from the executive director… · equating value in cooperative purchasing by: barb nelson,...
TRANSCRIPT
- Margaret Mead
In This Issue:
Cooperative Purchasing
& Food Show
Upcoming Events &
Jean Heinrichs retires
Wellness updates
Opportunity for Law En-
forcement
Schools Win Awards
Summer is now over and the school year has started!
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR… Greetings Everyone!
Hasn’t this fall been fantastic as far as the weather is concerned? We, as Minnesotans, can’t complain about the weather this summer and fall. I am assuming however, that may change one day……back to the doldrums of snow, wind and cold. Oh well, it’s not like we haven’t been there before!
Everyone has been busy at the Northwest Service Co-operative (NWSC) trying to help our members have suc-cessful and productive organizations. It is our mission to help our member’s organizations run more efficient, be-
come more cost effective and meet their goals and missions through cooperation and improved methodologies. The NWSC wants to help our member’s professional lives to not only be fuller, but hopefully a little easier as well.
The staff at the NWSC is always looking for new ways to help our members. If you are ever in need of a service or want help with a problem….please contact us to explore avenues that may assist you. If the coop’s member organizations are strong and healthy…..the same will be true of the NWSC!
We wish you a great autumn season and as always….thank you for being a member of the NWSC!!!
Sincerely,
Bruce
www.nw-service.k12.mn.us Fall 2015 Edition
Equating Value in Cooperative Purchasing
By: Barb Nelson, Cooperative Purchasing Connection,
Northwest Service Cooperative
Finding the right price for a product is important. Finding a great value, however, is an es-
sential procurement strategy. Value is understood differently by each buyer. To formulate
value, SSC’s Cooperative Purchasing Connection examines product quality, price, use, tim-
ing, shipping, life-cycle, additional costs, service and benefits.
We listen to you, our members, to understand specifications and preferences for upcoming
purchases. Every bid, request for proposal and agreement is designed to align with your pro-
curement needs and provide unmatched value.
The Cooperative Purchasing Connection consistently provides:
*Quality products and services
*Competitive pricing
*Exceptional customer service from cooperative staff
*Value added services that make vendors your partner in purchasing
*Variety in product lines
*Broad range of purchasing categories
*Convenience in ordering and getting the information you need
*Built in sustainability – we are committed to members for the long-term.
It is an honor to serve our members in purchasing. Our goal is to help you maximize savings
and value through this long-standing program. For information on the Cooperative Purchas-
ing Connection, contact me at 218-681-0894 or [email protected].
Three Sources for STEM/STEAM You May Not Be Using (But Should Be)
By: Barb Nelson, Cooperative Purchasing Connection, Northwest Service Cooperative
From Solar Robots to CNC and 3D Printing, SSC’s Cooperative Purchasing Connection partners with companies to pro-
vide the supplies you need to be on the cutting edge and prepare students for exciting careers in science technology,
engineering, arts and mathematics.
Two of our partnered-vendors, School Specialty and Nasco, carry a broad range of STEAM products for your classroom.
We also offer exceptional opportunities with the following companies: Bio Corporation, Fargo 3D Printing and Midwest
Technology Products. Each of these companies will work with you to provide the best product solutions for your STEM/
STEAM curriculum.
Bio Corporation
Bio Corporation is your source for specimens and supplies. They are located in Alexandria, Minn. Bio Corporation has all
the highest quality preserved specimens, live specimens, dissection equipment, safety equipment, educational movies,
educational software CDs, anatomical charts and 3D models that you need at the lowest prices.
Fargo 3D Printing
Fargo 3D Printing is a leader at providing a 3D printing turnkey solution. Their 3D printing pros will help get your class-
room or organization up and running with 3D printing. They will help you choose the best 3D printers, software, and ac-
cessories for your situation. They offer on-site and virtual training options.
Midwest Technology
Midwest Technology Products works to partner with educators to prepare the workforce of tomorrow. Setting the bar high
for quality and service, Midwest provides an extensive line of industrial arts, career, and technology products.
