Wisconsin Union: 2023 Summer Paddling Experiences Have Begun at Lakeside Outdoor UW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2023

Contact Information:
Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-8862

READ RELEASE ONLINE: union.wisc.edu/about/news/outdooruw-2023

2023 SUMMER PADDLING EXPERIENCES HAVE BEGUN AT LAKESIDE OUTDOOR UW

MADISON – The Outdoor UW team has launched its summertime experiences in downtown Madison, including new services and events.

The Wisconsin Union’s outlet to the outdoors, Outdoor UW, has begun offering its traditional summer paddling rentals, including single and tandem kayaks, canoes, one-person and eight-person stand-up paddleboards; event traditions, such as Family Nights on Lake Mendota and yoga classes in partnership with University Recreation and Wellbeing; and storage of privately owned kayaks and canoes. 

New to Outdoor UW’s offerings are hiking trips that end with beverages at the outdoor entertainment and dining destination the Memorial Union Terrace; paddling lessons; paddling excursions to Picnic Point, a peninsula along Lake Mendota’s shore; custom outdoor learning opportunities; rentals of a 6-foot by 9-foot floating swim pad; and rentals of new sleeping bags that aim to keep people warm when temperatures drop down as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Patrons can register for scheduled events and reserve outdoor recreation equipment online, by phone at (608) 262-1630, or by email. Patrons can also call or email the Outdoor UW team to discuss scheduling a private outdoor recreation event or creating custom private outdoor experiences for their family, friends or team.

The team also expanded its Lake Mendota-facing live music event series, called Lakefront Live, which it presents in collaboration with the student-led Wisconsin Union Directorate Music Committee.

The Outdoor UW team offers year-round camping, hiking and climbing equipment rentals as well as outdoor learning and exploration opportunities. Its wintertime services include snowshoes and ice skates rentals as well as seasonal events.

“Whether someone is an avid outdoors person or is just starting to dip their toes into outdoor recreation experiences, we are ready to be their outlet to the outdoors,” Outdoor UW Director Dave Elsmo said.

The Wisconsin Union has a decades-long tradition of providing outdoor recreation experiences to community members and visitors, such as through six outdoor recreation clubs that make up an organization called the Wisconsin Hoofers, including the Hoofer Sailing Club, which provides access to sailing lessons on Lake Mendota. Headquartered at Outdoor UW and advised by the Outdoor UW team, all 18 and over can join the Wisconsin Hoofers and become part of a community of outdoor enthusiasts of every experience level.

Those who would like to learn more about how to explore the outdoors through Outdoor UW can visit union.wisc.edu/outdooruw.

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About Outdoor UW

Outdoor UW is the Wisconsin Union’s outlet to the outdoors, offering everything from outdoor recreation equipment rentals to custom group outdoors experiences. The Outdoor UW team also advises six outdoors clubs, which make up the Wisconsin Hoofers, and Hoofer Council, the governing body of the Hoofers. Outdoor UW is part of the Wisconsin Union, which is the UW–Madison Division of Social Education. Learn more about Outdoor UW: union.wisc.edu/outdooruw.

Wisconsin Union: A Rainbow of Terrace Chairs Will Makes a Limited-Time Appearance at Memorial Union on June 21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2023

Contact Information:
Shauna Breneman, Communications Director
Email: sbreneman@wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 262-8862

READ RELEASE ONLINE: union.wisc.edu/about/news/pride-chairs-2023

A RAINBOW OF TERRACE CHAIRS WILL MAKE A LIMITED-TIME APPEARANCE AT MEMORIAL UNION ON JUNE 21

MADISON – The Wisconsin Union team will bring out a few Terrace chairs in colors not usually seen at Memorial Union, such as blue and purple, to join with yellow, orange and green Terrace chairs near the front steps of Memorial Union on June 21 from 2-5 p.m. in recognition of Pride Month.

The team invites patrons to take photos with the chairs. The rainbow of chairs previously made appearances at the outdoor dining and entertainment destination the Memorial Union Terrace in 2019 and 2022.

The Wisconsin Union team is further celebrating Pride Month by flying a Pride flag at its buildings Union South and Memorial Union throughout June, except June 16-18 during which a Juneteenth flag will be at both buildings. The Wisconsin Union team is also offering free sunburst image Pride buttons at Union South and Memorial Union, while supplies last.

