January 2024 Newsletter

Message from 2024 Board Chair, Jenna Kimberley

Happy New Year ABIC Members!

I am honored to serve as your 2024 Chair and look forward to a great year ahead together for the city of Ankeny, our businesses, and community members.

The past few years have included a lot of changes for the organization, including executive director changes, surveys to gather your input to quantify what matters most to our members, redefining our mission, vision, and values and finally, rebranding.

Our focus this year is to deliver on our mission to enhance the business community in Ankeny through advocacy, engagement, and learning. We have a great lineup of speakers & topics for you this year and encourage you to join us at the member meetings.

We heard you loud and clear – workforce is on the top of many of our members minds, which is why the Orbis program is the focus at our upcoming meeting. It starts with Orbis serving our future workforce right here in Ankeny.

Wishing you all the best in 2024,
Jenna Kimberley, CEO Kimberley Development Corp.
Board Chair, Ankeny Business & Industry Collaborative

February Member Meeting & Lunch

Please join us for the Member Meeting on Thursday, February 15 from 11:30AM to 1PM. The event will be held at Ankeny Schools District Office, Cottonwood Conference Room, 1st Floor (406 SW School Street, Ankeny).

We will have a panel discussion with Orbis leaders, students, and member companies that work closely with this group. Join us to learn how you can engage with your future work force! Registration will close on Tuesday, February 14 at Noon.

Our thanks to Brown & Brown, our lunch sponsor!

CLICK TO REGISTER

Thank You, Todd!

Ankeny Business & Industry Collaborative thanks Todd Sommerfeld, Chairman of Kreg Tool Company, for his service on the Board of Directors and for serving as 2022 ABIC Chair! Todd plans to stay involved and attend ABIC meetings and events so we’ll see him around soon!

Thank You, Todd!

NEW ABIC BOARD MEMBER

Please welcome Michele Starkenburg to the Ankeny Business & Industry Board of Directors. Michele is the Branch Manager at Veridian Credit Union on South Ankeny Boulevard and Magazine Road and has been there for 18 years! Michele brings years of community involvement including serving on the Board and Chairing the Ankeny Chamber of Commerce as well as serving on the Ankeny School Foundation and the AEDC Board. Michele and her husband, Loren, have lived in Ankeny for over 25 years and have two adult children and two grandchildren.

Airport Expansion Presentation by Kevin Foley

If you missed the December bi-monthly member meeting, you missed a great presentation from Kevin Foley about the Des Moines Airport Expansion. Kevin is the Executive Director of the Des Moines Airport and provided some great information and answered a lot of thoughtful questions. If you would like to review Kevin's presentation, click here!

HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED?

Ankeny School’s Orbis Program -
Call for Authentic Challenges & Project Proposals
Orbis is a project-based learning program in the Ankeny Community School District, where Innovators (students) unleash their passion, realize their potential, and impact the world. Orbis teachers (Project Mentors) team up with Project Providers and Workforce Experts (business and industry representatives) to equip the next generation of creative problem-solvers. and they commit to bridging classroom learning with the community and workforce through project-based learning. The success of the Innovators relies on relationships and partnerships with local businesses and organizations, who help by providing authentic projects or problems to solve. With the semester starting, Orbis Innovators will be looking at the pool of projects/challenges and selecting projects to work on. Orbis invites ABIC members to take a look at your organization and see if Orbis Innovators might be of help to you while considering the following:

Do you have current challenges/problems that may be left unsolved?
Less urgent projects that are competing for time against other priorities (#15-20 on your to-do list)?
Areas that may need a fresh perspective?

Projects can be submitted by filling out the Orbis Project Discovery Form. Please have your project proposals submitted by February 1, 2024. If your project/challenge is selected, teams will meet with you on a bi-weekly basis for check-in meetings. Additionally, email and phone calls will be scheduled if other support is needed. If you have questions or would like to have a conversation about a potential project, please contact Amy Steenhoek at [email protected].

Junior Achievement Needs Volunteers

All 7th graders in the Ankeny School District will complete the Junior Achievement Finance Park Curriculum this spring, which concludes with an on-site simulation/activity day. In order to make the on-site experiences happen, JA needs volunteers.

The JA Finance Park are hands-on classroom activities and real-world simulation provide JA Finance Park students with a solid foundation for making intelligent, personal-finance decisions through their lives. Following a series of teacher-led lessons, this capstone program culminates in a simulation experience in which middle and high school students put their newly acquired money-management skills to the test.

The volunteer commitment is 4-5 hours and includes: 30 minutes on-site volunteer training and 3-4 hour student simulation at the JA facility in Des Moines. Volunteers will work with a small group of up to 6 students; facilitate discussion through the different stages of simulation; share about their own careers and experience; and encourage students in their career exploration.
Ankeny Junior Achievement Finance Park dates in Spring 2024 are:

March 19
March 20
March 29
April 10
April 16
April 17
April 18
April 19
April 23
April 29
April 30
May 1
May 2

If interested in volunteering, click on of the day(s) listed above when you are available and once on the page, click the "Volunteer for this class" button at the bottom of the page.