For more information on Bio Corporation, Fargo 3D and Midwest Technology Products, check out their vendor pages on
the purchasingconnection.org website or the contacts below. Reference SSC’s Cooperative Purchasing Connection to
get your member discounts. If you have any questions or suggestions for CPC, please contact me at: 218-681-0894 or
Company (click on the logo to visit their CPC vendor page)
Products and Services Dis-
counts Contact
Dissection Specimen Equipment Anatomical Models Visual Aids
5% and free ship-ping on orders over $250
Becky Hedstrom 800-222-9094
3D Printers Onsite and Virtual Training
5% off the list price for most items
John Schneider 866-326-3363
3D Printers Automotive Hardware Small Engine Welding Design
CNC Woodworking Metalworking Solar Kits Robotics Engineering
10% and free ship-ping on catalog items
Sarah Cruz 800-831-5904
ESAs Combine Technology with Purchasing for Enhanced Member Service
Cooperative Purchasing is a well-known and popular solution used by ESA's to harness the collective spending power of member agencies to attract better pricing and reduce the time and cost to perform bids while meeting most state public procurement requirements.
So what's new under the sun with cooperative purchasing? A group of Minnesota ESAs decided to put a 21
st Century spin on the service by incorporating their popular supply contracts into an online marketplace they
named Express. They spent a year working with a company that developed an online purchasing platform tai-lored specifically to meet the needs of school and government. Together they honed a one-stop, single sign-on web-based marketplace from which member schools can search for supplies, create and share shopping lists, gain approval for ordering through their normal approval chain, and place orders to multiple vendors using a p-card or purchase order. According to Jeremy Kovash, the executive director of Lakes Country Service Cooperative, which took the lead in developing Express, participating schools save by being guaranteed to receive contract pricing. "It's kind of like Amazon.com for member schools, easy to use. Sign on to Express and there are no multiple passwords, or contract numbers to remember. You're in and creating your order with automatic contract pricing." \
Districts also see savings with the time saved in finding the best value to fit their needs. Instead of searching through three catalogs for the best projector, a school can do a one-stop search according to price, vendor, or feature.
The marketplace has the ability to host both large, national vendors and smaller regional or state vendors. Ex-press has national purchasing power thanks to the Minnesota ESA participation in the 26-state Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies (AEPA).
"Let's say you're a small district like Warroad, Minnesota, on the Canadian border, and you want to buy a copier. We have two national copy machine distributors so the deal that Warroad gets for a copy machine is the same that the company would give for one copy machine to, say, the school district in Los Angeles," Kovash said. Many of the vendors on Express were bid through AEPA.
Express is only 18 months old and has multiple participating ESAs and their members in Minnsota and the Dako-tas. In addition, LCSC partnered with the software developer to offer an entry level platform to make it easier for other states to implement their own marketplace. The Express platform has been used by ESAs in Kentucky, Kansas and Nebraska as a launching pad for their own branded purchasing sites.
For more information, you may contact Jeremy Kovash at [email protected]. Jeremy also invites everyone to attend a presentation on the development of Express as a member service on Thursday, December 3
rd at 1:30
PM at the AESA Conference in New Orleans.
John Fitzgerald Education Reporter
Classes will be held at the: National Joint Powers Alliance
202 12th Street NE P.O. Box 219
Staples, MN 56479 218-894-1930 or 888-894-1930
To register, please contact: Anna Gruber, manager of city & county programs
email: [email protected] phone: 320-292-4046
Law Enforcement Development Opportunity
The NWSC, in conjunction with NJPA (National Joint Powers Alliance), will be offering a
professional development opportunity for area Law Enforcement. As a member of the
NWSC, this is being offered at no cost to you. Participants can earn 4 POST Board
Credit Hours for taking this course. Please watch for registration information to
come. If you need further information, please contact Chris Wavra, Member Services
Coordinator, at 218-681-0892.
January 12th, 2016 - 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Police and the Press – How to work with the media to tell the real story of law enforce-ment.
Following the events in Ferguson, MO, New York City and even at the Mall of America
in Bloomington, media scrutiny of law enforcement’s response to incidents may be
more intense today than ever before. This course designed to give commanders and
CLEOs the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to manage a variety of media
encounters and successfully communicate important public safety information
through traditional and social media channels. Eligible for 4 POST Board Credit
Hours.
The Northwest Service Cooperative is introducing a new health care shopping service
called ClearCost Health. The service is available to all pool members on a BC/BS of Min-
nesota health plan, their spouses and dependents over age 18. With ClearCost, members
can save on their out of pocket expenses by shopping for health care services such as of-
fice visits, lab tests, radiology services and prescription drugs based on cost, quality and
convenience.
