February 22, 2016 MEETING SUMMARY

Transcription

1 KAMMA Board of Directors John Hansen, President Jeffrey McKnight, Secretary Kenneth Dean, Treasurer Dolly Moore, Director of Membership Serving the manufacturing industry by providing profitable & valuable business solutions KAMMA REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING February 22, :00 PM 2:30 PM LOCATION: Kingman Airport Authority Conference Room 7000 Flightline Drive, Kingman, AZ February 22, 2016 MEETING SUMMARY I. Welcome: Jeff McKnight welcomed the attending group and thanked them for joining our monthly meeting. John Hansen introduced a group of special guests from Lewistown, MT that traveled down specifically to join the meeting shortly after completion of items I, II & III. Attendees were: John Hansen Kenneth Dean Jeff McKnight Dolly Moore Bruce Forthun Jen Miles Gary Jeppsen Bob Riley Jean Goujon Scott Brackett Lisa Black Jean Bishop Jaclyn Chapman Dan Lara Jeff Cook Carl Hays Bennett Bratley Lynne Petersen Deborah Skomski Michael Bradle Stuart Yocum Tom Spika Roy Jones Bekki Spika Jeff Ruffner David French Amy West Laron, Inc. Lomanco, Inc. I-Corp Arizona, Inc. Laron, Inc. Cascades Tissue Group Mohave County Workforce Development City of Kingman Kingman Airport Authority Allied Forces Temp Services Brackett Aero Filters GEO Group Supervisor, Mohave County District IV Manpower Mohave Community College Cook Controls M-14P Mohave County Economic Development Unisource McKee Foods Preston Investments City of Kingman Job Service, Lewistown, MT Kingman Airport Authority Wave JTED

2 Attendees (Cont d): Dick Penwarden Donna Penwarden Tom Carter II. III. The January 25, 2016 Meeting Minutes were approved unanimously. Financial Report: KAMMA Treasurer Kenny Dean reported the bank balances of: Beginning Balance (Through 1/25/2016): $4, Ending Balance (Through 2/22/2016): $5, There were deposits totaling $600 (membership dues incoming for 2016). IV. Old Business: a. Website Update: Dolly Moore demonstrated the new website for the attending group. The new look will be much more friendly to the eye and much easier to navigate with simplicity and efficiency. Dolly made appeal to the members to complete their advertising stencil and return it whereas the site can development can complete and prepare to go live. There will be an area in the new site where members can add an event to the calendar. This will require a login and password to do so. The event then will be reviewed by the website administrator for approval to appear on the active site. This feature is very user friendly and should prove a valuable feature for future use. Dolly encouraged all to report any flaws or bugs once the site is online. The journey has been a very laborious one with a wonderfully great reward at the end. We need the member s help in making it the best it can be. The domain name is still Dan Lara indicated that the domain name KAMMA.org was still available. This change will be considered by the Board of Directors and discussed with Kinetik IT. b. Membership Update: Dolly Moore reported that KAMMA has a total of 43 members that consist of 22 paid members for 2016 and 9 comped / government members with 12 members still outstanding for c. Board of Directors Member Replacement: John Hansen began this discussion indicating to the group that the Board was still waiting on responses from any of the membership. The energy of the discussion changed quickly as Dolly Moore stepped up to nominate Bruce Forthun, Plant Manager for Cascades Tissue Group, Kingman for the position.

3 V. New Business Bruce stated that he would be willing to accept the nomination to fill the position and serve on the Board of Directors. John Hansen made known the nomination would be kept open until the end of February giving any others the chance to step forward in interest of the position. a. Workforce Development s New Brand Identity Jen Miles Jen Miles distributed a colorful handout describing the new face of Arizona s Workforce Development System that will unite all offices statewide as one fully collaborative network with integrated services and resources. Jen explained how these changes are intended to strengthen the relationship with employers and better connect them with people looking for employment. The integrated workforce system is an economic development engine that is intended to help attract new business to our state, reduce unemployment and ultimately grow Arizona s economy. Jen encouraged all to visit the new website: b. Progress Update: FTZ Subzone John Hansen described to the group that Laron Inc. has the opportunity to act as a Western Hemisphere distributor for large mining equipment being manufactured in China. Value adding services will be duty free working within an FTZ subzone although they would be taxable under current trade laws. There is opportunity for job creation as well as development of a logistics hub here locally and it would make it easier for others to obtain a subzone. Some of the challenges being faced in the task are that there are no customs inspectors to support the subzone and the subzone would have to find a way to fund this. Laron submitted a resolution to get approval from the City and the City Council promptly voted to give the approval. Preparation must be made to now appeal to the County for its support in the effort. Once support of the County is received then an appeal can be made to Las Vegas to see if they could support the customs needs. Jean Bishop, Mohave County Supervisor, District 4 suggested a presentation to the County Board of Supervisors as soon as possible to help get things moving. John indicated that they were reasonably assured they would be able to subscribe to the Phoenix #75 FTZ and that the 100 mile radius limitation would be waived. John believes that we have a number of companies that might benefit from an FTZ Subzone and the potential for job creation would flourish as well as enhancing manufacturing recruitment to our area. The vision is to become an FTZ and then we could bring on subscribers in our region specifically the Laughlin Bullhead International Airport as well as gaining international classification for the Kingman Airport and possibly Lake Havasu City.

