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GSCVB Touts Discounts in Updated WOW Value Book

SPRINGFIELD — The Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau (GSCVB) has produced a new edition of the WOW Value Book, a collection of discount coupons for several of the Pioneer Valley’s leading attractions, restaurants, shops, and more. Offers include discounted admission prices, free restaurant items with the purchase of entrée selections, and shopping discounts. More than 12,500 copies of the dollar-bill-sized book have been printed. Each of the offers highlighted in the coupon book are also available online by visiting www.valleyvisitor.com and clicking “Download WOW Values.” The book offers more than $100 in total savings. According to GSCVB President Mary Kay Wydra, “we got a terrific response to the earlier edition of the WOW Value Book that we released several months ago, and it was our plan to have subsequent editions to allow our seasonal attractions to participate. We created the book for people who came to the region to attend conventions and meetings, to encourage them to visit our restaurants, shops, and attractions in their free time. It also came in handy for people who couldn’t download and print the coupons on our Web site.” Pioneer Valley residents who would like a copy of the WOW Value Book should email [email protected] and provide their name and mailing address, or call (413) 787-1548. The book’s participants include: Adolfo’s Ristorante, Artist Square Group Art Gallery, Bright Nights at Forest Park, CityStage and Symphony Hall, Frigo’s Foods, the Handbag Outlet, La Fiorentina Pastry Shop, Mana Iguana’s, Nadim’s Mediterranean Grill, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Petra Hookah Lounge, Springfield Museums, the Student Prince Café and the Fort Dining Room, Zonin’s Deli, and the Zoo in Forest Park, all in Springfield; the Pizza Guy and Six Flags New England in Agawam; the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the White Hut in Amherst; Lee Premium Outlets in Lee; the Loft Restaurant & Lounge in Northampton; Renew.calm, Storrowtown Tavern & Carriage House, and the White Hut in West Springfield; Horizons Restaurant & Bar in Wilbraham; the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford; and Friendly’s locations throughout the Pioneer Valley.

 

Survey: Employers Increase Health and Wellness Benefits

ATLANTA — More employers are offering benefits that encourage employees to improve their health, according to a survey released by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) at its 2012 Annual Conference and Exposition in Atlanta. Over the past five years, benefits that reward employees for improving their health have jumped — a sign that organizations are looking for ways to cut business costs and recognize that employees value these benefits. For example, the percentage of employers offering health and lifestyle coaching jumped from 33% in 2008 to 45% in 2012, and rewards or bonuses for completing a health and wellness program increased from 23% in 2008 to 35% in 2012. “Employers recognize that providing employees with the opportunity to improve their health can increase morale, confidence, and productivity,” said Mark Schmit, vice president of research at SHRM. “Organizations continue to look for ways to manage costs as the economy slowly improves. Benefits that encourage healthier behavior are a cost-effective way to keep up employee morale, while healthier employees also help decrease health care costs to employers and employees.” SHRM’s 2012 Employee Benefits Survey found that, while most employee benefits stabilized this year, 73% of HR professionals reported that the economic downtown negatively impacted employee-benefit offerings (11% to a large extent and 62% to some extent). This is more or less the same as in 2011, when 77% said the economy negatively affected benefits to some or a large extent. Because of the economy and recent employment-related legislation, many employers have switched to benefits that shift primary responsibility and control to employees. For example, more employers offer defined-contribution retirement-savings plans (92%) than defined-benefit pension plans (21%) in 2012, putting the impetus on employees to manage their own retirement savings instead of relying on employer-provided pensions. “By shifting primary responsibility in controlling certain health care and financial benefits, employers are recognizing a shift in workplace culture,” said Schmit. “The new plans allow employees have more control over how they save for retirement and manage their health, while reducing costs for employers. These plans are also more flexible, and thus more attractive, to employees who will likely not spend an entire career with one organization.” Employer spending on benefits remained stable this year, with organizations spending, on average, 19% of an employee’s annual salary on voluntary benefits, 18% on mandatory benefits, and 10% on pay for time employees did not work. Paid-time-off plans have become more  popular; more than half of organizations (51%) provide paid-time-off plans, a combination of traditional vacation time, sick leave, and personal days in one plan, up from 42% in 2009. For more survey data, visit shrm.org/surveys.

 

 

Construction Backlog Bounces Back in

Second Quarter

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported that its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) rose 4.3% in the second quarter of 2012 after declining the two previous quarters. Despite the quarterly expansion, CBI is 0.3 months, or 4.2%, below the second quarter of 2011, and progress in the Northeast region of the U.S remains sluggish. CBI is a forward-looking economic indicator that measures the amount of construction work under contract to be completed in the future. “The CBI accurately predicted both the broader economic softness experienced during the first half of 2012, as well as a flattening of the nation’s non-residential construction recovery,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “The latest CBI data is now projecting gradual acceleration in non-residential construction spending, and perhaps a slight increase in the overall pace of construction activity going forward. Unfortunately, any improvement in non-residential construction activity is likely to remain modest given the ongoing uncertainty regarding America’s fiscal cliff — a number of tax increases and spending cuts that take effect at the end of the year — as well as European sovereign-debt issues and increasingly volatile energy prices. While there is pent-up demand for new construction in the power, manufacturing, and infrastructure segments, the level of economic and political uncertainty remains far too elevated to permit more aggressive non-residential-construction spending recovery in the near term.” During the second quarter of 2012, the Northeast had the smallest gain in construction backlog at 0.05 months for the quarter, and is now at 7.28 months. Across the U.S. average construction backlog rose for all monitored industry segments after declining the two previous quarters. The infrastructure segment registered the largest quarter-to-quarter construction backlog increase, up 1.4 months to more than 10 months — the first time infrastructure backlog has been above 10 months since the second quarter of 2010. Construction backlog in the heavy-industrial category is at its highest level since the first quarter of 2011, but at the lowest level of all the industry segments at 5.92 months. Construction backlog in the commercial and institutional segment is 0.85 months lower than one year ago, and now stands at 7.78 months.

 

Prices of Construction Materials Decline Again

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prices of construction materials declined 0.7% in July, according to the Aug. 14 Producer Price Index report released by the U.S. Department of Labor. On a yearly basis, construction materials prices are down 0.6% — the first year-over-year decline since November 2009, when non-residential construction spending was at its lowest point. Non-residential construction materials prices also are down, falling 0.9% for the month and 1.2% for the year. Prices for iron and steel dropped 3.7% for the month and are 9.7% lower on a yearly basis. Softwood lumber prices fell 3.7% in July, but are still 5.9% higher than in July 2011. Steel-mill product prices decreased 2.8% for the month and are down 5.9% year over year. Prices for fabricated structural metal products slipped 1% for the month and are up 0.1% during the past 12 months. Prices for prepared asphalt, tar roofing, and siding surged 5.4% for the month, but are still down 3.8% year over year. Non-ferrous wire and cable prices increased 0.5% for the month, but are down 8.9% from July 2011. Prices for concrete products are up 0.3% for the month and are 1.8% higher year over year. Prices for plumbing fixtures and fittings inched up 0.1% in July and are 1.2% more expensive than one year ago. Crude-energy-material prices increased 0.6% in July, the first monthly increase since February 2012. Year over year, crude-energy-material prices are down 19.1%. Overall, the nation’s wholesale-goods prices increased 0.3% for the month and are 0.5% higher than in July 2011. The report “should be viewed by the non-residential construction industry as good news,” said Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors. “Prices of a number of key inputs declined significantly last month, including steel-mill products, iron and steel, and softwood lumber. Lower construction materials prices translate into more attractive project pro-formas, which in turn make it more likely that a project will be financed and move forward. While it is true that last month’s decline in materials prices is a reflection of a still-sluggish economic environment, there are reasons for growing optimism. For example, much of the economy’s lackluster performance can be attributed to ongoing uncertainty emerging from Washington, D.C., including the looming fiscal cliff. If Congress acts soon to create greater certainty around federal budgetary and taxation issues, the level of business certainty would increase meaningfully. That would result in the availability of more risk-seeking capital to finance projects. Anecdotal and survey information indicate that bankers are becoming more aggressive in their lending. Lower and more stable materials prices are associated with less risky construction, and permanent loans and are more likely to attract capital to construction projects. This means that, for the first time in several months, more robust recovery in non-residential construction spending is conceivable. However, Congress and the administration still must act appropriately before capital becomes sufficiently risk-seeking.”

Opinion
Moving Beyond the Pretty Pictures

MGM Resorts International staged a lavish press event at the MassMutual Center last week to announce its plans to build a casino and entertainment complex in Springfield’s South End. There was an overflow crowd, music, high-tech imagery, performers from Cirque du Soleil, and a full complement of media.

Springfield hadn’t seen anything quite like it before, but it will see something like it again, and probably very soon. Indeed, with the MGM event, the casino era in Western Mass. entered a new and intriguing phase. Let’s call it the ‘pretty pictures stage.’

Actually, they’re architect’s renderings, and there were a few on display in the packets being handed out at the MassMutual Center. They showed a South End teeming with people, lights, and vibrancy, a stark contrast to what exists now. Older buildings and properties damaged by last year’s tornado had been replaced by storefronts, restaurants, and attractive buildings for market-rate housing.

And along with the pictures came promises, in this case to connect the casino complex with downtown entertainment venues, such as the MassMutual Center, via a pedestrian walkway, thus eliminating one of the major complaints about casinos — that they keep people inside their walls and don’t spread the wealth. There were also pledges to incorporate existing downtown buildings, such as the former MassMutual headquarters at the corner of State and Main streets, and existing businesses, such as the Red Rose pizzeria, into the MGM complex.

There will be more of these press events, renderings, and promises in the weeks and months to come. There are casino plans unfolding for the North End of Springfield, involving the Republican building and other parcels, as well as the old Westinghouse complex in East Springfield, and perhaps another for a site in the middle of the central business district.

The trouble with these images, however, is that they tend to blind people, create expectations, and, in many ways, distract them from any other form of economic development and urban revitalization.

Indeed, with the start of the pretty pictures stage, it is quite evident that Springfield, and this region as a whole, needs some form of resolution to the question of where the casino is going to go — and the sooner the better. That’s because nothing is going to get done until that $64,000 question is answered.

Look at what has happened in Palmer. Mohegan Sun started putting out pretty pictures of what a casino on the hill just off the turnpike exit would look like, and the town has been in what amounts to a trance since. Granted, there is nothing approaching a Plan B for job creation and overall economic development in that community, but nothing else will even be considered until the casino matter is resolved.

In Springfield, we’re starting to see signs of the same thing. The phrase ‘tornado reconstruction’ seems old and passé. The matter of rebuilding the battered South End is on the back burner, and it will stay there until the winner of the Springfield casino sweepstakes is announced.

The same is true for other areas of the city, including the North End and the center of downtown. Almost everything now seems to hinge on where the casino will go — if Springfield lands one at all — and what the plan entails.

So it is incumbent upon those who will be making the decisions locally and then on a statewide basis to be diligent, thoughtful — this could be, after all, the biggest development in Springfield since the building of the Armory more than 200 years ago — but also expeditious.

There are currently about as many casino plans for Springfield as there are for the rest of the state combined, and the longer we have to look at the pretty pictures, consider the possibilities, and speculate, the longer it will be before we can move this city forward.

Features
Business Expo Will Feature a Wide Array of Educational Programs

Mobile marketing. E-mail marketing. Social-media marketing.

These are terms that most people in business has no doubt heard, and that most have uttered themselves. But not many can truly say they fully understand them, or know how to effectively utilize them to move their company or organization forward.

They’ll have a much better appreciation after attending the Western Mass. Business Expo 2012 on Oct. 11 at the MassMutual Center. Indeed, among the nearly two dozen informational programs to be presented that day will be “The Growing Role of Mobile Marketing: New Trends in Mobile and Why Consumers Love It,” “The Power of E-mail Marketing,” and “Social-media Marketing Made Simple.”

“E-mail marketing is the most cost-effective, targeted, trackable, and efficient way to build and maintain relationships for all types of businesses and organizations,” said Corissa St. Laurent, director of Regional Development for Constant Contact New England, which will present the latter two programs. “In this [e-mail] session, participants will discover how communicating with customers regularly can help a small business stay connected and generate increased referrals and repeat sales, as well as unwavering customer loyalty.”

As for mobile marketing, Tina Stevens, president of Stevens 470, who will present that program, said research shows that the number of mobile Internet users will exceed desktop users by 2014, and business owners must be prepared for that eventuality.

“Mobile devices have become so easy and convenient to use, they are now an integral part of our on-the-go lifestyle,” said Stevens. “Many of us are using a mobile device as much as, or more than, our desktop computer. We want businesses to realize that this is happening, and help them find ways to use this mobile technology to their advantage.”

These programs, part of the broader Sales & Marketing category of programs, are good examples of the way in which the Expo is much more than a networking event and opportunity for a company to gain exposure — although those opportunities exist as well, said Kate Campiti, associate publisher of BusinessWest, which will again produce the event.

“We want to provide attendees with tools, resources, and knowledge that business owners and managers can take back to their offices or plants and put to use the next day,” said Campiti. “That’s why we’ve made educational programs such a big part of the Expo. The expertise offered by our many speakers is one of many ways of providing value to attendees and exhibitors alike.”

The full roster of educational programs will be finalized over the next few weeks, said Campiti, adding that, in addition to Sales & Marketing, other categories will include Management & Leadership and General Business. In addition to the 21 seminars, there will be a number of Show Floor Theater presentations, including a talk by Michael Martin, vice president of Sales for Vibram FiveFingers, who will tell that company’s intriguing story, while also addressing the broader subject of innovation and how one development — such as the FiveFingers product — can lead to a number of growth opportunities for a company.

Details of the Expo are emerging, said Campiti, adding that organizers have been meeting through the spring and summer to finalize programs and fill in a schedule of events that will begin with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and conclude with the popular Expo Social starting at 4:30 p.m., a get-together that has become one of the more highly anticipated networking events of the year.

Highlights will include more than 180 exhibitors, breakfast and luncheon speakers, presentation of the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards, educational seminars and special programs, a Technology Corridor, a Health Care Corridor, and a number of co-located events that will bring more people, energy, and opportunities for doing business to the MassMutual Center.

The event is being sponsored by Comcast Business Class (presenting sponsor), and silver sponsors Health New England, Johnson & Hill Staffing Services, and  Stevens 470. Additional sponsorships are available.

Booths are also still available, and can be ordered by calling (413) 781-8600, logging onto www.wmbexpo.com or www.businesswest.com, or e-mailing [email protected].

 

— George O’Brien

Law Sections
Annino Draper & Moore Charts a Growth Strategy

From left, Louis Moore, Tracie Kester, Cal Annino, Mark Draper, and Trant Campbell.

From left, Louis Moore, Tracie Kester, Cal Annino, Mark Draper, and Trant Campbell.

Cal Annino says most law firms, especially smaller boutique operations like his, don’t traditionally embrace those proverbial five-year operating plans.

“Things change much too quickly in this business for that,” he explained, referencing all that’s happened over the past half-decade to get his point across. But this doesn’t mean that firms can’t undertake strategic planning, he stressed repeatedly.

At Springfield-based Annino Draper & Moore, or ADM, as it’s called, the firm he started with Mark Draper and Louis Moore (former colleagues at the firm Ryan & White) in 1990, planning is a year-round assignment usually focused on the shorter term, said Annino. And often, track is laid at a year-end meeting of the minds, or planning session, in the firm’s conference room.

At the most recent one, last December, the partners decided to move ahead with everything from a larger and more visible satellite office in Westfield (it has another, similar facility in Northampton) to more extensive marketing, including a revamped and expanded Web site and an electronic newsletter, to a hard push into the realm of alternative dispute resolution, or ADR.

“We’ve jumped with two feet into the arbitration and mediation aspects of alternative dispute resolution,” said Annino, the firm’s managing partner, adding that the creation of the ADR Group was an aggressive step taken in response to ongoing trends toward greater use of ADR and thus less work in the courts, and the recognized need to fill voids in business in such areas as estate planning, family law, and others.

Draper is a certified arbitrator who has handled a number of cases, and others at the firm have taken mediation training, Annino noted, adding that ADR services could become a strong growth area for the firm moving forward, especially if marketed aggressively, which ADM intends to do.

“With the reputation that this firm has in the marketplace now, once we let people know that we’re in the mediation and arbitration business, this will be a good source of business for us,” he explained, adding that, with ADM’s expertise across many areas of the law, it could mediate or arbitrate a wide range of matters.

The past several months have been spent putting the ADR Group and other strategic initiatives into effect, said Annino, adding that these steps, coupled with the firm’s wide diversity of specialties — covering everything from construction law to estate planning; environmental law to general business law — has Annino Draper & Moore positioned for continued growth.

For this issue and its focus on business law, BusinessWest turns the spotlight on a two-decade-old firm that is shedding its comparatively low profile and taking intriguing steps in response to changes in the legal profession, as well as the local business community.

 

Firm Resolve

Tracing the history of the firm, Annino said it is one of several that were essentially spun off from Ryan White, which at one time had more than two dozen lawyers and was one of the largest firms in the area.

Lawyers in that firm were “compartmentalized” into certain practice groups, he continued, adding that, with their backgrounds in diverse areas, the three individuals with the names now over the door decided there was proper chemistry and synergy for a partnership.

The firm had a solid foundation in the form of clients that stayed with the three partners after they left Ryan & White, and continuously built on that foundation over the years.

“We’ve been able to grow because many of the clients who came with us when we left Ryan & White are still with us,” he continued. “We have very loyal clients, and, frankly, we do a great job for them. We do excellent work, and we’re responsive; that’s what a small firm has to do in order to compete.”

Trant Campbell, who specializes in everything from family law to dispute resolution, joined the firm in 2007, and the latest addition is Tracie Kester, Annino’s one-time assistant and paralegal, who earned her J.D. at Western New England Law School, became an associate at the firm soon thereafter, and was named partner earlier this year.

From the beginning, the firm’s success has been attributed to its diversity and ability to provide a wide range of services to specific clients.

Annino, the firm’s managing partner, focuses on corporate law, municipal and health care law, banking and finance, commercial and residential real estate, estate planning, and elder law, while Draper specializes in construction law and civil litigation. Moore’s areas of practice include environmental law, land-use issues, municipal law, insurance law, civil litigation, and dispute resolution, while Campbell focuses on family law and domestic relations, estate planning, business and corporate law, and dispute resolution, and Kester specializes in business and corporate law, commercial and residential real estate, estate planning and elder law, and civil litigation.

