Chamber members gathered early Tuesday morning, October 27th, to discuss Colorado’s beer, wine, and liquor laws – an issue that has spurred controversy for quite some time and may be on the 2016 ballot.

The panel included three guests: Colorado State Senator Chris Holbert, Curtis Hubbard of OnSight Public Affairs, and Tyler Sandberg of EIS Solutions. Both Holbert and Hubbard oppose changing the law, while Sandberg is in favor of it. Sandberg represents ‘Your Choice Colorado,’ a coalition representing Coloradans who want the option of local craft brews in big retail outlets such as Safeway and King Soopers.

The current law, which only allows grocery stores to sell low-alcohol (3.2%) beer, has been a hot topic since 2008 – the same year Colorado law changed and allowed the sale of alcohol on Sundays.

What Holbert and Hubbard think: Protect independent liquor store owners and small breweries. Hubbard brought up the fact that local liquor stores are often the first distribution contact for small craft brewers.
What Sandberg thinks: 42 other states sell Colorado wine or full-strength beer in grocery stores. It’s time to give Coloradans the same choice and convenience. He also brought up the “Glendale experiment”: King Soopers, Super Target and Trader Joe’s, all located in Glendale, CO, all sell liquor, beer, and wine: No liquor stores have closed in that 2 mile radius – in fact, one has opened.

During the Q & A session, it was obvious the room was divided on what changes should be made to current legislature. One thing is for sure - the ‘Beer Wars’ will continue into 2016.

This meeting was hosted by the Chamber’s Business Leaders for Responsible Government (BLRG) group. This group provides education on business-related policy issues, and provides advocacy opportunities for members to interact with the electorate. Group members organize debates and roundtables that are open to the general Chamber membership. For more information, e-mail Natalie at [email protected]
A special thank you to our panelists.

FRIENDS FIRST - Parents, students, and other community members celebrate past projects and future plans

Greenwood Village just got a lot FRIENDLY…FRIENDS FIRST relocated to their new location at 7100 E. Belleview Ave. Suite 303.  On Tuesday, October 20th members of the community and South Metro Denver Chamber welcomed the impactful nonprofit with a ribbon cutting and open house.

The event included drinks, light hors d’oeuvres and door prizes.  Staff shared their passion for working with students and the impact FRIENDS FIRST has had over the 22 years.  Students shared how the organization has taught them compassion. One young teen spoke to the crowd stating “FRIENDS FIRST has boosted her self-confidence and she looks forward to seeing her friends.”

“FRIENDS FIRST serves over 30 schools in the Denver metro area. We are happy to now occupy an office closer to the students and families we serve," said Elycia Cook, Executive Director of FRIENDS FIRST. "We are also excited to be surrounded by a community of businesses, with whom we hope to build partnerships for the future success of our teens. This Open House is not only a celebration and an opportunity to share about FRIENDS FIRST, but also a way for us to say thank you to our families, friends, and community of supporters."

FRIENDS FIRST is known as a community leader in peer mentoring, working to educate and inspire teens to avoid high-risk behaviors, develop a strong sense of self-awareness, and prevent negative social interactions like bullying. Community service projects are an integral part of FRIENDS FIRST's STARS peer mentoring program because they help teens cultivate compassion, one of the core elements of bullying prevention.

Following the celebration teens and staff finished preparing for Make Difference Day – October 24, 2015. Over 30 FRIENDS FIRST teens, parents, and staff distributed blankets and hygiene kits to people experiencing homelessness in the areas surrounding 26th & California in Denver. FRIENDS FIRST decided to focus their community service in this neighborhood because it is undergoing an increase in people experiencing homelessness due to the area's gentrification, rising rents, and the resulting displacement.
Mission: FRIENDS FIRST educates and mentors teens to make positive life choices and develop healthy relationships.

To learn more about FRIENDS FIRST of to get involved, visit: Friendsfirst.org or call 720.981.9193

Fun was had by all! The crowd was broken up into groups of four, and each recorded a few videos, which made for an entertaining display at the end of the event. Popular videos included the 1980’s smash hit “Everybody wants to rule the World,” Nsync’s catchy “Just Got Paid” and even Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

This Roundtable was a great example of how new applications can be utilized in business, as well as the fun you can have when you get out of your comfort zone. The possibilities are endless when you think outside the box!
The South Metro Denver Chamber would like to thank the event’s hosts – WhippleWood CPA’s and 38 State Brewing. Happy Dubsmashing!

