GOING NORTH NEWSLETTER JUL-AUG 2014 ISSUE 135 320 ARmOUR Rd, SUITE 220, NKC, mO 64116 816-472-7700 WWW.NKCbUSINESSCOUNCIL.COm

NKC FirstLook

Presidents Level Sponsors

The first year of the Northland CAPS program was the 2013-14 school year. All six participating school districts – North Kansas City, Liberty, Park Hill, Kearney, Smithville and Platte County R-3 – had students in each of the two strands with classes. In total, 28 students were involved, with 14 in each strand. The Computer Technology group met at Cerner and the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineer-ing group met at Holland 1916 in Liberty’s Heartland Meadows industrial park.

Enrollment for the 2014-15 is 270 stu-dents – almost a tenfold increase – in four strands at five locations. Once again Cerner and Holland 1916 will host classes – with a class in the morning and another class in the afternoon, involving a total of 110 students. The Medicine and Health-care strand will be hosted at two hospi-tals – North Kansas City Hospital and Liberty – with two classes each and a total of 104 students. The Global Business and Entrepreneurship strand will be hosted at BankLiberty’s North Prospect (Gladstone) location with two classes and a total of 47 students. A total of five instructors, who actually serve more as project managers, will lead these classes. Students receive high school and college credit for all Northland CAPS courses.

The purpose of the Northland CAPS

program is to prepare more students to become qualified candidates for high de-mand/high skill career positions – hope-fully with Northland businesses. The only career strands included are industries with high demand for qualified workers for high skill positions.

Inclusion of students in the Northland CAPS program fits a unique niche. It is not necessarily for the “A” student and it probably isn’t for the student who would be a better fit for a “trade school” pro-gram. It is for the student who is begin-ning to realize that the purpose of an education is to prepare him or her for a ca-reer. And, further, it is for those who agree it would be wise to get more firsthand knowledge about the career they believe they are interested in and to get some experience with it. It is for the student who is willing to allocate a half-day, every day, to this program, sometimes requir-ing a sacrifice of other more traditional components of the high school experience. Inclusion in this program certainly fits the student who plans to go on to a commu-nity college, four year college or even to

graduate school. But it could also include a student who doesn’t yet have that type of continuing education in mind but hopes to find a career that is a good fit for his/her talents and passions.

Business partnerships are critical for the success of the Northland CAPS program. Businesses can be involved in a variety of ways: • By providing a class site, such as the five locations to be involved in the 2014-15 school year• By contributing real-life projects that students can be involved in• By offering internship opportunities• By providing experts who can provide insights for students either as a class speaker or as a mentor• By offering site visits to enable students (and teachers/counselors/principals/ Board members) a better insight into real business demands, processes and cultures• By providing “externships” and shad- owing opportunities for educators to help them have a better understanding of real business demands, processes and cultures• By financial donations that enable the program to be stronger and to extend into additional strands

Ten Times more sTudenTs involved in norThland CaPs

1 Million Cups in the northlandThe North Kansas City Business Council, in partnership with the Clay County EDC, has been sponsoring 1 Million Cups/Northland every Wednesday since early May. This event is held at the Armour Loft Event Space, upstairs at 406 Armour. It is a blend of live stream-ing of presentations from the 1 Million Cups program at the Kauffman Foundation every Wednesday at 9 a.m. and a networking event for anyone interested in starting or supporting entrepreneurial ventures. It is offered as a convenient location for anyone in the Northland who prefers not to drive to the Kauffman Foundation building at 4801 Rockhill Road for the live presentations.Recent enhancements were to open the doors at 8:30 a.m. for more networking time and to insert local presentations about topics that are important to entrepreneurs as well as presentations by Northland entrepreneurs and those that have had significant success.To learn more about the 1 Million Cups program go to www.1millioncups.org .

new City administrator eric BerlinEric Berlin’s first day as North Kansas City’s City Administrator was June 16. He replaced Matt Shatto, who resigned in December to become COO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, based in Lawrence, KS. Eric was City Manager in Raymore, MO for the past 11 years and prior to that was City Manager in Platteville, WI and Spring Hill, KS. He earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Virginia.

