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Letter from the President - Winter 2023

Letter from the President - Winter 2023

Letter from the President - Winter 2023

A new year, a time to reflect on past accomplishments, review lessons learned, and lay innovative plans for continuing progress toward goals. This has been the recent work of CMMA and our leadership group.

We’ve renewed our focus on educating our members, preparing our future workforce, and partnering with elected officials to advocate for the interests of manufacturing in our area. We’ve refined and elevated our commitment to deliver value for membership and exceed expectations.  

As for accomplishments, CMMA has made long strides in workforce development again this past year. We’ve been fully expanding, deploying, and promoting our unique collaborative k12 Navigator.  This free tool connects our education community with Central Minnesota manufacturers for career exploration, entry point, and pathways. Manufacturers in the Central and West Central Minnesota regions are now connecting with eager learners and developing their talent pipeline.

Our annual Tour of Manufacturing was a huge success last October, proving to be a powerful tool to engage, elevate, and enlighten. This event helps to change perceptions, heighten awareness and appreciation of the critical role manufacturing plays in our communities and economy, and showcase abundant careers in our industry. We deeply appreciate all those who organize and deliver this worthy initiative, as well as those who open their facility doors for tours.        

In 2022 we offered a bountiful list of online webinars and training sessions on topics of interest including workforce development, marketing, leadership, and more. We’ll continue to add value to CMMA membership in this way by providing learning opportunities and helpful resources.

Members have particularly benefited from the Employer Health Plans and the other MBiz Solutions.

We had fun for a purpose at our annual fund raiser golf tournament. This event yields critical funding for CMMA education scholarships, provides needed financial support to STEM programs in our schools, and allows us to enjoy one another’s company while making a positive impact.

We brought educators and manufacturers together again at our yearly CTE Jamboree. We embrace the important task of educating young people and preparing them to further manufacturing in central Minnesota.

We’re financially sound, we have strong management and oversight, we’re mindful of detail, and we’re responsible and thoughtful with our resources. We keep our eyes on the prize knowing that teamwork makes the dream work. We’re positioned to create and contribute to the evolution and sustainability of our great industry.

This is a short list of the many great reasons to be a member of the CMMA family. Networking, connecting, sharing, learning, and growing.

I thank each of you for your membership and investments of time and talent to make CMMA the meaningful entity that we’ve become since 2008. We’re committed to growth, improvement, and innovation. We’re in it together and we’re stronger together.

In service,
Les Engel, CMMA President             

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