The Rural Capital Area’s Top Three Fastest Growing Counties of 2011 Were Lee, Caldwell, and Williamson

Data was recently released for the full year of 2011, giving us our first look at year-over-year growth rate comparisons.  Lee County grew the fastest of all counties in the Rural Capital Area, 11.8%.  Growth was driven by over 400 new jobs at local civil engineering firms, likely in shale development.  Caldwell County grew 7.4% in 2011, led by a strong rebound in its manufacturing sector.  Williamson County grew 6.6% undefined third place – but created the vast majority of new jobs in the region, nearly 8,000.

The Top 3 Fastest Growing Major Industries of 2011 in the Rural Capital Area May Surprise You: Manufacturing, Health Care & Private Education, and Leisure & Hospitality

Manufacturing employment grew 11% in 2011, led by growth in computer equipment, electronic instruments, fabricated metals, stone products, machine shops, and wood products. Health Care & Private Education grew nearly 8% in 2011, led by a large increase in doctors offices (not hospitals), home health care, and nursing care.  Private educational schools (K-12 charter and technical schools) grew a surprising 25%.  Leisure and Hospitality grew quickly – nearly 7%, primarily due to the expansion of restaurants.

The Wholesale Trade, Transportation and Utilities industry also posted large gains – a 12% increase, but upon further analysis, we discovered that 5,000 new jobs were posted in computer wholesaling in Williamson County that were accompanied by a similar decline in Travis County.  This is most likely due to a reclassification (transfer) of workers at Dell from one office in Austin to the Round Rock office – not an actual increase in employment (a rare statistical aberration).

It was also interesting to see that Government employment shrunk 2% in the Rural Capital Area, a rate similar to the US decline despite the region growing faster than the US.

Thank you to our sponsors and friends that have agreed to come out on Sunday afternoon to help! July 8^th, at 5pm on the Depot Dock we will serve 100 students and faculty of Institute at Festival Hill.

Sponsors –
City Meat Market – BBQ & sauce
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative - Water

Friends –
Carol Bennett - banana pudding
Gina Reat - potato salad
Lauren Cook - onions
Kelita Alberts – pickles
Denice Harlan – tea
Joyce Bise – peach cobblers
Pratik Bhakta - cups, plates, napkins
JD Fain - ice
Joe Franks - beans

Still need some noodles, bread, desserts

Hope you will consider coming out to meet the students and founder James Dick, of Festival Hill.

Local Chambers from across the state of Texas convened Monday night June 25, 2012 for the Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives (TCCE) Annual Excellence Awards. Our Giddings Chamber came away with three awards that night.

Giddings took third place in each of the following categories:

Outstanding Chamber Brochure
Outstanding Directory or Magazine
Excellence in Social Media Marketing

The overall competition had more than 200 entries from which the best were judged by panels of experts. We are honored and thrilled to have been recognized at this event!

Greetings,

The great quote was from one of the awesome speakers we met at our annual Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives Conference this week.  We were so excited and re-energized by the whole event that we wanted to share the love with you, our members!

Kelita and I met Chamber execs from all over the great State of Texas.  One of the things that really struck me is that all these people are HAPPY!  Chamber people are happy people. They love their jobs, their communities and how their lives impact those of the members.  Over and over the message we heard was that “Impossible is Nothing”, and in the Chamber business that is usually done on a daily basis.  We love to help our members find solutions to their problems.  We try to know everything and stay abreast of the latest news, but we need your help.  Send us your event listings, let us know about your events and remind us about your events.  We want to spread the word every chance we get. 

We hope you have a great week.  Just a few reminders about the upcoming events that are happening in the area.  We hope you to see you in the neighborhood!

 

“Any time you exceed a customer’s expectations, you both win.”

~ Glenn Shepard

Friday & Saturday, June 29-30 – Keeping America in Stitches Quilt Show from 9am to 5pm for $5 for a two days. It will be held at the Giddings High School Cafetorium. Free Parking available.  Lots of vendors with cool stuff!

 

Saturday,  June 30, 2012

St. John Lutheran Church

Will sell Beef, Pork, and Chicken by the pound

Ready at 9 AM at Walch Store

Also available Potato Salad, Beans, Sauce And Bake Sale

All proceeds to benefit the School Assistance Fund

 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

GVFD Celebration at Firemen’s Park – New Auction Time at 4PM!  See the attached flyer for all the details.

