Consumer Confidence: All Signs Point to Improving Economy

"Confidence among local consumers has increased, reported Tim Graeff, director of the MTSU Office of Consumer Research, in the most recent Middle Tennessee Consumer Confidence Index." [Read more in Murfreesboro Post.]

Gift Basket Silent Auction to Benefit Journey Home

SIFE chapter members (Students in Free Enterprise) and MTSU’s Senior Seminar students invite the Jones College of Business faculty and staff to a silent auction Thursday, March 15, from 4 to 6 p.m. and Friday, March 16, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the SunTrust Room, BAS N127. Those wishing to participate can show up any time during those hours to place bids.

Items to be auctioned include 25 baskets based on themes and filled with an assortment of goodies that would make great gifts. All proceeds will benefit the Journey Home, a locally owned and operated non-profit organization that operates “2 Acres of Hope,” a garden that provides fresh produce during the warmer months to less fortunate and at-risk individuals in the Murfreesboro community.

News from Management and Marketing

Regional Competition
Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) members are preparing for a SIFE Regional Competition in Atlanta on April 2. They will be competing on two projects: Culture Fest and 2 Acres of Hope.

Career Networking Fair
The MTSU Department of Management and Marketing is hosting a career fair called  “BEST” (Business Exchange for Student Talent) on Wednesday, March 28, in the Tom Jackson building. Local employers have been invited to network with MTSU students interested in pursuing careers and internships in marketing and management. Department faculty will host a lunch with the employers at noon, and the career fair will run from 1 to 4 p.m.

Wellness Festival at Local Elementary Schools
Jean Wilson's Managerial Decision Making EXL class and SIFE team members will host a Family Wellness Festival for Hobgood Elementary and Bradley Academy students and their families on Friday, April 13,  from 4 to 6 p.m. at Hobgood Elementary. The EXL/SIFE students will partner with local health care professionals, food vendors, and MTSU athletic teams to create a festival where the elementary students can learn about proper nutrition and exercise through hands-on activities and booths. The class wrote a grant and was awarded $2000 from the MTSU Public Service Grant Committee to help implement the plans.

Community Garden
During Earth day weekend, Saturday, April 21, beginning at 8 a.m., two of Jean Wilson's Senior Seminar EXL classes and SIFE team members will work on the Journey Home Community Garden, "2 Acres of Hope," at 2811 Barfield Road in Murfreesboro. They will build a storage shed, install shelving in the greenhouse they built last year, plant a few rows in the garden, and construct a water system that will pump water from the Stones River as the main water source for the garden. The team was selected as a recipient of a $2000 grant from Lowe's. About 55 MTSU students will be working alongside local Lowe's employees.

Mock Interviews
Jean Wilson's Senior Seminar students will practice their interviewing skills in front of a panel of local employers at the Foundation House on April 27, April 30, and May 1.

Economics and the Environment

http://tinyurl.com/7p2xf2f   

MTSU assistant economics professor Michael Hammock discusses how incentives and greed affect the environment, as depicted in the movie "The Lorax." [Tennessean, March 1, 2012]

March Economics Speakers

The Department of Economics and Finance is hosting two guest speakers in March for presentations to undergraduate audiences.

• First up on March 14 is Frank Stephenson of Berry College, who writes on a variety of public choice and sports economics topics. Professor Stephenson will be giving a talk in the Davis Science Building, room 100, on the MTSU campus at 7 p.m. The lecture is titled "Want a Job? Get a License" and will be about occupational licensing, with some particular discussion of the 150-hour rule in accounting.
• On March 28, the MTSU Department of Economics and Finance will host economist David Figlio from Northwestern University. Figlio's recent work focuses on education reform, particularly vouchers, charter schools, and teacher assessment. He will be giving a talk in the Wiser-Patten Science Building, room 102, on the MTSU campus at 7 p.m. titled "The Pitfalls and Promise of Market-Based Education Reforms." 

Students are encouraged to attend. For more information, contact Michael Hammock (michael.hammock@mtsu.edu), Department of Economics and Finance.

Consumer Marketers Learn about Sports Fans through Social Media

Dr. Don Roy (Department of Management and Marketing) is quoted in the Newark Star-Ledger (Jan. 29, 2012) on how social media can be used to gather insights on characteristics of sports fans:

http://www.nj.com/super-bowl/index.ssf/2012/01/giants_pats_fans_in_marketers_crosshairs.html

To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion

The economy has changed the job market. How can one prepare for a career? "Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems," proposes Oliver Segovia in a Harvard Business Review blog post. He challenges today's students, recent graduates, and job hunters to consider "what you can do and how you can be a valuable contributor." There are many big problems from which to choose, including "climate change, sustainability, poverty, education, health care, technology, urbanization in emerging markets," to name a few. What problem would you like to help solve? How can you go about choosing one? Segovia suggests:

• Stay in touch with current issues. "Get out of the office [or classroom] and volunteer."
• "Look into problems that affect you in a very personal way." 
• "Connect with people working on big problems." 
• "Take time off and travel," not just to typical tourist sites.

[ Read more at Harvard Business Review. ]

Tatum’s Work in ‘100 Best’ Business Books

A 2007 book by Doug Tatum, holder of the Wright Chair of Entrepreneurship at MTSU, “No Man’s Land: What to Do When Your Company is Too Big to Be Small but Too Small to Be Big,” is included in the recently updated edition of “The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.” (article)

- Murfreesboro Post (Jan. 12, 2010)

Corrected Link: DePrince Report to State Funding Board

Correction:
The State of the Economy and Prospects for Tax Revenue in Tennessee: Report by Dr. Albert DePrince to Tennessee State Funding Board Dec. 9, 2011

Accounting CPE Day Seminar

The 3rd annual Department of Accounting CPE Day at Middle Tennessee State University will be held Thursday, Dec. 8, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., in the Business and Aerospace Building, State Farm Lecture Hall.

