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MOUNTAIN MAGIC NC SHRM STATE CONFERENCE

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MINUTES – July 13, 2005

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Association held on at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Asheville.  Should you have any questions, comments or corrections, please contact Bridget Downey PHR.

Introductions

Carolyn Worthington, our chapter president, announced that we have increased our membership to 145.  To begin, she invited everyone to introduce themselves. 

The vendor of the month was Ambassador Service, a group that markets the Beyond This Day program, a way for employers to show that they care about their employees on a personal level.  This is a thoughtful alternative to sending flowers in times of bereavement. 

Chapter Business

After brief reports by the officers, a vote was taken to approve the by-laws.  The update to the by-laws was approved, and is available on our WNCHRA web site.

Members were encouraged to consider leadership positions for next year. 

Congratulations to Mike McCarthy and Lori Glass, who have earned SPHR certification.

Karen Ballard will host a networking session on Employee Recruitment and Retention next month before the regular meeting.

Katherine Unger gave an update on the discussion group.  She encourages everyone to sign up.  Members of the discussion group have the choice of receiving e-mail messages on postings, or visiting the discussion group at their convenience.

Open positions include two Finance positions with Ingles and two HR positions with Mission Hospitals.

Program

Frank Pomeroy introduced the speaker for July – Tom Tevic, Director of the Asheville Metro Business Research Center, a service of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.  The Economic Development Department that Mr. Tevic works with has its Annual Report published on the Chamber of Commerce web site.  Other helpful Business Resources can also be found on the site.  For our program, Mr. Tevic spoke on Changing Demographics in the Workplace. 

Mr. Tevic explained demographics as a measure of who we are, a measure which changes slowly.  The Asheville metropolitan area of 375,000 people includes Buncombe, Madison, Henderson, and Haywood counties.  The area is growing at less than 2% per year, a growth which is fueled by immigration rather than an increasing birth rate. 

For the last five years, 40% have moved to our area from other parts of North Carolina, 12% from Florida, 5% from South Carolina, 5% from Georgia, and 5% from other countries.

Income from wages is decreasing, while income from investments and retirement income is decreasing.  Because people are bringing their assets here and retiring, rather than coming here to make a living, changes in the stock market have a greater effect on this population.  This has contributed to the 82% increase in housing costs over the last 10 years.  Although other costs are rising no faster than the rest of the nation, the housing costs add to the perception of Asheville as an expensive place to live.

There is an increase in people commuting to Asheville to work.  They are commuting farther distances, some from as far away as Jackson County. 

An informal survey of visitors showed that 20% wanted to move here.  After 5 visits, it is nearly certain that they will move here. 

To plan our staffing needs we will need to keep the following in mind:

• There is only a mild population growth, a population which is aging.

• Baby boomers are a major part of the workforce.  We need to keep them as long as possible.

• Finding replacements will be a challenge once the baby-boomers have retired.

• Households are becoming smaller.  For many, child care issues will be replaced by elder care issues.

• Not much racial change is expected, but the Hispanic population is expected to grow.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

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