The clues for the Halloween Photo Scavenger Hunt

 (REMEMBER BE CREATIVE!) 

1. Find the Cardinal Mascot (Someone is dressed as the mascot and will be around town)
2. “Nay-Nay” on Main Street (Get as many people you can find to join your group)
3. Spookiest House
4. Jump in the biggest pile of leaves
5. Most people in one Picture
6. What’s your favorite thing to do in Arlington?
7. Picture with your Favorite Teacher
8. Biggest Pumpkin
9. House that gives out best treats
10. Swinging good time
11. Take a video of your best slasher movie impression
12. Take a photo of your group holding a penny, with Penny Rinderneck
13. ***Follow @carddialogue on Twitter for this clue!
14. Largest Human Pyramid
15. Picture of a Famous Landmark in Arlington
16. Video of group eating most random food items
17. A picture of group by Welcome to Arlington Sign
18. Children of the Corn
19. Oldest Person (with age) in town and youngest person
20. Spice it up….
21. ***Follow @carddialogue on Twitter for this clue!
RULES-
All members of your group must be in at least 1 picture.


All pictures and videos must be uploaded to the Arlington Area of Chamber Commerce's group by MIDNIGHT!


Groups of 3-5.


Must be in Halloween Costume.


Nothing illegal or immoral!


No photoshopping or sharing of pictures.
WINNERS-Decided on CREATIVIT, Completion of all 21 clues.





HAVE A FUN HALLOWEEN!!!!

Halloween Photo Scavenger Hunt

Clues will be posted tomorrow by noon.

Visit the Arlington Area Chamber to register your team and keep on top of the competition.

Follow @cardialogue on Twitter for 3 secret extra clues!

Here Are the Best Images of Last Night's Supermoon Eclipse

Last night the world was lucky enough to see a supermoon lunar eclipse. Hopefully you got to see it in person—but if not, here are some of the best pictures so far of the stellar spectacle.

As Ria at io9 explained yesterday, a supermoon eclipse is a simple yet rare event:


A “Supermoon” is simply what happens when a full moon coincides with the Moon being at its closest point to Earth. Reports you’ve heard of an OMG GIANT MOON are exaggerated—yes, the Supermoon will look bigger, but it tops out at 14% larger.... During a lunar eclipse, the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow and hiding in the Earth’s Shadow shades the Moon a distinct red color. On September 27, we’ll be seeing both of these two phenomenon paired together for the first time since 1982 to create a Supermoon Eclipse—and it’s the only shot you’ll get at seeing it until 2033.

So how did it look? Pretty great, actually! The image at the top of the page was taken over the Mediterranean sea in Netanya, Israel and shows the red glow seen in many parts of the world.

Here are some of the other great images of the eclipse that we’ve found so far.



The eclipsed supermoon rises behind the Las Vegas Strip (Gettty Images).



The supermoon rises behind Glastonbury Tor, UK (Gettty Images).

1

The supermoon rises over Boston Harbor (Getty Images).

2

During the eclipse, next to the Empire State Building (NASA/Joel Kowsky).

3

Before the eclipse, next to the Empire State Building (NASA/Joel Kowsky).



Behind the Washington Monument (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani).



Behind the Colorado State Capitol Building (NASA/Bill Ingalls).



Up-close (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani).



Before the eclipse, over the Menai Suspension Bridge in Wales (Kris Williams).



Over the Tyholmen old town area with the Trinity Church, Arendal, Norway (Birgit Fostervold).

Top image by AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

http://gizmodo.com/here-are-the-best-images-of-last-nights-supermoon-eclip-1733319976

Government Days

Early, this Monday, I had the pleasure of joining the Hetland American Legion and Norgaard Insurance in hosting Government Days. The senior classes of Lake Preston and Arlington were in attendance. During the First session representatives of the federal senators and representative answered questions. During the second session Senator Jim White and Representatives Peggy Gibson and Dick Werner answered more poignant local-focus questions.

Frank will cover the event details with far more alacrity than I - what I will comment upon is the question our seniors asked.

Speeding.  Starting in July, circumstantial speeding of 10mph in order to pass on highways will be allowed and the interstate speed limit will be officially raised to 80mph. Most are excited about this.

www.bridgestonetrucktires.com

How does this affect your pocketbook? The fuel economy on the sticker of your vehicle is usually based upon a travel speed of 55mph. According to fueleconomy.gov every 5mph above that you travel decreases your efficiency by about 7%, in other words adds about 20 cents to the cost of each gallon of gas.

phys.org

Today’s average gas price is $2.34/gal at 55mph-- at 80mph you are paying the equivalent of $3.28, an increase of nearly $1 per gallon!

