The Iowa Business Council is launching a series of “Vision to Vitality” forums to collect thoughts from rural and urban residents on community needs.

Each forum will feature a leader or two. The first, beginning at 4 p.m. July 17 at Des Moines Area Community College’s Boone Campus, will feature IBC Executive Director Georgia Van Gundy and Fareway Stores Inc. CEO Reynolds Cramer and others. They will discuss what they see as economic and workforce development issues among some of the state’s largest employers while also hearing comments from the audience.

“Our viewpoint is we have 23 members, but if our goal is to create policies for Iowa, it’s important we have the opinions of others,” Van Gundy said in an interview. IBC generally is made up of top leaders at companies that employ more than 1,000, but the group wants to weigh the needs of companies of all sizes in rural and urban markets, she added.

“We want a robust economy for everybody,” Van Gundy said. “Our mission is to identify policies that will elevate economic vitality for Iowa and Iowans. If we want to do that, we need to get the opinion of other people, to hear the issues that they are having in workforce and economic growth. What are some of the barriers? What are some of the best practices?”

In an interview, Cramer said the effort ties in with Gov. Kim Reynolds’ plan to create a state web portal where companies, schools and others can share information on projects designed to train students for a variety of fields, and connect them with companies needing workers. 

“We work hard at understanding all the needs in the state and development policies that help growth. We don’t have to have an image that we are just in the urban communities,” Cramer said. “We want to be in the rural community to get an idea of what the local challenges are. We want our whole state to grow.

“Our goal is to have schools, biz and communities all working together,” he added. “If something is working well, why not take it to Cedar Rapids or Davenport?”

Cramer expects an initial round of six or eight meetings, with more later. 

Then IBC will work to synthesize the information to help everybody. Already, Fareway is working with Boone’s Edge program to give students in junior and senior high school information and experience in meat-cutting and other fields. With 11,000 employees in five states and a growing chain of stores, Fareway needs help.

“We could hire three refrigeration [technicians] right now,” Cramer said. 

He hopes the programs give Fareway a chance to train and eventually hire workers, but if the students decide to work elsewhere, he hopes it’s in Iowa. 

Future forums (more will be added): 
Sept. 11: Muscatine, hosted by HNI Corp. and Kent Corp. 
Oct. 9: Le Mars, hosted by Wells Enterprises Inc.

More details will be posted here when available.