Greetings,

We are pleased to bring you information about the upcoming parade.

Join the Lee County Juneteenth Association as they celebrate Juneteenth next Saturday with at Parade around Veteran’s Park. Get your float, trucks & trailers ready!

June 16^th at 10am.  Judging is at 9am. We have attached the applications, route and letter for your benefit.  Please share with all your staff and employees. 

Greetings,

We want to cheer on the Relay for Life Teams that will take the field on Friday for the fight against cancer!  We are so proud of our community and their never ending efforts to stop cancer in its tracks!  Join the teams at 7PM for the Survivor Walk.  You will be touched.

On another note we have a couple of really exciting things coming up!  The AAU Track meet is coming into town next Friday and Saturday! BE PREPARED to be BUSY!  You will have a lot of customers sometime during the day.  Traffic will increase substantially also. So be patient.  Smile and let everyone see our HOMETOWN HOSPITALITY!

This weekend there is going to be a lot of traffic coming through Giddings because of the ROT Rally in Austin.  Be patient. 

This weekend is also Auction weekend at Mayer Auctioneering!  Check out all the cool stuff.

Friday and Saturday the Giddings Food Pantry will be open to serve our community.  Check in is at 8AM at 191 North Harris. 

And, registration is still open at Lee County Youth Center, 1010 E. Industry.  Students 4-8grade are welcome to come from 1-5PM Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to enjoy fun, fellowship and activities that will enrich the mind, body and spirit.  Call the Center for more information – 542-4200.  The fee is $10 per child for the Summer Program!

The Giddings Independent School District is also serving lunch daily at the Giddings Elementary from 11:30 to 12:30 each day. All School Age Children are welcome!

We hope you have a great weekend. 

You hear a lot that Texas is the economic leader.  So how do we really compare?  Here are the latest numbers, and they are impressive, especially the fact that Texas accounts for almost nine percent of the nation's economy. 

Bill Hammond
President & CEO
Texas Association of Business

Texas Is the Future

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

Some interesting tidbits about the economic health of the 50 states, from the government’s annual estimate of growth by state, released Tuesday:

Six state economies shrank last year.

While the nation’s gross domestic product grew by 1.7 percent in 2011, economic output shrank in five states: Wyoming, down 1.2 percent; Alabama, down 0.8 percent; Mississippi, also down 0.8 percent; Maine, down 0.4 percent; New Jersey, down 0.5 percent; and Hawaii, down 0.2 percent.

Only one of those states, Wyoming, also declined in 2010.

Manufacturing is the past future.

Increased production of durable goods was the largest contributor to growth in 26 states. Oregon benefited most. The state’s economy expanded by 4.7 percent last year undefined and more than 80 percent of the growth came from manufacturing.

In Michigan, manufacturing accounted for half of the 2.3 percent expansion.

Resource extraction is the future.

Excepting Oregon, fuel states posted the strongest growth. North Dakota’s economy expanded by 7.6 percent; West Virginia’s, 4.5 percent; Alaska’s, 2.5 percent.

Or maybe Texas is the future.

The Texas economy grew 3.3 percent in 2011, and the growth was broad-based. Not just oil, not just manufacturing. Texas now accounts for 8.7 percent of the nation’s economy, up from 7.4 percent a decade ago.

Greetings,

We want see you out in the neighborhood this week so check out the calendar of events that is full to the brim with exciting activities for you to see and do!

• •·       Monday – June 4^th, the Lee County Youth Center will cut the Ribbon and host a Grand Opening for their Summer Youth Program.  It starts on Tuesday, June 5^th and will be held on Tuesday – Wednesday – Thursday each week until Aug 2^nd.  This program is for all 4-8^th grade(completed) and is only $10.  Registration tonight at the Ribbon Cutting! Call the center today for information.

• •·       Monday – June 4^th is also Country Music Monday-Lone Star Opry night at the Giddings High School Cafetorium at 7:30pm. Sponsored by Rotary Club of Giddings. Tickets are $5, assisted parking and food available. Two new guest performers Briana Adams, a music major and voice teacher and Jake Kellen from Lee County now based in Austin. He has more than 500 shows to his records and great acclaim as a Country Music Artist. Added to these are Ken Brothers and the regular Country Music Band.
  

