DMI has caved to the online professional networking craze!  YES, DMI is an official “Group” on the popular LinkedIn.com website and all DMI members are invited to join our group. 

We all know our professional relationships are the key to our professional success. Joining the DMI group will allow you to find and contact other DMI members on LinkedIn.Take your networking to the next level, not just twice a month at DMI programs.  Find contacts and meet people at your leisure through online professional network.

It is easy and FREE, simply click this link http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/93133/66E0CF4A58A6 to join.

Email the group manager, Melissa Meyer at mmeyer@downtownmadison.org if you have any troubles.

For those of you that are not familiar with online relationship building sites (such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo etc…) here are the basics:

You join by creating a password protected profile (LinkedIn requests a summary of your professional accomplishments.) As you find people you’d like to connect with, ask to add them to your network. You will then be able to see everyone in their network.  Soon others will be asking you to link up. Making online connections helps you expand your professional circle and it’s kinda fun.

C’mon get LinkedIn to the DMI Group, your competitors probably are!

DMI is not endorsing any candidate or position in this spring election, but we want to encourage our members and Madison and Dane County residents to participate and take part in their civic duties.

One of the biggest issues will be the determination of a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Incumbent Justice Louis Butler will face Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman in the culmination of a sticky race similar to last year’s Supreme Court Election. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has a handy Voter’s Guide available online if you need a crash-course on candidate qualifications.

Wisconsin residents will also be able to vote on a proposed ban of the governor’s “partial veto” power. The proposed change to the state constitution asks if there should be an amendment “to prohibit the governor, in exercising his or her partial veto authority, from creating a new sentence by combining parts of two or more sentences of the enrolled bill?”.

There are also 17 seats up for grabs on the Dane County Board of Supervisors. The Isthmus has answers from each candidate about what’s most important to them in their district.

If you live in Madison, click here to find your polling station. Dane County Polling locations are listed here. Stations are open from 7am to 8pm.

More information on candidates and issues can be found at the Wisconsin State Journal and Wispolitics.com. Now go out there and get your democratic process on!

100.1, friends!!!

We, the collective population of Madison, have triumphed through a winter of OVER ONE HUNDRED inches of snow. Bravo. Kudos. Mazel tov.

Hurray for the surviving what may truly be the longest and hardest winter on record. I think certificates of merit, or at least hardiness, are due to all residents of Madison and the surrounding area. Or t-shirts. Ones that say “Don’t mess with me, I’m from Madison”.

And now for spring, and the deluge of melting snowbanks, rain and flooding. Dare we hope for another new record!?

Some of you may know that the DMI offices got a bit of a facelift last spring. It made for an interesting experience, especially when half the staff were without office space for a few days. Thankfully we were able to catch most of the events on the office camera. Here’s a recap with “exact” quotes.

Hey John! The office is being remodeled and you’re getting a new desk!

We’ll have to put you in a temporary location for now. The board room is the only available space; sure hope it’s not too uncomfortable.

You’re going to need a lot more help while you’re in the bigger office. Luckily the GMCC and REDE (I mean, THRIVE) has troops to spare! Now you can do all the things that REALLY need to get done…

…like making sure those BID people don’t get loose…

…and substituting Mitch Freund with an evil twin.

Okay! The work is done and the office is ready. Time to leave the board room and go to your new desk!

And they all lived happily ever after in the new four-person cubicle.

The End.