Monday Memo - 1/6/25

ABI Board Meeting Next Week, Make Sure You’ve Registered for Legislative Reception
Thank you to those who responded to the invitation sent via email on Friday for the Board Meeting. The Board will meet next Wednesday, January 15 at the Iowa Events Center. You will receive the packet of information this Wednesday. If you have questions about whether you are registered, please reply to this message and let me know. Thank you to Nyemaster for sponsoring the 2025 board meetings. 

 As mentioned in last week’s memo, immediately following the board meeting, the annual Legislative Briefing and Reception will take place. We are ahead of registrations from the 2024 Legislative Reception and expect an excellent turnout for the event. Thank you to the following companies that are sponsoring the Legislative Briefing and Reception: Alliant Energy, Arconic, CIPCO, COX, Hormel, Tyson Foods, International Paper, Winnebago, American Petroleum Institute and Community State Bank. Many ABI Board Member companies are represented among the sponsor list, and we are grateful for your leadership. Click here to register.

Preview of the Week Ahead

January is one of the busiest months for ABI events. It’s also a time when the team is working to advance the work of our organization and members. Here are just a few highlights for the week ahead: the public policy team will be attending pre-session political events with pro-business legislators; the Executive Committee of the ABI Foundation Board of Directors will meet Wednesday; and the foundation team will meet with their colleagues from other states’ leadership programs just to name a few things! Although these events may not be on our ABI events calendar, please know that we are advocating every day for Iowa business and working to bring you more value for your membership investment.

JD Davis to Serve on Business Record Panel

ABI Vice President Public Policy JD Davis will represent ABI at an upcoming legislative event.  The forum, which will be hosted by the Business Record, will be held a week from tomorrow, on Tuesday, January 14.  JD and a panel of other association leaders will preview the 2025 session of the Iowa General Assembly and discuss issues important to business.  

Click hereto register for the Business Record Legislative Forecast Event.  Congratulations to JD for being selected for the panel and thank you for representing ABI members and Iowa business.

Annual Resource Guide Arrives

The annual printed ABI Business Resource Guide and membership directory should have arrived in your office mailbox prior to the holidays. In the past, we explored moving this guide to an online format. Each year, members share with us their appreciation for the printed copy and the one-stop-guide for all things ABI. The publication not only provides an alphabetical and county listing of members, but it also highlights the year ahead for events and programs and recognizes investors. Thank you to ABI member, Corridor Media Group, for their partnership and to ABI team members Kelsey O’Connor and Levi Lefebure for their leadership in providing the information included in the guide. If you have directory updates to share since the guide has printed, please send those to Levi Lefebure. 

Advocacy 101 on Friday

We are expecting excellent attendance for the inaugural installment of Advocacy 101. More than 45 people have registered for the meeting. The purpose of this event is to provide members insight on how best to advocate with legislators and statewide elected officials in advance of the ABI legislative briefing and reception. We have developed this event in response to member feedback. 

The virtual meeting, which will be held at 9:00 am on Friday is no cost to members and will feature the ABI Public Policy team of JD Davis and Brad Hartkopf. It’s not too late to register. Click here to do so. 

Subscribe to ABI Newsletters

Each week you receive the Monday Memo as a member or past chair of the ABI Board of Directors. In addition to this publication, ABI sends out a weekly newsletter, via Constant Contact, on Friday Mornings. The focus of the newsletter is legislative, and it includes member news and association events. This newsletter provides the most up-to-date information on legislative and association happenings. In addition to the weekly newsletter, we send out two monthly newsletters—an events update and a Member Monthly. Please be sure you have added ABI email addresses and Constant Contact to your safe senders list. If you aren’t receiving our weekly publications, please let Michelle Vollstedt or Olivia Jones know and we will make sure you get a copy.

Follow us on Social Media

ABI was one of the first associations to embrace social media as a means of communicating with members and increasing visibility. The @iowaabi Twitter (now X) handle was established in December 2008. The public policy team began live-tweeting key developments from the Capitol in 2009. Since that time, ABI has expanded our social footprint to include Facebook and LinkedIn. ABI and our Foundation’s key programs have individual social handles. Make sure you’re following ABI team members and our programs on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook—and even Instagram for our Foundation programs.

ABI Board Members Celebrate

Two ABI board members are celebrating birthdays this month.  Happy birthday to Mary Landhuis (Lisle Corporation, Clarinda) and Nate Weaton (Weaton Capital, Fairfield)!

I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy learning about ABI member milestones, whether that is company anniversaries, wedding anniversaries or birthdays. During the transition, I asked Mike how he knew everyone’s birthday. He shared with me his approach, and so I hope I manage to include board members’ milestones throughout this memo. Inevitably, I may not remember them all. If you have a company milestone, or a birthday or noteworthy celebration, please send them to me so I can share them with your fellow board members!

Jerry Hadenfeldt Passes

Former ABI Board Member, Jerry Hadenfeldt (Meredith Corporation, Des Moines) passed away on December 15, 2024. Jerry served as the Director of Government Relations for Meredith Corporation and was active in ABI. In addition to serving on the Board, he also served on several policy committees and was active in the Iowa Taxpayers Association. Services for Jerry were held on December 22 in Des Moines. You can read the full obituary here. Thank you to ABI member, John Gilliland (RBC Wealth Management, Des Moines) for sharing the news with me. Our thoughts are with Jerry’s wife Shirley and his family during this time.