The sunburst design on the more than 2,000 Terrace chairs, including those presented as part of Pride Month and those at the Memorial Union Terrace, is a trademarked image with early versions dating back to the 1930s. The sunburst has become a well-known image that is synonymous with Madison summers.

The Wisconsin Union marketing team has previously created multiple Pride Month computer and phone wallpapers, which can be downloaded for free here.

Recent 2023 Pride Month events included the Wisconsin Union Directorate Film Committee’s two free Lakeside Cinema film showings: “Booksmart” on June 5 and “But I’m a Cheerleader” on June 12.

Patrons can visit the Union’s website to learn more about the Pride Terrace chairs at the Terrace.

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About the Wisconsin Union

The non-profit Wisconsin Union strives to enhance and support student leadership and community engagement, including through recreational, cultural, educational and social opportunities and by providing world-class support services, such as those offered through its events management office. The Wisconsin Union includes the Center for Leadership and Involvement, the Wisconsin Singers, StudentPrint, UW–Madison Fraternity and Sorority Life, the Wisconsin Homecoming Committee, the University Club, UW Conference Centers, the Senior Class Office, and the Fluno Center. Learn more: union.wisc.edu.

Friends of MSCR Golf Outing

June 14, 2023

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nicole Graper at ngraper@madison.k12.wi.us or 608-204-3017, or Mary Roth at mcrowley@madison.k12.wi.us or 608-204-3036

Friends of MSCR Golf Outing
Enjoy a fun day of golf and games while supporting a good cause!

Friends of MSCR is holding the 19^th annual Fore Friends Golf Outing on Wednesday, July 19, at the Oaks Golf Course, 4740 Pierceville Rd, Cottage Grove. Sponsors are needed for this valuable event, please go to birdease.com/mscr to get involved.

Enjoy 18 holes in this fun golf event – no need to be a pro. Network with community and business leaders and experience The Oaks Golf Course! Check in begins at 9:30 am and with lunch. A dinner, auction and awards program follow golf at 4:15 pm. Registration includes lunch, greens fees, golf cart, dinner and a golfer gift.  

Since 2003, Friends of MSCR has gifted more than $530,000 to MSCR. These funds support afterschool clubs, new equipment, new program initiatives, fee assistance and professional development.

The Friends of Madison School & Community Recreation (MSCR) is a non-profit organization that values MSCR as a vital community resource. Since 1926, MSCR has been Madison’s community based public recreation department. Friends of MSCR support public recreation as an approach to enrich the lives of individuals and the community.

Go to mscr.org or call 608-204-3045 for information on golfing or sponsoring the event. Learn more at mscr.org/get-involved/friends-of-mscr/fore-friends-golf-outing

MSCR is Madison’s public recreation department offering a wide range of recreation programs for all ages.

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The American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact Entrepreneurs Fellowship Application

The American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact Fellowship for female entrepreneurs of color.

The Fellowship runs from July 10, 2023 through June 30, 2024.

This fellowship is dedicated to supporting early and emerging companies led by remarkable women of color who are preparing for significant growth and impact. Whether their ventures lie in the realm of art, technology, or any industry vertical, this fellowship provides resources, mentorship and a supportive community to help these female entrepreneurs unlock their full potential and thrive in their respective fields. We encourage women who have been justice impacted and veterans to apply.

Please read StartingBlock Code of Conduct. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ufU0cfYzsE_ehtfhorGTDKefDp_efUV1/view?usp=share_link

In order to learn more about you and your company, we’d like you to complete the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact Entrepreneurs Fellowship Application. Once we receive your application, we will be in touch to discuss next steps.

If you have questions, contact Leslie Weissburg at leslie@startingblockmadison.org.

Apply here

SuiteDynamics: Taking Business Ethics to a New Level

Not long ago, Jake Kleiner noticed a lack of honesty in the ERP world. So, he formed a company to fix it.

In 2016, SuiteDynamics founder Jake Kleiner felt aggravated. He was working with too many ERP implementation partners who couldn’t deliver quality work on time.

But one man’s failure is another man’s opportunity. So, in 2021, Jake established SuiteDynamics to provide ERP consulting based on real-world experience with business and financial systems. And he felt determined to deploy those ERPs with integrity and consideration for a company’s budget and timeline.

