R
Winona Area
SHRM Newsletter
December 2011
In This Issue
  • President’s Notes
  • Monthly Meeting Information
In the Margin
  • Scheduled Meeting Dates
  • SHRM Links
  • Contact Us
  • Membership News
Scheduled Meeting Dates
  • Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011
  • Tuesday, Jan 10, 2012
  • Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012
SHRM Links
National SHRM website

MN State SHRM website

Winona Area SHRM website.

Username: first initial, last name
Password: hr
JobDig

Winona SHRM
PO Box 71, Winona, MN 55987

Contact Us
President
Sonya Ganther, PHR
608-796-3930ext. 231

Vice President
Cheri Gabbert
507-474-5837

Secretary
Barb Ferguson
507-457-3311

Treasurer
Bonnie Kiese, PHR
507-523-2123

Diversity and Workforce Readiness Advocate
Jim Streiff
507-453-4812

Web Coordinator
Cathy Espy
507-457-7951

Legislative Representative
Beth Ede, SPHR
507-453-6347

Certification Representative/Foundation Advocate
Janell Linville, SPHR
507-494-3016

Membership Chair
Nicole Danielson, PHR
507-494-0526

Student Chapter Liaison/Education Advocate
Alberta Rosburg, PHR
507-457-1193

Past President
Janell Linville, SPHR
507-494-3016

MEMBERSHIP NEWS!!
Please welcome the following professional to the Winona Area SHRM group:
Celia Schneck – HR Business Partner, Acuity Brands – Winona Lighting
Originally from Winona, Celia was very excited when offered the Human Resources position with Winona Lighting and the opportunity to move back home. Celia and her husband moved to Chattanooga about 7 years ago to work for a company that manufactured wind towers. Celia was born and raised in the Winona area and graduated from WinonaState with a double major in Business Admin and Human Resources Management. Celia has worked in the Human Resources/Safety capacity for the past 11 years and enjoys the fast pace and challenges that come with the job. Celia and her husband have 2 sons, a daughter and a chocolate lab.
Angie Lallemont – Human Resources Generalist, Benchmark Electronics
Angie has her Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin, RiverFalls. In addition to her prior Human Resource experience and graduate studies in Industrial Relations at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, she has her Juris Doctor of Law degree from HamlineUniversity with a focus on Alternative Dispute Resolutions. She is a licensed MN Attorney and Rule 114 Qualified Neutral. She moved to Winona in June with her husband and three dogs.
Pat Buxengard - Benefit & Payroll Specialist, Peerless Industrial Group
Prior to starting with Peerless, Pat was employed at the WinonaWorkforceCenter as an Employment Counselor where she assisted dislocated workers in their employment and training needs. Pat has also worked for Minnesota State College – Southeast Technical as a Project Director in the Continuing Education Department and also at TRW in Human Resources as a Benefits and Training Coordinator.
Elizabeth Ruff - HR Generalist, Peerless Industrial Group
Elizabeth worked as a Human Resources Representative for McNeilus Truck & Mfg. in Dodge Center, MN before joining the Peerless team. She was involved in benefits and compensation administration, training and development and recruitment. Prior to working for McNeilus, Elizabeth worked as an On-Site Manager for Farley’s & Sathers here in Winona. Elizabeth graduated from WinonaState with a B.S. degree in Human Resource Management and Business
If you know of someone that would be interested in learning more about Winona Area SHRM please contact our Membership Chair – Nicole Danielson at or 507-494-0526.
PHR Certification
Are you looking to get your PHR Certification? Want someone to study with? Winona Area SHRM is putting together a study group and is looking for participants. If interested, please contact Janell Linville at or Cheri Gabbert at for more information. We will hold our first meeting shortly after the new year. /