“The work I do in residential and commercial real estate works out well with Mark’s construction practice and Lou’s environmental practice,” said Kester, offering just one example of the synergies within the company and how the various specialties complement one another and improve the overall quality of service. “Any time I have a hint of an environmental problem with one of my real-estate deals, I go down to hall — I don’t pass ‘Go,’ don’t collect $200, and go straight to Lou’s office.”

There is similar synergy between estate-planning work and real estate, noted Campbell, adding that ADM can handle a full range of client needs, and often without having to go outside the firm for an expert.

“Clients’ legal needs don’t necessarily fall in one area,” he explained. “If there was an estate administration going on, there may be a piece of real estate involved, and there may be some environmental issues and some title issues. What I found when I came here was a willingness and a desire on the part of the other members of the firm to help us reach a solution; it’s a great level of comfort.”

Moore agreed. “We don’t do everything that the large firms do,” he said, “but the things we do, we do well and more cost-effectively than most other firms.

“It’s not unusual, especially in some more complex matters, when you’re dealing with a larger firm on the other side, to see them have two or three lawyers in a meeting or at a hearing,” he continued. “And maybe not in every instance, but many of them, clients are getting billed for that.”

The firm’s diversity and cost-effective service have served the company well during the recent — and in many ways still ongoing — economic downturn, he continued, adding that the firm, like most all others, struggled during the leanest of times, especially in hard-hit fields like construction, where most activity came to a grinding halt, but persevered without cutbacks or salary cuts because of its broad range of specialties.

 

Case in Point

Looking ahead, Annino said the business community, and society in general, are moving increasingly in the direction of ADR, and the firm is responding accordingly — and proactively — with its new ADR Group.

He noted that in addition to divorce and other areas where ADR has been used effectively for many years, there is vast potential for the firm to gain business in such areas as environmental law, construction law, and family law.

“When people find out that we’re doing environmental, family, and contract mediation and arbitration — and we really haven’t told them yet, but we’re starting to — I think we’re going to be very busy,” he said. “I see the family-mediation piece as one where there is growth potential — I’m not aware of it being done extensively now.

“You look at a case where the parents die and now there’s an issue with the estate,” he continued, offering an example of the type of work he anticipates. “You’ve got four children, and everyone is going to get a lawyer. If you’re well-thought-of as being able to mediate or arbitrate those types of issues, rather than fighting them out in the courtroom, that would seem like the perfect venue to resolve family disputes — privately, quietly, and less expensively.”

When asked how a firm, or a specific individual, gains a solid reputation in the realm of ADR, Draper said it does so by becoming known for both expertise and fairness, which can only be attained through time, experience, and thoughtful resolutions.

“The first thing you need to do is get the word out, which we’re trying to do,” he told BusinessWest, noting the use of the firm’s Web site and other vehicles to introduce the service. “Beyond that, it’s just like any aspect of a legal practice — if the parties in the mediation or arbitration perceive you to be fair, then I think you’ll get a good recommendation from the parties and the attorneys. On the other hand, if you’re perceived as being unfair or biased toward one party or the other, you’re not going to get a good recommendation from either side.

“If I see someone who has a bias as an arbitrator, I’m disinclined to use that person,” he continued, “because I’m not sure where the bias is going to fall next time. So it’s just like building any other kind of practice.”

While working to build its portfolio in ADR, the firm is making strides with many of the other strategic initiatives identified last December.

For example, the firm has relocated into larger quarters on Broad Street in Westfield, providing improved visibility. Annino and Kester (both Westfield residents) spend at least one day in a week in that city, which has recorded significant residential and business expansion in recent years and offers strong growth opportunities.

Meanwhile, the firm is moving ahead with plans to market itself more aggressively and become much more visible than it has been in the past.

Specific steps include the revamped Web site, which will, in addition to offering information about the firm, its lawyers, and their areas of expertise, provide visitors with information on timely issues of the day, as well as a new e-newsletter sent to hundreds of clients and prospective clients.

The first edition, which came out in June, chronicles the Westfield relocation, announces Kester’s new status as partner, introduces the new ADR services, and even offers a bit of commentary on the economy.

“We have definitely noticed an uptick in business and consumer confidence and a resulting demand for legal services,” it reads. “There is also new optimism in our clients. Much of our new work results from clients expanding business operations or taking advantage of new business opportunities. It is exciting to be part of this emerging vitality, and to see long-time clients optimistic again about the future for their families and businesses.”

 

Closing Argument

Whether this perceived uptick and rise in optimism translates into new growth opportunities for ADM remains to be seen. But it’s clear that the firm is taking solid steps to effectively position itself within a changing economic and legal landscape.

As Annino noted, five-year plans don’t generally work out in the legal industry. But firms still need to look down the road and anticipate where opportunities will be found and take proactive steps to capitalize on them.

And ADM has a firm resolve — both literally and figuratively — to do just that.

 

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Law Sections
And How Can I Get My Ex to Help Cover These Expenses?

Melissa R. Gillis

Melissa R. Gillis

If you divorced your ex-spouse when your kids were young, it is possible that you did not consider the funding of your children’s college education in your support order. Now that they are on the brink of college, you may be looking ahead to that considerable financial hurdle and wondering how you will be able to pay for it, and how to ask your ex-spouse to contribute their fair share. You may also be wondering how college will affect existing child-support payments.

Separation agreements and divorce judgments often don’t make a specific provision for how children’s college education will be funded, what percentage of the total cost each parent will pay, and what happens to weekly child-support payments as a result, which is entirely distinguishable from college contributions.

Instead, what is most commonly seen is ‘blanket language.’ That’s the language in an agreement or order that says child support is to be paid until a child is deemed emancipated, and once each child reaches the age of college, both parents will attempt to discuss with each other how college will be paid. They also agree to discuss which college each child will attend, given their aptitudes and desires. Parents also have an understanding that they must exchange financial information and cooperate with their child’s financial-aid office. Unfortunately, such blanket language often leaves parents confused as to what the nexus should be between their weekly child-support order and each parent’s college-contribution percentage.

Reaching that perfect balance between a weekly support order and college contribution can be tricky at best. Most parents paying weekly child-support orders pursuant to the child-support guidelines can’t pay both and don’t feel that they should have to. If there have been some college funds or accounts set aside to assist paying parents, an agreement or order should dictate whether those accounts are to be utilized prior to either parent contributing out of pocket, or whether the funds within the accounts are actually a part of the contribution that a parent will be required to make.

In the case where there is no fund set aside, and a parent is now being asked to pay both a weekly support amount and contribute to college, the typical paying parent begins to feel as though their weekly support is more like alimony. They fear that they are being set up for exactly that: a request for alimony once child support is over, creating a never-ending stream of payments to a spouse they haven’t been married to for years.

The best time to discuss how to pay for college and how this affects a weekly support order is certainly not when the first tuition payment is due, but the September of that child’s senior year of high school. By then, you probably know whether your child is going to apply to a community college, a state university, Harvard (or its cost equivalent), or something in between. This gives you a feeling for what the tuition will be, whether financial aid is necessary, and how much input each parent will or wants to have in the college-selection process.

If there is a required mediation clause in the parties’ agreement or judgment, then arguably you and your ex-spouse can wait until your child’s actual acceptance is received from the institution. But be careful not to set your child’s expectations too high if you know there is simply no way to afford a $40,000-per-year tuition bill even with loans. Being practical, reasonable, and knowledgeable of the law is the key to successful negotiations in this regard.

If you and your ex-spouse can’t work out how much each should contribute, what should happen to weekly child-support payments, whether to use any college savings or investment accounts first or last, and whether to require your child to apply for student loans, scholarships, and grants without court intervention, a modification action should be filed about eight to 10 months prior to the child’s entrance to college to allow adequate time for financial discovery. During this period, you and your ex-spouse may reach resolution, but in the event that you cannot, there is enough time to have a trial on the merits and receive the judge’s decision.

The statute governing periodic payments of child support from one parent to another provides that, between the ages of 18 and 21, a court can award child support if a child principally resides with the custodial parent and is principally dependent upon them for support, without any requirement that a child be attending college. Between the ages of 21 and 23, a court can still award child support if a child continues to principally reside and be dependent upon the custodial parent, but they must be pursuing further education, not to exceed a bachelors’ degree.

Because there is no ‘bright-line’ rule for how judges must treat weekly support orders if a parent is also ordered to contribute to college, this opens up myriad possibilities and differing judicial decisions. It should also be noted that the actual child-support guidelines are merely discretionary and arguably do not apply after a child reaches the age of 18.

Often, practitioners will run the guidelines for children over the age of 18 anyway to give the judge a suggestion of what could be and to perform an analysis of what some combination of weekly support payments and direct college contribution would look like, in an attempt to figure out how much extra the paying parent should be asked to contribute.

That said, the resulting possibilities are endless. Some judges use the ‘1/3, 1/3, 1/3’ approach, making the parents and the child each responsible for contributing one-third of the total, whether by loans or cash equivalent. Other possibilities include:

• A straight contribution to college, only if the child will spend approximately equal time living with each parent when home from school, with termination of the weekly support order;

• An order of straight continued weekly child support to the custodial parent if the other parent doesn’t have much contact with the child;

• A combination of reduced weekly support and a percentage of college funding, depending on whether the child will live at home and the ability of a parent to pay; or even

• Both continued weekly payments plus a substantial college contribution.

The above options will all be dependent upon additional factors, including whether there are remaining non-college-age children still in the home, the non-custodial parent’s ability to pay, and the custodial parent’s inability to contribute.

Any way it’s looked at, the message is clear. Absent an agreement, and given the amount of judicial discretion present, it is imperative that a parent facing this battle have a skilled lawyer in their corner who can advocate all the intricacies in order to best suit the needs of the child without breaking the bank of one or both parents or causing an undue burden on one parent because the other refuses to provide an adequate financial contribution to their child’s higher education.

 

Melissa R. Gillis, Esq. is an attorney with Bacon Wilson, P.C. in the domestic, special education, and real estate departments; (413) 781-0560; baconwilson.com/attorneys/gillis

Law Sections
So What Does That Mean for Massachusetts Employers?

John S. Gannon

John S. Gannon

In its most significant decision of the year, and arguably the last decade, the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the controversial health care legislation also known as ‘Obamacare.’

But a blessing from the Supreme Court only seemed to take the health care debate to more contentious levels as Republican politicians, including presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, have promised to repeal the law. Even so, businesses cannot wait for a ceasefire in Washington. Employers must forge ahead and continue efforts to implement the law as provisions pertaining to the employer-employee relationship become effective.

 

The Court’s Ruling

At the forefront of the dispute over the PPACA’s legality was a constitutional challenge to the so-called individual mandate, which requires individuals to carry health insurance or pay a penalty. Opponents argued that Congress overstepped its authority when it enacted this part of the law. The Supreme Court majority disagreed, concluding that the individual mandate is a valid exercise of Congressional power to tax. “Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts, author of the majority opinion.

Notably, the Supreme Court rejected the Obama administration’s principal argument in support of the individual mandate. Trying to avoid labeling the provision a tax, the government contended throughout that the mandate was a valid exercise of Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce. That contention failed. “The individual mandate forces individuals into commerce precisely because they elected to refrain from commercial activity,” declared Roberts. “Such a law cannot be sustained under a clause authorizing Congress to regulate commerce.”

Massachusetts is viewed by many as the birthplace of the individual mandate. The state health care reform law includes a similar provision requiring residents of the Commonwealth to carry health insurance or pay a fine, although the formula for calculating the penalty is different from the method used under federal law.

 

Next Steps for Employers

Now that the uncertainty surrounding health care reform has been resolved, at least from a legal perspective, employers must be prepared to comply with significant provisions of the PPACA that kick in over the coming months. Starting this year, employer-sponsored group health plans will need to provide employees with a summary of benefits and coverage (SBC), which must include certain coverage details. Insurance carriers may provide the SBC notification for fully insured group plans, but plan administrators will have to provide the notification for self-funded plans.

The PPACA also requires employers to report the aggregate cost of employer-sponsored health coverage on Forms W-2. Employers that filed more than 250 Forms W-2 for tax year 2011 must ensure that the cost of coverage is reported next year. Smaller employers may be off the hook until 2014.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2013, the PPACA limits employee contributions to an FSA to $2,500 per year. The $2,500 FSA cap applies only to employee pre-tax contributions to a health care FSA, and does not affect employer contributions toward health care premiums, health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, or other similar accounts.

Looking Ahead

In addition, savvy employers should begin planning to implement parts of the law set to take effect in 2014, including an employer mandate that penalizes businesses for failing to offer adequate health-insurance coverage.

The controversial employer mandate kicks in a little over a year from now. Starting in 2014, employers with more than 50 full-time employees must provide a minimum level of health-insurance coverage or pay a $2,000 penalty per full-time employee. As noted above, this concept is not entirely new to Massachusetts employers, many of which have been required to provide health insurance to employees since 2006, when the Commonwealth enacted its own version of health care reform. However, Massachusetts employers need to be aware that the penalty for failing to offer coverage is far greater under federal law.

The PPACA also requires that the coverage be ‘affordable’ and provide ‘minimum value.’ Coverage is considered affordable if the employee’s required contribution does not exceed 9.5% of household income. An employer provides a ‘minimum-value’ plan if the plan covers at least 60% of the participant’s covered expenses. If the coverage fails to meet these requirements, the employer may be subject to an excise tax of $3,000 if an employee declines to enroll in the plan.

 

PPACA Uncertainty

Calls to repeal the PPACA will echo throughout the 2012 electoral season. But rescinding the law is no small task. For starters, it will almost certainly take a makeover in the Oval Office. Until that day comes, employers need to be sure they are in compliance with the provisions of the PPACA that are set to go into effect this year and next. They also need start planning for the critical employer mandate set for 2014.

 

John Gannon is an associate in the Springfield labor and employment law firm of Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., which represents employers exclusively and specializes in helping employers understand their obligations under state and federal employment law; (413) 737-4753; [email protected]

Law Sections
How to Successfully Manage and Minimize Risk

Michael Gove

Michael Gove

Choosing a business name that will identify your company’s products and services can be an important factor in your ultimate success. A great name is the first step in creating a great brand: it should be memorable and create appropriate mental pictures when heard.

But, while choosing a business name may seem easy, this assignment will require some research to ensure it does not lead to what could be costly problems later on.

If you already have an established sole proprietorship and are incorporating, your already-existing good name may lead you to conclude that you should just add ‘Inc.’  However, if you are starting from scratch, naming your business can be more complicated.

Start by brainstorming a list of potential business names. Think about related words or phrases and experiment with combinations of the words you have jotted down. Throw out those that just do not fit, prioritize those remaining, and review those with someone who can provide objective input.

In addition to the creativity involved in choosing a business name, though, there are three main considerations to keep in mind.

 

Is Your Proposed Name Available?

The secretary of state has records of all active corporations, limited-liability companies, and limited partnerships. Remember, most states do not recognize differences from the use of the word ‘the’ nor in identifiers such as Inc., Co., or Ltd. This means that, if there is already a corporation named Pet Shoppe Inc., you will be prevented from using names such as The Pet Shoppe Inc., The Pet Shoppe Co., or The Pet Shoppe Ltd.

 

Will the Proposed Name Be Eligible for Trademark Protection?

Obtaining trademark protection helps to prevent another business from using a name that is likely to be confused with yours, which allows consumers to identify your product or service with you and the branding of your business. Conversely, you will want to confirm that you are not infringing on another corporation’s trademark. Receiving a cease-and-desist letter, or being sued for trademark infringement months after you open for business, can be a significant setback.

 

Is the Proposed Name Available as a Web Domain?

In this day and age, just about every business includes a Web site as part of their business advertising, and you should check to see if your proposed name is available as a domain.

While there is no magic formula, distinctive business names are clever and memorable and, when researched and protected correctly, will be there to remain consistent for years, which will help build trust, goodwill, and loyalty between you and your customers.

 

Michael S. Gove is an associate with the Springfield-based law firm Cooley, Shrair P.C. He focuses his practice on assisting clients in the areas of corporate/business, banking, and bankruptcy law; (413) 735-8037; [email protected]

Commercial Real Estate Sections
MGM Unveils Plans for Casino in Springfield’s South End

proposed MGM Springfield

An architect’s rendering of the proposed MGM Springfield.

MGM Resorts International took the competition for a Springfield-based casino to the next stage recently, with the unveiling of an $800 million complex to be built in the city’s South End, between State and Union streets, Main Street, and East Columbus Avenue. Plans call for a 25-story, 250-room hotel, gaming space, and a retail and entertainment district being referred to as Armory Square. MGM Chairman and CEO James Murren summed up the company’s plans by saying, “we don’t want to build a box; we want to build an urban environment.”

As he stood at a podium talking about MGM Resorts International’s plans for a casino in Springfield’s South End, Bill Hornbuckle repeatedly referenced an image displayed on large projection screens in the front of the room.

This was a black-and-white photograph of a section of downtown Springfield from nearly a century ago. And as he discussed that scene, through the magic of technology, the streetscape was transformed into a vivid color image of roughly that same location (see page 41) as it would look after MGM was done creating an $800 million casino, hotel, and entertainment complex there.

And with that, the competition to bring a casino to Western Mass., and, more specifically, to the City of Homes, took a major leap forward.

Indeed, for the first time, a casino developer has put a specific plan on the table. It is known for now as MGM Springfield, and Hornbuckle, the company’s chief marketing officer, is the company official charged with making it happen.

He explained the initiative at an elaborate press conference at the MassMutual Center that drew more than 200 business leaders, elected officials, and scores of media from across the state. He shared the podium with MGM President Jim Murren, who welcomed those assembled by saying simply, “we want to be here; we want to be in Springfield.”

Springfield’s South End

An architect’s rendering of what Springfield’s South End will look like if the planned $800 million MGM Springfield becomes reality. The view is from the south at the corner of Union and Main streets.

The two administrators would go on to explain that, for MGM, which operates a portfolio of more than a dozen major casinos across the country, Springfield is the logical next point of expansion, and the South End location, near I-91 between State and Union streets, Main Street, and East Columbus Avenue, is the most attractive location for such a facility.