The Colorado Center for the Blind is a world-renowned training center located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Littleton, Colorado, about 13 miles south of Denver. Since its establishment in 1988, the Colorado Center has provided innovative teaching techniques and philosophy that continues to have Far-reaching effects on the lives of blind people, taking them to new heights of independence. The Colorado Center training techniques and teaching methods are based on the positive philosophy of the NFB which states that, “with proper training and opportunity, blind people can compete on terms of equality with their sighted peers”.

Included below, is their monthly newsletter full of inspiring stories and accomplishments, upcoming events and training programs.

Message from the Director - Take charge with confidence and self-reliance -
Yesterday [October 7, 2015] we gathered together to hear some of our students present speeches that they had prepared for their public speaking class. Each student is required to take this class while attending our Independence Training Program. I was struck by the variety of the speeches and by the poise that each student radiated as they presented. Curtis from Missouri told us how important it is to have a good attitude; Jenny from Kansas talked about how enriching it is to travel and let us know that she plans to travel to the Four Corners area in the next year,; Haylee taught us all about synesthesia; and Vicki described the love that she has for the people at the Center and how being here has opened up her life. I will keep these speeches close to me, because each student that walks in our doors gives all of us so much as they learn and grow. We will be putting excerpts of student speeches on our website. Enjoy them!
In the past year we have had full access to our gym at all times. The fitness programs have dramatically grown as a result of this. There is a variety of exercise equipment in the gym. Classes offered at the Center for all of our students include aerobic dance, yoga and Zumba. We also have goalball at least once each week.
See the calendar to get an idea of the upcoming events. Thanks to all of you for your support.

Program Notes
Youth Program
The Colorado Center has been buzzing with activity all summer long and has not slowed down. I want to thank each of you for taking the time to learn about what we have been doing. Our summer youth program was a great success. Thanks to the Verizon Foundation, we will be developing and offering several programs to blind youth and their instructors in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math.
Independence Training Program
At this time we have over thirty students enrolled in our Independence Training Program. We have students here from all over the country and the world. We are excited to have Poonam here from India and Lian from China. We currently have four students with us who use guide dogs. They are pleased to have the opportunity to work hard on developing more skill using a cane during their training day. The students just completed our rock climbing sessions and enjoyed going to clear Creek Canyon and Eldorado Canyon. Being in the mountains and hearing the river run and breathing the fresh air while climbing is spectacular.
Senior Program
Our Senior Program has grown as a result of a grant that we received from the Denver Regional Council of Governments. We are serving blind seniors in an eight county area. We have hired an outreach specialist and will be offering tactile art and sewing classes in addition to the discussion groups and blindness skills classes that we are teaching.
Senior groups are available weekly. For more information, please call Duncan Larsen at 303-778-1130 extension 226.

Upcoming Events
November 13 Youth: 10 am to 1 pm - Shark Dissection with Arapahoe Community College at the Colorado Center for the Blind. This is an annual favorite. We will work with Terry Harrison to once again provide the opportunity for blind and visually impaired students who are in middle school and high school to dissect a dogfish shark.
November 14 Youth: 10 am to 2 pm - FAST program. We will preparing a small Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. Learn how to carve, mash potatoes, bake a pie and everything related to this fantastic and festive holiday!!!
For youth activities, please contact Brent if you have any questions or to RSVP [email protected] or 303-778-1130 x 222
To refer someone who is interested in training, please call Robert Dyson at 303-778-1130 extension 249.

To Noah Finkelstein it's more of a movement. And it's one that will go a long way to address the well-documented shortage of professionals in certain science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

The University of Colorado Boulder and University of Massachusetts Amherst are lead public campuses partnering with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities to create a national network of about 200 campus STEM education centers.

This project, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, will create a network that supports and incubates these centers, provides a critical resource for stakeholders to engage with universities around STEM education and allows for essential research on the nature of these centers and the processes of network formation.

“We are now in a position to move beyond individual and isolated efforts and to leverage cross-institutional work," said Finkelstein, CU-Boulder physics professor and network co-director.
STEM education centers serve as campus-based resources for addressing the national call for improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at the undergraduate level.

These centers serve as homes for interdisciplinary and cross-unit work, support transformation of educational practices, provide resources within and across disciplines and serve as a locus for educational research, evaluation and systematic transformation.

In recent years, there has been significant growth in number and scale of these centers yet there is no established network or coordination.
The project will also examine the capacities and mechanisms of individual centers and identify how such a network forms and what it may accomplish.

The five-year project will yield a new national resource that will impact individual centers and campuses and provide a new platform for systemic transformation of undergraduate STEM education.
The network will provide programming and resources for established and new STEM centers including conferences, learning communities, an online engagement platform, toolkits of resources for centers and directory of centers for the community and external stakeholders.

