The Greater Milwaukee Committee's mission is to keep Southeastern Wisconsin the best community to live, learn, work and play.

Our membership - comprised of our region's business, labor, academic, philanthropic, nonprofit and civic leadership - believes that intelligent, active interest in public affairs is the true measure of citizenship, and the foundation for community.

The 2010 Inner City Business Awards took place in the Pfister Hotel on Monday, March 8. The awards honored seven business in Milwaukee's inner city, as well as Johnson Controls, which picked up this year's Trailblazer Award.

 Along with Johnson Controls, winning companies included T.L. Reese Corporation, Comcentia, LLC, Glenn Rieder, Inc., B93 Testing & Engineering, Wild Flour Bakery, Northwest Funeral Chapel and Prostar, Inc.  The winners are pictured above.

The 2010 GMC Annual Meeting unfolded a packed agenda before a packed house on Monday, February 8 at the University Club. The main program feature covered two topics that on the surface appear separate, but in reality intermingle as two hallmarks of the innovation economy.

The first is the Talent Dividend, which was explained by CEOs for Cities President Carol Coletta and calculates that a one percentage point increase in educational attainment within the region would bring a $1.5 billion return in economic benefits, as measured by increases in personal income. Helping to achieve that Talent Dividend will be Beth Wnuk and Eileen Schwalbach, who will co-chair the effort.

The second was the announcement of Creativity Works!, a project that will focus on leveraging and building the Milwaukee Region's ability for innovation to become a key economic driver in the future, similar to how it was early in the last century. Quality of Life co-chair Jill Morin announced the effort and also announced that the Creative Executive Council - a result of work from the Cultural Alliance and Creative Coalition - selected Mt. Auburn Associates to lead the planning for Creativity Works!  Michael Kane from Mt. Auburn followed Jill with a discussion on how creative economies can work and grow.

The entire meeting is available online. Click here or on the picture to the right  of Carol Coletta from CEOs for Cities to watch! 

GMC releases Public Policy Forum report on Milwaukee County

The GMC-commissioned Public Policy Forum report on Milwaukee was released Wednesday, January 27, 2010. The report, entitled Should It Stay Or Should It Go?, explores the county's fiscal situation and current governance structure, along with potential alternative solutions. Rob Henken (left) of the Public Policy Forum presented the report; reaction was provided by GMC County Task Force Chair Sheldon Lubar.

You can view the GMC meeting at the Milwaukee Hilton by clicking on the image or by linking here.

 Download the full report here. 

 Download the executive summary here.

The Public Policy Forum has the report divided by sections on its website.  You can download the full report or the executive summary above, or download the report in sections here from the Public Policy Forum page.

Strong show of support for regional transit

Business leaders, including a number of GMC members, joined Governor Doyle and representatives from the legislature, unions, and the community at large to voice support for a regional transit authority at Bucyrus' world headquarters in South Milwaukee Tuesday morning.

Bucyrus International President & CEO Tim Sullivan welcomed the standing room-only crowd. Following were comments from Governor Jim Doyle, as well as GMC members Ed Zore, Bob Mariano and Scott VanderSanden. A strong Racine contingent was present in the form of Fisk Johnson, Chairman & CEO of S.C. Johnson, Jeff Van Koningsveld, President of IBEW Local 430, and Racine Mayor John Dickert.

GMC achieves "Well Workplace" status

The Greater Milwaukee Committee, a major supporter of the Well City Milwaukee initiative, joins a series of other Milwaukee area companies and organizations by achieving "Well Workplace" status. The goal continues for Milwaukee to achieve "Well City" status this year.

January GMC meeting: quality school research can build capacity for school reform

The January GMC membership meeting, held on Monday, January 11th at the University Club, featured guests from the Chicago Consortium on School Research (CCSR), explaining their model of using high-quality, comprehensive research on factors affecting student performance to help improve graduation rates.

CCSR representatives Nick Montgomery (pictured at left) and Emily Krone (center) presented and described their methods, their model and results during the organization's 20-year history. They also took a series of questions from members, led by chair Mike Grebe (right).

The shocking statistic, although unfortunately not uncommon in large urban school districts, is that only 6% of the children entering high school in Chicago went on to graduate from a 4-year college. CCSR developed a method known as the "On-Track Indicator" to help determine contributing factors leading to better student and school performance and track them for each student in the district. Graduation rates have since improved and the data from CCSR is being used by all parties involved in Chicago Public Schools, from administrators to the teachers' union to the business community.

Video of the meeting is available by clicking here or on the image to the left. Download their presentation by clicking on the title slide to the right.  You can also find out more about the book Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago by clicking on this link.

The November GMC membership meeting featured Rob Henken, President of the Public Policy Forum, as the keynote speaker. The Public Policy Forum has been commissioned by the GMC to research the fiscal, legal and logistical issues involved with transferring the various pieces of county government to other entities, and what options might exist for doing so. Mr. Henken's presentation included questions, examples and initial observations on their research thus far, and cautioned members that the full report must be absorbed in it's entirely before any conclusions can be reached.

The complete report will be released at a joint GMC-Public Policy Forum breakfast meeting on January 27, 2010. Watch the video from the meeting here.

For coverage of earlier meetings, connections to video and more, check out the Archive Page.