Tanning beds. Legislature requiring parental approval of minors to use tanning beds was recently defeated in the capitol. This one seems like a bit of a duh.

www.personal.psu.edu

Skincancer.org tells us that people who use tanning beds regularly are 74% more likely to develop skin cancer.  Skin cancer treatment costs between $1,732 and $56,059 per year according to an Archive of Dermatology study which also happens to be the average household income in South Dakota. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/46000.html

Common Core. I have a 3^rd grader, I have my issues with common core but I think we can all agree the anything and/or everything is better than [Every] Child Left Behind.

eajohnston.weebly.com

Minimum Wage. There is a lot of controversy about this one. What I will tell you is that decades-upon-decades of study that tell us that minimum wage mandates have almost no effect upon wage base in anything other than the fast food industry. Minimum wage is not and will never be enough to raise a family upon, is not meant to be and shouldn’t be. Most unskilled labor in Arlington pays near or above $10/hour; most actual minimum wage is determined by local labor pools and defiantly not legislation.

If you have a teenager in the Arlington area who needs a job have them put in an application to the City for pool lifeguard – I hear they are desperate and the hourly wage might just be negotiable.

happylists.wordpress.com

Student Debt. Student debt is a big deal. I get it. I paid for my own college before I contracted with ROTC and once married acquired my wife’s debt. 

Before I took this job I was an ROTC instructor in Oklahoma and spent some time every day helping students with their financial aid issues. I get it.

So I have 7 very quick bits of advice to help the average high-schooler cut the costs of college education. There are various ways to calculate what a college education cost but I will submit the average estimate is $48,000 per diploma.

1.       Pay attention in high school. Many students spend the first semester in remediation. Save $2400.
2.       Take AP classes that offer Dual credit. Save $2400.
3.       Plan for and commit to only 4 years of college instead of the average 5. Save $9,600. You can do it, I did it. I didn’t give anything up, I partied, I studied abroad, completed ROTC, partied some more, changed Majors, graduated, all in 4 years.
4.       Work part time. Do not take student loans to cover beer money. Save a lot.
5.       Apply for every scholarship you can find, even the ones you don’t think you qualify for. Save $2400.
6.       Consider Military Service like ROTC. Save $24,000.
7.       Apply for the Build South Dakota scholarship. All you have to do is stay home and you can save $48,000.

I was very pleased at the intelligence and thoughtfulness that our seniors showed in the scope of the questions they asked. If one of them is your child or grandchild and they want to save some money while attending college share those ideas with them. If they have any questions, send them down to my office. 

Rembrandt Foods

GOED Partnership Grant funds Economic Development

Arlington is not the only rural community struggling to maintain economic foothold in the Walmart and .com world. What set’s Arlington apart from some communities is a willingness to stake a claim to the future; insisting on a dynamic and proactive program of economic development.

Economic development has been important for many years in Arlington. The difficulties faced were in part due to the fact that private, motivated, citizens were carrying the torch. While earning their paycheck, a few champions volunteered to take on development as a second job but could not always devote the time required. In August, of last year, Arlington took an important step towards establishing a permanent foundation for economic development: Hiring someone to do it full-time.

To help defray some of the costs associated with hiring full-time professional economic development the Arlington Community Development Corporation and the City of Arlington enlisted the help of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) through the Economic Development Partnership Program.

The program provides matching grants to assist in funding equipment and training needs, new staff, or to elevate existing part-time staff, for the purpose of developing or expanding local and community economic development programs. 

Arlington is not the only rural community to partner with the Governor’s Office on the economic development, almost every county in the state has applied for some economic development money.

GOED Partnership Grant Administrator Cherissa Wright says the job and wealth creation associated with grant money has been very promising. “Through the 24 funded programs a total of 1042 jobs were created or retained in 2014 and we are anticipating another 218 jobs in 2015.”

Every GEOD partnership dollar is intended to have a multiplier effect by helping bring new businesses to communities, helping retain existing businesses or providing ways to further develop local wealth.

“The programs that have been funded through the partnership grant are varied. Many assist with salary for full or part-time economic developers, some assist with work-force development efforts and some are targeted towards entrepreneurship,” GOED finance director Kim Easland says. “Equally diverse are the communities receiving money - from Kimball [pop. 703] to Sioux Falls [pop. 164,676] and everywhere else in between.”

Arlington’s $88,310 grant is spread over four years and requires matching funds from the City Economic Development Fund and the Arlington Community Development Corporation.

“Jason is an excellent example of why the Economic Development Partnership Fund is so important to South Dakota,” said Commissioner Pat Costello. “By assisting communities like Arlington to have a full-time developer, and providing that person with the training tools they need, we are putting more and more communities on a pro-active path to development.”

Dick Werner, District 22 State Representative, sponsored one of the House bills that eventually became Senate Bill 235, referred to as “Building South Dakota,” which is responsible for funding economic development efforts in the state.

