Inventors Congress ends 58-year run

Tuesday, October 06, 2015

“It’s hard,’’ said Deb Hess, its executive director for the past 31 years, when reached as she worked to complete the closing.
  1. The board of directors decided to cease operations after learning recently that the Minnesota Department of Economic Development was awarding it a $42,000 grant for operations for the coming year, as compared to an $85,000 grant the previous year.

Hess said she and board members did not believe the organization would be able to raise the difference needed to keep the doors open and decided to return the grant award. She is the organization’s only full-time employee.

“The reality is you cannot keep a nonprofit open that does not have the funds to pay its bills,’’ she said.

The organization was not able to learn why the grant amount was reduced from the previous year, Hess said. She said it competes for funding against organizations that are able to document the number of jobs they create.

The Inventors Congress can cite a long list of successful products that have reached the market after their inventors sought help from the organization. But Hess said the organization has no way to quantify the number of jobs that has resulted from its work. It often takes years before an invention reaches the market, and many never do.

The organization can trace its history back to when Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman encouraged Robert Starr and others to create it.

The nonprofit organization hosted the annual show in Redwood Falls until two years ago, when it moved it to the Twin Cities. The move made it easier for more industry representatives to attend, which benefited inventors.

Hess said the board of directors is not dissolving the nonprofit organization, so there remains the possibility that the Congress could be revived.

“It’s been an amazing ride,’’ she said of her time with the organization.

Tom Cherveny is a regional and outdoor reporter with the West Central Tribune in Willmar, MN.
 
 
   
 

Category: Minnesota Inventors Congress