Enroll on any computer at: www.clearcosthealth.com/nwsc
If you have any questions, or for addi-
tional information, call ClearCost
weekdays from 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Central
Time at (866)-381-9961.
During the month of November, the Worksite Wellness programs have the opportunity to earn some ad-
ditional “Wellness Dollar$”!
Get 50% of your staff, who are enrolled members of BC/BS, to sign up for ClearCost by November 30th
. Your district/agency will earn an additional $4.00/per member contract.
Example: If you have 100 staff contracts and you have the 50% of your staff members enrolled by No-vember 30
th (which would be 50 people enrolled on ClearCost) your Wellness Program would receive an
additional $200.00!!!! Enroll 100 people & earn $400.00!!!!
If you have any questions, please contact Chris Wavra, Member Services Coordinator at 218-681-0892.
Wellness Conference at the
Concordia Language Camp
in Bemidji, MN
Kelliher School District has been the recipient of three awards recognizing
both the elementary and high school for efforts targeted at improving
school health. The District is being recognized by the Alliance for a
Healthier Generation, The Healthier U.S. Schools Challenge, (HUSSC), and
“Let’s Move/Active Schools” for its efforts at improving breakfast and
lunch programs, ramping up its Phy-Ed curricula, training staff on best
practices for recess, providing healthier options for school and class par-
ties or celebrations, and offering healthier choices for fund-raiser
sales. The district was also recognized for offering
more physical activity before, during, and after the
school day.
The Nationally-recognized Alliance for a Healthier Gen-
eration has awarded Kelliher School District with the
Bronze Award for these efforts. The district is the only
district in Minnesota to receive this award. In addition,
the Healthy United States Schools Challenge (HUSSC),
which awards four levels of awards – bronze, silver,
gold and gold with distinction – awarded Kelliher Ele-
mentary and Kelliher High School the Gold with Distinc-
tion Award for efforts at improving overall school
health. Kelliher School was the ONLY school in the na-
tion to receive this highest distinction.
As part of its recognition, two staff members received
expensed-paid trips to a Leader’s Summit and awards
ceremony in Washington, D.C. While at the summit,
cooks, Justine Nistler and Billie Lempart attended a
congressional hearing where they were able to share
their success stories with Amy Klobuchar and other state and national legisla-
tors. In addition, both were able to hear keynote addresses by former presi-
dent Bill Clinton and Chelsey Clinton, and were
able to attend a White House tour. After returning
from the summit, both Nistler and Lempart were
able to share what they learned as the district be-
gins implementing new strategies in hopes of be-
ing awarded the Silver or Gold award from the
Alliance for the 2015-2016 school year.
Pictured: Justine Nistler, Amy Klobuchar, Billie Lempart
Kelliher School Wins Healthy School Award
Summer Technology
Workshops
The NW Service Coop hosted several technology work-shops in June and August. Sessions included Digital Tools for Your Classroom with Kurt Reynolds, two Google workshops and a Google Chrome session with Kelly Weets, Bring the World to Your Classroom and 21st Century Parent Communication Tools presented by Kayla Delzer, a two day Photoshop workshop, a SMART Notebook session, and a one day DSLR Photography workshop presented by Alice Hofstad, and Cool tools to integrate tech into k-12 class presented by Trista Lund.
Overall workshop attendance was small and many workshops were canceled for lack of enough registrations. With the limited interest shown, the Service Coop is considering not doing technology session next summer.
Autumn Russell of WAO was one of the participants in the SMART Notebook Workshop.
Jane Rivard-Fenske Checks her camera settings in the
Photography Workshop held in August.
Close Reading of Media Texts: Preparing 21st Century Learners for College and Beyond
Workshop
On September 17 the NWSC Training Center was the site of Media Literacy Workshop presented by
Frank Baker, author, and national leader in media literacy. Mr. Baker kept 28 participants engaged
throughout the day in activities for introducing visual literacy to students at all levels and in all cur-
riculum areas.
Participants learned to “read” pictures, to think about the story not shown in the photo. They
learned to understand and appreciate the language of film and how to introduce that language to
students.
Some of the comments participants
made on evaluations included:
This is one of the most useful-
workshops I have attended in
22 years of teaching. I can't
wait to incorporate ideas and
lessons I learned in both my
English and Computer apps
classes.