Rep. Werner adds, “What's good for Arlington is good for South Dakota. I wanted to have every community, willing to have a stake in the game, to be able to have someone in their community that could wake up every morning to work on economic development.”

Now that the grant monies have established the position the truly hard work will follow. Together the citizens of Arlington along with the Development Corporation, the City, the school and GOED can work together to build a bright future.

Picture, from left to right: Cherissa Wright, Kim Easland, Jason Uphoff, Pat Costello

Fun with Tannerite

Energy and Green

When it comes to energy, ‘Green’ has many, many meanings.

Green is the On Button of your coffee maker and the color of the load indicator on the transformer that powers it.

Green is about efficiency and continually decreasing the consumption of the tools we use every day. 

Green is about producing energy in the most responsible and long-term-cost-effective way.

 Green is about our energy’s effect upon the Mother Nature we all love: It can be the deep mossy green of spring grass or the neon green of polluted river algae.

Green is about dollars saved. As much as 20% of the retail price of anything you buy is accrued by the overhead associated with energy. Energy to extract, to produce it, energy to package it and process it, to ship and haul it, energy to market it and operate it.

Every dollar saved on producing and distributing energy is a dollar saved at the cash register.

For all of our technological advancements since Alexander Graham Bell the power grid in America is largely the same as it has always been: one way and dumb.

The City is doing a great job installing smart-meters in the homes and businesses around Arlington. Installing and networking smart-meters is the first step towards and much smarter grid, two-way power distribution and much lower costs.

 As of January the City is about 1/3 complete with smart meter installation. In the mean time how can we affect lower energy prices and lower our bottom lines? Not at the source but at the end-user; in our homes and in our businesses.

Heartland Consumers Power District, in Madison, produces and distributes the power that the City manages for the citizens of Arlington. They understand how much can be saved by the end-user and have put a number of lucrative energy-efficiency incentives on the table for both home owners and business owners.

Heartland calls their energy efficiency program Power Forward. You can see a comprehensive list of the incentives, as well as energy saving tips, at www.hcpd.com/energyefficiency . Heartland hasn’t addressed everything Green but this is a great start.

I will give you the cliff-notes version here: purchasing energy-star appliance is worth cash, replacing older major appliances such as your central air unit can earn a rebates and the newest incentive is for buying LED lights for your home.

Heartland is offering a $5 rebate for each new LED light you purchase. LED lights are up to 95% more efficient than the old incandescent bulbs and basically last forever.

Business can also cash in on the LED lights as well as numerous other incentives for creating jobs, replacing inefficient old systems and expanding economic development.

Visit the same website I listed above to find out more, print an application and see how you, the business owner, may be eligible for a free year of electricity.

Rebates are not mutually exclusive: you can get the incentives for your home and for your business – for each separate business entity actually.

http://hcpd.com/energyefficiency/energyefficiencyincentives/arlingtonsd/

In the future we need to have a community discussion about greener production and distributed generation like a community solar farm, a Kingsbury County wind farm or solar shingles. But, in the meantime visit Heartland’s Power Forward page to see how you can start going Green.

Market Segmentation

If life is like a box of chocolates than the target market is a bag of mini Hershey bars.

Over the past several weeks we talked about marketing mix and branding. Both are ways of discussing ‘Arlington’s Story,’ and how we communicate that story to the potential customers of Arlington. How we break those potential customers down into groups is called segmentation.

www.accuratemarketresearch.com

Each segment of the target market requires a tiny little, unique, twist to the story that hooks them.

You’ve got your Chocolates bars…young couples and families living in or moving to the Arlington area. What are they most interested in?

You’ve got your Krackle Bars…These are the folks that spend an afternoon or a couple days in the Arlington area. What are they most interested in?

And, you’ve got your Mr. Goodbars… These are the Arlington alumni and small business owners that are thinking of locating or relocating to Arlington. What are they most interested in?

Well, research tells us that Chocolate Bars want good schools and amenities.

Krackle bars want three or more variety retail stores to browse after a cup of coffee and a place to get a beer after the hunt.

Mr. Good Bars want the makings of a thriving economy: hard working neighbors, plenty of good housing and friendly local government.

Thematically all these things are expressed through the concept of “Arlington is a great place…” But, so is every other small town to the people, or Hershey bars, that live in it.

How do we best segment the marketing messages to our potential customers?

Are you a Chocolate bar? A Krackle? A Mr. Goodbar? What makes Arlington sweet for you?

Share your ideas with me below.

Branding

When we talk about Branding Arlington, are we talking about the sound of enraged mooing and the smell of burnt leather? Well, yes and no.

www.vdacs.virginia.gov

That is where the term originates from: In a world of cows how does one tell from herd to herd? From town to town? Product to service?

David A. Aaker, in his book Managing Brand Equity states, “A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify … goods or services … and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors.”