Essentially, Jake established a business to save others from his frustration.

“I’d love to be the first implementation partner that companies engage with, so they never have my experience,” he explains.

Identifying a Lack of Honesty in the ERP World

Before exploring ERPs, Jake had a background in management systems development, financial management, and business. He had worked as an analyst at RedPrairie Software and the Board of Trade in Chicago. And from 2016 to 2021, he served as CEO of a quilting accessory company called Paper Pieces.

While operating Paper Pieces, Jake struggled with disparate data silos, broken and unstable program integrations, and systems that simply didn’t work together. Fed up, he contracted implementation partners to deploy an ERP and fix those problems. But sadly, he discovered that not every partner is created equal.

“The quality of their work was not good,” Jake says. “We had to do a lot of it ourselves. We had to rework a lot of the ERP just across the board.”

The implementation process became a mess. And the lack of genuine partnership Jake experienced with so-called “implementation partners” rubbed against his sense of morality.

So, he figured out ERP implementation on his own. Jake drew on his knowledge of computer systems to learn the modules and coding one day at a time. He used trial and error to establish a system that fit Paper Pieces’ needs. And he chose to learn NetSuite because it was the only ERP with a native e-commerce solution.

Meeting a Need for Integrity and Financial Experience

In 2019, Jake and his wife moved from Paducah, Kentucky—the small river city where Paper Pieces was headquartered—to his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. There, he established SuiteDynamics as a business that could help deploy NetSuite ERPs with the honesty he craved during his own implementation journey.

Jake also realized his financial experience at the Chicago Board of Trade and Paper Pieces gave SuiteDynamics an edge. Many implementation partners knew NetSuite inside and out but had little to no knowledge of accounting systems. That weakness caused chaos.

“At the end of the day, NetSuite’s, above all, an accounting and finance software,” Jake explains. “And I saw a lot of development teams or third parties bolting on a customization or an integration without understanding what that would cause as far as downstream impacts on the software.”

Jake, however, understood financial systems and how they should operate. Consequently, he had more to offer than much of his competition.

So, he earned NetSuite’s ERP Administrator, Suite Foundation, and SuiteCloud certifications and opened SuiteDynamics, a registered NetSuite implementation partner. By the summer of 2021, he had completed his first ERP implementation for Autocado, an auto products company. He helped the client automate financial processes, and the company’s satisfied COO dubbed SuiteDynamics “a crucial business partner.”

From that moment, SuiteDynamics began to grow. Fast.

Cuing Exponential Growth

Jake hired his first employee, developer Derek Kalvin, in the summer of 2021. But demand for SuiteDynamics’ implementation services and financial expertise grew. And by the winter of 2022, Jake employed roughly 20 people, including CFO Grace Martin. Her background also married computer programming with financial expertise and strengthened the company’s ability to implement working NetSuite solutions.

Yet, Grace and the other staff weren’t typical software company hires. They weren’t just tech experts; they were self-starters, life-long learners, and people with strong “Midwestern values.”

“Do what you say you’re going to do to the best of your ability,” Jake says, describing the values he wants his staff to uphold. “Deliver on time. Be honest. Deliver in a quality way. Say when something isn’t possible. Make something right when it’s wrong. It all sounds so simple, but if you work enough within the partner network, you’ll quickly find how many other companies don’t meet those expectations.”

As SuiteDynamics grew, it hired more employees who could offer clients real-world experience—particularly in the financial field. And those hires have now paid off.

“We are routinely saving implementations,” Jake says. “And that’s one thing we pride ourselves on—getting people to go live.”

Becoming More Than a NetSuite Solutions Provider

Now, SuiteDynamics has become a go-to company for NetSuite financial implementations. In fact, other implementation partners are contracting its services to ensure successful deployment for their clients’ financial ERP modules.

“We liken ourselves more to partners than consultants,” Jake says. “When we’re creating solutions, we’re really thinking about the long-term impacts versus an immediate or quick fix. And so, we’re really looking, I think, long-term at the most stable and quality solutions that are possible.”

And, of course, SuiteDynamics is also making its own long-term plans, which involve the development of new software applications to enhance NetSuite Cloud ERPs.

But for now, the company is focused on hiring more experts and helping more businesses succeed.