Hello everyone!  My name is Patrick Mineer, President of the Minn-Dak Manufacturers Association (MDMA), serving the Fargo/Moorhead/West Fargo region and surrounding communities.  I want to share a few updates on behalf of the association before we have our summer social and get ready for a break in our tours before starting up again in September!

Summer social

September membership drive

Serving on the board

Getting ready for next year

As I’m sure has been the case with all of you, we’ve had a very busy last couple months with tours, events, and supporting our partners.  We had fantastic industries tours with Branick Industries, Vanna Vans, and Rapat.  We supported many of our community partners with their events and programs, including the North Dakota Trade Office’s annual meeting as well as the Greater North Dakota Chamber’s Faces of Manufacturing program, with winners to be announced in the next month or so.

The most exciting news since our last update is the association’s awarding of scholarships to area youth that are going into manufacturing or engineering related programs.  With the success of our Pickleball tournament fundraiser, we were able to extend three scholarships to Ethan Skoog, Cullen Olson, and Sam Blair.  All three will be attending North Dakota State University this fall, and we couldn’t be more excited to see them start their journey.  We will be extending them and all applicants a complimentary student membership next year so they can attend events and start to build their network as they start their career journey.

While our board continues meeting throughout the summer, we do take a break on tours due to schedules being tight for everyone.  We will be hosting our summer social at Junkyard Brewing in Moorhead, Minnesota on June 24^th from 4-6.  These socials are always a fun way to acknowledge our last year together, make new connections, and get ready for starting up again in September.  If you’d like to register, you can do so here.

As we think about our next year of activity starting up again in September, we already have some great factory tours lined up (including ComDel Innovation, Mackow Industries, and Midland Garage, just to name a few) as well as programming that will be coming both through industry partners and MMA.  We’ll also be revisiting our board make-up and the strategic goals of the association.  If any of you are interested in serving on the board, or if you have requests of the association, things we can do to support members and the manufacturing community at large, please let us know.  We’d love to hear from you – otherwise we hope to see you at the social on June 24^th.  Have a great summer!