• •·       Wednesday – June 6^th, Giddings New Horizons Club meets at noon at Giddings Downtown Restaurant.

• •·       Thursday – June 7^th, Rotary Club of Giddings meets at Los Patrones Mexican Grill at noon
  

• •·       Friday – June 8^th, Relay for Life of Lee County will be held at Buffalo Stadium.  The Survivor Walk starts at 6PM and there will be festivities throughout the evening and night.  Ends at 8AM on Saturday, June 9^th.

• •·       Saturday – June 9^th, Chamber Music (Festival Concert Hall) @3:30 pm  Louis Spohr (1784-1859) Nonet in F, Op. 31 (1813) J.S. Bach Ciaconna from Partita No. 2 in d, Adagio and Fuga from Sonata No. 3 in C. Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) Quartet for piano and strings in E-flat, Op. 87 (1889) Gregory Fulkerson (Spohr), Nicholas Kitchen (Bach), Espen Lilleslatten (Dvořák), violins; Brett Deubner, viola; Emilio Colón, cello; James VanDemark, bass; Ransom Wilson, flute; Rebecca Henderson, oboe; Kenneth Grant, clarinet; Benjamin Kamins, bassoon; Peter Kurau, horn; Eteri Andjaparidze, piano

•o   June 9 @7:30 pm Opening Orchestra Concert (Festival Concert Hall) Claude Debussy “Nocturnes” (Nuages & Fêtes) Sergei Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 Claude Debussy “Images” (Gigues, Iberia, Rondes de Printemps) Texas Festival Orchestra Pascal Verrot, conductor James Dick, piano

• •·       Monday – June 11^th, Giddings Economic Development Corporation meets at the Giddings Municipal Building at noon in the Council Chambers.
•  
• •·       Tuesday – June 12^th, Constant Contact Workshop at the Giddings Public Library Community Room from 9:30AM to 2:30PM. The workshop is free, but call to reserve lunch for $8.  We will have Reba’s Catering.  Everything you ever wanted to know about Constant Contact!  Using Constant Contact to connect to customers. Register for the workshop at this address - http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e5yyfoob7e1047d3&llr=dbevbseab  

•·        The Power of Email Marketing for Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Professionals: Learn how to build relationships that are the key to success of your business with easy, inexpensive and highly effective email marketing. We will explore the basics of what email marketing is, why it works so well, how easily integrates with social networking sites, and how to use it in your business planning and marketing strategy to achieve special goals. 

•·        Social Media Marketing Made Simple: Learn how to turn social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter into powerful business tools. In this introductory session, we cover strategies and best practices to get the most out of your social media activities.

•·        Getting Started with Constant Contact: Learn how to start using this easy and user friendly application and get started with your first email marketing campaign. In this session you will have the opportunity to learn how to open an account, how to start growing up your contact list and how to build your first newsletter or email.

•  
• •·       Thurs. Fri. Sat., June 14-16^th: Lee County Express Track Club will play host to the 2012 Summer AAU Track Meet at Buffalo Stadium. 2500 tracksters, coaches, parents and extended families will be here all weekend to compete in these games. Contact Tony Francis for more info.

 

And remember, the Texas 10 Pin Tournament is still going on all month at Leesure Lanes in Giddings.

Lots of great information for you to share!  Let us know if you have something to tell our community about today!

We hope you are looking forward to a wonderful summer season.  We are busy here getting ready for the many wonderful activities that happen over the next several months.  Please take time to put these items on your calendar. Let us know if we missed an event that you are aware of in our community, but hasn’t been put on the list.  We look forward to advertising and promoting our community.

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Welcome Home to Master Sergeant Dan Sherfy

Love, Your Family!

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This Week:

• •·      May 31^st - Community Blood Drive is Thursday, from 8:30am to 2:30pm at Immanuel Lutheran Fellowship Hall. 
• •·      June 1^st - Ribbon Cutting & Grand Opening for Stoney’s Liquor, located at the former Jambalaya property at 3:00pm on Friday.  Food, fun & networking will be going on all afternoon.