Topics during the seminar include presentations on accounting and financial reporting, auditing, taxation, and ethics. Participants can earn up to 8 hours of CPE credit.

Brochure

Agenda

Online Registration

Directions

The sessions include:
● How "Legal Thinking" Can Aid the Auditor, Sandy Benson, MTSU;
●Tennessee - Specific Ethics, Mark Crocker, Executive Director of the Tennessee Board of Accountancy;
●FASB Update, Paula Thomas, MTSU;
●Audit Update, Bill Mooningham, MTSU;
●Issues in Taxation, Tim Koski, MTSU;
●General Ethics, Stan Clark, MTSU;
● Leveraging Technology in the Modern Accounting Firm, Eric Clements, Randall Matlock and Associates;
●International Financial Reporting Standards, Jeannie Harrington, MTSU;
●GASB Update, G. Robert Smith Jr. (Smitty), MTSU Department of Accounting Chair

Culture Fest 2011

MTSU Culture Fest 2011 is November 10, 6-9 p.m. in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building.

The event, planned by Jean Wilson's Senior Seminar Class (Management and Marketing), promotes cultural awareness and acceptance.

Tennessee's Business Census 2010 Theme Issue

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~berc/tnbiz/census/contents.html  

Tennessee 2010 Census Report
by Randy Gustafson, Director, Tennessee State Data Center

• 100 Years of Population Change
• County Population Growth (featuring interactive map with pop-up county details)
• Population Density
• Population Density by Race, 2000-2010 (In the next several weeks, pop-up county race details will be added.)
• Tennesseans under 18 by Race
• Population Growth among Children
• Tennesseans 65 and Over, 2000-2010 (including separate detailed mapson growth, county %, male, female, non-White over-65 population)
• Married-Couple Households, 2000-2010 (tract and county maps)
• Single-Person Households, 2000-2010

Analyses

• Tennessee Population Growth 2000-2010 by H. Ronald Moser, Professor, Cumberland University, and Horace E. Johns, Professor, MTSU
• Patterns in Tennessee's Black Population 2000-2010 by H. Ronald Moser

Additional Resources

• Tennnessee's Recent Immigration Patterns (Global Commerce Newsletter)
• Tennessee Population Projections, 2015-2040 [.xls] (Tennessee State Data Center )
• Population Shifts and Redistricting toward Ideal (News Sentinel, June 20, 2011)
• Searchable Database: State & Area Population Tables (BERC)
• Data Visualization Tools (Tennessee State Data Center)

Tennessee Census 2010 Report

Tennessee's Business Census 2010 Report booklet from MTSU's Economic Outlook Conference:

Flash page-flip version:

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~berc/tnbiz/census/censusflip.html

pdf version:

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~berc/tnbiz/census/census.pdf

Local Economic Outlook

Economic outlook for Tennessee and the Nashville MSA by Business and Economic Research Center director David Penn [pdf]: http://frank.mtsu.edu/~berc/pdfs/eoc2011.pdf

Tennessee: Recent Immigration Patterns

http://www.mtsu.edu/~berc/globalcommerce.html 

Dr. Steven Livingston of the Business and Economic Research Center reports in Global Commerce: "While we have devoted great attention to the expanding flow of trade and investment into this state, perhaps it's time to take a look at the flow of people as well...." [ more ]

Consumers Losing Confidence in Economy

“Any hopes for improvement in consumer confidence during the summer months can be forgotten,” Tim Graefff, director of MTSU’s Office of Consumer Research, reported in the Middle Tennessee Consumer Confidence Index released last week.

[ Read more at Murfreesboro Post ]

Annual MTSU Economic Outlook Conference

Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, 8:15 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Embassy Suites, 1200 Conference Center Blvd., Murfreesboro [ map ]

Sponsors:
Jennings A. Jones Chair of Excellence in Free Enterprise
MTSU Business and Economic Research Center
Weatherford Chair of Finance

8:15	Registration
9:00	Mark Emkes, Tennessee Commissioner of Finance and Administration
10:30	Dr. David Penn, BERC Director, Midstate/Regional Economic Update
11:30	Luncheon
12:00	Dr. Donald Ratajczak, Regents Professor of Economics Emeritus, Georgia State University, Economic Forecast

Cost: $50 per registrant to cover facilities, refreshments, and registration. Refunds are not permitted but substitution of participants is welcomed.

Register Online [  form ]

MTSU Prof Honored with Award

Jackie Gilbert, professor in MTSU's Department of Management and Marketing, is sharing an award with fellow members of an international online-learning organization for their work in contributing high-quality web-based, interactive teaching and learning materials. [Daily News Journal article]

Microenterprise Loans Can Have Big Impact

Microenterprise Loan Fund: Small business lending is available from federal grant money through the City of Murfreesboro working with Community Development Department and Tennessee Small Business Development Center. 

"The Small Business Development Center ... provides free consultation on starting businesses to any resident.... Gene Osekowsky, a 15-year counselor at the Small Business Development Center that leases an office at the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, ... examines marketing and sales potential, record keeping and what kind of money is needed to get the business started.... Part of his service will include following up with those getting loans to make sure they're carrying out their business plan or if they need assistance in revising the plan." 

[Daily News Journal article]

Annual Report 2010-2011

Jones College Annual Report 2010-2011