recognition awards for BeautificationFor the second year, the North Kansas City Business Council and the City of North Kansas City will recognize numerous businesses for their efforts to beautify and to add economic vitality to North Kansas City. Recognition Awards will be celebrated at the August 28 Monthly Membership Luncheon. Some of the businesses in consideration for awards include:• Advance Auto Parts/NT Realty—new business and building conversion• Centrix Innovations—new business and conversion of building• City of North Kansas City solar panel Installations• Executive Asset Realty Group—new business and beautification of building• Gardens at Northgate expansion• Hallier Reed building re-use and beautification• Hunt Midwest/Northgate Village/Aspen Homes residential expansion• Maxus Properties removal of building at Armour and Burlington• North Kansas City Hospital—signage/wayfinding and new Cardiac Clinical Decision Unit

Rich Groves

CommenTs from the executive director, rich GrovesTrying to sum-marize responses to the six question online “essay” sur-vey about North Kansas City’s future proved to be quite challenging. In general, the re-sponses were very

positive about North Kansas City as it is and the outlook towards its future. Finding a way to preserve and enhance the great things about North Kansas City while adapting to take advantage of new opportu-nities going forward was pointed out by several responders as being very important. I will be glad to share all the responses with anyone who wants to read through them. Here are my biggest “take-aways” from the responses:• North Kansas City has a huge advantage being close to the center of the Kansas City metro area with ample roadways reaching in all

directions. This enables businesses and residents in North Kansas City to be able to get almost anywhere in the metro area in less than a half hour. This is also a great benefit for businesses in North Kansas City in attracting and retaining employees. It is easy to get here; parking for employees is plentiful and free; there is an abundance of good restaurants; and there is no Kansas City earnings tax. Businesses also find North Kansas City a good place to be because it is relatively inexpensive and the local govern-ment is relatively business-friendly.• In spite of its limited geography, North Kansas City can grow – both with more businesses and with more residents. In-fill opportunities remain as well as the huge poten-tial for adaptive re-use of former manufacturing and warehouse buildings. The excellent internet infrastructure also makes North Kansas City a great place for any internet-dependent business. It is

reasonable to expect that younger workers and empty nesters still in the workforce will find North Kansas City to be an appealing place to live with its proximity to everything in downtown Kansas City and North Kansas City’s walk-ability and bicycle-friendly terrain. Perhaps some housing can even arise in the “warehouse district” enabling this area to have some of the same appeal as the Crossroads district and the River Market district.Comments expressed the hope that the business community and the residential community will find ways to understand their mutual interests and work together better to improve North Kansas City.One comment summarized the feeling of many of the comments: North Kansas City is a hidden gem in the Kansas City metro area. The new North Kansas City tag-line states it well: Virtually urban. Supremely suburban.

Plans have been finalizedfor a sister-city trip September 17-25 for a group of North Kansas City representa-tives to visit Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Among other activities they will help celebrate Bushmill’s annual Salmon and Whiskey Festival, September 19-21. The group will also visit Belfast and other points of interest in Northern Ire-land and the Republic of Ireland.

Bushmills is the home of the Old Bush-mills Distillery, the oldest distillery in Eu-rope. The town is located near the scenic northeast coast of Northern Ireland. It is only a few miles from the Giants Cause-way, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It is not too late to participate in this travel opportunity—if you act soon! Contact Toni Cracraft at Voyages Plus Travel Shoppe at voyagesplus@aol.com or call 471-3900.

ireland tripireland trip

Only an hour before the scheduled 12:30 p.m. shotgun start on Thursday, June 5, it was still uncertain if the weather would cooperate to permit the 18th annual Mickey Finn Scholarship Golf Classic at Tiffany Greens Golf Club to go on as planned. A morning of rain fol-lowed by very strong winds put it in doubt. But miracles happen! What followed was a perfect afternoon for golf for 24 teams enjoying sunshine, temperatures in the 70s and a light breeze.

One of the goals of the event is to raise money to pay for scholarships for deserving North Kansas City High School seniors. The event is named in honor of Mickey Finn, longtime North Kansas City business man and civic leader, credited for starting the tournament and providing leadership for it for many years. Mickey died this past year at the age of 86.

The Title Sponsor of the event this year was Mid-Amer-ica Contractors. Other major sponsors were ANS Con-struction, Hunt Midwest, Ingredion, liNKCity, North Kansas City Beverage, North Kansas City Hospital, Seeburg Muffler and Stor-Safe Warehouses.

