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.

Feel free to contact us, read our latest newsletter (download here), check out new information below or the calendar of events to the right, or just click around to see what the GMC and our members are up to throughout the Milwaukee region.

NEW ITEMS:

GMC members get "Caught in the Middle" with Richard Longworth

The May GMC membership meeting explored the economic and social consequences of globalization and the Midwest's - and Milwaukee's - reaction to it over the past several decades.  The results have been vigorously explored in the book Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalism.  Its author, Richard Longworth, discussed these observation with members and a reactor panel. Response has been strong and overwhelmingly positive to the conservations from this meeting, and we thank all who attended!

(Watch the May meeting video, including Richard Longworth's comments, here) 

Keith McFarland discusses "The Breakthrough Company" with GMC members

The GMC's April meeting, held jointly with YPO (the Young Professionals Organization), featured a look at why some companies break through and become hugely successful, while others do not.  Author Keith McFarland spent years researching thousands of companies to uncover the differences. They can be found not only in his book, The Breakthrough Company, but also in his conversation with us on April 14th, which you can watch below.

(Watch the Keith McFarland video here) 

Watch the Annual Meeting Video, featuring the GMC's 60th Anniversary Our Annual Meeting was held at Northwestern Mutual on February 11th, which featured a look back at the GMC's 60 years of proving "It Can Be Done."

Click the above logo or watch the video here.  Also, feel free to download our Annual Report and take a look at our 60th Anniversary Piece.  Thanks again for all of your hard work and support!

Well City Milwaukee Launches New Website

On Valentine's Day, a healthy gift was presented to Milwaukee: the new website for the Well City Initiative. It's available now at www.WellCityMilwaukee.org!  Follow the initative, see member companies, and how the Well City Initiative and the GMC are helping to improve health in the Milwaukee region. We'd like to thank everyone, and especially our own GMC members, for their work and support.

The Milwaukee Inner City Business Climate Report from the GMC has been released. Thanks to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation, and the UWM Center of Workforce Development for their work and support!

(DOWNLOAD THE MILWAUKEE INNER CITY BUSINESS CLIMATE REPORT HERE)

Chief Edward Flynn addresses the GMC membership

The January 14th GMC membership meeting is online and available for viewing!  From Mayor Barrett's introduction to Chief Edward Flynn's address and interaction with the membership and the update on the "Safe Streets" campaign from John Chisholm and Bill Lipscomb, it's available by (clicking on this link).

For all who attended, thank you for coming and we really appreciate your tremendous feedback on our post-meeting survey!

Water Council members!  View the presentation delivered on December 12th by Mike Shannon from the University of Illinois' Water CAMPWS Micro-Nano-Mechanical Systems Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Sciences & Engineering (whew!)  The presentation is titled "Sustainable Water Supply: Nexus to Economic Output, Energy, Health & Government."

Download and view a PDF of the PowerPoint here. 

The GMC November Membership Meeting took place on November 12th and featured Pat Ryan, Founder & Executive Chairman of the Aon Corporation and Chairman & CEO of the 2016 Chicago Olympic Bid Committee.  Some very fascinating information was presented about the plans for the Olympics, the potential for Chicago to be awarded the 2016 Summer Olympic games and the effects it could have on Milwaukee.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

The GMC's October Membership Meeting took place on October 8th at the Italian Community Center.  It wasn't just GMC members, however; members of Professional Dimensions, TEMPO Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Women's Council, the MMAC and Milwaukee Women, inc were also in attendance to hear the results of the 2007 Milwaukee Women inc Report.

The report examined the progress of women representation on the boards and in the executive suites of Wisconsin companies; specifically, the Wisconsin 50.  Presented by Gail Lione, the report delivered some good news while also indicating plenty of room for more progress. We thank all who attended.

(Watch the October GMC meeting here)

Our GMC Insider Breakfast on October 4th featured American Hospital Association Chair Bill Petasnick, who is also President & CEO of Froedtert & Community Health.  He described for the attendees the AHA's view of what components are required for health care reform. (View the AHA's Framework for Health Reform page here.) 

The local perspective on health care and health care reform in Milwaukee was provided by two panelists.  Joy Tapper is the Executive Director of the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership, an alliance formed by the five Milwaukee-based health care systems, four community health centers, state and local government agencies and other health care providers with the aim of improving access, care coordination, coverage and health outcomes for underserved populations.  CC Henderson is President & CEO of Milwaukee Health Services, which helps Milwaukee's health systems increase capacity at the Federally Qualified Health Centers.

(Watch the video of the Well City Insider Breakfast here!)

Mike Gousha interviewed former President & CEO for the Alliance for Regional Stewardship David Thornburgh in a lunchtime discussion about regional issues. Watch the discussion here or listen to the audio here!