4 c. Industrial Training: Last year MCC and UTS partnered together to put on a PLC Fundamentals training course locally for a group of technicians employed at various companies in our area. Since that time the question raised is When is Phase 2? John Hansen has been working to make the concept of an Academy a reality that would allow companies to send employees to 3-4 days of training at a time with 4 courses offered, 1 each quarter of the year. Ideas for the sessions would be Advanced PLC Technology, Sensor Training, Mechanical, Precision Alignment, Vibration Analysis and other related topics. There are some challenges in the endeavor with one of the biggest being able to fill a cohort, usually a minimum of 8 students. It was noted that UTS is working on a Mechatronics Bootcamp that parallels the idea of the Academy concept. John made appeal to the membership to help identify training needs within our industrial community and help push to make this valuable resource available to our local manufacturers. d. Follow Up - City of Kingman s Survey for Reclaimed Water Usage to Businesses at the Industrial Park: The stated adventure; What Sustainability Efforts are you going to make? John Hansen indicated that we could put a check in someone s box that would make the difference between locating their business here or not. Recycling could be a deciding factor in this matter. John would like for KAMMA to endorse the idea of getting the A-plus effluent generated at the Hilltop Waste Water Facility to the Industrial Park. With the availability of up to 1.5mm gallons available on a daily basis this could have a dramatic impact to bring in a different kind of business to our community. John has agreed to write a letter to the city in support of the idea and work toward finding innovative uses for this valuable resource. e. KAA Briefing Bob Riley: Bob Riley addressed the group acknowledging that there has been a lot of controversy in the recent past but asked all to keep an objective ear to what is being presented. Bob displayed a PowerPoint presentation (*included in the distribution of this summary) that states the history, the facts and the figures of the Kingman Airport Authority since its incorporation in 1979 which was the time at which the Duval Mine closed leaving Kingman in a desperate economic condition. KAA s Mission and Goal has been to bridge the gap with industrial growth in the absence of the mine which was the largest employer locally at that time. After the presentation there was active discussion within the group and there were many thoughts and opinions shared. The question; What can KAMMA do to influence the development of the Industrial Park? A primary response was to talk to the County Board of Supervisors regarding Industrial Park issues that are under the jurisdiction of Mohave County such as road maintenance.

5 Lynne Petersen of Unisource discussed the recent rate hearings targeting economic development and starting in March electric rates could be discounted for up to 5 years for new businesses starting up in Arizona. More information will be shared on the topic as it becomes available. f. Closing Discussion: John Hansen discussed with the group how KAMMA had an active voice recently in the repeal of $29 million JTED funding cuts proposed by the State Legislature. It was reported that the State overturned its position and will keep JTED funding in place. John wrote an assertive letter highlighting strategic facts about our valuable JTED program and communicated the perspective from Manufacturers and Businesses and how this program relates to the future of manufacturing in our State and specifically our area. This letter was sent to The Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, David Gowan Sr., Representative Andy Biggs, Representative David Stevens, Representative Gail Griffin and Senator Sylvia Allen. g. Advice from our Visiting Guests: Get the Word Out, Use the News, There are people here that can help Thank you to Tom Spika, Bekki Spika and Jeff Ruffner of Spika Welding and Mfg, Inc. as well as Roy Jones of Lewistown, MT Job Service for traveling down to visit our area and join us in our meeting. VI. NEXT REGULAR KAMMA MEETING: Monday, March 21, :00 PM 2:30 PM Location: Kingman Airport Authority Building Conference Room 7000 Flightline Drive, Kingman, AZ VII. Adjourn: