Ron Sayer plans school fund-raiser

Ron Sayer’s Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge is planning to team up May 18 with parents and teachers at American Heritage Charter School for a “Drive for the Kids” fund-raiser, to help raise money in support of the school’s activities.

During the school’s spring concert, parents and guests will have the opportunity to earn a $10 contribution for the school from the Chrysler brand by taking a test drive in a new 2015 Town & Country, Chrysler 200 or Chrysler 300. Any licensed driver, age 18 or older, may drive and earn $10 on the school’s behalf. Ron Sayer will provide 2015 model Chrysler brand vehicles, along with volunteers from the dealership, to help the school with the test drives.

This is the seventh year Ron Sayer has been doing “Drive for the Kids” at Idaho Falls area schools, raising more than $30,000 overall.

All test-drive participants will also be entered into the 2015 National Giveaway for a chance to win $45,000 toward any eligible FCA US LLC Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Ram, FIAT, or Alfa Romeo vehicle.

Chrysler introduced the “Drive for the Kids” program in 1993, becoming the first automotive manufacturer to reach out in direct support of local schools. Since then, Chrysler dealers have worked with parents and educators across the nation to contribute over $6 million to schools in communities where Chrysler does business. For more information, visit www.drive4kids.com.

INL picks two teams for DOE commercialization program

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., is working with six national labs, including INL, identifying innovative technologies with potential for commercialization.

Idaho National Laboratory has selected two teams to participate this year in the Department of Energy’s Lab-Corps Program.


Last fall, DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy selected proposals from six national labs, including INL, for a $2.3 million pilot program called Lab-Corps, which is designed to accelerate the commercialization of clean energy technologies.

“Our program is designed to immerse each three-person team in an approach to learn about successfully commercializing their discoveries to the private sector,” said INL Lab-Corps leader Tammie Borders, in a press release this week.

INL reviewed several technologies for the Lab-Corps program that promise advancements in sustainable transportation, renewable power and energy efficiency lab technologies. The winners were Matthew Balderree, who's technology is an application that facilitates material inspection of wind turbine blades using unmanned aircraft, and Brant Peery, who developed technology that compiles data from databases in different formats and presents it in a user-friendly way.


“DOE’s Lab-Corps program offers a new pathway to advance greater collaboration between industry and national laboratories,” said INL Associate Laboratory Director Steven Aumeier. Modeled closely after the National Science Foundation's I-Corps program, Lab-Corps is managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and seeks to strengthen the impact national laboratories have on the nation's energy resources. The technology accelerator and training curriculum enables lab-based teams to gain direct market feedback on their technologies and pursue commercialization opportunities.


“Each team has an INL researcher, an entrepreneurial lead and an industry mentor,” Borders said. “The entrepreneurial lead and the industry mentor are selected from talented business leaders who work outside of INL in order to offer a fresh perspective for the team.”


INL’s pilot program capitalizes on previous work with the Idaho Technology Council, Boise State University and Renewable Technology Ventures. These groups have assisted in identifying potential entrepreneurial leads and industry mentors for the teams.


During the seven-week training provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, each team will visit companies in the appropriate market sectors and meet face-to-face with customers. “We are expecting highly energetic teams who will hone their new entrepreneurial talents and gain exceptional insight into commercializing innovative technologies in the private sector,” Borders said.

Energy Department Announces New Lab Program to Accelerate Commercialization of Clean Energy Technologies

ISU students to talk about advertising presentation

The Idaho State University team that presented in the American Advertising
Federation's National Student Advertising Competition earlier this month.

Members and guests of the Idaho Falls Advertising Federation will get an exclusive peek at Idaho State University’s National Student Advertising Competition presentation for Pizza Hut at the next Lunch & Learn educational series, May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Dixie's Diner.

The event is open to the public. Cost is $12 for members and $15 for non-members and includes lunch.

What is the NSAC? Each year the American Advertising Federation teams up with a major corporate client to challenge more than 200 college chapters to develop an integrated marketing campaign for a specific product, service or brand. AAF college chapter teams conduct primary and secondary research into consumer behavior, identifying the target market’s wants and needs. Then they develop a plan to communicate the client’s message.

After the research is complete, student teams create a comprehensive campaign to pitch at the AAF District 11 competition. District 11 includes Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. This year the competition was held in Boise on April 10.

This lunch will be a great way to see some of the area’s freshest talent coming and hear about what it’s like to work on a campaign for a national client. The presenters will be brining all their creative work, and copies of the case and plans book they designed and submitted.

For more information, follow this link: IFAF.

A blast from the past on the subject of working women

Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting of "Rosie the Riveter."

While looking through the Post-Register of April 30, 1940 (researching the Looking Back column that I write for the paper), I saw a story about a survey conducted by the local Business and Professional Women's Club. Some of you might find it interesting, others appalling.