September GMC meeting focuses on new crime and public safety program

The September GMC membership meeting was held Monday the 10th at Marquette University's Alumni Memorial Union.  Professor David Kennedy, one of the nation's leading criminologists, discussed crime, group dynamics and successful attempts to curb violence using a program called "Common Ground".  Members: please respond to the post-meeting survey in your e-mail if you haven't already!

(View David Kennedy's presentation in PDF format (2MB) here)

(Watch David Kennedy's presentation here) - please note this is a 32MB Flash file, so it may take a while to download.

 Water Summit held at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin

Our region' unique combination of water-related industry concentration, access to the Great Lakes, other water resources, and research facilities led to a "Water Summit", held Wednesday, July 25th at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin. In attendance were over 70 people, ranging from company CEOs to academia and researchers.  Led by Badger Meter President/Chairman/CEO Rich Meeusen and A.O. Smith President/CEO Paul Jones, the Water Summit was put together by the Greater Milwaukee Committee as part of our ongoing effort to bring research and business opportunities to foster regional economic development as part of the Milwaukee 7.

Details and pictures from the Water Summit are in Member Newsletters!

* The most recent GMC Insider Breakfast was held on July 17th at UWM's Great Lakes WATER Institute (600 E. Greenfield Ave.), where members were treated to breakfast and a tour of the facility, which conducts research, studies and grows selected fish stocks, and examines the river and lake water in and around Milwaukee.  The next Insider Breakfast will be held on September 6th at the Milwaukee 7 Resource Center. Members, your invitations have gone out, so RSVP by August 31st!

* The GMC's June monthly meeting was held Monday, June 11th in the We Energies Auditorium. We discussed the Milwaukee 7 Regional Economic Positioning Framework and  the role of water, water industries and research in the regional economy. Members also received a "sneak preview" of the Arts & Economic Prosperity 3 Report, delivered by Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee Executive Director Tony Forman. Full audio, slides and video is available in the Members Only section, and some of the links are available for you now below!

(View the presentation slides on the Milwaukee 7 Regional Economic Positioning Framework)

(Watch Ed Zore and Julia Taylor presenting the Regional Economic Positioning Framework and the discussion of water)

(Watch Tony Forman's presentation of the Arts & Economic Prosperity 3 Report)

* The Milwaukee 7 Regional Economic Positioning Framework was presented at Gateway Technical Institute in Kenosha on May 30th. In case you missed the meeting or simply wanted to review the materials, we've made them available for you here.

View the presentation slides in Flash: (view presentation in Flash)
Get a copy of the handout from the meeting: (download handout pages)
Download and view the Vision Video presented at the meeting: (download & view video). 

* Curious about the KRM Commuter Rail line?  Do you want to find out more?  View the economic impact study released by UWM's Institute for Survey and Policy Research (click here) or link to the SEWRPC site regarding KRM (here). You can also see comments on commuter rail from Capital Corridor (connecting Sacramento with the Bay Area of California) Managing Director Eugene Skoropowski (view video) and comments from GMC Regional Transportation Committee Chair Bob Mariano and others (view video).

* THE MAY MPS STRATEGIC PLAN DRAFT MEETING:  Our GMC Monthly Membership Meeting featured a number of speakers discussing the forthcoming MPS Strategic Plan, drafts of which are being finalized and will hopefully be voted on soon.

The meeting featured MPS Superintendent Dr. William Andrekopoulos and MTEA Executive Director Sam Carmen, side by side, discussing the plan (view here).  Mr. Angus McBeath, former Superintendent in the Edmonton School District and a self-described "Survivor of a Strategic Plan", captivated the audience with this take on the situation (view here).  GMC President Julia Taylor tied in the importance of the MPS Strategic Plan with the Milwaukee 7 Regional Economic Framework (view here).

Want the latest draft of the MPS Strategic Plan?  Download it here!

 * DIVERSITY PRESENTATION: We hope you enjoyed April's membership meeting on Diversity.  We've had requests for guest speaker Joe Gibbons' presentation; you can now download the presentation slides here: (download slides), or view his actual presentation here: (view video). Members: If you have a moment, please take our follow-up survey in your e-mail. Thank you for your input!

* The ICM (Initiative for a Competitive Milwaukee) has its list of inner city businesses nominated for the Inc. 100 this year. It's a handy resource for finding growing inner city companies, and you can download a copy! (download the list in .pdf format)

ICM is also helping to close business deals, including the recent purchase of Diamond Discs International by entrepreneur Ugo Nwagbaraocha, who was also an employee of the company. (Read about it here). Watch for more as ICM works to help foster growth and entrepreneurship in the areas that need it most!