As he talked about the proposal, Hornbuckle said the contest to be named the designated Springfield casino project (there are at least two other plans coming together) — as well as the fight that would follow to gain the Western Mass. casino license — will be spirited competitions, and the corporation is ready for what will be a pitched battle.

It has already launched a Web site (www.mgmspringfield.com) that introduces the project and invites input from area residents, and has launched a series of television and print ads announcing the initiative and its role in tornado-recovery efforts. And billboards will soon be appearing with the message: “World Class Entertainment, Gaming, and Dining. HERE.”

“We go hard and fast when we go, and we’re going,” Hornbuckle said. “This is a competition … and we’re in it for the journey.”

 

Going All In

As he referenced the old image of Springfield’s downtown and its technology-enhanced morphing into a casino site, Hornbuckle said the juxtaposition of images was chosen by MGM and its marketing team to show how the planned casino complex would effectively transform the old into the new.

Actually, it would blend the old — such properties as the old MassMutual headquarters at the corner of State and Main and the former South End Community Center, for example — and new, including a 25-story, 250-room hotel; shops and restaurants; entertainment facilities, including a movie theater and a high-end bowling alley; and new market-rate housing.

It was also chosen to convey that a new era in the city’s history would be unfolding, one that would, in this case, transform an area — the South End — that had fallen on hard times in recent years and then found itself squarely in the path of the tornado that changed Springfield’s landscape in many ways last June.

Overall, the more than 500,000-square-foot, mixed-use development would include the hotel (with amenities such as a spa, pool, and roof deck), 89,000 square feet of gaming space, and about 70,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space that would accommodate 15 shops and restaurants and a multi-level parking garage.

An architect’s rendering of the planned Armory Square in the proposed MGM Springfield.

An architect’s rendering of the planned Armory Square in the proposed MGM Springfield.

Plans also call for an approximately 130,000-square-foot dining, retail, and entertainment district, tentatively named Armory Square. It would include about 25 dining and retail venues, including a 12-screen cinema, bowling alley, and outdoor stage, on land now occupied by the South End Community Center and the former Zanetti School on Howard Street.

Those are two properties for which the city will soon be issuing RFPs (requests for proposals), said Hornbuckle, adding that MGM will need to prevail in those contests if its vision is to become reality. In the meantime, MGM has gained control of several privately owned parcels in the development zone, and has many others under contract.

Plans also include 400,000 square feet of market-rate, one- and two-bedroom apartments, intended for young professionals working in the new entertainment district, said Murren, adding that MGM intends to partner with local cultural institutions, with the broad goal of jump-starting a new era of economic development in Springfield that will radiate out from the project onto Main Street and into other parts of the downtown and the city.

“I want to build a landmark here, and I want to integrate the assets you have already have — you have great bones here in the city,” he told those assembled at the press gathering. “The job we have is to knit all that together. We don’t want to build a box; we want to build an urban environment.

“We want people to walk up and down the streets, we want people to enjoy themselves, we want people to shop, go to movies, and go bowling,” he continued. “We want families to enjoy being here, and we want people to move back into the city, and I think we can be a big catalyst for all that.”

The blueprint for accomplishing all that will come together by borrowing concepts from existing MGM projects as well as from established retail and entertainment centers, said Hornbuckle, who then clicked to a PowerPoint slide that showed roughly how the complex will come together.

The stretch of the site along Main Street will be devoted to retail, offices, and residential buildings, he explained, adding that the hotel would be constructed along State Street, using the historic building at 73 State St. as the main entrance. Parking would be created along the western side of the property, near Columbus Avenue, and the aforementioned Armory Square would be created between Howard and Union streets.

The casino itself? It would be the middle of all this, said Hornbuckle, adding that it would be essentially invisible to those walking or driving by the site.

“It’s a casino you won’t see,” he explained, adding that MGM Springfield is being designed with the casino as just one part of the experience.

“What’s critical about the design is that you can interact, whether it be the hotel, the gaming, the entertainment, or up on Main Street, without having to go into the casino,” he noted. “We’re not forcing you to into that environment; if you want to bring a family to enjoy this, you can. That’s a critical element, especially for an urban casino.”

Both Murren and Hornbuckle stressed that no indoor entertainment area is planned for MGM Springfield. Instead, the company plans to partner with existing facilities such as the MassMutual Center, Symphony Hall, CityStage, and local museums, including those at the Quadrangle, to help drive traffic to those facilities. To that end, a pedestrian bridge has been proposed to link the MGM complex with the MassMutual Center.

Placing Their Bets

Several times during his address to those assembled at the press gathering, Murren said that event marked the start of a conversation, or dialogue, on the company’s plans to take its brand into downtown Springfield.

That dialogue will continue over the next several months as MGM’s plans are finalized and rival plans join the competition for the Western Mass. license.

But company officials already believe they have a winning hand, and they’re betting heavily that the community — not to mention the state’s Gaming Commission — will feel the same way.

 

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Departments Picture This

Send photos with a caption and contact information to:  ‘Picture This’ c/o BusinessWest Magazine, 1441 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103 or to [email protected]

Air Show Breakfast

Top, supporters fill one of the hangars of the 439th Airlift Wing at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee for the Great New England Air Show Kick-off Breakfast on Aug. 3. Middle, Bud Shuback, right, president of the Galaxy Community Council, presents a framed, commemorative show poster as recognition for air-show contributions to Jim Uliano, vice president of Marketing for Town Fair Tire. Bottom, Shuback presents a poster to Melissa Serra, promotions coordinator for Big Y World Class Markets, who also sang the National Anthem.







































Artistic Statement

On August 20, a 36-foot metal sculpture called “Birdicus Gigantium,” created by artist James Kitchen, was unveiled in the courtyard next to One Financial Plaza. The massive piece is one of more than 30 created by Kitchen now on display in downtown Springfield, as part of a collaborative effort involving the artist, NAI Plotkin, the Springfield Business Improvement District, and WGBY. At top, Evan Plotkin, president of NAI Plotkin, speaks at the unveiling. At center, Kitchen holds up a map showing where each of his 32 sculptures is located in a 26-block art installation.

Court Dockets Departments

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

 

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT

Gary Lefebvre v. Lucky Strike Restaurant Inc.

Allegation: Negligence in property maintenance, causing slip and fall: $18,295

Filed: 7/23/12

 

Theresa Moran and Alison Berry v. Polished A Salon and Marisol Figueroa

Allegation: Breach of lease agreement: $6,472

Filed: 7/18/12

 

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT

Summit Distributing, LLC v. B.G. Dupree Enterprises Inc. and Bryce G. Dupree

Allegation: Breach of promissory note and distribution agreement, and failure to make lease payments: $270,000

Filed: 6/19/12

 

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

Coyote Realty, LLC v. Sprocket Realty, LLC, Spero Phillips, and Law Offices of Moir and Ross

Allegation: Slander of title: $200,000

Filed: 6/29/12

 

Constellation Newenergy Inc. v. Spring Street Super Grocery and Variety Corp.

Allegation: Non-payment of energy services provided: $28,791.18

Filed: 6/26/12

 

Dallaswhite Corp. v. John Carlo Woodworking Inc. and Clifton Street, LLC

Allegation: Breach of construction contract: $50,204.83

Filed: 7/9/12

 

Dallaswhite Corp. v. Pro Automotive Repair Inc. and Denardo Realty

Allegation: Breach of construction contract: $216,713.23

Filed: 7/6/12

 

Marilyn Wilson v. Gomes Construction Co. Inc.

Allegation: Plaintiff fell over a string used for framing a sidewalk: $500,000

Filed: 7/9/12

 

Roland Fils v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Allegation: Wrongful incarceration: $1,270,000

Filed: 7/13/12

 

PALMER DISTRICT COURT

A D Tool Co. v. Diecast Realty Holdings, LLC

Allegation: Failure to pay for products and services provided by the plaintiff: $15,741

Filed: 6/27/12

 

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Amy Santana v. Skyplex

Allegation: Negligence in facility maintenance, causing slip and fall: $4,840.69

Filed: 6/13/12

 

Cach, LLC v. East Coast Terminal Inc. and Daniel T. Rowe

Allegation: Breach of credit-card agreement: $17,008.09

Filed: 5/25/12

 

Capital One Bank v. Chez Josef Inc. and Linda J. Skole

Allegation: Breach of credit-card agreement: $9,524.59

Filed: 5/21/12

 

Hart Supply Co. Inc. v. The Griswold Corp.

Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $3,314.73

Filed: 6/27/12

 

J & M Property Management v. Allied Waste Services of Springfield

Allegation: Negligence, causing property damage: $5,650

Filed: 6/11/12

 

Keystone Automotive Industries Inc. v. Tirrell Radiator Inc.

Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $18,325.15

Filed: 5/21/12

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of August 2012.

 

AGAWAM

 

Agawam Dogworks, LLC

860 Suffield St.

$50,000 — Interior renovations

 

Coopers Commons, LLC

159 Main St.

$10,000 — Renovation of existing space into restaurant

 

Crown Castle

628 Meadow St.

$15,000 — Upgrade antenna panels

 

CHICOPEE

 

200 Tillary, LLC

165 Front St.

$8,000 — Re-roof

 

First Central Baptist Church

50 Broadway St.

$7,000 — Interior renovation for chairlift

 

One Putt Inc.

1469 Granby Road

$12,000 — Addition at Soft Touch Auto Wash

 

Gotpac, LLC

13 Center St.

$15,000 — Outdoor bar pavilion foundation

 

GREENFIELD

 

American Tower Corp.

1385 Bernardston Road

$15,000 — Antenna upgrade

 

 

American Tower Corp.

180 Country Club Road

$15,000 — Antenna upgrade

 

Apple New England, LLC

141 Mohawk Trail

$35,000 — Perform cosmetic changes to the interior of existing Appleby’s

 

Baystate Franklin Medical Center

164 High St.

$10,000 — Construct north building separation

 

Baystate Franklin Medical Center

164 High St

$4,200 — Install new fire-rated door

 

Joel Tognarelli

85 Pierce St.

$12,000 — Office renovations

 

Leo P. Lachance

487-489 Bernardston Road

$36,000 — Change layout of rental space for new tenant

 

William Goly

286 Federal St.

$23,000 — New addition

 

LUDLOW

 

Aristides Nunes

387 East St.

$4,300 — Alterations

 

St. Paul Church

115-123 Hubbard St.

$21,000 — Reshingle

 

SOUTH HADLEY

 

2nd Baptist Church

589 Granby Road

$15,000 — Remodel

 

R.E. Reynolds

480 Granby Road

$20,000 — New roof

 

SOUTHWICK

 

O’Leary Group Inc.

9 Sam West St.

$253,000 — New building

 

SPRINGFIELD

 

AIC

963 Main St.

$71,000 — 900-square-foot bathroom renovation

 

AIC

1067 State St.

$101,000 — 3,500-square-foot renovation at Cournioles Hall

 

C&W Real Estate Company

1200 Main St.

$100,000 — Renovation of second-floor suite

 

Picknelly Family Limited

One Monarch Place

$188,000 — Renovation of the 13th floor

 

WESTFIELD

 

7 B’s

1159 Southampton Road

$50,000 — Interior renovation for restaurant

 

Arrow Drug Store

427 North Elm St.

$23,000 — New roof

 

Mark Katz

587 East Main St.

$20,000 — Renovations for new tenants

 

New Corner Variety

2 Crown St.

$6,000 — Renovations for new deli center

 

St. Mary’s School

30 Bartlett St.

$25,000 — New roof over entrance

 

WEST SPRINGFIELD

 

Audrey Pelielko

751 Union St.

$10,000 — Renovate space into hair salon

 

CB Richard Ellis

225 Memorial Dr.

$28,500 — Install drive-thru ATM

 

ACMX Realty

622 Union St.

$48,000 — 3,000-square-foot renovation

 

Calabrese LLC

60 Chilson St.

$13,000 — 234-square-foot renovation to convenience store

Bankruptcies Departments

The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

 

 

Bass, Ronald R.

Bass, Joyce A.

137 Cloran St.

Springfield, MA 01109

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

Beaudin, Paula J.

a/k/a Boyajian, Paula J.

374 West St.

Pittsfield, MA 01201

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Bedinger, Linda S.

96 Ridge Ave.

Athol, MA 01331

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/29/12

 

Bell, Andrea Lee

a/k/a Gross, Andrea Lee

280 Elm St., 3rd Fl.

Northampton, MA 01060

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Berry, Patricia A.

187 Conway St.

Greenfield, MA 01301

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/13/12

 

Blavackas, Ilona E.

P.O. Box 486

South Barre, MA 01074

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/11/12

 

Boulter, Richard A.

56 Meadow Lane

Ashfield, MA 01330

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

Bourassa, Gene A.

a/k/a Bourassa, Eugene A.

80 Housatonic St.

Lee, MA 01238

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/13/12

 

Brito, Nazario Elias

27 Cleveland St.

Springfield, MA 01104

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/09/12

 

Carter, Leslie A.

30 Middle St.

Springfield, MA 01104

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/09/12

 

Chapin, Justin C.

43 Depot St.

P.O. Box 36

Bernardston, MA 01337

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Choiniere, Robert Michael

342 Green River Road

Greenfield, MA 01301

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Christofori, William H.

1554 Memorial Ave., Apt 2

West Springfield, MA 01089

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/06/12

 

Claing, Francis L.

11 Butler Road

Wilbraham, MA 01095

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/09/12

 

Coffin, Kimberley F.

8 Cold Spring Road

Southampton, MA 01073

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Colon, Jackeline

10 Chestnut St.

Springfield, MA 01103

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Cooper, Odessa

140 Chestnut St. #815

Springfield, MA 01103

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Cooter, Susan A.

49 Crow Lane

Springfield, MA 01109

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/13/12

 

Cranston, Laurie A.

a/k/a Barbeau, Laurie A.

263 Federal St.

Greenfield, MA 01301

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

Creamer, Guillermo D.

1 Ladd Road

Sturbridge, MA 01566

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

Daunais, Jeremy L.

55 Royal Lane

Agawam, MA 01001

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Day, Joann

59 Nora Lane

Ludlow, MA 01056

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/05/12

 

DePaola, Mark A.

DePaola, Deborah S.

180 Highland Ave.

Westfield, MA 01085

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Forsyth, Curtis L.

54 Overland Road

Greenfield, MA 01301

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/11/12

 

Francisquini, Milagros

335 Beech St., Apt 2L

Holyoke, MA 01040

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/05/12

 

Garrity, Francis

P O Box 9

South Lee, MA 01260

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/11/12

 

Hall, Patricia Ann

582 Pleasant St., Apt. 2F

Holyoke, MA 01040

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Hallums, Johnny R.

791 Armory St.

Springfield, MA 01107

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/11/12

 

Harnden, Brian S.

263 Granville Road

Westfield, MA 01085

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/02/12

 

Henderson, William

4 Knight Ave.

Easthampton, MA 01027

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Hoppe, Peter M.P.

Hoppe, Jennifer A.

21 Pond Brook Road

Huntington, MA 01050

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/29/12

 

Jarvis, Mark D.

20 Clement St., Apt. B

Shelburne Falls, MA 01370

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/13/12

 

Johnson, Allen

8 Grout Circle, Apt. 1

Millers Falls, MA 01349

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

King, Christina M.

a/k/a Fillion, Christina M.

P.O. Box 224

Gilbertville, MA 01031

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/09/12

 

Lacaprucia, William C.

158 Overlook Dr.

West Springfield, MA 01089

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Laliberte, Donna M.

a/k/a Laliberte Arcoite, Donna M.

8 Birch St.

Sturbridge, MA 01566

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/02/12

 

Lapalm, Julita

a/k/a Kalinowski, Julita

72 Corey Road

Springfield, MA 01128

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/29/12

 

Long, Tanya E.

171 Higher Brook Dr.

Ludlow, MA 01056

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Madzunovic, Judy Ann

18 Cherry St.

Northampton, MA 01060

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

McCaleb, Mark Spencer

4 Gross Lane

Easthampton, MA 01027

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

McCaughey, Donald M.

McCaughey, Flavia H.

56 Fiske Hill Road

Sturbridge, MA 01566

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

McCormack, Kerry H.

57 Old Farm Road

Sturbridge, MA 01566

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/09/12

 

McHugh, Jama L.

5 Russell St.

Greenfield, MA 01301

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/13/12

 

Mestre, Monica

PO Box 495

Ludlow, MA 01056

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Miller, Michael J.

a/k/a Paradis-Miller, Kimberly G.

265 Prospect St. Ext.

Westfield, MA 01085

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/06/12

 

Monahan, James F.

Monahan, Susan C.

72 Merrick Ave.

Holyoke, MA 01040

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/05/12

 

Nordquist, Michael J.

Nordquist, Brenda S.

24 Converse St

Springfield, MA 01108

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

O’Neill, Roy F.

664 East Main St.

Chicopee, MA 01020

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/13/12

 

Palmer, Robert E.

Palmer, Charlene A.

109 Railroad Ave.

Great Barrington, MA 01230

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

Pananas, Leonidas

Pananas, Carol J.

1673 Suffield St.

Agawam, MA 01001

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

Penna, Christopher M.

16 America St., Apt E

Chicopee, MA 01013

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Pinero, Amarilys C.

44 Colony Road

West Springfield, MA 01089

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Pitchford, Amanda J.

23 3rd St.

Turners Falls, MA 01376

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

Ranney-Blake, Robert S.

139 Sandgully Road

South Deerfield, MA 01373

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

Ranney-Blake, Timothy E.

139 Sand Gully Road

South Deerfield, MA 01373

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

RHP Subcontract Services

Patriquin, Richard H.

52 Plastics Ave.

Pittsfield, MA 01201

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Rys, Robert M.

Rys, Priscilla A.

155 Ventura St.

Ludlow, MA 01056

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/11/12

 

Shaw, Robert A.

Shaw, Barbara A.

127 Burma Road

Athol, MA 01331

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 06/29/12

 

Shipp, Michelle D.

a/k/a Morton, Michelle D.