“It’s extremely valuable for institutions to have a dedicated forum to exchange ideas, compare practices and work together to address the pressing need to improve and expand undergraduate STEM education across the country,” Finkelstein said.

This article was originally posted by University of Colorado on October 8, 2015. See more at: http://www.colorado.edu/news/features/cu-boulder-key-partner-national-stem-center-initiative#sthash.eWNCbJhw.lAjyNYnI.dpuf

Regis University will begin mentoring the next generation of Colorado business leaders with the opening of a new College of Business and Economics in fall 2015.The new college combines an existing program from the Regis College Division of Business with the College for Professional Studies School of Management and Master of Nonprofit Management. It brings together diverse faculty, giving students a greater range of degrees, learning models and programs.

“Too much of contemporary business education offers a narrow concept of the role of business in society. Consequently, the leadership training in business schools tends to be narrow, functional, and specialized,” said Regis University Father President John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J.  “The Regis School of Business and Economics will provide a broad, integrative understanding of business through a strong focus on both character and competence.”

Helping to shape the vision of the Jesuit values-centered curriculum is Founding Academic Dean Timothy Keane, Ph.D., who will join Regis this summer. Keane brings with him more than a decade of academic leadership experience, most recently at Saint Louis University’s John Cook School of Business. Prior to moving into higher education, Keane spent more than 20 years in the private sector, including serving as the founding director of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Information Based Selling Group.

“In launching the new College of Business and Economics, Regis has committed to building leaders of conscience who will attack urgent issues facing a globalizing world. I'm fortunate to be part of this exciting future,” said Keane.

The College of Business and Economics offers programs that cater to students at every step in the educational journey, from traditional undergraduate to busy professionals, including flexible options for obtaining bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, or academic certificates in these areas of study:

• Accounting
• Business Administration
• Economics
• Finance
• Health Industry Leadership
• Human Resources Management
• Marketing
• Nonprofit Management
• Operations Management
• Organizational Leadership
• Project Management
• Public Administration
• Strategic Management

Traditional business school leaders echo the world’s need for the type of leader that Jesuit business schools strive to produce; mature, self-aware, ethically informed and caring graduates equipped to be innovative, influential, and committed to the service of others.

The business and financial operations occupation field is projected to add more than 800,000 jobs by 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2020, it is estimated there will be more than 160,000 new job openings for accountants and auditors, the largest growth of any business operations subset.
The opening of the College of Business and Economics comes on the heels of the fall 2014 launch of the College of Computer & Information Sciences.

Regis University is the only Jesuit university with a dedicated computer and information sciences school, championing people who want to study IT, science and computing as a way to tackle humanity’s biggest challenges, from poverty to clean water access to global climate change.

Mission: Building on our Jesuit tradition of values-based experiential learning, the College of Business and Economics cultivates leaders of integrity who think critically, communicate clearly, and implement innovative solutions to complex challenges. We partner with business and community leaders to enhance economic, environmental, and social well being.
Vision: The College of Business and Economics will help business become stewards of society with the goal of improving the quality of life on earth.
For more information about Regis University College of Business and Economics visit, http://www.regis.edu/COBE.aspx
This article was originally posted by Regis University on April 8, 2015.

The Chamber and Colorado Business Roundtable’s D.C. Fly-in is a unique opportunity to make an impact in Washington and on your business. It’s your chance to interact directly with policymakers, White House officials, and Chamber members.The trip’s mission is twofold: to educate and empower Chamber members, and to represent the voice of the south metro Denver business community at the Capitol.

For more information, please contact Natalie Harden or Chamber Staff at 303.795.0142
The Chamber leads an annual legislative tour that includes:

• Meet with policymakers and key officials
• Tour the White House
• Senior White House officials will discuss: Infrastructure, International Trade, Department of Defense, and Energy
• Department of Energy briefing will include: Renewable Energy, Transportation and Energy Policy
• Build relationships with business leaders and policymakers
• Legislation will be session!

ITINERARY - *Please note all events are subject to change

• TUESDAY – Depart Tuesday A.M.
  Meet with Dept. of Energy, Commerce & International Trade
  Embassy Cocktail Reception
  Congressional Reception Dinner

• WEDNESDAY
  White House tour
  White House Business Council meeting
  Meet with CO Congressional Delegation
  *Night Bus Tour/Capitol Tour (tentative)
• THURSDAY – Return Thursday P.M.
  Breakfast with US Chamber
  *Tour Pentagon (tentative)

Cincinnati-based restaurant Tom+Chee celebrated the grand opening of its second Colorado location on Friday, September 5th. The 70 – seat, 2,590 – square-foot restaurant is at The Streets at SouthGlenn, located at 6879 S. Vine, Unit 712 in Centennial, CO 80122.

