As you hopefully know, Greater Mankato Growth has worked tirelessly to identify resources, answer questions, facilitate discussions and advocate on behalf of our business community to allow all businesses to open safely. Today marks another milestone in that effort as many more businesses are allowed to open their doors. In furtherance of those efforts, Greater Mankato Growth is partnering with the Minnesota Ready coalition lead by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce to call on Governor Walz to take the final step and fully and safely reopen all businesses no later than June 19.

Minnesota is ready. We know you are ready. You have safely prepared your facility with best practices, safeguarding your employees and customers. For those of you who are already safely serving customers, adding capacity would help cover costs of staff, supplies, or make it more economically viable to bring all employees back to work. Greater Mankato Growth’s collective efforts with local chambers and trade associations across the state throughout the week will include a call to action of Minnesota’s governor and legislators to safely reopen all businesses no later than June 19. Date certainty allows for advance notice to help you plan for changes in business practices, transition employees back safely, and promote your new practices to your customers to build their confidence in your operations.

But in order to be effective, we need your help. We’re specifically looking for the following:

1. Send a video on how your business is ready to open fully and the impacts you’ve faced due to closure.
   • We’re looking for 15-30 seconds of simple phone-shot video. Be sure the video is horizontal.
   • We’ll then take your video and combine it with other videos from your colleagues from across the community. That joint video will be released tomorrow (6/11) at 3pm as part of a coordinated effort of chambers across the state. The more videos – the stronger the impact. Please take a moment to provide a quick video.
   • Some suggested talking points can be viewed here. Essentially we’re looking for you to call upon our state leaders to reopen all businesses and that you’re ready to serve customers safely. Please don’t hesitate to call me with any questions about the messaging: 507-381-4790
   • You can submit your video to Bridget Norland [email protected]
2. Submit a note/letter to Governor Walz and legislators.
   • You can use the MN Chamber’s online platform here: https://www.mnchamber.com/your-voice/get-involved/action-alerts
   • Or you can contact them directly.
     • Governor Walz: https://mn.gov/governor/contact/
     • Senator Frentz: [email protected]
     • Representative Brand: [email protected]
     • Representative Considine: [email protected]
3. Submit a letter to the editor to the Free Press.
4. Encourage your colleagues to join you in these efforts.