MEMO

The annual Jackson Chamber of Commerce Barbecue will be held Sept. 26 at Nicky's Whistle Stop Cafe and St. Louis Iron Mountain Railroad.

Activities get under way at 6 p.m. with the presentation of the R. A. Fulenwider Award.

Tables will be set up on the lawn. Guests will have the option of dining outside or inside the restaurant.

Additional information and reservations are available by calling the Jackson Chamber office, 243-8131, before Thursday.

Tip of Illinois Hospice Program will conduct a volunteer training program Sept. 29 at Cairo.

Tip of Illinois Hospice Program provides care to terminally ill patients and their families.

The program is throughout 21 Southern Illinois counties with offices at Cairo, Marion, Metropolis and Sparta.

Part of the hospice concept is providing volunteers to assist patients with non-clinical needs.

The volunteer training program will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cairo office, 1702 Washington Ave.

Additional information is available by calling 1-800-371-3885.

A one-day workers' compensation conference will be held at the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau Oct. 12.

The program is designed to help employers understand their rights under Missouri's workers' compensation law.

Topics will include claims and obligations, managing costs and ways to cope with the complexities of the system.

Conference speakers will include Mike Taylor of the National Council on Compensation Insurance, Robert T. Johnson of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Commission and state Rep. Pat Secrest.

Registration for the meeting will be at 7:30 a.m. Costs are $89 for chamber members and $119 for others. Lunch is included. Additional information is available by contacting the chamber at 335-3312.

"Doing Business with the Federal Government," and "How to do Business with the Commonwealth of Kentucky" are among topics to be discussed at a two-day conference in October at the Information Age Park at Paducah, Ky.

"Teaming to Win," a small business procurement opportunities fair, will be held Oct. 18 and 19. The event is designed for small business owners, managers or sales representatives that have products or services federal or state agencies or prime contractors might purchase.

Registration will be at 1 p.m. Oct. 18. Activities start at 10:15 a.m. Oct. 19.

Lee T. Todd Jr., president and CEO of DataBeam Corporation Inc., will be keynote speaker at the Oct. 19 luncheon. Todd is founder of two Lexington, Ky., technology firms -- DataBeam and Projectron, Inc.

Other speakers during the day include Harry L. Ruth, chairman and CEO of Greater Paducah Economic Development Council, and Billy Max Paul, regional administrator of the Region IV Small Business Administration.

Additional information is available by calling (502)-744-2000.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The U.S. Justice Department has approved the merger of Dairymen Inc. of Louisville and Mid-America Dairymen Inc. of Springfield, Mo..

Approval from the Justice Department came a week after delegates of both cooperatives overwhelmingly voted for the merger.

Gary Hanman, chief executive officer of Mid-America Dairymen, said that although official merger documents show Dairymen Inc. merging into the Missouri co-op, the two organizations actually are creating a new cooperative.

"This merger means that Dairymen producers will get a better price for their milk," said James E. Mueller, CEO of Dairymen Inc.

The merger brings together 9,000 members of Mid-America Dairymen and 3,100 members of Dairymen Inc., which together will market more than 14.3 billion pounds of milk and have revenues in excess of $3 billion this year.