President’s Notes

Sonya Ganther, President
Get ready to relax and enjoy our holiday social coming up on December 13th! This is an event to thank you for your membership in Winona Area SHRM. This is a fun time to get to know your HR colleagues and enjoy a meal on us. We will again be having the competitive SHRM Foundation silent auction. What a wonderful way to contribute to future SHRM projects and have fun doing it.
We have accomplished so many new things in 2011. We have a:
~ new name – Winona Area SHRM!
~ new logo
~ new marketing materials – shirts, sweaters, pens, portfolios, water bottles and more!
~ update by-laws
~ we have worked together to increase or develop participation in our programming.
~ and best of all we are poised to finish out the year with a significant increase in membership. We will be at Super Star Status with National SHRM. Thanks to Nicole for her work in the membership drive!
To learn more about what Winona Area SHRM accomplished this year, check out the 2011 Winona Area SHRM Initiatives that are included in this newsletter. These initiatives are sent to the National SHRM to show how wonderful are Chapter is!
As my term comes to an end I would like to thank all of the board members for being so helpful – Bonnie Kiese, Janell Linville, Nicole Danielson, Jim Streiff, Cheri Gabbert, Barb Ferguson, Alberta Rosburg, Cathy Espy, and Beth Ede. You have all done a wonderful job. Please welcome Cheri Gabbert in to the 2012 President role and Lori O’Brien in the VP role. Both have already been doing some wonderful planning for the 2011 year.
Have a wonderful and healthy holiday season!
2011 Winona Area SHRM Initiatives
Membership Initiative
Our 2011 Membership Initiative was focused on recruitment. Just some of the items we did to accomplish this was:
•Created a membership booth at our Annual Spring conference on the benefits of becoming a SHRM member
•Redid our local SHRM membership application to be more inviting to the small business owner who also has HR duties.
•We publicized SHRM’s special membership promotion programs for discounted first-time SHRM membership
  • We personally invited local winners of the Family and Work Institutes Alfred P Sloan Award to become SHRM members.
  • We planned for a booth at the local chamber of commerce network night.
  • We sent out over 100 postcards to chamber members who did not have an HR representative as a SHRM member
  • We sent our local membership benefits to recruit At-large SHRM members
  • We created marketing materials – postcards, note cards, and giveaways – to give to potential members.
  • We ran a local membership special that if the prospect came to one of the 3 remaining monthly meetings we waived the fee for the remainder of 2011.
Government Advocacy
Our legislative Representative on our Board has been actively involving SHRM members to be active with governmental affairs. In doing this, we:
•Wrote monthly newsletter articles on legislative updates
•Hosted a monthly meeting with State representatives and Skyped in the National SHRM Legislative Rep.
•Sent emails to all members asking for assistance in legislative advocacy and potential bill changes.
College Relations
As part of our initiative to support College Relations, we tag teamed with the Winona State University Student SHRM Chapter. In doing this, we provided many opportunities for the students to gain a better understanding of the human resources and how the SHRM Chapter works.
•Many SHRM members spoke at the student chapter meetings on a variety of HR topics
•At our February meeting, we worked with the students to have them run a Chapter meeting which included coordinating the topic, speaker, location, invitation and meals. This also allowed our Chapter members to get a better understanding of the Student Chapter.
•Our SHRM Student Chapter Liaison and the Student Chapter President worked together on a mentoring program where SHRM Members and students pair up each semester to have a question and answer session on HR. On most occasions, these sessions led to students job-shadowing the SHRM member.
SHRM Representation in the Community
As our vision states - To be the leading resource and authority on people management issues. To accomplish this vision, we created a marketing strategy to have Winona SHRM become more of a recognized group in the community. We created a marketing strategy that included:
  • Creation of first ever Winona SHRM logo which was then used on our website, notecards, speaker and members gifts, apparel and give-aways.
  • Created press releases for our monthly meetings.
  • Met with daily newspaper reporter and offered editorial comments on HR articles.
  • Planned for a booth at network nites with the local chamber of commerce.
  • Partnered with the local of chamber of commerce that our board members also participated on their committees.
Holiday Social
Cheri Gabbert – Vice-President
Winona Area SHRM
Annual Holiday Social

When: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Where: Upstairs room at Jefferson’s Pub & Grill – 58 Center Street, Winona
Dinner is on us! There will be menu options to choose from that night.
Please click here to register by Friday, December 9, 2011.
Rememberdinner is on us, so please disregard the PayPal option at the end of the registration.
Donate for your chance to win one of four FREE lunches!
We will be holding a silent auction to raise money for the SHRM Foundation. To donate an item to the auction, please contact Janell Linville at . Everyone who brings a donation will be entered into a drawing for one of four free lunches at a regular chapter meeting.
Not sure what to donate? Here’s a list to help give you some ideas:
A fancy dessert
Theme basket
A holiday decoration
Christmas cookie/treat tray
Wine
Company items
Product(s) from your home business
Something homemade
Hope to see you there!

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