120 Moreland St.

Springfield, MA 01104

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/12/12

 

Skillings, Travis Carl

118 College Hwy.

Southampton, MA 01073

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Smith, Randolph Mark

PO Box 1105

Chicopee, MA 01021

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Smith, Rebecca Anne

20 Union St., Apt. 4

Northampton, MA 01060

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/03/12

 

Stovall, Delana J.

15 Prince St.

Springfield, MA 01109

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/11/12

 

Sullivan, Terry-Ray L.

Sullivan, Mary T.

PO Box 32

Colrain, MA 01340

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/06/12

 

Swiecanski, Edith Helen

a/k/a Miller, Edith Helen

a/k/a Durrell, Edith Helen

a/k/a Bastardi, Edith Helen

157 Riverboat Village Road

South Hadley, MA 01075

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Valle, Jo Ann

193 B North Main St.

South Deerfield, MA 01373

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/10/12

 

Walsh-Lopez, Lynn Ann

413 Batchelor St.

Granby, MA 01033

Chapter: 13

Filing Date: 06/30/12

 

Weeden, Paul M.

Weeden, Lynn M.

224 Conway St.

Greenfield, MA 01301

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 07/06/12

 

Lopez-Gonzalez, Ada Iris

310 Stafford St.

Springfield, MA 01104

Chapter: 7

Filing Date: 06/29/12

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of August 2012.

 

AGAWAM

 

Country Manor

59 South Westfield St.

Mass Country Manor LTD

 

JBC Homes

54 Roberta Circle

Johnny D. Boucher

 

Popoli Motor Sports

55 Ramah Circle

Jason Kodess

 

Spotless Cleaning Services

109 Regency Park Dr.

M. Diejuste

 

Squire’s Bistro

111 Cottonwood Lane

Frederick Withee

 

 

CHICOPEE

 

Affordable Classes

183 Baystate Road

Anthony Yacuzzo

 

On-Site PC Repair & Games

342 Front St.

Jose Aguilari Jr.

 

Spotless Cleaning Service

52 Dillon St.

Vyacheslav Paliy

 

Stop N’ Go

643 Prospect St.

Amir Paracha

 

EAST LONGMEADOW

 

AB Consultants for Education

300 Pease Road

Ann Marie D’Arco

 

MA Cheer Zone

80 Denslow Road

Catherine Reynolds

 

Punderson Landscaping

191 Pease Road

Bryan W. Punderson

 

GREENFIELD

 

Andrews Painting

46 Canada Hill Road

Michael Q. Andrews

 

Jason Cusimano Bath Fitter

1175 Bernardston Road

Jason Cusimano

 

Drop Zone

10 Fiske Ave.

Maureen Johnson

 

Greenfield Veterinary Clinic

18 French King Highway

Cindy A. Cole

 

Left Bank Consulting

278 Main St.

Joseph White

 

Mighty Clean Mutt

52 French King Highway

Megan Edson

 

The Junk Trunk

14 Chapman St.

Christopher Stevens

 

Thompson Excavating

366 Leyden Road

Milo M. Thompson Jr.

 

Valley Vintage Goods

322 Deerfield St.

Susan Jamison

 

HOLYOKE

 

Fiscal Training Solutions

4 Open Square Way

Amy Grabowski

 

Greensfield Stamp Coin

1 Martin St.

David Heffron

 

In Home Remodeling

903 Hampden St.

Richard Ahlstrom

 

Mass Discount Inc.

116 High St.

Muhammad Sabir

 

Smoke & Pipe Deals

1504 Northampton St.

Syed R. Mobeen

 

Suffolk Tailors Shop

358 High St.

Irma Gourde

 

LUDLOW

 

Core Fitness

433 Center St.

John St. Sauveur

 

Expressions Salon

271 East St.

Ilda Rosa

 

PALMER

 

Lazy Lady Farm

60 Olney Road

Paul Lukaskiewicz

 

Panhead Produce

3090 Palmer St.

Robert Schoonover

 

PDS

51 Squire St.

Jay Heinicke

 

Poetry and Paint

157 Summer St.

Denise Fontaine-Pincince

 

Robin’s Auto Body

1780 North Main St.

Robin C. Lamica

 

Spraycraft International

21 Wilbraham St.

John C. Becker IV

 

The NR Group

43 French Dr.

Nathan Olson

 

Tyburski’s Countryside Bakery

4175 Pleasant St.

Thomas J. Tyburski

 

Yield Management Corp.

21 Wilbraham St.

Robert W. Brown

 

SOUTHWICK

 

Ablon Technologies

18 Sheep Pasture Road

John Parker

 

SPRINGFIELD

 

Acres Dental Care

1954 Wilbraham Road

James E. Maslowski

 

Altisimo Barber Shop

12 Orange St.

Omar Soto

 

Bautista Grocery

306 Belmont Ave.

Gustavo Bautista

 

Bethania’s Market

2595 Main St.

Julio C. Rodriguez

 

Brother’s Market

106 Oak Grove Ave.

Christian Jimenez

 

Bytes Knight Technology

68 Cleveland St.

Irma I. Alvarado

 

Cedar Auto Sales LLC

173 Spring St.

Ali Mourad

 

 

Chabela’s Beauty Salon

158 Chesnut St.

Lucrecia Martinez

 

Chestnut Package Store

95 Chestnut St.

Ghassoub Mouneimneh

 

Cody DeCesare

140 Chestnut St.

Cody G. DeCesare

 

Cumberland Farms

798 Carew St.

John Daly

 

Dakin Pioneer Valley

171 Union St.

Valere J. Dahl

 

David Stansbury Photography

162 Chestnut St.

David A. Stansbury

 

Deb’s Jewelry Designs

35 Chalfonte Dr.

Deborah A. Morrissey

 

Devine Home Improvement

38 Louis Road

Shawn P. Devine

 

Dogg Shop Music Spot

463 State St.

Harry Valentin

 

DiLaura Soap Company

245 Roosevelt Ave.

Tunzala Eynula

 

El Caribeno Restaurant

858 State St.

Ramon E. Lopez

 

Fancy Nail

1655 Boston Road

Thi M. Tai

 

Fed Ex Office

1383 Main St.

Lady J. Swift

 

Fennix

397 Main St.

Manuel B. Ofonso

 

Forest Park Pet Sitters

151 Sumner Ave.

Jennifer Vose

 

Great Masonry

87 Tylor St.

Windell Westbrook

 

WESTFIELD

 

Kathy’s Nails Salon & Spa

85 Main St.

Katheryne H. Bernier

 

Northside Creamery

519 Southampton Road

Joseph Mancino

 

WEST SPRINGFIELD

 

Bargain Cellular

667 Westfield St.

Swostik R. Magar

 

Performance Rehabilitation of W.N.

124 Myron St.

James Biron

 

Pintus Indian Palace

25 Park Ave.

Sarabjit Chawla

 

Rent a Center

895 Riverdale St.

Ricardo Cordon

 

Speech & Language Center

171 Interstate Dr.

Deborah Mode

 

Westside Check Cashing

205 Elm St.

JMT Check Cashing Inc.

Departments Incorporations

The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.

 

AMHERST

 

Amherst Baseball Inc., 21 Sacco Dr. Amherst, MA 01002. Stanley Ziomek, 180 Montague Road, Amherst, MA 01002. To support, organize, and promote youth baseball programs in the town of Amherst.

 

CHICOPEE

 

DX Express Inc., 172 Prospect St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Dmitriy Kudrya, same.

 

Powerclean Fitness Inc., 585 Sheridan St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Michael Zoliewicz, same. Provide services in the areas of personal and group training, exercise, and physical fitness for clients and the public.

 

Qualconcepts Inc., 1059 James St., Chicopee, MA 01022. Ariel Castro-Toro, same.

 

EAST LONGMEADOW

 

Western Mass Pest Services Inc., 30 High Meadow Circle, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Jeffrey C. McCorkindale, same. Pest-control-services business.

 

GREENFIELD

 

Northwestern Juvenile Fire Intervention, Response, Education, and Safety Partenership Inc., 412 Main St., Greenfield, MA 01301. Michael Winn, 67 West Mountain Road, Bernardston, MA 01337. Also known as “nofires” is organized exclusively to protect our youth, their families, and communities from dangerous and sometimes fatal juvenile fire-related behavior. Also provides fire-related and life-safety assessment, prevention, education, and intervention services

 

HADLEY

 

Connecticut River Valley Dentists, PC, 138 Russel St., Hadley, MA 01035. Ambreen Bawa DDS, same. General dental practice.

 

LUDLOW

 

Danmar Inc., 288 Woodland Circle, Ludlow, MA 01056. Daniel Dias, same. Real estate holding company.

 

NORTH ADAMS

 

Berkshire Organizing Project Inc., 61 Main St., Suite 218, North Adams, MA 01105. Wendy Krom, 45 Willow Lane, Cheshire, MA 01225. Established to unite religious, labor, and community organizations rooted in faith and democratic values; to strengthen their voice in decisions that shape the communities of the Berkshire region of Massachusetts.

 

NORTHAMPTON

 

Icon Wheelchairs Inc., 115 Bridge St., Northampton, MA 01060. Jeffrey Adams, same. Manufacturing and sales of wheelchairs

 

The Young Scholars Fund Inc., 92 Marian St., C/O David Cohen, Northampton, MA 01060. David Cohen, same. To provide incentive and continued support for selected school children to complete their education through college.

 

PITTSFIELD

 

Christophers Family Restaurant Inc., 256 Robbins Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Anthony Vito Maffuccio, same. Restaurant.

 

SPRINGFIELD

 

Bertelli Realty Group Inc., 838 Main St., Springfield, MA 01105. Brent J Bertelli, Same. Real estate.

 

Derribando Fronteras Con Canticos & Alabanzas Inc., 414 Chestnut St., Springfield, MA 01104. Fernando Hernandez, same. Non-profit religious ministry.

 

Globus Dental Care Springfield, PC., 1795 Main St., Suite 101, Springfield, MA 01103. Ranganayaki Chirumamilla, same. Dental care services.

 

Grind Life Music Inc., 182 Daviston St., Springfield, MA 01108. Chris Howard Jr., same. Promote the development of professional artists within the community and the Commonwealth.

 

Radhakrishna Enterprises Inc., 340 Cooley St., Springfield, MA 01128. Bipinkumar Patel, same. Dry cleaning and retail garment sales.

 

Rose Fashion Gallery Inc., 1655 Boston Road, Suite 128 Eastfield Mall, Springfield, MA 01129. Koon Kim, same. Retail sales of women’s accessories.

 

Whatarmy Inc., 819 Worcester St., Sprinfield, MA 01151. Christopher Merrill, 10 Balsam Dr., Bedford, MA 01730. Internet and IT services for small businesses.

 

SOUTH HADLEY

 

DJC Builders Inc., 21 Mountain View St., South Hadley, MA 01075. David J. Capriati, same. General contractor

 

SOUTH DEERFIELD

 

Playonbrother Inc., 2-B Duncan Dr., South Deerfield, MA 01373. Alan Evans, same. Music and entertainment touring company.

 

STURBRIDGE

 

Rousseau & Marino, P.C., 49 Main St., Sturbridge, MA 01566. Matthew S. Rousseau, 10 Governor Fairbanks Road, Brimfield, MA 01010. General law practice.

 

ORANGE

 

Dana Despres Construction Inc., 33 Summit St, Orange, MA 01364. Dana Despres, same. Construction services.

 

WARE

 

Growing a New Heart Inc., 97 Church St., Ware, MA 01082. Judith A Patrissi, same. Consulting with designing and facilitating victim-service projects.

 

WEST SPRINGFIELD

 

John P. Frangie, M.D., P.C., 1132 Westfield St., West Springfield, MA 01089. John P. Frangie, same. Ophthalmology and eye-care services and treatments.

 

La Prestiges Inc., 553 Union St., West Springfield, MA 01089. Yelena Ivanov, same. Beauty salon.

 

WINCHESTER

 

ISearch Systems Inc., 11 Charles Road, Winchester, MA 01890. Arpit Laddha, same. Staffing services.

Features
South Hadley & Granby Chamber Relies on Support

Susan Stockman and Steven Markow

Susan Stockman and Steven Markow say the chamber relies on a support network woven from about 100 mostly small businesses and organizations in the two towns.

Steven Markow was talking about life as a small-business owner in a small community. And to make his point about what he liked most about that life, he recalled a recent episode at the supermarket.

“A customer came up to me, called me by name, and said, ‘I need your help; I’ve broken my glasses,’” said Markow, an optometrist and owner of Village Eye Care in South Hadley. “I really like that. It’s just what I love about living and having a business in a small town; my customers can come up to me in the grocery store, and I know them by name, and I can know right away what they need.”

The business community in South Hadley and neighboring Granby is dominated by such small businesses, he went on, noting that, while this constituency certainly contributes to the social fabric of those towns, it creates challenges, as well as opportunities, for the South Hadley & Granby Chamber of Commerce, which he will serve as president beginning in January.

Elaborating, he said that, while the chamber has some larger members — Mount Holyoke College would definitely be in that category — most of the 100 businesses and organizations involved with the chamber would be considered small if not very small. This creates fiscal challenges (dues are set based on overall employment figures) and limitations on overall support for chamber initiatives, he noted, adding that what this chamber lacks in terms of a membership base and large companies, it makes up with imagination, energy, and resourcefulness.

Those were some of the words chosen by the chamber’s part-time executive director and only employee, Susan Stockman, former director of Corporate Communications for Yankee Candle. She said the chamber is able to carry out its broad mission of serving members and promoting the business community through the donations of time, talent, resources, and vision from supporters such as Mount Holyoke and its president, Lynn Pasquerella, who Stockman refers to as “a dynamo.”

“A while back, she opened her home to our members, and it was a highly attended networking event,” Stockman explained. “We have to rely on others in the community to support us in various ways so we can support our members. The police and fire department, South Hadley School Band, and even our small group of volunteers that produce the annual Holiday Stroll [an outdoor winter festival filled with music, shopping discounts, and food in the Village Commons], they all help.”

Markow agreed. “We take advantage of working as a group, and we’ve even gained members who want to help with the Holiday Stroll, which helps to develop our betterment goals for the community.”

For this issue’s Getting Down to Business focus, BusinessWest talked with Stockman and Markow about this support network that has evolved over the years, and how it is integral to the chamber’s efforts to help improve quality of life in South Hadley and Granby.

 

It Takes A Village

When Stockman retired from Yankee Candle in the fall of 2005, it took less than four months, even through the typically busy holiday season, for her to realize that full days of downtime were not for her.

“I was so bored, I couldn’t stand it,” she told BusinessWest. “But this opportunity came about, and I had a good deal of experience working with the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, since Yankee Candle was the largest employer in that area.”

Her background in corporate communications at the renowned tourist attraction was a good fit for the town of South Hadley, and since the position was only part-time, skills that included effectively communicating business objectives and working with volunteers through past chamber functions were welcomed, said Stockman.

But the road hasn’t been easy. “We’re very different from every other chamber in the region in that we are not in a tourism area, and that doesn’t offer us any funding sources, like the state funding that Springfield or even the Berkshires receive.”

But Markow adds that what South Hadley lacks in tourism destinations, it makes up for in the nationally recognized college — Mount Holyoke — and the aforementioned high quality of life and atmosphere that both towns offer. While Granby may be more of an agricultural community, it recently became the new home of the MacDuffie School, a highly respected, private, international boarding high school, which relocated from downtown Springfield.

Markow says there are still many businesses in Granby, but those come with what he calls “outreach issues.”

“Granby has plenty of business, but it tends to be home-based, like contractors, electricians, and plumbers — those businesses that are service-related,” he explained. “And with just a part-time executive director and those of us in the chamber who are already very busy running our own businesses, it’s difficult to go out and speak to them about the pluses of being with the chamber.”

Still, membership has held fairly steady in recent years, despite some losses prompted by the Great Recession.

“It’s been a hard time for many, but most of those that we lost are small, one-person businesses or those that had personal or family concerns,” said Stockman, who noted that membership, which was at 125 a few years ago, is now closer to 100. She noted a spate of recent closings or businesses restructurings, mostly in the restaurant industry along the Route 202 corridor. “But already, we see new businesses taking over those spaces — a gourmet deli, for one — and that is encouraging.”

Overall, membership is just one of the areas where the chamber relies on its members and volunteers to help grow membership and otherwise enable the chamber to carry out its mission, said Markow. “It’s as a group that we can make progress.”

Stockman noted that even the small town of Greenfield has a paid official charged with business development. “We are that person for South Hadley and Granby.”

Despite these challenges, the chamber has been able to bring value to members — and help many small businesses mature and grow — by enabling them to make contacts, largely through a host of formal and informal networking events, as well as informational sessions designed to keep them abreast of issues impacting all businesses in the Commonwealth.

“We’ve had a lot of success over the past few years with our Beyond Business monthly events (essentially an after-5 networking event), and we are very flexible with the days, but members do help out.”

She offered a recent example of group-effort support: Chris Brunelle, owner of Brunelle’s Marina, offered the Lady Bea vessel (on which the company provides cruises down the Connecticut River) as the venue for a networking cruise event on August 28, which will keep the cost of the event down for members.

 

School Is in Session

Stockman is also preparing for a special Beyond Business at the Old Firehouse Museum in September that will honor premier members. But aside from the networking and recognition, Stockman said there are two standout events in the chamber’s educational program: an annual legislative breakfast, which offers members an update on the political landscape from state Rep. John Sciback and state Sen. Stan Rosenberg (who missed this past spring’s event due to cancer treatments); and the annual Economic Forum, now in its sixth year, which features Mount Holyoke College Professor James Hartley.

“The Economic Forum is especially well-received due to Jim Hartley, who heads the department of Economics and, in fact, was recently named as one of the best 300 professors in the nation by the Princeton Review,” Stockman told BusinessWest.

Indeed, that book, The Best 300 Professors, compiled by the well-regarded Princeton Review, lists no less than 14 Mount Holyoke College professors, more than any college in the Commonwealth listed in that publication.

It is through this high caliber of talent within the South Hadley and Granby area, Markow noted — not just from the large businesses like Mount Holyoke College, but from enterprises of all sizes — that the chamber is able to pool support that helps to educate and better the business and personal lives of those in the area, even if they aren’t chamber members.

“I’m really proud of the quality of life in this community,” he said. “We’re working to make both towns a more attractive place to live and work.”

