on-the-moon innovation necessary for a breakthrough.

We have this precious moment to assess our choices. With the gift of bright blue clarity, we can choose to focus on what is valuable to others and priceless to us.  Now that I have to slow down, I’m weighing how to create a more manageable life vs. going back into the rat race.

We can Lighten our load for the journey.  Does it still make sense to have all three kids enrolled in different age groups of extra circular activities between hockey, soccer, baseball, swimming, volleyball, and jujitsu?

Choose what matters most.  I now realize what I was missing without regular household meals around the table. We can tune our compass to travel a better path. 

What are your possibilities for creating something better?

Let’s act to meet the rest of this storm with the courage that comes with faith and hope.  

Mark the sign of these times, by listening to our local artist Rusty Wolfe’s Song, 

Shelter for Vaccine, on Facebook @MyMarinetteMenominee 

or hear it on local radio WHYB

Shelter for Vaccine

@MyMarinetteMenominee

The lyrics to our local artist Rusty Wolfe’s new song Shelter for Vaccine smoothly echoes the viral battle that has ripped the fabric of our human spirit. Any time in history before March 13, 2020, the song would have implied a different meaning than it does today. If it had played in the past decade, you would have thought it was the first song from the soundtrack of a Pixar movie. With phrases like:

“Stay together, while you’re apart.”

“It’s not safe in your dreams.”

“Look on the light side; you can’t share your straw.” 

Today these phrases reflect a blunt new reality. The only similarity it has to a children’s story would be a Grimm’s fable.

If you are feeling devastated, heartbroken, and sorrowful, you are at the center of a whole world feeling this too. How did we go from a past where “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” to I just need to buy a bottle of green hand sanitizer?

The Great Depression, two World Wars, The Assassination of a President, Y2K, 9/11, and The Great Recession have taught us we can recover. We faced those desperate times, our spirit amplified, and our hearts rewired for hope. We innovated. We got creative. And each time we fine-tuned what matters most to us.

This worldwide calamity is named “The Great Pause” by Julio Vincent Gambuto in his article, Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting. He explains, “the world has stopped.” I wonder, could this Great Pause be the Great Cause for us to write a better story than the one we are living? What purpose does this suffering serve, if we do not use it to pay forward the promise of a brighter future?

Listen to Rusty’s Song, Shelter for Vaccine, on Facebook @MyMarinetteMenominee or hear it on local radio WHYB

Emerge Stronger

While we cannot change our current circumstances, we can work on a plan for what the future could be.  Our business community is not going to look the same as it did before.  We must put aside our sadness and answer this question:  How do we grow a more vibrant small business community in our region?  Let’s take this time to decide how we emerge from this crisis stronger.  Marinette/Menominee is depending on us.

There are resources that you can tap into, and you might be surprised at how creative our local institutions are willing to be.  Contact your banker first.  I was encouraged when I contacted mine.  Not only was she ready for my call (she called me first to be accurate), she had several ideas on how she could help.

Governors Whitmer and Evers have both received approval from the Small Business Administration for Economic Injury Disaster Loans.  This is a loan program you can apply for today.   Senator Baldwin is working right now to include a provision for loan forgiveness for these EIDL loans for the small businesses that are able to keep their employees working during this slowdown.

Our friends at inVenture North are hard at work on a suite of products (app, website, etc) that they are going to offer to businesses at no charge while we are in this crisis.  Their efforts will help us emerge poised to take new steps.

There is strength in numbers.  We need to lobby our city, county, state, and federal governments for relief to help us survive this crisis.  Let’s band together and share our best ideas, distill them into an action plan, and proceed forward.  We may not have financial resources right now, but many of us have extra time on our hands.  Let’s use it to move forward together.

Please reach out if you have questions or ideas.  We look forward to getting together when the circumstances permit.

Sincerely,
Kim Brooks
kkbrooks@bellsouth.net

Keith Killen
k-killen@outlook.com

Roberta Davis
Roberta.davis@inventurenorth.com

SBR a Strength Building Exercise:

This was my Letter to the Editor responding to an anonymous Sound Off, Oct. 31^st. 2019 Eagle Herald edition titled “Let’s build on strengths, talents”

Yes, we should build on strengths, and on our differences, too; If building is our purpose.  For that reason, I am grateful for the anonymous Sound Off submission.

Our community’s participation in the Small Business Revolution, by Deluxe Corp. was a strength-building exercise.  It was not to win for the sake of winning, but to discover what we have. It was an exercise worth its weight in what the community makes out of it.  Here is a sample of what we did. 

Our citizens pulled together to challenge the other towns in the competition. Both Marinette & Menominee High School Bands inspired us when they practiced and performed together. The first time was not the last time that would happen.  Citizens and both cities displayed banners across the interstate bridge connecting both towns, counties, and states in admiration of a newfound unity. A bridge walk was held on New Year’s Day sacrificing warmth to experience solidarity. Marinette & Menominee City Council’s met together in one session for the first time in history, acknowledging citizens' hope for collaboration in government.  We discovered the large ratio of local small businesses for our size community.  There was an awakening of local companies, and what they can accomplish when working together.  We got a taste of the potential community impact of buying from local independent businesses. We generated an overwhelming and positive social media narrative with reach more significant than any other community in the competition.  We can be proud of holding the most real and impactful joint community welcome event deluxe had experienced before. We had a voting network established that would have put our community on the national map. Businesses that previously competed locally realized they are all on the same team when it comes to serving our community.

