Business notes

Gerberding gains election to consortium board

Monica L. Gerberding of Widseth Smith Nolting was elected to the Geographic Information Systems/Land Information Systems Consortium Board.

She will serve as conference chair-elect during 2005, assisting the conference chair with planning the 2005 state conference. In 2006, she will serve as conference chair and will be responsible for coordinating the 2006 state conference.

The Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium is a forum for communicating information to, and improving cooperation among, those interested in GIS and LIS in Minnesota. The consortium hosts annual statewide conferences and establishes committees that deal with specific GIS/LIS-related issues in Minnesota.

Gerberding joined WSN in 2002 as a GIS specialist. She oversees WSN's full range of in-house GIS capabilities, including project management, database coordination and analysis, data acquisition and coordination, data conversion, ArcView training, presentations to clients, technical support and miscellaneous mapping projects.

Gerberding earned an associate's degree in GIS from Alexandria Technical College in 1997 and a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris in 2002.

Deerwood Bank board directors retire

John Spalj and Danno F. Mahoney have served together on the Deerwood Bank board for more than 15 years.

Dec. 31, both directors officially retired from the board.

Spalj is the retired former president and owner of Spalj Construction Inc. He became a member of the Deerwood Bank board in April 1984.

Mahoney was president and owner of Crosby Manufacturing Inc. He joined the Deerwood Bank board in January 1988 and continues to serve on the Governing Board at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center.

Gunsbury, Hering attend construction trade show

BAXTER -- Brent Gunsbury and Alex Hering of Bercher Design & Construction, Baxter, recently attended the world's largest light construction trade show, the International Builders' Show, in Orlando, Fla. This is Bercher's 25th consecutive year of attendance.

Eight participate in regional competition

LITTLE FALLS -- Eight members of the Little Falls Community High School Business Professionals of America participated in their region competition Wednesday at Alexandria Technical College.

Students placing in the top five for their competitive categories were: Rob Wilczek, first place, entrepreneur; Latasha Bruns, third place, legal office procedure; Connie Ley, fourth place, keyboarding; Amanda Doble, fifth place, fundamental accounting; and David Schuett, fifth place, information technology concepts.

State competition will be March 10-12 in Minneapolis.

Erdman named Little Falls employee of the month

LITTLE FALLS -- Lana Erdman, Little Falls, was named employee of the month for February by the Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

Erdman works for Parker's Food Pride as a scanning coordinator. She started at the store in 1991.

AWARDS

Brainerd chamber gains public affairs award

The Brainerd Lakes Area Chambers of Commerce was awarded the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives' Public Affairs Award earlier this month at the MCCE Volunteer Leadership Conference in Minneapolis.

Chambers across the state submitted public affairs program entries, which were placed in one of four categories depending on the chamber's size. The MCCE provides recognition to area chambers for their strengths and allows others to gain new ideas that can be used within their own organizations. Public policy/political action programs were judged on a set list of criteria, including issue description, membership impact, community impact, opportunities, challenges and outcome of the program.

Lisa Paxton, BLACC president and chief executive officer, accepted the award. It recognized the chamber's extensive voter education process during the fall of 2004 with a voter education guide and broadcast candidate forums.

Brainerd Country Power gains recognition

Brainerd Country Power Equipment Inc. was named one of the Top 100 Cub Cadet independent retailers in 2004 in the nation and was recognized at the annual meeting in Hawaii in January.

Owner Gary Scheeler attended the ceremony.

There are more than 1,800 Cub Cadet dealers in the nation.

WORKSHOP

Central Lakes College offers finance/accounting class

Central Lakes College in Brainerd will host a course in finance and accounting for non-financial people on two consecutive Tuesdays in February.

This six-hour session in the Business and Industry Center at CLC is intended for managers, supervisors, business owners, professionals and executives from non-financial backgrounds.

The course will run 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 15 and 22 in Room E208 on the Brainerd campus. Fee is $79. Instructor is Jill Brodmarkle, accountant.

The training aims to improve decision-making skills by enabling attendees to understand the financial effect of those decisions and build a reputation for understanding their budget and being on target. The class also will review available options for accounting software packages and the differences between them.

Brodmarkle is a financial consultant with the Small Business Development Center at CLC. She volunteers on the Technology Committee with the Brainerd Lakes Area Chambers of Commerce, which helps small businesses identify technology challenges and ways to overcome them. Her areas of expertise include cash flow analysis, bookkeeping, tax, accounting software packages, overall business management and accounting practices for small business. She has assisted clients in retail, wholesale and service businesses.

Pre-registration is required and the registration deadline is Feb. 8.

For more information, call (800) 933-0346 extension 8142 or 855-8142.