As a final example, Markow mentioned that, even though he doesn’t own a dog, he suggested that the chamber help make possible the creation of a dog park, a concept he says is becoming increasingly popular in towns across the nation, and certainly a act of ‘betterment’ in the community.

“Dogs these days, with all the town policies, rarely have a chance to be off-leash, and while we can’t take this all on ourselves, we’ll help to facilitate and get it going,” he said.

While every program, initiative, or event isn’t exactly a walk in the park, so to speak, Stockman says each effort — small or large and usually group-oriented — is just one more step in the right direction for the chamber and the communities it serves.

 

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Company Notebook Departments

Sip, Clip & Go! Coffee Launched

SOUTH HADLEY — Karen Lynn, a South Hadley resident, recently announced the launch of  Sip, Clip & Go! Coffee,  a niche brand of coffee geared specifically for the cycling community. The coffee is 100% fair-trade and organic. Additionally, Lynn pledges that 1% of all coffee profits will be donated to Bikes Belong, a nonprofit organization that helps build bicycle-friendly communities. “I created Sip, Clip & Go! Coffee to cater specifically to the cycling community” said Lynn, an avid cyclist for 12 years and long-time coffee lover. “There is an intrinsic cultural link between coffee and cycling. I think part of it is that coffee and cycling accomplish the same thing — they inspire conversation, collaboration, and connection.  I’ve always enjoyed the sense of shared community that cycling has brought into my life, and Sip Clip & Go! Coffee seeks to pay homage and contribute back to that very community.” Lynn works with local roasters in the Pioneer Valley to create the various blends of Sip Clip and Go! Three blends are currently being offered, all with cycling-centric names: Crank Set, Off the Chain, and Carbon-Free Commuter. Additionally, ceramic mugs and stainless-steel tumblers are available to order on the Web site. Sip Clip & Go! Coffee is available for sale primarily through the Web site. Plans to place the coffee into bicycle shops are Lynn’s next step. “I’ll be reaching out to local bike shops over the coming weeks; after establishing the product locally, I’ll branch out from there.” The coffee retails for $12.99 for a 12 oz. bag of whole-bean or ground coffee, and Lynn plans to utilize social-media outlets like Twitter and Facebook to announce online coupons or promotional discounts. For additional information, or to inquire about carrying Sip, Clip & Go! Coffee in sport and bike shops, e-mail [email protected].

 

Springfield Museums Awarded $150,000 Grant

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Museums have been awarded a highly competitive Museums for America grant of $150,000 from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) toward the creation and installation of “The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss,” an interactive, literacy-based exhibit for children. The 3,200-square-foot, bilingual exhibition is designed to instill a love of reading and introduce children and their families to the stories of Springfield-born author Theodor Seuss Geisel. “The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss” will provide opportunities to explore new vocabulary, play rhyming games, invent stories, and engage in activities that encourage teamwork and creative thinking. Upgrades to a companion Web site, www.catinthehat.org, will provide interactive games for children as well as educational resources for teachers. When fund-raising for the project has been completed, the new exhibit will be installed on the first floor of the Pynchon Building, formerly the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The grants are awarded through competitive peer review. Out of 470 applicants to the Museums for America program, fewer than one-third were funded. “The projects selected represent a wide spectrum of activities that will help museums serve their communities better through exhibitions and community-outreach programs, collections-management activities, and behind-the-scenes projects,” said IMLS Director Susan Hildreth. The Springfield Museums is a nonprofit organization that includes the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, the Springfield Science Museum, the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, the Pynchon Building, and the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden.

 

Hampden Bank

Reports 130% Increase

in Net Income

SPRINGFIELD — Hampden Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Hampden Bank, recently announced the results of operations for the three and 12 months ended June 30. The company had an $882,000 increase in net income for the three months ended June 30, to $909,000, or $0.16 per fully diluted share, as compared to $27,000, or $0.00 per fully diluted share, for the same period in 2011. The company had a $1.7 million, or 129.5%, increase in net income for the year ended June 30, 2012 to $3.0 million, or $0.51 per fully diluted share, as compared to $1.3 million, or $0.21 per fully diluted share, for the same period in 2011. The company’s total assets increased $42.6 million, or 7.4%, from $573.3 million at June 30, 2011 to $616.0 million at June 30, 2012. Securities increased $31.9 million, or 28.5%, to $143.9 million. Net loans, including loans held for sale, increased $9.2 million, or 2.3%, to $407.3 million at June 30, 2012. Due to interest-rate risk, the company has decided to sell the majority of its current originations of long-term fixed-rate mortgages and has sold $23.2 million of fixed-rate mortgages during the year ended June 30, 2012. Non-performing assets totaled $4.1 million, or 0.67% of total assets, at June 30, 2012 compared to $7.5 million, or 1.30% of total assets, at June 30, 2011. Total non-performing assets included $2.3 million of non-performing loans and $1.8 million of other real estate owned. From June 30, 2011 to June 30, 2012, commercial real-estate non-performing loans decreased $1.5 million, residential mortgage non-performing loans decreased $1.4 million, commercial non-performing loans decreased $769,000, and consumer — including home-equity and manufactured homes — non-performing loans decreased $294,000. Deposits increased $17.6 million, or 4.2%, to $434.8 million at June 30, 2012 from $417.3 million at June 30, 2011. Savings accounts increased $12.3 million, demand deposits increased $8.8 million, money-market accounts increased $7.7 million, and NOW accounts increased $4.5 million. Certificates of deposits decreased $15.7 million. During the year ended June 30, 2012, the company purchased 812,750 shares of company stock for $10.2 million, at an average price of $12.52 per share, pursuant to the company’s previously announced stock repurchase programs.

 

3 Area Companies Named Employers of Choice

EAST LONGMEADOW — Four Massachusetts businesses, including three from Western Mass., have been selected as Employer of Choice Award recipients by the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. The winners — People’s Bank of Holyoke, Sanderson-MacLeod Inc. of Palmer, Savage Arms of

Westfield, and Seven Hills Foundation of Worcester — will receive their awards at the chamber’s Business Summit in September at the Resort and Conference Center in Hyannis. Recognition as an Employer of Choice provides statewide visibility for companies that have developed a culture for transforming and rewarding employee performance. The categories of focus are company culture, training and development, communication, job, recognition/rewards, life-work balance, and Employer-of-Choice-related results. Debra Boronski, president of the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, said the three-step process ensures that only the best companies are selected. “After an initial application with basic questions relating to Employer of Choice, we select semifinalists and submit additional, more-detailed, questions. We narrow that down to a smaller group and conduct on-site interviews with all the finalists to verify and ultimately select the winners.” Employers who have been in business for at least three years and have a minimum of 25 employees are eligible to participate. The size of a company and its resources are taken into consideration in the screening and selection process. Awards are given in two sectors: Manufacturing and Non-manufacturing/Service. The Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Summit is a three-day gathering (Sept. 9-11) of business professionals from across the state, as well as state and local elected officials and representatives from the Mass. Office of Economic Development. This year, the summit will feature relevant panel discussions on health care cost containment, how to leverage social media, and an employer’s legal responsibilities. For more information and to register for the summit, contact Boronski at (617) 512-9667 or (413) 426-3850, or visit www.massachusettschamberofcommerce.com.

Chamber Corners Departments

ACCGS

www.myonlinechamber.com

(413) 787-1555

 

• Sept.  5: Business@Breakfast, 7:15 a.m. – 9 a.m. at the Springfield Sheraton. Guest speaker will be George O’Brien, editor of BusinessWest magazine. Cost is $20 for members, $30 for non-members.

• Sept. 13: ACCGS Board of Directors Meeting, 8-9 a.m. Location TBD.

• Sept. 14: ACCGS Legislative Steering Committee, 8-9 a.m. at the TD Bank Conference Center, Springfield.

• Sept. 19: ERC Board of Directors Meeting, 8-9 a.m. at the Gardens of Wilbraham.

• Sept. 28: ERC5 Chamber Annual Golf Classic, at the Country Club of Wilbraham. Registration is at 11:30 a.m., with a 12:15 shotgun start. Cost is $110 for golfers. To register and for sponsor information, contact Roberto Nieves at (413) 755-1318.

 

AMHERST AREA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.amherstarea.com

(413) 253-0700

 

• Sept. 25: Chamber Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m. at the Lord Jeffery Inn, 30 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. Introducing UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who assumed his role on July 1. He is the 11th chancellor of the flagship campus. Tickets are $12 for members, $15 for non-members.

 

CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.chicopeechamber.org

(413) 594-2101

 

• Sept. 13: The Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce Annual Auction and Wine, Beer & Spirit Tasting, 6-9 p.m. at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, 500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke. Music by the Eric Bascom Jazz Trio. Bid on great auction items including Red Sox tickets, restaurant gift certificates, golf clubs, massages, gift baskets, and more. Sample wine, beer, and spirits from Berkshire Brewing, Commercial Distributing, Commonwealth Wine & Spirits, Opa-Opa, V1 Vodka, and Williams Distributing. Discounted tickets at $35 must be purchased in advance by calling (413) 594-2101 or online at www.chicopeechamber.org. Tickets will be $40 at the door.

 

FRANKLIN COUNTY

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.franklincc.org

(413) 773-5463

 

• Sept. 21: Chamber Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., at the Franklin County Tech School, Turners Falls.

 

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.easthamptonchamber.org

(413) 527-9414

 

• Sept. 13: Networking by Night Business Card Exchange “Fall Fling,” 5-7 p.m. at Opa-Opa Steakhouse & Brewery, 169 College Highway, Southampton. Sponsored by All About You, LLC. Door prizes, Hors d’ouevres. Tickets are $5 for members, $15 for non-members.

• Sept. 14: Karrin Allyson & Amherst Jazz Orchestra Bear Fest 2012 Concert, 7 p.m. at the White Brook Middle School, 200 Park St., Easthampton. Sponsored by the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce. Tickets are $15 for general admission. For tickets and more Bear Fest info, visit www.easthamptonbearfest.com

 

Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce

www. holycham.com

(413) 534-3376

 

• Sept. 12: Legislative Coffee Hour, 7:45-9:15 a.m. at the Summit View, 555 Northampton St. Sponsored by Dowd Insurance Agency and Loomis Communities.
Featuring local elected officials discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the Commonwealth, Holyoke, and our businesses in the months ahead. Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for non-members. Call Wanda Zabawa at (413) 534-3376 for reservations, or register online at holyokechamber.com.

 

• Sept. 19: Holyoke Chamber Clambake, 5-7:30 p.m. at Holyoke Country Club
Presented by United Water and sponsored by Holyoke Gas & Electric and Westfield Bank, this seafood feast features lobster, steamers, clam chowder, make-your-own strawberry shortcake bar, and much more. Raffle prizes; $1,000 cash prize putting contest; and 50/50 Raffle. Get ninne holes of golf and a cart for only $15. Tickets are $30. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to reserve tickets, or register online at holyokechamber.com.

 

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.explorenorthampton.com

(413) 584-1900

 

• Sept. 10: New Member Info Session, noon to 1 p.m. This is the chance to tell us more about your business and how the chamber can best serve you, meet other new members and learn how to make to the most of your chamber membership. A light lunch will be served. RSVP to (413) 584-1900 or [email protected]. For more information, visit www.explorenorthampton.com.

• Sept. 12: Northampton Chamber Monthly Arrive @5, 5-7 p.m. at the Northampton Athletic Club, 306 King St., Northampton. Arrive when you can, stay as long as you can. A casual mix and mingle with colleagues and friends. Sponsored by United Bank, United Personnel, and Dietz & Co. Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

 

NORTHAMPTON AREA YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY

www.thenayp.com

(413) 584-1900

 

• Sept. 13: September Networking Social. Location TBD.

 

PROFESSSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER

www.professionalwomenschamber.com

(413) 755-1310

 

• Sept. 19: Professional Women’s Chamber Luncheon, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m, at the MassMutual Room at Max’s Tavern. Keynote Speaker is Carla Oleska, CEO of the Women’s Fund. Tickets are $25 for PWC members, $35 for non-members.

 

QUABOAG HILLS

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.qvcc.biz

(413) 283-2418

 

• Sept. 14: 2012 QHCC Annual Golf Tournament, at Cold Spring Country Club, 336 Chauncey Walker St., Belchertown. Sponsored by Monson Savings Bank. Please consider sponsoring this event early. Enjoy a relaxing day of golf at the newest golf course in the area. Registration is at 10 a.m., shotgun start at 11. Dinner is at approximately 4 p.m. To register, contact [email protected], or call (413) 283-2418 for more information. Win this tournament, and your team can display the first QHCC championship trophy.

 

SOUTH HADLEY/GRANBY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.shchamber.com

(413) 532-6451

 

• Sept. 18: Beyond Business, 5-7 p.m., at the the Old Firehouse Museum, 4 North Main St., South Hadley. Honor our premier members. Invitations will follow with details.

 

THREE RIVERS

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.threeriverschamber.org

(413) 283-6425

 

• Sept. 3: Chamber meeting, 7- 8 p.m., at the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce Office, 2376 Main St., Three Rivers.

 

WEST OF THE RIVER

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.ourwrc.com

(413) 426-3880

 

• Sept. 4: Membership Committee Meeting. Monthly committee meeting to dicsuss membership recruitment, retention, and incentive programs. If you would like to join this committee, e-mail [email protected] for more information.

• Sept. 5: Education Committee Meeting. Committee meets to address how the WRC will support and promote educational activities within Agawam and West Springfield. If you would like to join this committee, e-mail [email protected] for more information.

• Sept. 13: Programs Committee Meeting. Committee meets to discuss and develop WRC’s membership meetings, events, and promotions. If you would like to join this committee, e-mail [email protected] for more information.

• Sept. 13: Economic Development Committee Meeting. Committee meets to address how WRC can enhance the economic development of Agawam and West Springfield. If you would like to join this committee, e-mail [email protected] for more information.

• Sept. 20: Economic Development Committee Meeting.

• Sept. 21: Executive Committee Meeting. A closed committee meeting of the chairman of the board, vice chairman, previous chairman, secretary, and treasurer. If you have something you would like addressed at this meeting, e-mail [email protected].

• Sept. 25: Board of Directors Retreat. A closed meeting of the board of directors. If you have something you would like to see addressed at this meeting, e-mail [email protected], and your comments and questions will be forwarded appropriately.

 

GREATER WESTFIELD

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.westfieldbiz.org

(413) 568-1618

 

• Sept. 10: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m. at Tim & Jeanne’s Dining Commons, Westfield State University, 577 Western Ave., Westfield. The guest speaker will be Mayor Knapik, who will bring chamber members and guests up to date on the city of Westfield. The event is free, but a full-service breakfast and coffee is available for $3.50 cash (no debit or credit cards accepted) in the dining commons. The event is open to the public. Contact Pam Bussell at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected] to register or for more information.

• Sept. 13: Downtown Comes to Campus, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Westfield State University will showcase 18 downtown vendors in the Tim & Jeanne’s Dining Commons to students, staff and faculty. The event is free. There will be giveaways, raffle prizes, and demonstrations. Contact Pam Bussell at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected] for more information.

• Sept. 14: Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce September Breakfast. Registration is at 7:15 a.m., and the program begins at 7:50. Hosted by the  104th  Fighter Wing, Air National Guard Base, 175 Falcon Dr., Westfield. Sponsors: Platinum Sponsor, Westfield Bank; Silver Sponsors: Easthampton Savings Bank, Field Eddy Insurance, Noble Hospital, United Way, Walmart, and Westfield Gas & Electric; Bronze Sponsors: Expert Tire and Renaissance Manor. Speaker: Brian Barnes, Airport Manager, Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport. Tickets are $25 for chamber members, $30 cash for non-members. Contact Pam Bussell at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected] for tickets or for more information.

• Sept. 19: Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce WestNet After 5 Networking Event, 5-7 p.m., at Stevens 470 Marketing & Creative, 470 Southampton Road,

Westfield. Speaker: Karen Rubin, executive director, Amelia Park Children’s Museum. Tickets: chamber members, $10, non-members $15 cash. Contact Pam Bussell at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected] for tickets or for more information.

Cover Story
Entrepreneur Matches People with Business Opportunities

BW0812bCOVER
More than a decade ago, after the downsizing of his family’s business, Serv-U, Steve Rosenkrantz was trying to decide what to do next. He knew he wanted to run his own business, but didn’t know exactly which path to take. He enlisted the help of a company called Entrepreneur’s Source, which links clients with franchises — and the franchise they linked him with was Entrepreneur’s Source. Since then, he’s helped dozens of couples and individuals take charge of their lives and turn dreams into reality.

Tim Scussel still has many good things to say about the McDonald’s corporation.
“They were great … they made me an owner when I had no money,” said Scussel, who would eventually go on to operate three outlets for the fast-food chain — one at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield and the others in Enfield.
But things didn’t end well between Scussel and the company. Indeed, frustrated by what he considered unreasonable demands for him to essentially tear down and rebuild one of the Enfield locations — among many other things — the franchisee eventually sold out and commenced a search designed to identify what he would do next in terms of business ownership.
He didn’t know exactly what he wanted, but he had some parameters. He wanted to remain the kind of hands-on operator he was at McDonald’s — “I was at the stores every day; I was behind the counter working most days,” he said. But he also wanted a franchise, or corporate parent, that was more supportive and less combative. Meanwhile, he and his wife and full business partner, MaryAnn, desired fewer hours, a considerable drop in the number of times their beepers went off, and, overall, far greater control of their own destiny.
And Steve Rosenkrantz managed to find all that for them in an outfit called The Maids Home Services.
As the name suggests, this is a company that provides cleaning services, in this case for mostly residential clients. The Scussels now manage two such franchises, one serving Western Mass. and the other in the Greater Hartford area.
They arrived at this stage thanks to a process that Rosenkrantz, himself a franchisee with a company called Entrepreneur’s Source, describes with a number of words, phrases, and acronyms (like ILWE — income, lifestyle, wealth, and equity — more on that later), but boils down succinctly by saying that he helps people take charge of their lives.

Judy and Peter Yaffe

Judy and Peter Yaffe had never worked with seniors or the disabled before taking over a franchise of Homewatch Caregivers.

