Ideas

After more than five years as president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee and 30 years with the organization, Robert Yamachika will retire at the end of 2013, the organization announced Monday.

The Northwestern Mutual Foundation has announced the recipients of its “Days of Sharing” campaign grant funds. The campaign awards $100,000 to 25 area nonprofit organizations that have been nominated by Northwestern Mutual employees. Winning organizations receive the funds in nominating employees’ names.

The Marcus Corporation, headquartered in Milwaukee, has donated $583,941 to the United Way of Greater Milwaukee in honor of Steve Marcus’ 50th anniversary with the company and the company’s 50-year mark of owning The Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

Potawatomi Bingo Casino will reveal its 2012 “Miracle on Canal Street” fundraising total today along with 20 randomly selected nonprofit organizations that will receive a portion of the funds.

Repairers of the Breach, a daytime shelter and resource center for homeless residents of Milwaukee, is reaching out to the community with a need for donations to support the homeless individuals it serves. Seasonal items needed in time for winter include:

In a new report examining the functioning of Milwaukee’s workforce development system, the Public Policy Forum cites a higher level of coordination and cohesion among key workforce development players since the establishment of the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board (MAWIB) in 2007, but suggests a need for greater coordination between the region’s economic development priorities and the needs of its unemployed.

Daniel Nelson, Jr., president of Nelson Schmidt Inc. of Milwaukee and Madison, has been elected president of the board of directors of MAGNET, the Marketing & Advertising Global Network of leading independent advertising agencies.

The new edition of BizTimes Milwaukee magazine features an inaugural salute to the Best in Business.

Anyone who is involved in manufacturing at any level in Wisconsin must have heard of these topics of discussion recently: skills gap; workforce development; skilled trades; or lastly, “Man, I can’t find any good craftsman.”