CMR 2026 Spring Workshop
Spring Workshops
Every year the CMR hosts a spring workshop at various locations in Minnesota. We have cracker-barrels, speakers and much more! Attend one every year and you will learn, network, and meet new resort/campground collegues!
2026 CMR Spring Workshop
Saturday, March 28th, 2026
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Pine Cone Lodge, Park Rapids, MN
Questions? Contact Jen | cmreducation@minnesota-resorts.com
Past Spring Workshops
2024 Spring Workshop Agenda
Our first Zoom event was the 2020 Spring Workshop.
It was free to all resorts in the state of MN.
We wanted to reach out to help us all navigate new cabin cleaning and check-in protocols for COVID-19. We needed to discuss what the latest MN statute meant for us in the hospitality industry. At the time of this Workshop, it was unclear whether we'd be allowed to open that season. The state-wide lockdown was scary. Would guests be coming at all? What new regulations should we follow if they did?
We asked an investor expert, bank president, and corporate attorney to help us walk through DEED and other available Economic Recovery loans and grants. We chatted with each other through various scenarios of new disinfection techniques. We shared information amongst ourselves, and it felt wonderful not to feel alone in this.
56 attendees
2018 CMR Spring Workshop Brochure PDF
54 total attendees
2016 Highlights - Last week’s CMR Spring Workshop had about 45 of us attending with lots of lively exchanges of wisdom (as always) and interesting presenters. For example, we learned about trees, forestry plans and options we could utilize to save on property taxes. The pest control guys freaked us out a little, but we learned and shared techniques to avoid bed bugs (I was shocked to learn there actually were resorts that these professionals had been contacted to eliminate bed bugs as I erroneously thought it was a city issue), reduce spiders and mosquitoes, etc. The marketing guy helped stimulate our brains to think outside the box, and the resorters panel on handling guest issues was hilarious. The best stuff in many of our opinions, are the crackerbarrels, though, where we just talk to each other about how we handle all kinds of things.
Legislatively, our group is working on a plan to tweak the Post Labor Day School Start law so that the twin city schools, in particular, would no longer be able to waive it each year because of ‘construction’ projects. (They are putting some finite percentages on construction project estimates and tweaking some of the other language.) I believe when our Legislative Committee reported on their progress from “Day on the Hill” last month, we weren’t able to get much traction on it yet this session (as apparently there isn’t a lot of traction on ANYTHING down there right now) but the awareness is growing now and it seems as if we have some very supportive legislators. Things look good to attempt to get that through next session, yeah!
We, on the CMR Membership Committee, are reaching out to all new or renewing members and checking in to see how you are doing and how we can better support you at your resort. Do you have certain aspects of the CMR that you appreciate more than others? Do you have suggestions for us or resort issues of which you’d like us to be apprised?
Are you on the group Chatline, and if not, would you like support getting on that? (Highly recommended!) If you haven’t ‘claimed’ your free listing on our website (www.minnesota-resorts.com) with a fresh photo of your resort and updated information, it’s super easy, but if you need a little nudge (as I often do), or reminded what your password is, we are happy to help walk you through it. The more new content on the website, the higher the website will rank when people go to search for resorts in Minnesota.
Please do not be shy in contacting any of us on the board, or your fellow CMR members – many of us relish the opportunity to talk to other resorters anytime.
Have a successful season and looking forward to connecting with you!
Kim Bowen
CMR Membership Committee