And by that, he meant that he often helps people transition from the corporate world to the realm of entrepreneurship. Put another way, he said he provides people with the resources to take a dream and make it reality.
Elaborating, he described his role as being not that of a consultant, but rather much more like a life coach and business coach combined. “People tell me what they want their life to be like,” he told BusinessWest, adding that, through an exhaustive process that could last from a few months to several years, he helps them find that life.
“We call ourselves coaches, not consultants,” he explained. “I think of a consultant as someone who’s an expert in a certain area, brought in to fix something; they get compensated, and they leave. A coach, quite simply, puts up guardrails on the highway and lets the client steer the car. We provide the inspiration.”
And very often, it’s with a business they would never have imagined being in.
Such was the case with the Scussels, and also with Jim Brennan and Rick Crews, two local businessmen, neither with anything approaching a background in health care, who wound up starting a Doctor’s Express franchise and now have several locally and in the Boston area.
And it was that way with Peter and Judy Yaffe, who had never worked with seniors or the disabled, but now operate a franchise of Homewatch Caregivers based in West Springfield. Over the course of roughly a decade in business, they’ve expanded into larger quarters twice, and now have eight office employees and about 100 caregivers in the field, who provide non-medical services to more than 80 clients a week, on average. And like most who have made the transition from employee to employer, they thoroughly enjoy that status.
“It was really a rush at the beginning — I really enjoyed the idea of not working for anyone else,” said Peter. “It was a complete and utter change for me, a 180-degree shift from what I had been accustomed to, and I loved it. I loved the free expression and the independence, and the idea of not needing a committee of people to agree with what I wanted to do. It was extremely exhilarating and stimulating.”
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at Rosenkrantz’s entrepreneurial gambit, taken just over a decade ago, and how he assists others when they arrive at what he called the “career crossroads.”

Franchise Players

Tim and MaryAnn Scussel

Entrepreneur’s Source helped Tim and MaryAnn Scussel find a career that offers them far greater control over their own destiny.

As part of his efforts to market himself and stay in touch with clients and potential clients, Rosenkrantz sends out a number of company-produced correspondences that blend words and pictures to get some messages across — and remind people that he’s there and available for free consultation. Together, they pretty much tell the story of what he does and, to a large extent, how he does it.
There’s one with three portable toilets on the front and the headline, “you don’t have to love a product or service to capitalize on it.”
“Some people think you have to have an emotional connection to a business to be successful; the reality is, successful people are ‘in the business of business’ — they don’t have a love affair with the product of service,” it reads on the back. “The type of business you choose is less important than its ability to get you where you want to be.”
There’s another with that time-honored image of a needle in a haystack, with the headline “finding new career directions can be a little daunting.”
“On their own, most people find themselves wasting time, looking in all the wrong places,” it reads on the back. “They hunt for the business that will make them successful. But the business doesn’t make you successful: you make yourself successful. The business is just a vehicle.”
And then, there’s the one with a monster under a child’s bed and the one-word headline “boo!” On the back, the card explains what Rosenkrantz calls the FEAR (false evidence appearing real) factor. “Fears need a reality check,” the missive explains. “Exploring change can be uncomfortable, stirring up feelings like fear. But just because you have a feeling doesn’t mean events will bear it out. Give yourself permission to dream a little. We’ll take care of the monsters.”
In essence, what Rosenkrantz has been doing for the past 11 years is putting a strong touch of reality to all that hyperbole and, in the process, encouraging people to dream a little and help make their dreams real. Perhaps it’s best summed up with one more of those correspondences, the one with a closeup of a doorknob and the simple message, “you can’t open new doors with a closed mind.”
Opening minds to the full range of franchise opportunities has become an art and a science for Rosenkrantz, a process he knows intimately, because he went through it, from the other side of the desk — figuratively speaking, because most of his work is now carried out virtually, and there is no desk.
The story starts with the dramatic downsizing of what was once a chain of Serv-U hardware and home-improvement stores, owned and managed by Rosenkrantz and five cousins. When most of those pieces were sold off — a locksmith operation and decorating center remain — Rosenkrantz commenced a search for what to do next and turned to Entrepreneur’s Source for some guidance.
Like many of the people he now helps, he was intent on being in business for himself, and in an interesting twist of fate, one of the franchise opportunities put in front of him to consider was Entrepreneur’s Source.
“I was a model client; I went through the whole process in 2001,” he explained. “And I liked it so much that I said to my Entrepreneur’s Source coach, ‘I want to do what you’re doing.’ And he said that, coincidentally, one of the opportunities he had for me was that company.”
Over the past 11 years, Rosenkrantz, who is paid by franchisors when successful matches has made, has helped script many transition stories for individuals and couples, following those axioms printed on the company’s correspondences, especially the ones about keeping an open mind and finding opportunities in places that one wouldn’t expect.
And as he talked about what he does, he returned to that notion of being a life coach and business coach rolled into one.
“We are very empathetic about our clients,” he explained. “We get to understand what their emotions are, where they’ve been, and where they want to go to. It’s more than just looking at a résumé; it’s understanding the whole personal and family dynamics to be the best of our ability, to then fit the right business culture to their personality and what drives them. We don’t just throw ideas at them … we find out what makes them tick.”
And with that, he summoned that acronym (or phrase) ILWE, which pinpoints the four things he works to help people find.
“What we tell people is that you can have a great job and get the first two — income and, if it’s the right kind of job that gives you flexibility and autonomy, the lifestyle as well. What you generally can’t build as easily in the working-for-someone-else corporate world are the last two, wealth and equity.
“Building equity is about something of substance that you call yours,” he continued. “It’s your business to sell, or hand down to your children, to do what you want. Often, the first thing people say to me is, ‘the appeal to me of owning a business is that I want a clear, 10-year exit plan on my terms, not someone else’s.’”

At Home with the Idea
Many of these factors came into play with the Yaffes, who together launched a search for a business to run after Peter parted ways with Casual Corner in the fall of 2001 after a 20-year stint in which he served in many roles, including director of merchandise control.
Finding a job, especially one with the salary and benefits he was earning, wasn’t easy in the downturn that followed 9/11, said Yaffe, who told BusinessWest that his search took on a different complexion after he took in a PowerPoint presentation given by Rosenkrantz at a meeting involving the outplacement group he was involved with.
“I had never owned a business, but my background was a really good background for owning one,” he explained. “I just didn’t understand the product or service — but you can learn the product or service more easily than you can gain the financial background.”
The next step was a host of questions that comprise a big part of what Rosenkrantz calls the “discovery process.” Such questions cover everything from personal and financial background to the type of business the potential client believes he or she would be suited for and like to pursue.
“He has 500 franchises in his database, and he came up with five he wanted me to validate,” said Yaffe, adding that, while a few of these sparked some interest, he eventually asked for five more. That first batch included a paint business, a stained-glass operation, and a health-and-wellness outfit with a name that escaped him.
“Inches Away … Pounds Away … something like that,” he recalled, adding that, while he and Judy gave this option some real consideration, they ultimately concluded that the price — and the opportunity — were not quite right.
Somewhere along the way, Yaffe started thinking about home care, and while one of the companies he researched wasn’t in the Entrepreneur’s Source database, Rosenkrantz included a different company, Homewatch Caregivers, in the next batch of five.
Making a long story somewhat shorter, Peter Yaffe said he did some extensive research on the Denver-based company, and found it to be the match that the couple was looking for. It wasn’t something they knew a lot about from a business perspective, but they understood from personal experience both the importance of the service and its vast potential at a time when people are living longer and, in many cases, desiring to remain in their homes.
“The key to buying it was that we saw the potential for helping all these people because we had gone through it ourselves,” she said, noting that her mother needed some forms of assistance in the home, which she and others provided, and Tim’s parents also needed care. “We saw the potential for a business that would grow.”
So while Judy stayed on at a job as program director of the Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center in Springfield to secure needed benefits (she would join the venture roughly a year later), Peter leased a small space in West Springfield and commenced the process of getting the business off the ground.
The learning curve was fairly significant, he said, while echoing some of Rosenkrantz’s literature when he said that it’s not necessarily the type of business one gets into that determines success, but the skills and drive that one brings to the table.
“I never felt frightened,” said Peter. “I felt determined, and there was no question that I would be successful; failure never entered my mind — I wouldn’t allow it to enter my mind.”
As they talked with BusinessWest, the Yaffes stopped to offer a quick tour of their new offices — larger quarters in the same professional building on Union Street in West Springfield they’ve been in from the beginning. They’ve occupied the new space for several weeks now, but wall art and other forms of décor still sit in boxes waiting to be hung — testimony to how busy they’ve been and how successful their business has become.
It’s also an indicator of how well Rosenkrantz’ process works, and how people with the right skill sets and requisite measure of resolve can succeed in a business they probably couldn’t have imagined being in.

A Clean Break
Rosenkrantz, who said that he’s typically working with 30 or 40 people at a time and at all of the various stages of the process, told BusinessWest that his clients’ stories vary widely, but a common denominator is that they’re going through change — loss of a job, divorce, and relocation are just some of the triggers — and figuring out what to do with their lives.
And while he works with people of all ages, he says most of his clients are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and might have achieved the first two parts of the ILWE equation (that’s might have), but are probably still searching for the others. And they possess many of the attributes necessary to be in business for themselves.
“They have good street smarts — they have some common-sense skills,” he said of those who have successfully made the transition. “They’ve lived a life, they understand personal and family battles and career battles, and they’ve persevered in many ways. Franchising really tends to embrace these people, while the corporate world, while it can’t say anything, generally doesn’t embrace that 63-year-old male.”
Franchising certainly embraced Tim Scussel. Indeed, as he talked about his relationship with McDonald’s, he noted that it lasted 35 years — and for roughly 33 of them, things were generally good.
But those last two … well, he summed them up with an anecdote or two that effectively conveyed his frustration with the corporate giant.
“They wanted me to rebuild the Enfield Street location, which I did,” he recalled. “A few years later, they said they wanted me to knock down the Elm Street location and rebuild it. I told them there was nothing wrong with it — it had all the latest equipment. When I said ‘no,’ they harassed the heck out of me for two years every single day, to the point where I finally said, ‘I’m done.’”
Long before he officially parted ways with the company, Scussel began the search for what would come next. He knew Rosencrantz from his days at Serv-U and counted him as a customer in a small swimming-pool cleaning-and-maintenance business he also operated.
“I was working on his pool one day and said to him, ‘Steve, it’s time to talk; what is out there for other businesses?’ I knew I was leaving McDonald’s — the train was leaving the station, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, short of knocking a building down. It was time to move on.”
After a lengthy period of discovery — ascertaining what the Scussels wanted from their next business venture — Rosencrantz presented them with several options, including a dry-cleaning outfit, a picture-framing operation, and The Maids. None seemed particularly appealing, Tim Scussel recalled, but he did copious amounts of homework on each, eventually had several conversations with the owner of The Maids, and liked what he saw and learned.
The couple started with the Hartford location and expanded into Western Mass. with what Tim called a satellite operation in 2006. The Great Recession certainly took its toll — maid service would, in most cases, anyway, fall into the category of discretionary spending — but they rode out the storm and are climbing back to something approaching pre-downturn business volume.
Meanwhile, they also have the lifestyle and supportive franchise that were both missing from the equation years ago.
“The culture here is to support the franchisee, not criticize,” he said. “The focus is on helping people grow their business, which is a breath of fresh air for me. That’s one of the things I was looking for, and I was able to find it.”

Taking Ownership of the Situation
A quick look around the Scussels’ facility in West Springfield reveals that they’ve traded golden arches for all things yellow and blue (mostly yellow)  — the corporate colors of The Maids Home Services.
The walls, marketing materials, uniforms for field employees, and business cards all feature that scheme, and they even have a bright yellow station wagon, decked out with the company name and logo, with which to visit clients and travel between the two locations.
But beyond the new colors, they also have a new and different relationship with their franchisor, and, in many respects, a different and better lifestyle. It came about through a unique business matchmaking process, which is both an art and a science, said Rosenkrantz, and a method by which people can truly take charge of their lives.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Law Sections
Recent Decision Could Impact Financially Challenged Borrowers

James B. Sheils

James B. Sheils

A recent Court of Appeals decision interpreting the Bankruptcy Code may result in limiting the ability of struggling commercial borrowers to obtain replacement financing from a new lender.

TOUSA Inc. was the 13th-largest homebuilding business in the U.S., with operations in Florida and many other states. It incurred significant debt to expand its business, largely through acquisitions; one such purchase involved a Florida entity. While TOUSA had numerous subsidiaries, and those subsidiaries had guarantied other debt owed by TOUSA, the subsidiaries did not guaranty the debt incurred to the original lenders providing the Florida acquisition financing.

The economic downturn, especially affecting real estate, significantly impaired TOUSA’s business, including the Florida entity it had acquired. The original lenders who provided the acquisition financing brought suit; as part of a settlement, TOUSA borrowed in excess of $470 million from a group of new lenders, whose funds were used to pay the original lenders. As collateral for the rescue loan, the new lenders obtained guaranties from TOUSA’s subsidiaries, secured by the assets of those subsidiaries. Those assets constituted collateral which had not secured the original lenders’ financing.

Despite the new funding, TOUSA ultimately sought Chapter 11 protection. The security interests of the subsidiaries were challenged by the creditors’ committee as “fraudulent conveyances,” based upon a claim that the subsidiaries did not receive “reasonably equivalent value” in exchange for the liens granted to the new lenders. The subsidiaries had not received any loan proceeds, but the new lenders argued that the funding they provided allowed TOUSA, and as a result the subsidiaries, to continue in business, even if the business ultimately failed.

The Court of Appeals endorsed the original decision of the Bankruptcy Court that ‘fair consideration’ is a fact-based determination, and that the almost-certain costs of the new loan far outweighed any perceived benefits. An argument that the subsidiaries faced an existential threat absent the new loan was rejected; the court stated that not every transfer that decreases the risk of bankruptcy for a corporation can be justified. The decision almost certainly will result in increased caution by lenders where upstream guaranties are an integral component of the financing.

The loss of the liens securing the new lenders’ loans was not the only action addressed by the Court of Appeals. The Bankruptcy Court also required the original lenders to ‘disgorge’ (i.e. pay back) $403 million received from the new lenders. The disgorgement issue involved a discussion of Section 550 of the Bankruptcy Code, which deals with recovery of property if a ‘transfer’ is avoided, as was the case with TOUSA’s subsidiaries. Section 550 allows recovery of a transfer from the initial transferee or from an entity for whose benefit such a transfer was made. The original lenders had argued that, since the liens went to the new lenders, the original lenders were ‘subsequent transferees,’ not entities that benefited from the initial transfer. The Court of Appeals disagreed; the loan agreements with the new lenders required the loan proceeds to be paid over to the original lenders.

The case was remanded to the District Court for further action regarding damages; if the initial Bankruptcy Court decision is fully upheld, the unwinding of the refinancing will result in the disgorged funds to be first used to repay the transaction costs for the new loan, then the costs incurred by the creditors committee in bringing and prosecuting the challenge and any decline in the value of the collateral, all before any funds are returned to the new lenders.

The TOUSA decision could complicate the ability of financially challenged borrowers to stay out of Chapter 11 because it raises questions regarding the enforceability, in certain circumstances, of upstream guaranties and highlights risks to lenders who are paid off by a borrower. The benefit to the total enterprise can’t be assumed to provide sufficient consideration. It’s also likely to increase the scrutiny of debtors/trustees in connection with potential claims to include prior lenders who, it will be asserted, are included in the ‘for whose benefit’ language of Section 550 of the Bankruptcy Code.

It is possible that further appeals may be taken, or that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals may decide to have the entire court consider the case (a so-called ‘en banc’ review), but for now, the tussle with TOUSA may have chilled the air a bit for lenders to distressed businesses.

 

Attorney James B. Sheils is a shareholder with Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., and concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial finance law, creditors’ rights, banking law, and telecommunications siting matters; (413) 737-1131.

Agenda Departments

Massachusetts Chamber Business Summit

Sept. 9-11: The Massachusetts Chamber board of directors will conduct its annual Business Summit and Awards Ceremony at the Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis. The two-day meeting allows participants to meet with business professionals from across the state, as well as listen to state and local elected officials who will discuss the future of business in Massachusetts. Additionally, representatives from the Mass. Office of Economic Development will discuss loans, grants, and tax incentives available to business owners. Industry experts will also be on hand to discuss topics such as leveraging social media, search-engine optimization, and health care cost containment. The winners of the Business of the Year Award and the Employer of Choice Award will also be announced during the summit. For more information, call (617) 512-9667 or visit www.masscbi.com.

 

The Big E

Sept. 14-30: From live music and parades to sea lions and a circus, there’s something for everyone at the Big E. Country music artist Rodney Atkins will play a concert at the outdoor Comcast Arena Stage on Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m. The Big E’s Mardi Gras Parade returns to the fair with eight custom-made floats specially designed and built by the Kern Companies of New Orleans. The Big E Super Circus features aerial daredevils the Marinofs, the wonder dogs of David Rosaire’s Perky Pekes, the equilibristic ability of Dany Daniels and Edina, comedy, and more. In addition, the Big E will feature a show with the Peking Acrobats, horse shows, the U.S. Freestyle Motocross National Championship series, hypnotist Catherine Hickland, the Sea Lion Splash show, and much more. Look for details and show times at www.thebige.com. Gates open each day at 8 a.m., and building exhibits are open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Avenue of States is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Storrowton Village is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Craft Common is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the Midway is open Sunday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

 

World Affairs Council Annual Meeting

Oct. 10: Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash will speak at the World Affairs Council of Western Mass. Annual Meeting & Dinner in the Mahogany Room of the Springfield Sheraton Hotel in downtown Springfield. More details will be forthcoming. Lash is an internationally recognized expert on practical solutions to global sustainability and development challenges. Before he became president of Hampshire College in 2011, he served as president of World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental think tank with offices in eight countries and partners in more than 50 countries. WRI is an international leader on issues ranging from low-carbon development to sustainable transportation. From 1993 to 1999, Lash was co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, a group of government, business, labor, civil-rights, and environmental leaders appointed by Bill Clinton that developed visionary recommendations for strategies to promote sustainable development. He played a key role in the creation and success of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which in 2007 issued the highly influential “Call to Action” on global warming. Prior to WRI, Lash held posts as director of Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center, Vermont secretary of Natural Resources, and Vermont commissioner of Environmental Conservation, as well as a federal prosecutor. For more information on the event, call (413) 733-0110.