Hole Sponsors were: Arctic Glacier Premium Ice, Best Batteries, Burlington Northtown Com-munity Credit Union, Chappell’s Restaurant & Sports Museum, Data Shack, Davis Paint, Express Employment Professionals, First Missouri Bank, Hakes Realty, Hallier Reed, Koch Bag & Supply, Krueger & James Insurance/Edward Jones, Maxus Properties, McConnell & Associ-ates, North Kansas City Iron & Metal, North Kansas City Rotary Club, Northcare Hospice, Paul & Jack’s Tavern, ProPrint Digital, Quality Plumbing, sipVine, Smokin’ Guns, Southwest Technologies, Thomas Hershewe CPA and Tanan Floral.

In tightly-contested matches, the A Flight NT Realty winning team of Tom Demesko, Ross Workman, Greg Martinette and Dick Labonte edged the Edward Jones team of Tim Dolan, Tom Cook, Kirk Krueger and John Behnken with a scorecard tie-breaker. The third place team was Pat Hawver, Paul Hawver, Randy Knipp and Bill Kerwin.

The B Flight was even tighter with three teams having the same score. A scorecard tie-breaker was needed to determine the winner. The teams were the Commerce Bank team of Matt Dority, Nick McFee, Phil Josephson and Tim O’Shea; the First Missouri Bank team of Steve Chase, William McQueen, Amy Alumbaugh and Dustin Glidewell; and Ingredion Team #6 of Lou Jones, Jack Polise, Steve Buehne and Brad Smith.

Individual contest winners were: William McQueen – Longest Drive; Amy Alumbaugh – Longest Drive, Wom-en; Scott Pearson – Closest 2nd Shot on Tiger Woods Hole (#1); Jason Forge – Longest Putt (Hole #18); and Kirk Krueger – Closest to the Pin (Hole #4).

This annual event keeps getting better. The 2014 version on Tuesday, August 26, at the North Kansas City ProBowl facility, will feature more flexibility with the three competition events and a shorter evening. Activities start at 4:30 and end by 7:30 including food, drink and competition in bowling, billiards and mini-golf. Weather permitting, there will also be free time for go-karts.

The Triple Play event offers a great team-building and team-thanking opportu-nity. Teams will register as teams of four but participate as teams of two. One half of the time will be set aside for bowling and the other half will allow an easy allocation of time between dinner, billiards, mini-golf and go-karts.

Teams signing up early will have the “early bird” rate of $175. After July 31 the cost will be $200.

Contact Jennifer@nkcbusinesscouncil.com or call Jennifer at 816-472-7700.

The Council’s Triple Play event offers a great team-building opportunity.

Golf TournamenT dodGed The rain!

Reward Your Employees with a Fun Evening:Triple Play, Tuesday, August 26

NKC Business Council320 Armour Road, Suite 220North Kansas City, MO 64116

exeCuTive levelsPonsors

uPCominG evenTs• Farmer’s Market - every Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Caboose Park• 1 Million Cups/Northland – every Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. – Armour Loft Event Space, 406 Armour (upstairs) In addition to curbside parking, a large lot is available in the Colorado Tech University parking lot, only 2 blocks away.• Business After Hours – Wed, July 18, 4:30 p.m. Velocity Computer Tech, 101 Armour• Monthly Membership Luncheons – Thu, July 24, 11:30 a.m. – Black on Burlington, 1327 Burling-ton (parking in the back) – Dr. Rodger Dean Dun-can, Duncan Worldwide, author and consultant• First Friday Coffee – Fri, August 1, 7:30 a.m. Country Club Bank, 401 Armour• Monthly Membership Luncheon – Thu, August 28, 11:30 a.m. – Black on Burlington, 1327 Burlington (parking in the back) – Annual City of North Kansas City Update and Presentation of Business Recognition Awards

reCenT hosTsRecent hosts for North Kansas City Business Council events include:

• Cates Auction & Real Estate — First Friday Coffee, May 2• Hunt Midwest/Northgate Village — Business After Hours, May 21

Farmer’s MarketHas Special Attractions

The North Kansas City Farmer’s Market offers fresh produce and oth-er delights every Friday from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Caboose Park. The season will continue until the end of October. Caboose Park is convenient-ly located on the southeast corner of Armour Rd and Howell St.

You can expect to find delicious, farm-fresh vegetables and fruit as well as bread products, honey, jellies and eggs at the Farmer’s Market. On selected weeks there will also be special programs by the University of Missouri Extension Service as well as North Kansas City Hospital.

Are you one of those North Kansas City workers who make the Farmer’s Market a Friday morning routine – either before you go to work, during a break or over the lunch hour? Park-ing curbside along Howell makes it very convenient to stop to make a purchase a few steps away.