MARCH 2022 NEWSLETTER
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Forward this newsletter to your contacts that you believe would benefit from the Great Plains TMC. They can learn more at our website, or sign up for a free membership below! 
MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
MJE LIVESTOCK EQUIPMENT - Montezuma, KS
Our member spotlight this month is MJE Livestock Equipment of Montezuma, Kansas. The company designs and develops livestock equipment, and is a full-scale manufacturing division of its parent company, MJE, LLC, a leading contractor in dairy and feedyard construction. With over 45 years of experience, MJE is a leading company in the agricultural industry.

Click the button below to learn more about MJE LE's newest products, efforts to improve workforce issues, and their engagement with local and regional organizations.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS - MARCH 2022
  • Kansas Correctional Industries
  • City of Liberal Economic Development
  • EGE Products
  • LG Machine
  • Fast Catch Calf Catcher
  • S&S Powerlift Hydraulic Doors
  • Travis Scale Company
  • Farm Buddy
  • Tiger Jaw Inc
  • Longshot Enterprises
PARTNER UPDATES
NEW KANSAS SBDC ADVISOR
Welcome Nadia Arbelo to the Great Plains TMC network! She is the new Business Advisor for the Kansas SBDC and serves the Manhattan District. Prior to her position, she worked in a similar role with the Western North Carolina SBTDC, and has a both educational and entrepreneurial experiences throughout many parts of the world. Learn more about Nadia's experiences and goals with the Kansas SBDC!
NEXGEN UNDER 30 KANSAS
Do you have an employee under the age of 30 that works hard and makes a positive impact on your business? Nominate your employee for the NextGen Under 30 Kansas Program! This program identifies and honors the next generation of young adults and encourages them to follow their career goals in Kansas. Nominations are open until August 19th, 2022. Click the link to nominate a candidate below!
TECHNICAL PRESENTATION
K-State TDI did an overview presentation to the WKREDA membership at the March quarterly conference in Lincoln, KS. The purpose of this presentation was to inform members of the technical services that TDI can provide. TDI also talked about how members can work with entrepreneurs by guiding them through market research, patents, and when to reach out to TDI's engineering team.
CLUSTER COLLABORATION
Do you have internal data management/analysis needs related to your specific business? Visit the Data Analytics page in the membership for our data services.
INTERACTIVE INDUSTRY DATA TOOL
The GPTMC has developed an interactive data visualization feature, which can be found under the Industry Sector tab of the membership. This feature allows GPTMC members to view Wage data (both total and average wages) and Employment data for the state of Kansas, with options to drill down by year, industry sub-sector, or by selected groups of years/subsectors.

We hope that this tool will be useful for our members, and hope to expand the scope of industry data we provide via this free service. Please send your thoughts and questions to [email protected]!
3i SHOW - DODGE CITY, KS
GPTMC teamed up with K-State TDI to have a booth at the 3i Show in Dodge City on March 17th-19th. This show is a salute to "Industry, Implements, and Irrigation", and allows agribusinesses to showcase their products and services from across the country.

Businesses at the show included ag equipment manufacturers and suppliers, fertilizer/chemical companies, ag entrepreneurs, and more. The GPTMC was able to connect with many companies to gain insights on industry issues, resource needs, and had several companies join the membership!
Login to your membership to check out the new members in the directory!
For more information about the 3i Show, visit www.3ishow.com.
BLOGS, UPCOMING EVENTS & MORE
UPCOMING PARTNER EVENTS
  • APRIL 6 & 28TH - Website Building Workshops
  • APRIL 14 - Loan Denials: Common reasons and moving forward
  • APRIL 28 - KEC State Competition
DID YOU KNOW...
...that 10,000 US workers hit retirement age everyday? - Thomasnet.com. Businesses need to take action to determine their exit planning strategy san dhow they plan to bring younger generations into these positions.

The GPTMC has partners throughout the region that can assist with taking the next steps in preparing for this situation. Contact us to connect and get started!
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WHY SHOULD YOU USE DATABASES? - BLOG
Spreadsheets are the finest invention since sliced bread, especially with all the functions and backend programming that can be used to automate them. However, spreadsheets are not the best place for the long-term storage of a company's data. Here are a few problems that companies face when trying to store data in spreadsheets.
  • Multiple Versions Circulating with Incomplete Data: When spreadsheets are shared among multiple people at a company, they get passed around and saved on different computers in slightly different forms. So, all the versions end up being incomplete, often requiring a major project to consolidate the data back into a single "working document"
  • Tracking Change History: With multiple spreadsheets floating around, it is difficult to keep records of changes that are made to a dataset or to keep old versions.
  • Storing Large Amounts of Data: Spreadsheets were not meant to store tons of data, such as daily production data, and they are not easily configured to automatically collect such data.
Curious about the solutions to these problems? Ready the rest of the blog in the membership to find out!.
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GREAT PLAINS TECHNOLOGY & MANUFACTURING CLUSTER www.greatplainstmc.org | [email protected] | 785-532-1249