Managing Board Welcomes New Directors

The Northwest Indiana Forum elected Don Babcock (NIPSCO) to continue in his role as Chair of the 2012 Managing Board of Directors with a unanimous vote. Jill Ritchie (United States Steel Corporation) will serve as Chair-Elect and Tom Keilman (BP) as Secretary/Treasurer.

Building on the history of strong and effective volunteer committees’ work, Charles Weaver (Starke County Economic Development Foundation) will lead the Economic Development efforts. Chairing Environmental Affairs and Public Policy are Robert Crookston (Microbac Labs) and Jill Ritchie (United States Steel Corporation) respectively. Cal Bellamy (Krieg DeVault) will oversee the Audit Committee while Dewey Pearman (Construction Advancement Foundation) will handle member retention and recruitment duties.

The following is a notice from the Indiana Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Network at the I.U. School of Medicine:

Not all wellness programs are created equal. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Many companies and their employees possess varied circumstances that make them unique. While there are differences, there are also lessons and best practices to be learned from others as well as resources available to help.

The Dream It Do It Campaign, developed by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), is expanding its initiative into Northwest Indiana with the local High School Champion Initiative through the partnership of the Center of Workforce Innovations and Conexus Indiana. The objective of the High School Champion initiative is to instill career awareness among Northwest Indiana parents, students, and teachers related to the manufacturing and logistics industries.

According to extensive research by NAM and others, the main impediment to young people entering the workforce, which boasts a large number of high-tech and manufacturing-based in-demand careers, is a false perception in regards to the kind of jobs in factories and warehouses and skill level requirements.

We’re all familiar with the concept of "casual Friday." In fact, on most Fridays here at the Chamber, we’re allowed to wear jeans if we donate a few dollars to our designated charity of the month. But here’s an intriguing post from Ragan’s PR Daily revealing that workers may be less apt to dress down for fear of seeming unprofessional. Obviously, it depends upon one’s industry and employer, but here’s some news that may disappoint the people at Guess (tight-rolled Guess jeans are still cool for guys to wear, right? Just asking because they go really well with my I.O.U. sweatshirts):

Lately, however, when I look around the train on a Friday morning, the commuters no longer appear to be dressing down; in the age of the economic downturn and increased job insecurity it seems that “casual Fridays” are becoming a thing of the past.