All About Business Campaign
Local business leaders, community volunteers, and students joined together on March 11 to kick-off the Lane Community College Foundation's business campaign. The local businesses and organizations were thanked for their contributions of $800,000 annually to support the college in a variety of ways.

President Mary Spilde discussed the ongoing crisis many businesses face in trying to find employees to meet their needs.

“In his book “The 2010 Crossroad: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis,” author Edward E. Gordon discussed the challenging outlook for qualified employees.

Gordon, who provided the keynote address to the 2008 Eugene Chamber’s Economic Forecast, says that ‘companies need to get serious and start investing in their community or they will not have a workforce.  The crisis is now. Business needs to plan now, and community colleges play an essential role in training and retraining the workforce. It is obvious that the funding to rebuild the system at a local level has to come for the people in their communities including small and mid-sized business owners,' Gordon said.

Lane Community College is here to help both employees and employers obtain training to meet the needs Gordon describes. Lane Community College is unique in its ability to serve a range of workforce training needs.

By working closely with Lane, business leaders like you can ensure that future members of the workforce are well-prepared to function in high-performance workplaces--environments that demand teamwork, problem-solving, and complex skills,” Spilde said.

Recipients of training from the Business Development Center, and those who have used the Cooperative Education program to supplement their workforce spoke about how the programs helped their businesses succeed.

Molly Morris of McKenzie Mist told how she has depended on the Business Development Center (BDC) for the 14 years she has been in business.  Ken Provencher of PacificSource told how he depends on BDC for group training for employees.

John Sheppard, Sheppard Motors, shared his story of working with the Auto Tech program to modify curriculum to get automotive students through training in one year instead of two. They created a new program called Fast Track. The students can get to work more quickly and the employer has the workers needed to get the work done.

Lorraine Kerwood, NextStep Recycling, was recognized as the Cooperative Education programs 2008 Employee of the Year. Lorraine spoke about how she was a product of Lane herself, and how she used Lane training to grow her internationally-recognized not-for-profit corporation and to obtain Cooperative Education employees such as Joseph Clark who graduated from Lane's Computer Information Technology program.

Nursing student Jessica Myers talked about how scholarship help made an impact in her life. "Scholarships provided the validation I needed to gain confidence and self-esteem. The scholarships not only boosted my morale, but encouraged me financially as well. It was now possible for me to pay for my tuition, books and uniform; and to clean houses less frequently and spend more time with my son and my studies!

"Understanding the value of money, I am incredibly grateful for the generous investment into my education, which is my future. Up until now, no one has monetarily encouraged me to attend school before. Now I truly feel encouraged and supported to work even harder in the years to come. I would like to personally thank all of you, the scholarship donors…without you, all of this would not be possible!!"

Foundation Board of Trustees President, Jim Creech, encouraged the business community to find a way to partner with Lane Community College, whether that be to establish a position for a cooperative education students, train yourself or your employees, of "open your wallet."

Contact Kathy Thomas, (541) 463-5538 to talk about ways your business can partner with Lane Community College.

Thanks to our SPONSORS:

Flightcraft

LCC Business Development Center

LibertyBank

Isler CPA

Randy Harrington's presentation:
Random Acts of Leadership: How Leadership Dynamics Must Change to be Effective in the Near Future
A Primer for up and coming Movers and Shakers

Randy Harrington Ph.D.