President’s Message: Matt Mikolajewski

WEDA President Matt Mikolajewski

I hope this message finds you enjoying summer!  It was great to see some of you recently at the “Impact through Redevelopment” Academy course in Milwaukee.  A note of thanks to Kathy Heady for organizing the session and to Kathryn Berger, Kristen Fish-Peterson, and John Stibal for presenting.  The Academy course, coupled with the Mid America EDC Conference, attracted attendees from around the country, planning and economic development practitioners new to WEDA, and our own WEDA members.  This was a great example of how WEDA continues to grow in our partnerships with aligned professional organizations.

This idea of partnership extends to the recent action of the WEDA Board of Directors to execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the American Indian Chamber of Commerce (AICCW) and First American Capital Corporation (FACC).  The MOU will allow us to partner on technical assistance requests on enterprise, economic and business development efforts by Native American communities statewide. Stay tuned for more information in the months ahead.

What is happening in the Capitol Building?  Michael Welsh, WEDA’s Director of Legislative Affairs and Communication, continues to monitor the outcomes of the recently adopted State Budget and potential action on bills in upcoming Legislative sessions.  The WEDA website includes a lot of great information about potential legislation, and I encourage anyone to contact Michael at any time with questions or concerns. 

Fall is going to be here soon and there will be some great education and networking opportunities that you won’t want to miss.  First, our annual Community and Economic Development Awards ceremony will be held in Madison on September 11th.  Our Fall Conference will then be held from October 2nd – 4th in Stevens Point.  We will kick-off the conference Wednesday morning with a separate “Entrepreneurial Food and Agriculture Enterprises” workshop.  This will be followed by a great tour of Stevens Point-area food and beverage businesses and the opportunity for some golf networking.  The conference then starts Thursday with a record seven (7) State agency secretaries available to discuss your economic development concerns!  The WEDA website includes more information about both events.

I look forward to seeing many of you this fall.  In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time with questions or suggestions at 608-267-8737 or mmikolajewski@cityofmadison.com.