 

Western Mass.

Business Expo

Oct. 11: BusinessWest will again present the Western Mass. Business Expo. The event, which made its debut last fall at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, will feature more than 180 exhibitors, seminars, special presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and the year’s most extensive networking opportunity. Comcast Business Class will again be the presenting sponsor of the event. Details, including breakfast and lunch agendas, seminar topics, and featured speakers, will be printed in the pages of BusinessWest over the coming months. For more information or to purchase a booth, call (413) 781-8600, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.wmbexpo.com.

 

40 Under Forty Reunion

Nov. 8: BusinessWest will stage a reunion featuring the first six classes of its 40 Under Forty program. Details on the event will be forthcoming. What is known is that it will be staged at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke, and will be open only to 40 Under Forty winners, sponsors, and their guests, as well as judges of the first six contests. For more information on the event, call (413) 781-8600, or e-mail [email protected].

Education Sections
The Many Flavors of the Region’s MBA Programs

In an ever-more-competitive career marketplace, educational degrees don’t always carry the weight they used to.
“At the turn of the 20th century, if a person had a high-school education, that was fantastic,” said Kathryn Carlson Heler, director of the MBA (master of Business Administration) program at Springfield College. “Remember, most people finished eighth grade and were out working at age 14.”
In the years following World War II, she explained, the G.I. Bill and other factors boosted college attendance, and a bachelor’s degree became the ticket to a secure career. But, in many cases, that’s not enough anymore.
“Most professionals now are saying, ‘hey, what’s the next step?’ And I think the master’s has become an important step — and who knows if it’s going to go further?” she said. “Look at nurses, for example; most of them have bachelor’s degrees, and some hospitals prefer to hire people with their master’s. And in the business world, the MBA has become the degree to have.”
Others who spoke with BusinessWest agree. “The MBA does carry an awful lot of weight in the workplace,” said Tom Barron, director of the MBA program at American International College. “It can affect opportunities for promotion, raises, and the like.
“The MBA allows you to really look at other aspects of a business, not just your own area of expertise,” he further explained. “You end up seeing how your area impacts the other areas of a business, so you’re a lot more comfortable developing company-wide solutions. Many people who get MBAs consider changing career fields, exploring areas they wouldn’t have been able to before, because they now have a wider cross-section of knowledge and expertise.”
Mo Sattar, who directs the MBA program at Bay Path College, is another believer in the strength of the degree.
“It helps to create leverage: how can I be a little bit better than the next person or the next business? Knowledge creates power,” he said. “I believe in teaching students how to learn, how to be life learners. That really matters, especially in the MBA world.”
For this issue’s focus on education, BusinessWest sits down with administrators from six area institutions — Western New England University, Elms College, and UMass Amherst are the others — to talk about the elements of a vibrant MBA program, and how the schools are tailoring their offerings to a very diverse group of degree seekers.

Matt Fox

Matt Fox says WNEU’s MBA program, like many regional offerings, allows students to finish in a year or longer, working on campus or online.


Time Trials
Some undergraduates intend to continue on to an MBA program right after finishing their bachelor’s degree, while many MBA students are longtime professionals returning to school to enhance their career prospects — and don’t necessarily have time to tackle a full-time course load or daytime classes. That’s why many colleges offer online courses, evening classes, or a blend of options.
For example, Springfield College’s 4+1 program “is an opportunity for our undergrads to stay a fifth year and earn their MBA,” Carlson Heler said. “What they do is take two classes in the summer after they earn their undergraduate degree and eight classes over the next two semesters.
“We have also attracted professionals from the community. Some of them have done the program in one year, working full-time and also going to school full-time,” she said. “But most of my professionals who join our program do it on a part-time basis, and do about two classes a semester.”
Similarly, the MBA program at UMass Amherst, part of its Isenberg School of Management, also stresses flexibility — to pursue a degree full-time on campus, completely online, or in a blended format at any satellite campus location.
Katherine Piedra, the director of the full-time program, has a unique perspective on that track, having graduated from it in 2004; now, she handles admissions, acceptance procedure, and operations, among other roles.
“The format hasn’t changed much from when I was here eight years ago,” she said, noting that most of the core coursework is completed during the first year, with field work highlighting the second year.
“We get a gamut of people, and we want a diverse class — not just in the traditional diversity sense, culturally, but across the board. We have about 35% international students in our class,” Piedra said.
Having both full-time and online options provides needed flexibility for the differing needs of students, she added. “The full-time program tends to have more people who are career changers. With the online program, it’s people who want their MBA to stay within their company, but want that boost. The online students tend to be older on average, too.”
She noted that, over the years, online degree seekers have multiplied, with a corresponding decline in those pursuing the full-time program. So the playing field has changed, with a lot more entrants into the online market.” Piedra said
Like most regional offerings, AIC’s MBA program can be finished in under two years, although some students, largely working professionals, may spread it out over three to five years, Barron said. “We have an interesting mix, with students coming from undergraduate programs as well as people who have been in the workforce 5, 10, 20-plus years.”
Western New England University also offers a blended online and evening degree program. “Right now, we primarily serve working professionals,” said Matthew Fox, director of Recruiting and Marketing for Graduate Studies and Adult Learning. “But the traditional student coming right out of college with a bachelor’s degree, that’s growing.”
This fall, WNEU will launch a full-time, accelerated day program in addition to its existing track. “We see that as a great opportunity to cater to a growing international student body,” Fox said. “They’re clearly looking for an experience where they can be immersed in their studies and have that continuous, face-to-face interaction with the faculty, as opposed to the existing model that blends online and in-classroom time.”
In any case, he added, “we emphasize to students, whether they’re traditional students or working professionals, they can accelerate their studies and finish the program in as little as a year, or they can take longer. It’s quite flexible.”

What’s Your Niche?
Students are also finding flexibility in the focus of the region’s various MBA programs.
For example, the Elms, which launched its MBA program only last year, offers three areas of study — health care leadership, accounting, and management — in a fast-track, hybrid format that pairs online and on-campus courses, said Kerry Calnan, director of the program.
“We’re the last to the market, and it’s a saturated marketplace,” she noted, adding that the school’s leaders took to heart a study conducted recently at Harvard called “Rethinking the MBA.”
“When we were getting ready to launch, we talked about the old-school model of MBA programs and how we needed to change if we wanted to add value, so that people who go through our program are valuable in the marketplace. We want to make sure we’re fitting what the market needs.”
In doing so, Elms staff interviewed some two dozen senior-level business leaders in the region and asked them what they’d like to see in an MBA program that they’re not getting from current MBA graduates.
“We developed our program by listening to what they had to say,” Calnan said, adding that the program taps area professionals to participate in course instruction, to lend more real-world credibility to the program. In fact, the five core courses in each track are delivered by a team comprised of an academic and a professional.
Springfield College, another recent entry into the MBA market with a program that started in 2010, offers two concentrations: one in for-profit management, and one in nonprofit management. The latter is attractive to people eyeing opportunities in health care, recreation, youth, the arts, sports, and as fund-development officers, to name just a few possible career tracks.
In both its general management and nonprofit concentrations, Springfield College offers a one-year, 30-hour degree program that’s tailored for professionals, Carlson Heler said.
“It’s a very doable degree; our classes are offered in the late afternoon and evening so that students can work during the day and take classes at night,” she noted. “And the size of our classes is very small, so students get to know their professors, and the professors get to know them.”
As with the Elms, it’s important that the SC program involve area professionals in the courses, “so students have an opportunity to tap into their experience.”
And the benefits of those exposures go both ways, Carlson Heler noted. One executive involved in the program told her, “‘I get to know the younger generation, and they will be my future employees — or, in some cases, my future boss. I get to know how they think and how they view the world, and it’s very important for me to have that opportunity.’
“I think it’s important.” she added, “that we reach out to the business and nonprofit community and ask them, ‘what should our students learn? What is important for them to be successful, and for your company or organization to have the best employees it can?’”

Mo Sattar

Mo Sattar says Bay Path’s MBA program helps students “connect the dots” and understand how all aspects of business work together.

AIC offers both a traditional MBA program and a ‘high-performance’ degree, with concentrations available in health care management, operations management, international business, strategic marketing, workforce and leadership development, fraud and financial crimes, green business, and management and sustainability.
“AIC had the first MBA program in Western Mass.,” Barron said. “One thing that’s unique is our strong entrepreneurship program. In our capstone course, the final course, students are actually required to go through and develop a business plan they can use to start their own business.”

Going Global
One theme that surfaced repeatedly in discussing area MBA programs is a focus on international business — reflective of what has become a global marketplace.
“Throughout the history of AIC and its MBA program, we have always had a strong international base in all key studies,” Barron said. “When we’re going through, asking about finance, economics, operations, we’re always going through what’s happening from a global perspective.”
That distinction has become crucial over the past two decades with the emergence of the Internet as a business tool, he added.
“If you look at a business that wants to operate out of a home, 20 years ago, the geographic area was the area around the house. Today, with the Internet, you’re literally doing business and delivering products around the world,” he noted. “So, how do we take this knowledge from all these subjects and not only apply it to local industry, but learn how to deal with it on a global basis?”
UMass provides overseas opportunities for its MBA students by means of exchange programs in Sweden, China, India, Brazil, Denmark, and South Korea.
“We’re working in a global economy,” Piedra said. “Anyone with international work experience in their MBA program has an edge going out into the work world, because of that experience working with people from other cultures and other countries.”
Sattar emphasized the way a strong MBA program “connects the dots” throughout the content, giving students a broad perspective on business.
“Our program starts with a business introduction where students learn about business models and strategy models and start to analyze some case studies and use analytical tools, like Excel,” he explained. Once students are grounded in that foundation, they move on to specifics like marketing, organizational behavior, business law and ethics, and the like, always being pushed to see the overlap between all of these disciplines.
“We learn about the important building blocks in business and how to connect them together, how to synthesize and optimize and maximize them,” Sattar said. “I find that, sometimes, people working in one area don’t understand what’s happening in the next cubicle or the next office.”
The idea, he said, is to produce professionals who understand the big picture within the company they work for — or, in many cases, who are able to launch their own enterprises.
“The value they get is not just that they truly understand marketing, finance, and legal issues,” he stressed. “The value is seeing how they are all connected. It’s more like a symphony than individual pieces of music, and the value comes in connecting everything together.”

Value Proposition
That word ‘value’ was another concept that area administrators kept returning to.
“I’ve been working with the graduate office for approximately five years, and I have found that the number of students seeking their MBA has definitely increased, whether it’s for an entry-level position or to enhance their prospects within their organization, or even to secure their present job,” Fox said.
“I think the value of an MBA has held, and if anything, the interest has increased from students seeking their MBA. We’ve seen our enrollments more than double in the last four years. Yes, we’re dealing with smaller numbers than some other schools, but it’s significant for us. That, to me, is a positive sign.”
Even a recently established program like the one at Springfield College is reporting positive returns in the single most critical area — post-degree employment.
“In our first class, the class of 2011, all of my students found good jobs within six months,” Carlson Heler said. “With the class of 2012, half of them have jobs, and the other half are interviewing, and it looks really good.
“The jobs are out there,” she continued. “People talk about the economy, but my students are finding jobs — maybe not all in the Pioneer Valley, unfortunately, which we would love, but the jobs are definitely out there for the MBA graduates.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Sections Travel and Tourism
MASS MoCA Fills In the Wide Canvas of Contemporary Art

Joe Thompson

Joe Thompson says MASS MoCA’s constantly changing installations and inclusion of performing arts make it more vibrant than a static art museum.

Joe Thompson was talking about how, over its 13-year history, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) had solidified its reputation as a unique showcase of what is called ‘new art’ — in all of the many forms that takes — and as a facility that is never afraid to take a chance on exhibits, programs, and events that are, in a word, different.
And with that, as if on cue, the sounds of people banging on metal drums, accompanied by a woman singing opera, could be heard from the floor below.
This was the New York City-based, multi-faceted classical-music organization Bang on a Can, which, according to its Web site, is “creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found.” With that mission in mind, the group, led by composers and founders Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon, sought out MASS MoCA as the home for a summer educational and residency program for fellows and students in all forms of music.
The 18-day festival, which concluded on July 28, is sometimes called ‘Banglewood,’ in reference to the nearby, and much more traditional, Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox. It is is dedicated, said the group, “entirely to adventurous contemporary music; we will write it, we will perform it, we will think about it, and we will talk about it.”
And for all that, the museum in North Adams, created out of several old mills that were part of the Sprague Electric complex, has become a venue Wolfe called both supportive and inspiring.
“MASS MoCA is a gold mine of support and atmosphere,” Wolfe told BusinessWest, “and this program, with all the surrounding art, allows for students to create and perform as colleagues, side by side with seasoned performers. It gets music into art spaces.”
Creation of this powerful learning environment is one of many ways to qualify and quantify the success MASS MoCA has recorded since opening in the summer of 1999, said Thompson, the museum’s director, adding that others include solid attendance figures (130,000 last year, a new record), a growing endowment (currently $14.5 million), and a large number of return visitors, a statistic that lies at the heart of the facility’s current operating philosophy.
Indeed, instead of a static museum dedicated to contemporary art, MASS MoCA is an ever-changing institution that showcases paintings in canvases, but also film, video, sculpture, and, yes, music.
“The farther away you get from North Adams, the more people think of MASS MoCA as a museum; the closer you get to North Adams, the more people think of MASS MoCA as the place where they see theater or dance events,” said Thompson, adding that this range of descriptions speaks to just how the museum has become different things to different people.
Julia Wolfe and David Lang

Julia Wolfe and David Lang say MASS MoCA helps enable Bang on a Can to “get music into art space.”

For this issue and its focus on the region’s tourism industry, BusinessWest looks at how MASS MoCA continues to grow and evolve while finding new ways to meet its two main goals: to provide a state-of-the-art (and arts) platform for contemporary works of all kinds, and create jobs in a corner of the state that needs some.

Exhibiting Determination
It’s called Solid Sound.
That’s the name that was given to a three-day music festival launched by MASS MoCA administrators in 2010, featuring Wilco, the American alternative-rock band based in Chicago.
Thompson said he and others were confident that Wilco and its opening acts would draw a good turnout, but they actually got a lot more than they bargained for — and more than the town was prepared for. More than 5,000 fans descended on North Adams, filling every available parking space and prompting restaurants to run out of food. Thompson and city officials who helped stage the event feared that litter would be scattered throughout downtown the morning after the event wound down.
“But all throughout downtown, all we saw were full garbage cans and neatly stacked cups and lined-up bottles — by recyclable type — next to each can,” said Thompson with a laugh. “It’s due to the type of engaged and environmentally conscious following that Wilco has.”
And this is, by and large, the same type of audience that is attracted to contemporary, or new, art, he continued, adding that the museum draws more than 120,000 visitors per year — a tribute, he believes, to an operating philosophy that he and others involved with this project agreed upon as they raised and then spent more than $31 million to convert portions of the Sprague complex into one of the largest (area-wise) contemporary-art museums in the world.
Going back to the early and mid-1990s, Thompson said he slowly grew away from his original, and firmly rooted, belief in the concept of a museum with large, fixed installations devoted to pared-down ‘minimal art’ of the ’70s and ’80s. While he admits they look great in the generous, rough-hewn spaces afforded by mill buildings, and don’t require fancy climate control, he came to think that static art offered far too limited a vision — perhaps a dangerously constrained one.
“Many people who shared my love of new art worried out loud whether visitors would make repeat visits to a permanent, fixed installation,” he explained. “That question — ‘would people come twice?’ — that was a tough question, and led me to think that a program of changing, shorter-term exhibitions might be a more engaging way to begin.
“As artists had become increasingly fluid in the way they work, with art-making practices that cross from sculpture to set design to video and film,” he continued, “it became clear that an institution that was to be truly responsive to the needs and trajectories of new art had to incorporate the performing arts as well.”
In a nutshell, the past 13 years of operation have essentially proven Thompson and others right in their thinking. The museum has changed exhibits regularly and hosted a broad mix of media — as evidenced by Solid Sound, Banglewood, and other projects and events — and visitors have come back repeatedly.

Creative Economy
The list of current and upcoming exhibits speaks volumes about the diversity created at MASS MoCA and the ability to present a different museum every time visitors venture to North Adams.
There’s “Oh, Canada” (through next April), the largest survey of contemporary Canadian art produced outside of Canada. It features the work of more than 60 artists who hail from every province and nearly every territory. There also “Invisible Cities,” showing through next February. Titled after Italo Calvino’s book — which imagines Marco Polo’s vivid descriptions of numerous cities of a fading era to Kublai Kahn — it features the work of 10 diverse artists who reimagine urban landscapes both familiar and fantastical.
Meanwhile, “Stanford Biggers: The Cartographer’s Conundrum” is a major multi-disciplinary installation by New York-based artist Stanford Biggers, and was inspired by the work of his cousin, the late artist, scholar, and Afro-futurist John Biggers.
And then there’s “Sol LeWitt; A Wall Drawing Retrospective, which is an ongoing, semi-permanent display that is the one notable exception to Thompson’s basic operating strategy of changing exhibits. It includes 105 large wall drawings — many would use the term murals — created by artist Sol LeWitt, who is considered by many in the art world to be the most influential conceptual artist of our time.
It is due to the sheer size of LeWitt’s large-scale art, some of it measuring more than 30 feet long by eight feet or more in height, that MASS MoCA was considered an ideal home for these works. Thompson told BusinessWest that a call early in 2003 from Yale University Art Gallery Director Jock Reynolds set in motion the process for bringing LeWitt’s art to North Adams, but first he had to be sold on a permanent display.
As Thompson explains it, Reynolds and LeWitt needed the space to construct LeWitt’s legacy (the artist never lived to see the unveiling in 2007) and focused on MASS MoCA because no other museum in the Northeast could dedicate tens of thousands of square feet of space to such large works. Thompson said the collaboration between Yale, the Williams College Museum of Art, and MASS MoCA resulted in a stunning “museum within a museum,” as he called it, on three floors, totaling 30,000 square feet.
“As much as we love our changing program, and you’re only as good as your last show, this was a rule-breaker for us,” Thompson said. “Suddenly, we had this beautiful milestone installation of Sol LeWitt’s, and it’s super-high-quality, it’s colorful, full of detail, and it just leaves you smiling — it just makes you feel good.”
It was a turning point for Thompson. “It made me think that the ideal museum is one that has both a core, permanent collection, but also lots of room for change; you want masterpieces that people return to over and over again, but you also want a vibrant roster of changing exhibitions that trigger the return visit. Sol LeWitt helped us see that.”