As part of a national effort, the club's research committee, headed by Lucille Rennie, interviewed 134 employers, asking four questions:

• Do you refuse to hire married women?
• Would you dismiss an employee upon her marriage?
• Would you refuse to promote married women?
• In the event of pregnancy, would you re-employ a woman after the child is born?

Most employers said they were favorably inclined toward having married women in the workplace, saying they brought level-headedness and stability. They had reservations about mothers of newborns, however, and everything was of course contingent upon the husband's approval.

The one exception was the Idaho Falls School Board, whose representatives said they weren’t inclined to hire married women and that any single woman who decided to get married wouldn't be getting a new contract.

The story said the survey could be a useful pointer to the Idaho Legislature. "Laws have been introduced in many state legislatures in the past few years with the idea of removing the married woman from the payroll. In most states this proposed legislation has failed as unconstitutional and in violation of the rights of the citizen. (In) some states, however, some such legislation has been enacted."

Given the date of the story, let's remember that Pearl Harbor is less than a year-and-a-half away and that following the United States' entry into World War II any objections to working women -- married or single -- would take a backseat to the war effort.

On that note, you might be interested to know that  Mary Keefe, the woman who posed as Rosie the Riveter for Norman Rockwell's famous Saturday Evening Post cover, died on April 21, at age 92. Here's a link to the story in the New York Times: Mary Keefe, Model for Rockwell’s ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ Dies at 92.

Nominations for Hometown Hero awards being sought

The Idaho’s Hometown Hero Organization Committee would like to know, “Who is
your hero?”

The JRM Foundation for Humanity has begun taking nominations for the 2015 Idaho’s Hometown Hero Medal. Established in 2011, the medal pays tribute to those who show unique characteristics, achievements and commitment to creating better, safer communities across the state of Idaho.

This year's theme is "Empowering Women,” and the selection committee is seeking to honor men, women and youth who are serving and making a difference in the lives of women.

The Idaho’s Hometown Hero Medal was founded by Drs. Fahim and Naeem Rahim and is sponsored by the JRM Foundation for Humanity, a not-for-profit organization.

The selected medalists will be honored at the 5th Annual Idaho Hometown Hero Awards Ceremony and Gala Celebration, Sept. 12 at the Stephens Performing Arts Center in Pocatello.

Nominations will be accepted through Aug. 10. Visit the JRMFoundation.org Web site for more information or to make your nomination.

BizMojo Idaho avoids 'Mobilegeddon' ... have you?

The link to learn more about mobile friendly pages is

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

After hearing about "Mobilegeddon" this morning at Square One, I decided it was of utmost importance to heed the Google gods' dictate that my Web site be made pleasing to them.

For those of you wondering what I'm on about, I refer you to this link: Google Algorithm Changes: Prepare For the Mobile Apocalypse! It was published a month ago on the Business 2 Community Web page, and despite the alarming headline it points out the obvious, that anyone who doesn't have a mobile-friendly Web site ought to get cracking.

In my case, it needed to be done. Since the beginning of the year, 46 percent of my 23,552 page views have been on mobile devices. More tellingly, 51 percent of my new users have been mobile.

It was easy, possibly because I'm on Blogspot, which is a Google platform. In any event, when you click the links to BizMojoIdaho.com off Facebook you won't need to expand the page and slide it all over the screen to read my posts. Better yet, this will help with the site's optimization, which means any business I write about will be getting some juice from the inbound link off the BizMojo Idaho page.

Cabela's expects 1,500-plus for May 14 grand opening

Curtis Smith, manager of the new Cabela's store in Ammon. 

Cabela’s in Ammon is entering the homestretch to its May 14 opening, with 165 people hired to staff the 44,000-square-foot store.

Although they have been very busy, Store Manager Curtis Smith and Operations Manager Jason Porter have already had a few opportunities already to experience eastern Idaho’s outdoors. On a recent hike up Palisades Creek, they saw mountain goats and moose. After moving here from St. Louis, their perception of the local market prompted them to more than double the size of the store’s fly-fishing section.

The Ammon store represents a new direction for Cabela’s, which until recently built much larger stores. “(The new format) allows us to get into communities where a 180,000-square-foot store wouldn’t work,” Smith said.

But Cabela’s knew the Idaho Falls-Ammon market would be a winner, based on all the online and catalog sales it has done with people in this area. What people from here have ordered in the past played a large part in determining what inventory is being stocked in the store.
Anyone who wants to order online or from the catalog can have it delivered to the store and save themselves shipping costs.

Smith said they expect between 1,500 and 2,000 people for the grand opening, which is at 10 a.m. There will be no ribbon cutting. Instead, it will be severed by an arrow shot by Shelby Richardson, one of the store’s archery outfitters (the term Cabela’s uses for employees), who was one of three finalists in a shooting contest, then wrote an essay in a contest personally judged by Cabela’s CEO Thomas Millner.