It’s a good place to start, breaking that down, a brand is Arlington’s unique story that quickly sets it apart from the many other rural communities in eastern South Dakota.

It may, or may not, seem obvious to you why Arlington is a great place but we need a way to communicate that message to the target audiences that we discussed last week.

The average person interacts with 500-1000 brand or marketing messages each day. From billboards to TV commercials to the print ads on this page you are going to encounter hundreds of messages vying for your attention in the next hours.

How much do you retain? Each marketing messages get between 3-7 seconds of your attention! That’s it, enough time to say, “Hi, my name is….”

How do we develop a brand that communicates how great Arlington is – and how much greater the Arlington area is than other areas around us?

blog.procore.com

Greg Stine of Polaris, Inc. Branding Solutions offers us nine straight-forward principles:

1. Keep It Simple: one big idea is best. A good example of this is Bookings’ brand, “Bring Your Dreams.”

2. Mass-produced word of mouth (PR) builds brands. Arlington’s commercial culture needs to breed customer loyalty – in other words the fish stories told after a day at the lake should involve Arlington.

3. Focused brands are more powerful than diffused brands. Have one theme; tell the story well and often.

4. Somehow, some way, you have to be different. This one is the toughest…what makes Arlington different?

5. The first brand in a category has a huge advantage. Nothing we can do about this, but all the other small towns are in the same boat.

6. Avoid sub-brands at all cost. This means the City Council, The Development Corp., The School , The Chamber, The People, everyone buys into and sells the theme. Another way to say this is we speak with one voice.

7. Quality is important, but not as important as the perception of quality. We may not be lakefront, but we have twenty lakes within twenty minutes.

8. Be consistent and patient. Building a strong brand takes time.

9. Put your brand definition in writing, otherwise you'll get off course. This last part I need your help with. 

Motivating Santa’s Little Helpers

While Santa’s vertically challenged cobblers may be motivated entirely by ginger-snaps and eggnog the average holiday shopper requires a bit more coercing into order to fulfill their shopping wish lists at the local small business.

This week, let us discuss seven check points that will ensure your naughty and nice lists match up this Christmas Season.

Photo: www.upsidelearning.com

Be Mobile. We live in the smartphone age and can no longer avoid the implications therein. Eight out of 10 shoppers will use their mobile devices to research products, services and stores before committing to purchase. Moreover, according to the 2014 IBM Holiday Predictions Report, “more than half (53%) of all online shopping traffic this [holiday] will originate from a mobile device.” Make sure your online presence is mobile friendly, up-to-date and easily accessible.

Photo: thinkprogress.org

Email. Print advertisement may be on the decline as far as influence and the rise as far as cost but the trusty ole electronic mail is good way to reach potential and return customers.  Three-fourths of shoppers will follow an email to the originating website or social media, and a quarter of those follow-ups end with a transaction. Consider hosting a sweepstakes campaign this season; using the collected emails to market to customers year-round.

Photo: www.businessreviewusa.com

Ship freely. Free shipping is the number two factor (right after, you guessed it, price) in clinching that holiday online purchase. Amazon.com has set this bar in a difficult place for many small businesses to compete with but consider using a free shipping discount code or coupon to mitigate increased shipping costs. Many retailers also offer free in-store delivery/pickup for special order items, even after normal business hours.

Photo: onepercentrealtyservices.com

Discount. With a shopping season opening during ‘black Friday’ is it any wonder consumers expect a good sale everywhere they go? Pick a few products with elastic margins and cut the price to bring customers in the door. Offer exclusivity in discounts, people love to feel special, like they are in on secret. Every receipt should offer a discount on ‘that next purchase.’

Photo: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Socialize. Twitter, facebook, Pinterest et cetera.  Be social with your customers through the medium of their choice. Consider offering all facebook followers a special promotion from the page only. Tweet the deal of the hour. Pin the product of the week.

Photo: gonakedselling.com

Promote. Celebrate your niche and pander to the folks that appreciate the products and services offered within that niche.  Do not go out of your way to offer a popular product that doesn’t match your brand just to get folks in the door. Include a small, branded, promotional gift for the shopper in each bag – something they can use every  day (like lip balm) or will hang in a conspicuous place (think fridge magnet or car freshener) to remind them of your shop.

Photo: blog.sweetiq.com

Serve. What makes Plagman’s different from Walmart and Lowes. How does Bits of Yesterday differ from Ebay? What makes Betsy’s and the Prairie Porch stand apart from Hobby Lobby? The answer is first names and follow up. 

When people walk in the door they know the owner by their first name and are assured they have someone to go to if the purchase fails to meet expectations. Customers are willing to pay a bit more for something unique if they know the person they are buying from. If you, the entrepreneur, are not offering the best possible customer service you’re not providing the cost-differential required to make a repeat patron.  Offer a customer service survey with each transaction and follow the suggestions offered.