The 2013 Spring workshop was held on Tuesday May 7^th at Xcel Energy center. This years’ workshop marked the largest attendance on recent years with over 250 people attending.

Our host including the fine staff at Xcel Energy Center treated us to a great day for MIAMA. We got to see firsthand just what Game Day preparations mean for an NHL play-off game as the Wild were gearing up for game 4 of their playoff series against the Blackhawks. Although much of the exciting action occurs at game time, we were able to get a feel for what goes into a big game at Xcel. Thanks to Travis Larson and many others at Xcel for allowing us to tour and see the amenities first hand.

There are many to thank for our great day at Xcel including our Co-Chairs Shane Ratcliff and  Bob Haala. We would also like to thank member sponsors All-American Arena Products, Al’s Coffee, Becker Arena Products, ESI, Gartner Refrigeration, Harris Companies and Zamboni for their contributions.

Our day kicked off with the Spring Business meeting. The Business meeting was action packed and included a number of exciting topics including the annual James Padgent award and voting for two Bi-Law changes.

The 2013 winner of the James Padgent award is St. Louis Park Rec Center.  Jason Esiold accepted the award on behalf of their fine facility. There will be an in depth feature story on the Rec Center coming out shortly.

The members voted to approve the following Bi-Law changes. The First change was to formulate an Alumni group with a Director to serve as a non-voting Board member. The second Bi-law change approved restructures our Board of Directors as such to have 9 voting positions. There will be 8 Board member positions voted on by the membership along with 1 vendor member. Of the 9 voting positions there will 4 metro and 4 outstate members, along with a vendor member. There will also be 5 non-voting positions including a secretary, Website Editor, Newsletter Editor, MN Hockey Rep and Alumni Director.

Following the business meeting there were three informational sessions for the group. The first was Talking Trash led by Patrick Reaves working with Xcel Energy center on the daunting tasks of sustainability while generating large amounts of waste through business. Xcel has been a model group using savings from REDUCTION, RECYCLING and PURCHASE. They were able to reduce 2.5M pounds of trash down to 900,000 lbs. per year. All while upping recycling efforts from 15% to 56% over 3 years.

Jora Bartz led the group with some real simple words of advice to gain FREE publicity for our facilities. She spoke of using social media including Facebook and twitter to gain and retain business. The process is simple, be helpful to the media, be informative and send photos often to keep your facility in front of them. Even some minor things may be of interest.

The last session was of vital importance for our group- Air Quality. It was announced at the meeting that the revisions to Air Quality were now passed into law. Our hands-on training was guided by MIAMA Committee Co-Chairs Shayne Ratcliff and Paul Ostoff along with MN Dept. of Health Indoor Air Quality staff John Olson and Daniel Tranter. We were even covered by local news stations who when finished didn’t have much to report other than it was pretty clear that MIAMA arenas are happy to see the rule completed and that they can now plan to implement the rule into practice.

The changes were walked through and most of the procedures will be outlined for staff and Responsible Person Guidelines.  The new legislation calls for less than 20ppm for Carbon Monoxide and .3ppm Nitrogen Dioxide. The final adopted permanent rules have been sent to all members. A copy of Shayne and Paul’s presentation will be made available on the MIAMA.org web site.

After a great morning in the class room we were treated to a nice lunch in the Club Level area and off to the Vendor Trade Show to look at new products and services for all. This was a very good time to network and talk with vendors as we are into budget season and planning for 2013-14. The 38 vendors did a nice job in answering questions and providing information.

Take a look at the photo page from the workshop.

It was an XCEL- lent day! 

I would like to thank the MIAMA membership for passing the MIAMA Alumni By Law to form an Alumni group made up of retirees and those no longer in the business. It is now time to search out those eligible to be members of this program.

If you have contact with or have contact information for any retirees and soon to be retirees please have them contact; Walt Bruley @ 218-340-0532 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.        We will have them go through the simple sign up process and be approved. We will then form Alumni member teams who will reach out to MIAMA member rinks and non-member as well, working as an educational and recruiting tool.

With the approved restructuring By Law change going away from the District policy of MIAMA, I see the Alumni group as a way to reach our member rinks that may not benefit from multimedia information provided by MIAMA.

The Alumni By Law voted on by the membership was not unanimous and I take that as a challenge to have this group work hard to impress those who may question this effort. If anyone has a question or concern please contact Walt directly, I will be glad to talk with you.

Please help me get in touch with any retiree and soon to be retiree and we can get started.

Thanks; Walt Bruley

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Maybe spring has finally arrived, temperatures are nearing normal and maybe we are done with the snow.

With that it’s time for the annual MIAMA Spring Workshop which will be held Tuesday May 7th at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Spring Workshop is loaded with interesting topics and a chance to look over the latest from our Vendor members too.

It’s a great time to reward your staff and treat them to a day of fun and networking as well as the knowledge from the topics.

We have 2 great sessions this year that we feel very important to the operation of every arena.

The Media and Public Relations session will be presented by members of the Xcel Energy Center Media Relations staff. This session will cover a wide variety of topics dealing with public, customer and media. With so many options in social media these days' news travels fast and we need to be aware of the impact it can have the arena's reputation.

The second large topic is an Indoor Air Quality Rules session will be presented by John Olson from the MN. Department of Health. Topics will include overview of the new rule, explanation of requirements and a timeline for implementation.

We hope to see you at the Xcel!

MIAMA Southwest Region

Board Member

Bob Haala    

Over 40 members attended a retirement lunch for Mike Brooks and Jim "Sliv" McGree Tuesday April 23rd at New World Pizza in Inver Grove Hts. it was a gathering of young and old and very good to see some familiar faces from MIAMA's recent past too!

For Sliv it’s been a long enjoyable run starting back in the early 70's working for the City Parks Department & settling in at the Hastings Civic Arena since 1982.  Sliv will stay busy working with some friends helping on their farms, playing some golf and hockey and enjoying his favorite team the Raiders! Hastings Raiders that is.  Sliv recalled when talking with Andy Baltgalvis (Bloomington) about when they used to play hockey together way back in 1968 at Bramear Arena!

Mike Brooks had a big smile on his face when asked what’s next as he retired from the Hudson Arena this spring.  Gardening first when the weather allows and working just enough to stay busy without stressing.  He plans to travel to Hawaii and the Carolinas’ to see family and grandkids over the cold winter months in coming years.  Mike started with the City of Burnsville in the 60's working warming houses and in 1972 came inside at the arena.

It was really good to see Craig Panning (formerly of St Louis Park) at the lunch. Craig is doing well after retiring last spring. He's been spending some time working on projects at the cabin and helping friends who do this very same type of work.  The cabin work provides enough enjoyment and keeps him enjoying life.

Mike Mattson was also there and looking young as ever. He's enjoying is time keeping busy with odds and ends.  We also were pleased to see Tom Moriarty and Rick Rakness at the lunch as they too had those "happy" retirement faces going!

We encourage all members whether young or old to attend these activities and keep in touch.  For those who are retiring in the near future let us know so we can do another lunch soon!  A special thanks to Mark Vaughn (Eagan) for arranging the event for Mike and Sliv.

For a look the lunch tab over to the photo section!