Month of June

June – Texas Ten Pin Tournament is going on all month, every weekend.

* June 4^th - Country Music Monday & Lone Star Opry is Monday, at 7:30pm.
* June 4^th - Ribbon Cutting for Lee County Youth Center at 5:30pm on Monday.
* June 12^th - Constant Contact Seminar from 9:30am – 2:30pm.
* June 8-9^th - Relay for Life Event at 7pm at Buffalo Stadium
* June 9^th - City of Giddings Golf Tournament at Giddings Municipal Golf Course on Saturday.
* June 14-16^th -  AAU Track Meet at Buffalo Stadium, with 2500 youth track runners & their families.
* June 19^th - Giddings Chamber Board of Directors meeting at CNB meeting room at noon.
* June 24-26^th - TCCE Annual Conference –in Bastrop at Lost Pines Conference Center
* June 26 - Get Listed University. Learn how your business can use the web to get more customers!
* June 29^th & 30^th - Quilt Show at Giddings High School  

• 
  * July 2^nd – Country Music Monday
  * July 4^th – Giddings Volunteer Firemen’s Annual Celebration at Firemen’s Park/Fireworks
  * July 7^th – Wounded Warrior Mud Run at Lee County Fair Grounds
  * July 7^th – Jammin’ July Championship Rodeo & Josh Abbott Concert at Lee County Sheriff’s Posse Arena
  * July 8^th – Festival Hill BBQ Banquet at the Depot Dock for Festival Hill Institute Students & Faculty
  * July 14^th – Lions Club Golf Tournament
  * July 28^th – Booster Club Golf Tournament
  * August 10^th - Rotary Club Fun Night at American Legion Hall
  * August 11^th –South Lee County Fire Department BBQ followed by Live Auction.
  * August 14^th - Chamber Banquet at Landmark Event Center
  * August 21^st – Chamber Board of Directors Meeting
  * August 24-25^th – Giddings Swap Meet at Lee County Fair Grounds
  * August 25^th – Denim & Diamonds Gala Fundraiser sponsored by the Giddings New Horizons Lions Club

 

I Might Be A Cracked Pot!

As a manager I hope you find this story of value.

There was once a man who had two large clay pots which he hung on the ends of pole he carried across his neck when he went to fetch water from a stream. One of the pots had a small crack in it while the other was perfect. The perfect pot always brought home a portion of water while the cracked pot returned home barely half full.

For years the man returned from the stream with only one and a half pots of water. The perfect pot was very proud of its accomplishment; however the cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection and felt terrible that it was only able to accomplish half of what it was intended to do.

One day while kneeling by the stream to fill his two pots the cracked pot spoke to the man "I am sorry Sir and want to apologize to you." "Why? asked the man "What are you sorry about?" "Because of my flaw, I only give you half a load – never have I given you what you expected" said the cracked pot.

The man remained quiet and continued to fill both his pots. When he put his pole over his neck with his two pots attached he looked at the cracked pot and said "Today as we walk home I want you to look down at the path as we walk home". As they walked home the cracked pot did what he was told; he looked down at the path. When they arrived home half the water in the cracked pot had leaked out and it was feeling sorry for itself.

When the man put down his pole he asked the cracked pot, "Did you notice anything along the path on our way home?” “Yes” replied the cracked pot. “I noticed beautiful flowers grew along our path.” "You're right" said the man "flowers do grow along our path. However did you notice they only grow on one side of the path and not the other?

You see I have always known about your flaw and I decided to take advantage of it. I only planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day as we walked back from the stream you watered my seeds. Because of you we have always had an abundance of beautiful flowers to decorate our home and share with friends. Without your flaw I would never have had this all beauty in my life”.

Remember we all have employees - just like the cracked pot. They have their flaws. Rather than lament their imperfections maybe we acknowledge their flaws and take advantage of them. Our goal should be to use our resources to make our organizations better.

Have a Great WEEK!

The news is out!  Fred & Delores Jones have taken on the awesome task of opening the Landmark Event Center to our community for banquets, weddings and such.  We have secured the facility for our August 14^th Chamber Banquet.  Please congratulate the Joneses on their new venture.  We will support our local small business owners by using this awesome facility.