Frank did a wonderful job of
bringing media to live and
incorporating it into educa-
tion. I have taken away many
ideas to implement in my
classroom.
This was an excellent workshop.
I wish more staff from my
school would have attended.
We were given lots of great
practical activities, it's fan-
tastic that you'll email us the presentation.
Frank packs so much information into his presentation! The time flies!
I thought that the workshop was very good--media literacy is something I've been interested in,
but I didn't know where to start. Now I do!
I am excited to try out some of the resources you provided.
I appreciated the new, fresh approach to teach media literacy.. Great teaching strategies, les-
son plans and numerous resources.
We are going to try to get Mr. Baker back again next fall.
One group presents their storyboard to the class and listens as Frank Baker,
workshop leader and national leader in Media Literacy, questions why they
chose to portray certain scenes.
Mandy Schuster, Darci Geiser,
and another individual discuss
the photograph story in the
Media Literacy Workshop
on Sept 17.
Frank Baker, from South
Carolina, led the Media Literacy
Workshop on Sept 17 at the NW
Service Coop.
QUESTIONS?
CONTACT US!
Give us a call for more infor-
mation about our services:
Northwest Service
Cooperative
114 1st Street West
Thief River Falls, MN
56701
Phone: (218)-681-0900
Fax: (218)-681-0915
Visit us on the web at:
www.nw-service.k12.mn.us “Your Resource and Learning Partner”
October 2, St. Paul, Minn. – The Minnesota Council on Economic Education (MCEE) will honor
Ms. Katie Hedlund at its annual EconFest celebration on November 5, 2015 at Land O’Lakes in
Arden Hills, MN. Ms. Hedlund will receive the Thrivent Financial Personal Finance Educator
Award, which recognizes educators who increase student understanding of personal finance through
original learning activities at the elementary and secondary levels. Winning entries were chosen
based on innovation of approach, emphasis on personal finance concepts, ease of replication, and
assessment of student learning. Ms. Hedlund will receive the second place award in the secondary
division. Ms. Hedlund teaches Personal Finance, Accounting, Marketing, and other subjects at Ros-
eau High School in Roseau, MN.
Ms. Hedlund’s award-winning activity, “My First Apartment with Roommate”, has students work
with a partner to construct a budget, furnish an apartment, and plan meals and groceries all based
on an occupation and income provided to them. Students are required to use multiple pieces of
technology and collaborate over the internet outside of class time. This lesson includes the state ac-
ademic benchmarks for high school students: “Personal and financial goals can be achieved by ap-
plying economic concepts and principles to personal financial planning, budgeting, spending, sav-
ing, investing, borrowing, and insuring decisions” and “Because of scarcity, individuals, organiza-
tions, and governments must evaluate trade-offs, make choices, and incur opportunity costs.”
The recognition of Ms. Hedlund’s achievements includes an award of $750.
“One of the most effective ways to increase student understanding of economic principles is to
make economics and personal financial decision-making skills come alive in the classroom,” said
MCEE Executive Director Donald Liu. “Every year, hundreds of Minnesota educators are doing
just that. We look forward to recognizing their achievements and the outstanding work of Ms. Hed-
lund and other award winners at our event on November 5.” MCEE is a non-profit organization
housed at the University of Minnesota with a mission to equip Minnesotans with the economic and
personal financial understanding needed to succeed in today’s complex economy. MCEE’s primary
outreach to Minnesotans is through teachers and students.
This marks the tenth year Thrivent Financial has sponsored the Personal Finance Educator Awards
Program.
Upcoming Events
November 10, 2015
Algebra Readiness
9:00 am—3:30 pm
November 12, 2015 &
December 1, 2015
Becoming a More
Effective Teacher
9:00 am—3:30 pm
December 2-3, 2015
Literacy Training for
Elementary Teachers
9:00 am—3:30 pm
January 6, 2015
Creativity Festival
January 12, 2015
ACA Reporting Workshop
February 10, 2015
Regional Spelling Bee
March 10, 2015
Young Authors
Conference
Jean Heinrichs retired this summer and
we are sad to see her go. We wish her
well on her new journey in Stillwater,
Minnesota. NWSC wants to thank her
for her hard work and for the great mem-
ories. She will be missed dearly.