We were not chosen as the top town, but I was not participating to win for the sake of winning, but for discovering what we have, for proving to ourselves what we can accomplish. Participation was only an objective on the path to a higher purpose. So, what did we gain?  The answer rests in how we act on our strengths and talents going forward and choosing not to waste our energy on bitterness. Taking action to move forward, using our abilities, and gaining a new perspective is what we are doing.  The process of Regional Branding, and living a shared vision helps us focus all our good works along the lines of one mission. That is, to build a more vibrant community.

The mission that we had before The Small Business Revolution still remains.

The Purpose is a Vibrant Community

Taking Stock of Buying Local

Today, we are in the kitchen making chicken stock.  The stock we make today will last us all winter as a base ingredient to make flavorful recipes.   Imagine our big pot on the stove, filled with the ingredients for the stock, the liquid simmering, steam rising with a rich and tasty fragrance. 

Now imagine that the stockpot is our community, and the stew inside represents all of us working and striving to add value to the recipe of love, ways, and means that enrich our households.  The imaginary stockpot is different.  It has a spigot on the bottom that is always stuck open to some degree, running off the broth.  So, to make the recipe, we must continually add at least as much as is flowing out. The ingredients for this recipe are limited to the goods and services that our commerce sells to the world outside our community. This is our challenge, to add more than flows out and keep the makings in the pot longer to increase the quality and flavor.  Over time the runoff in our community has been higher than the input.

Currently, we are approaching the holiday season of potential joy combined with the tension of financial choices.  It might be the best time to practice investing in ourselves and our neighborhood to make a better broth. 

When we buy outside our community, cyber shopping, Mall of America style, we open wide the spigot.  According to the American Independent Business Alliance www.amiba.net/resources/multiplier-effect, when we buy from a local chain or mass merchant, we keep about 43% of the dollar you spend in the community stockpot. However, the best investment is when you buy from local, independently-owned businesses.  This is when you keep 68% of the stock in the pot, give it more time to cook, and allowing enriching the flavor and quantity of this stock we share. It is a delicate balance that is reliant on the small choices we all make every day.   A vibrant local business community adds flavor, character, and improves your financial stock.

There is no price low enough to overcome the cost of buying something that does not bring you joy or deliver value. The value that includes keeping your dollars working in the community pot.  Chicken stock is a recipe where better is more unless you like a tasteless, watery soup.

You have the freedom to choose how you cook. Will you decide to invest in yourself, your household, your neighbors, and your community? 

One Ship - Drifting or Sailing

Would you like to improve the direction of our community? Help us uncover the hidden strengths in our region?  Continue to expand on the unity that we so vigorously exercised earlier this year?  The team that brought you MyMarinetteMenominee is hosting our biggest event yet.  Add your voice to the conversation. Attend the upcoming Regional Branding Summit, Tuesday evening, October 22, at 6 p.m., doors open at 5 p.m., the  Auditorium,  810 Frontage Road, Peshtigo (inside NewLife). Find it - FB@mymarinettemenominee 

Please imagine our region, Marinette & Menominee Counties together, as one ship.  It is a significant ship, equipped with enough compartments and assets to be a manageable, capable, and preferred vessel. We are aboard this ship in open water, working hard to maintain it.  But maintaining and sailing a boat are two different things.  It is not enough to keep a ship; it is the action of sailing that matters.  If we are not sailing, we are adrift, staying afloat, until inevitably running aground with our children and grandchildren left aboard.  Yes, maintaining the ship is foundational, but floating and drifting is not the purpose of the vessel. The use of the boat is to sail with a clear and present purpose. 

Our region’s economic health is rated a low, 436^th out of 530 communities our size in the nation. Yet in comparison, we have a better ship than communities that perform much better.

Our purpose before we entered The Small Business Revolution, was for our participation to help unfurl our sails. We were not awarded the reality show’s top spot, but our purpose persists. Creating our regional brand and the process of branding is the step we would be taking now, no matter what place we were awarded. 

If you are trying to decide how branding is essential, you can define it as all that we do beyond the minimum required: sailing versus drifting. Branding is a process of discovering how we see ourselves reflected in how others see us.  The method of branding will resume where we left off in creating a sustainable power of “Unity in Community” that we discovered with the #MyMarinetteMenominee effort.

We seek to develop a place where youth wants to stay and contribute their talents. A place other’s desire to belong and bring their skills to contribute to our success.  The branding process helps us clarify our purpose.  Branding merges economic and community development. The captains of our ship need to know the clear and present purpose we have for our community.  They need to understand how to invest to achieve a return to economic and relational prosperity.