“We’re excited to be part of the Tom+Chee family, and to introduce the Denver Metro community to our passionate and innovative approach to making food fun,” said local franchisee Dan Pszanka. “We are dedicated to providing uniquely flavorful and simply satisfying meals that are comforting and affordable. At Tom+Chee we are doing what we love, and look forward to sharing that with our customers.”

Specializing in tomato soup and grilled cheese, Tom+Chee is known for its fresh ingredients and quirky takes on comfort food classics.  From the vegetarian Hippy+Chee to the offbeat Grilled Cheese Donut, Tom+Chee offers 20+ grilled cheese sandwiches, fresh salads and three styles of tomato soups. The entire menu is made fresh, with no fryers, freezers of microwaves and offers a variety of vegetarian, began and gluten-free options.

Originally started as a foot tent in Cincinnati, Tom+Chee has enjoyed explosive growth since the founders pitched their business on ABC’s “ Share Tank” in May 2013. The Tom+Chee franchise is rapidly growing and currently has 170 stores under contract in 20 states, including Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Colorado and Georgia.

The cheesy eatery will be open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.tomandchee.com.

The morning’s introductions began with Bill Shepard of W.J. Shepard Consulting, LLC, who is also Chair of the Chamber’s ‘Business Leaders for Responsible Government’ group. Michele McKinney of University of Colorado introduced Garcia, and Garcia’s first remarks were about the wide variety of colleges that are in Colorado. He spoke about how community colleges, trade schools, and even “mom-and-pop barber schools” are losing funds.  Big universities like CU and CSU will likely continue to thrive because of large attendance, but what’s the future for smaller-scale post-education institutions?

Decreased funding isn’t the only trend Garcia addressed. He brought up the increase in tuition, the growing importance of post-secondary schools for the workforce to make a “living wage,” and the gap between seniors in high school to college freshman – many college freshman have to take remedial courses in their first semesters because they’re not prepared for full-credit work.

How can we strengthen our communities? Garcia spoke of the staggering numbers of people that have enrolled in college and completed courses, but never earned a degree. There is an opportunity here. A bigger push for non-traditional campuses and online and evening courses could mean re-enrollment for those previous attendees to finish their degree.

In alignment with staggering numbers, Andy Carlson, Sr. Policy Analyst for the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), delivered an informative presentation on trends in state higher education funding for Colorado and the Nation.

Final comments for the meeting were from Jeff Wasden, President of Colorado Business Roundtable/ Chair, Public Policy, for the Chamber. The Chamber’s Business Leaders for Responsible Government (BLRG) group meets monthly, and is in alignment with the South Metro Denver Chamber’s key strategic priority for public policy.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., (Oct. 2, 2015) –United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched its 100th mission today with an Atlas V rocket carrying the Morelos-3 satellite for Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation. The mission, procured for Mexico by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services, launched at 6:28 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41.

“Congratulations to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services and Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation on today’s successful delivery of the Morelos-3 satellite into orbit, providing advanced telecommunications throughout Mexico.” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.  “Today was an especially proud day for our team as we launched our 100th successful one-at-a-time mission since ULA was formed in 2006.  Congratulations to the entire team including our many mission partners on this unprecedented achievement.”

The Morelos-3 launch was accelerated to an earlier position on the Atlas launch manifest.  The acceleration was accommodated by an agreement with the U.S. Air Force. The agreement allowed the MEXSAT customer to launch atop an Atlas V rocket utilizing a launch slot that was previously manifested for a Global Positioning System satellite. This change demonstrates ULA’s ability to meet the needs of commercial customers and the Air Force’s willingness to accommodate real-time needs of other satellite programs.

ULA's next launch is an Atlas V rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), scheduled for Oct. 8 from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation’s most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered 100 satellites to orbit that provide critical capabilities for troops in the field, aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, enable personal device-based GPS navigation and unlock the mysteries of our solar system.

For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunch and instagram.com/ulalaunch.

The Morelos-3 mission for Mexico is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V on Friday, Oct. 2, from Cape Canaveral – marking a ULA milestone of 100 consecutive, successful missions in less than nine years. The launch window is 6:08-6:28 a.m. EDT. You can watch the launch live and get updates at www.ulalaunch.com.
After the successful launch, please join the celebration by asking your teammates and constituents to hold up the attached “100” sign and share your photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Please tag us – @ulalaunch – and use the hashtag #ULA100. ULA100
As a valued community partner, thank you for joining us in the celebration of our 100th launch and for being a part of the United Launch Alliance team – America’s Ride to Space!