FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR… · Equating Value in Cooperative Purchasing By: Barb Nelson, Cooperative Purchasing Connection, Northwest Service Cooperative Finding the right price

- 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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

3D Printers Onsite and Virtual Training

5% off the list price for most items

John Schneider 866-326-3363

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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.