• Mike (Quality Assurance Manager) and his dad have been working with his daughter Kadence and some of her 6th grade class, building three little libraries as part of a service project for their community. Employees at Red Wing Software are cleaning their book shelves at home to contribute to the libraries.
• Katrina (Administrative Assistant) enjoyed Mother’s Day with daughter Kyla and a ride in “The Beast” (the truck her husband restored and drag races).
• Ashley’s (Technical Support) daughter Paytin had her dance recital. She participated in jazz, ballet, hip hop, lyrical, and tap.
• Ryan (Graphic Designer), Cori (QA Analyst) and their children Liam and Maggie went hiking at Tettegouche State Park while vacationing on the north shore of Lake Superior with Cori's family.

• Jayme (Support Technician) visited her dad who lives in Zihuatanejo, Mexico near Ixtapa. While there they went fishing and caught a mahi mahi.
• Ashley (Support Technician) and her daughter Payton celebrated birthday/spring break at Disney World.
• Janet’s (Customer Service Representative) horse Cherry is waking up from her LONG WINTER NAP.
• Stephanie (Marketing Manager) and Roxie (Administrative Assistant) attended a performance of "Wicked" at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.

CenterPoint Payroll by Red Wing Software has earned 4.5 stars in the 2017 CPA Practice Advisor Review of Professional Payroll Systems. The prestigious yearly review rates professional payroll systems on a scale, with 5 being the highest rating. Read the entire review by clicking on this link!

Are you a driver or a passenger? It seems a lot of the things I’ve been reading and observing lately are related to this question. I’ll give you a few examples of what I’m talking about.

At a seminar I attended last summer, the presenter had the audience watch a video and afterwards tested us on what we saw in the video. While the group focused on the main subject of the video, a person in a monkey suit walked past in the background. When the presenter asked what significant things we saw in the video, almost no one remembered seeing the monkey. As a driver, you need to be focused on the task at hand, but also need to be aware of what’s going on around you.

To support one of my hobbies, I subscribe to many aviation publications that come at least once per month, and in many of the publications there are summaries of accident reports. I read these religiously, because in this case, I would rather learn from the mistakes of others, than learn from my own. In one case, an airplane with two pilots crashed when a warning indicator light came on and in an attempt to troubleshoot the problem, both pilots focused on finding the source of the failure, and neither pilot remembered to fly the airplane. The result wasn’t pretty.

Here’s one we all see every day: someone “driving” down the road while talking on the phone, sending a text message, eating, or you name it. They clearly are not aware of what’s happening around them because they don’t maintain constant speed, they wander about in their lane, don’t go forward when the light turns green, or any number of other obvious non-driver acts. I argue that many of these people are passengers in a car with no driver.

Here’s one last example that hits close to home: my mom once told me that when she and her friend travel together, one person is behind the wheel and the other is driving. I’m not sure what to think of that one.

My point to all this is, that when running your business (driving), and while focusing on the task at hand, don’t forget to pay attention to your peripheral vision. You might regrettably find that the task you’re focused on is being handled very well, while the business is crashing around you.

- Ken Hilton, President

Kenyon Hill Farms and Vir-Clar Farm featured in Progressive Dairyman

Red Wing Software customer, Kenyon Hill Farms, was featured in the March 12, 2017 issue of Progressive Dairyman. The story, entitled Efficient and Functional Barn Design Critical for Robotic Milking, details their experience in designing a barn with robotic milking.

Vir-Clar Farms, a Red Wing Software customer, was also featured in the March 12, 2017 issue of Progressive Dairyman. The story, Vir-Clar Farms Grants the Wish of a Lifetime, describes how Vir-Clar Farms was able to help make Edsel Wiegert’s dream come true by giving him a tour of a modern dairy.