Broad Strokes
While MASS MoCA hasn’t yet matched its goal for creating 600 jobs, it has succeeded in contributing to the economic development of North Adams and the Berkshires in general, said Thompson, adding that it has become a day-tripping destination while also filling some hotel rooms as well.
Meanwhile, it has become that proverbial ‘different sort of venue’ that has attracted the likes of Bang on a Can, Wilco, and visitors who want to experience the full range of new art.
Perhaps David Lang summed it up best when he said that, because the museum, perceptions of North Adams have changed.
“Before, it was always a place you could visit,” he said. “Now, it’s a place you have to visit.”

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Sections Travel and Tourism
Old Sturbridge Village Changes with the Seasons

Ann Lindblad

Ann Lindblad says families today have less leisure time, so it’s important to make their visit worthwhile — and worth repeating.

Kids don’t want to hear how butter is churned. They want to do it.
And at Old Sturbridge Village, they can do just that — and plenty more. In fact, a renewed focus on hands-on learning and interactivity at this 66-year-old ‘living museum’ has contributed to a turnaround in attendance and finances since both bottomed out five years ago, said Ann Lindblad, OSB’s director of marketing and communications.
The change began, she said, in 2007, when Jim Donahue came on board as the new CEO, replacing Beverly Sheppard, who had resigned the year before. He’d had no previous museum experience — his background was in finance and education, most recently as CEO of the Bradford Dunn Institute in Rhode Island — but since Donahue’s appointment, the museum has reversed the declines and, starting in 2009, balanced the operating budget every year.
“It’s a stunning turnaround, and it’s happened as we’ve focused more on hands-on activities,” Lindblad said. “Today’s visitor doesn’t want to just watch; they want to see and touch and take part. We offer crafts and hands-on activities every day, and we have a whole host of special things visitors can try. For example, they can come in the fall and try plowing behind the oxen and see what that feels like.”
The past decade at OSB has felt more like a roller coaster. In the heyday of Old Sturbridge Village — the late 1970s through the 1980s — it wasn’t uncommon for annual attendance to approach 600,000 visitors. In 2004, that number had declined to 288,000, and in 2007 it plummeted to just over 220,000. It’s a phenomenon that other museums across America, of all types, have had to deal with.
“A lot of this is true of the whole living-history-museum category,” Lindblad said. “The high-water mark for attendance was during the Bicentennial back in the ’70s, and think about how much society has changed since then. Now you can shop 24/7, organized youth sports are popular, you have cell phones, the Internet, computer games … and both parents are working more than was the case in the 1970s, when it was common to pack the kids into the station wagon and head out on a day trip.
“There’s just less leisure time,” she continued, “and that is, I think, a strong incentive for us to make sure people don’t view visiting here as a waste of time, but want to come back and repeat the experience.”
Increasingly, they are doing just that. Despite a weather year in 2011 that threw many businesses for a loop — the June tornado tore a line of tree damage dangerously close to the 40 historic buildings, while the October snowstorm cut power and shut down the facility for a week — the museum finished the year with 263,000 visitors, just off the 273,000 pace of 2010. With weather acting a bit more cooperatively in 2012, the year’s attendance to date is 4% ahead of last year’s pace.
“Since our CEO took over the reins in 2007, we’ve had a 24% increase in attendance, and three consecutive years of balancing the operating budget,” Lindblad said, noting that a stronger focus on seasonal variety and interactive programs have been matched by a stronger marketing plan.
“And I think there’s a lot of grassroots marketing,” she added. “Visitors are coming, having a good experience, and helping us to spread the word. It still comes down to programming. If they come here and don’t have a good time, or they don’t learn anything, or they don’t find it compelling, then there’s no reason to come back.”

Interpreting the Past
For decades, Lindblad said, Old Sturbridge Village — which focuses on New England life from the 1790s to the 1830s — leaned on its ‘interpreters’ as its main draw. These employees — who dress in period garb and demonstrate trades ranging from printing to shoemaking, from pottery to tincraft — remain one of the most significant aspects of the museum.
“We’re famous for our historians in costume; that’s what sets us apart. They’re so knowledgable about that time period, and they’re our teachers,” she said — and the lessons aren’t always rooted in the past. Take agriculture, for example. “Some kids come and don’t know where a carrot comes from; they wonder why there’s dirt on carrots. They have no clue about which plants and vegetables are native. So there’s an amazing amount of teaching going on.”
She was quick to add, however, that these village inhabitants do a “third-person interpretation,” meaning they’re not acting out a character from the early 19th century, but simply performing the tasks of that era while speaking in their own, modern voice. “Visitors would get frustrated if they asked a question and someone couldn’t answer it because they couldn’t break character. It’s all about having fun, but making sure our guests are learning something while they’re having fun.”
Still, in recent years, the museum’s leadership felt interactivity was lacking, so they began to institute a more hands-on approach across the 220-acre grounds, as well as in classes visitors can sign up for on period cooking, blacksmithing, woodworking, textile crafts, and more.
“As an educator, our CEO would say that kids — or anyone, really — remember something longer if they’ve actually taken part in it; it sticks with them,” Lindblad said.
She noted that hearth cooking demonstrations are conducted every day. “There’s a fire in the fireplace, and the women who are cooking will teach things like how they judge the heat by putting their arm inside the hearth and counting. If they can count to 12 or 15 before it gets uncomfortable, then it’s about 350 degrees.”
Another focus at Old Sturbridge Village has been on seasonal and yearly events that provide more variety for those who choose to return, or purchase yearly memberships.
“The program staff has really bumped up the seasonal activities, so visitors can have another reason to visit — see something they hadn’t seen before,” Lindblad said. “And these can appeal to different age groups.”
Those seasonal activities extend even to the winter months — not normally a time when families are thinking about tourism and day trips.
“We’re committed to being open year-round, and we want people to see what the winter was like,” Lindblad said. “So, for example, we added Fire and Ice Days in January, where we demonstrate ice cutting and harvesting. In the days before refrigeration, ice was a huge cash crop in New England, and they had special tools to score and cut the ice and store and haul it, and merchants in Boston would ship it all over the world. People are fascinated by the process, and the enormous saws, and kids and adults can try sawing.”
The following month, visitors flock to an antique sleigh rally, where horse-drawn sleighs compete for prizes. “The winter was the social season,” Lindblad said. “The harvest was over, and people had more free time.”
Other seasonal events — dozens of them — follow throughout the year, from fireworks in July to harvest parties and Apple Days in the fall. And the museum isn’t afraid to occasionally step out of its time period. For example, it hosts an antique car show (all cars must predate 1946, the year the museum was established).
While focusing on 20th-century lifestyles, Lindblad said, the exhibition remains true to OSB’s historic bent. “We see grandparents bringing their grandchildren to that, so they can say, ‘this is what cars looked like.’”
Speaking of children, the museum still relies heavily on visits from school groups — around 65,000 students visit each year — while parents with children under 12 comprise another steady constituency. Older adults and empty-nesters also enjoy visiting, particularly during the leaf-peeping season in the fall. Meanwhile, families with young children often prefer the spring, when most baby animals are born.

Historic Showcase
At the heart of Old Sturbridge Village, however, are its period homes and shops. The most recent addition, the Small House, a 420-square-foot clapboard structure erected several years ago, is the first building added to the village since the mid-1980s, and the first ever to be built from the ground up; all the other buildings are actual historic properties relocated to Sturbridge. Unlike the middle-class houses in the village, the Small House tells the story of how the lower classes of the time lived.
Other stories are being constantly told as well. The recent Redcoats and Rebels event drew some 800 Revolutionary War reenactors to the village — the largest such war simulation in New England. And the facility recently added an authentic Concord stagecoach, “just like the ones plying roads all over New England in the 1830s,” Lindblad said. “You can get in the stagecoach and get a feel for the rigors of transportation. It’s a replica of the one that ran between Hartford and Worcester — it was bumpy and dusty, but that was the Cadillac of its time.” It was also, she added, a 12-hour trip.
Today, that’s like arriving from Detroit or Charlotte by car, and that’s not unheard of. “We attract a lot of out-of-state visitors, and they’re bringing a lot of money into the Massachusetts economy,” Lindblad said, noting that, while most of those hail from Connecticut, the museum attracts healthy numbers from the rest of New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states. In fact, all 50 states are represented each year, while international guests comprise 6% of visitors.
“I think, because we are within driving distance of so many millions of people, this is a good option for a day trip,” Lindblad said, noting that each $24 admission ($8 for kids) is good for a second visit within 10 days, so that families can make a multi-day stay of it. “They might not have the budget, during a recession, to fly to Disneyland or Disney World, but they’re still looking for a family experience. They can drive a couple of hours and have a rich experience, and still feel like they had a mini-vacation.”
After all, it’s only natural to crave some time away from it all. That’s as true now as it was 200 years ago.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Features
New CEO John Maguire Is Shaping a Turnaround Strategy
John Maguire

John Maguire acknowledges that ‘going back to basics’ is hardly a new refrain at Friendly’s, but he believes the chain now has the requisite pieces, and attitude, to get it done.

 

When it comes to turning around troubled companies, John Maguire has been there and done that.
Well, sort of.
In many ways, he compares his current undertaking — which he said others have described succinctly with the two-word phrase “fixing Friendly’s” — to one of his first assignments with the Boston-based fast-casual bakery and café chain known as Au Bon Pain (later to be renamed Panera Bread Co.), close to 15 years ago.
“In 1993, I had the opportunity to run a commissary in Chelsea,” he recalled. “It was a 17,000-square-foot facility located under the Tobin Bridge, and this was a wonderful opportunity for me because I was going to get to run what was a broken business.”
Elaborating, he said this division of the company produced baked goods, sandwiches, salads, and fresh juice for all the Au Bon Pain restaurants in the Greater Boston area; products were shipped twice each day. By the time Maguire arrived, the business was failing, he said, noting that there were many ways to quantify and qualify the decline.
“Customer satisfaction, with regard to the quality of the product and service coming out of the building, was terrible,” he noted. “The employee satisfaction and how they felt about their jobs was terrible. And, oh, by the way, it was losing several million dollars a year.
“My approach to all this was that I wasn’t thrilled as much as I was scared to death,” he went on, adding that he soon found out that few if any of the 100 employees in the facility (except those that delivered products) had ever been to an Au Bon Pain and seen the fruits of their labor. So he took them.
“They had no connection to what we were trying to do and to what success would look like for us,” Maguire told BusinessWest. “One Saturday, I came in at 5 a.m. I had a Ford Explorer, and I picked a few people off the production floor and said ‘come with me.’ We drove to downtown Boston before the traffic hit and went into some of the restaurants. I was able to say to the people, ‘see how good your baked products look on the shelves? See why we want you to spin the lettuce for 30 seconds to remove all the moisture from the container?’ By doing that, we got people connected.
“That shaped my entire philosophy on leadership in business,” he continued. “You have to come up with a plan, and then you get people involved in what that plan is going to be. You focus them in the right direction, and then it’s your people who will make the determination if a business is successful.”
Maguire said he took this same philosophy to a number of career steps at Panera, from president of retail operations to executive vice president, and he intends to continue in that vein at Friendly’s, where he is now CEO — only without the Explorer, at least in a literal sense.
Indeed, he still intends to get people connected and make them part of the brand-resurgency process. And in a lengthy interview with BusinessWest, he explained how he will do that, while also delineating the scope of the challenge and the broad strokes of the strategic initiative to return the chain to prominence.
“In a nutshell, I would say that Friendly’s has lost its focus on what really makes it special,” Maguire explained. “It’s lost its perspective on who its customer is and what is the best way to deliver for that customer, and, most importantly, what gives us credibility with our customers.”
Successfully reversing those trends will not happen quickly or easily, he continued, adding, however, that it can be done, because he’s seen it happen at other chains, such as Boston Market, Steak & Shake, and even McDonald’s, and because he believes the right ingredients are, or soon will be, in place for it to happen here.
“The leadership teams that came in here tried really hard — it wasn’t that they didn’t have good ideas or do things,” he explained, noting the high rate of turnover in the corner office. “There’s some fundamental things that need to take place that didn’t happen. There’s no quick fix to any of this business. It took a long time for Friendly’s to lose its way; it’s going to take some time for us to find our way back.”

Any Given Sundae
Before discussing what he wants to do at Friendly’s — the chain that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall, closing dozens of restaurants as it did so, before emerging from bankruptcy this past spring — Maguire, who took over on May 29, first explained why he tackled this assignment.
After nearly two decades at Panera Bread, he said he understood that he would only leave for another opportunity if it represented a chance to lead an organization (he was second in command at Panera) and was also something, or some company, that he was passionate about.
And Friendly’s certainly fit that description.
Maguire grew up in South Weymouth, only a few blocks from one of the chain’s locations, and said he spent considerable time there, creating memories at virtually every stage of his life.
“Some of my most memorable experiences have taken place in a Friendly’s restaurant,” he said, “from when I was a kid, when I would go to Friendly’s on weekends with my grandfather, to when I was a teenager — that was the spot where you hung out with your friends — to more recently with my daughter; Friendly’s was a place where we’d spend ‘Katie-dad time.’”
But there was far more to this than nostalgia.
“This was a brand that I not only grew up with, but also have rooted for,” Maguire told BusinessWest, adding that, in recent years, it was a chain that he watched decline, and from a very intriguing perspective.
“As someone who’s been in the industry, I was keenly aware of some of the challenges they’ve had over the past 10 or 15 years,” he noted. “There were times when I would speculate and say, ‘if I had the opportunity to run Friendly’s, what would I do? How would I approach it?’”
And now that he has that opportunity, he sums up the strategy moving forward quickly and succinctly with the phrase ‘getting back to basics,’ while acknowledging that the three or four men who occupied his office before he arrived said essentially, if not exactly, the same thing.
But there is a difference between saying something and doing it, he continued, adding that previous CEOs have understood Friendly’s main problem as well as he now does — getting away from what brought it success decades ago and instead trying to be all thing to all people. The problem has come in the execution of strategies to change that equation.
And with that, he referenced the several different Friendly’s menus on the conference-room table, while noting that there are still many items on it that are far removed from the company’s core and its success quotient.
“Things like steak tips,” he explained, adding that ‘under-555-calorie’ meals would also fall into this category — things the chain does, but doesn’t do especially well, and constitute items that do not bring many people to a restaurant known for decades as a source of what Maguire called “an indulgent experience.”
But they’re still on the menu, he went on, adding that it’s often hard for restaurant executives to pull them off.
“Everyone gets this — everyone understands there are too many items on the menu, but when push comes to shove, to actually do it, it’s difficult,” he said. “People are going to be nervous — we’re going to hear from a vocal minority of our customers who say, ‘I want this.’ It’s going to take some discipline and sticktoitiveness; we’re going to need the fortitude not to react and to give it a chance to succeed.”

Shaking Things Up
Summing up what has happened to the franchise he grew up with, Maguire said it’s a scenario he’s seen many times in the industry.
“What happened to Friendly’s, and what got Friendly’s off track, is basically the same story that happens to most concepts in the restaurant business,” he explained. “Most concepts in this industry diminish over time; three out of four restaurants are making less money today than they did five years ago.
“What happened to this chain is typical,” he continued. “You’re chugging along, and then, whether it’s the economy or overgrowth or lack of focus on the business, sales start to fall. And when that happens, people panic. They say, ‘uh-oh, sales are falling, we have to do something.’
“So they try things,” he went on. “They try new menu items, they try a different direction, and then sales either come up or they don’t, and usually, they don’t. So then they try some other things because now they’re a little more panicked because sales are really down. And then they try other things, and they don’t work.”
What follows are inevitable leadership changes, Maguire told BusinessWest, adding that this cycle continues to repeat itself as new people assume the CEO’s chair.
“And with all those leadership changes, over time, Friendly’s has become less and less of what Friendly’s was,” he noted. “The focus on operations has diminished, the menu proliferation has continued to the point where we don’t know if we’re family dining or casual dining … and we’ve lost focus on what was iconic to us, and we’re trying to please all people. And when you do that, you wind up not pleasing anyone.”
Thus, beyond sales and market share, what Friendly’s has ultimately lost over the past several years is something ultimately more important — credibility, said Maguire, adding that it’s his unofficial job responsibility to get it back.
To do this, he continued, the chain must remove what he called “complexity” from the equation, meaning everything from that aforementioned menu proliferation to ambiguity about just what Friendly’s is.
“What we do now is take great people who work in our restaurants and make their jobs very difficult based on the complexity of our menu and the complexity of our service system,” he explained, adding that the process of simplifying things is already underway.
To help with all this, the company has hired the research firm RTS (Results Through Strategy) to get a sense from customers about what the chain should be doing moving forward.
“We’re going to be heavily research-based,” he said, adding that this is a departure from the past and a big reason why the menu has proliferated. “Opinion has driven much of what we’ve put on the menu; the franchise community thinks we should have this product, the company thinks we should have that product. And the way I’ve described it to the team is that my opinion doesn’t get to determine what’s on the menu, and your opinion doesn’t get to determine. Our customers are going to be the ones to tell us what should and shouldn’t be on the menu, and they do that through what they believe we have credibility in and what they purchase from us.”
Such research will likely inform the company on how to maintain its current strong following among young families and seniors — two constituencies that have always supported the chain — and also provide insight into how to reach a client group that it has lost to a large degree — teenagers.
The company has developed prototypes for some new developments, such as an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor concept called the Scoop Shop (there’s one located inside a Burger King in New Jersey), as well as something called Friendly’s Express, said Maguire, but before it can think seriously about growing, it must focus on the fundamentals in its existing 400 locations.
And by this, he means speed and quality of service, cleanliness, mood, or atmosphere, and a menu that is tailored to the identified Friendly’s customer.
“We need to focus on how to create the best customer experience day in and day out,” he said, “because, until we do that, we won’t have the credibility, the cash, or the ability to grow.”

Topping It Off
As he talked about the large challenge ahead of him, Maguire said that as important as what he wants to do is how he intends to do it.
And for this, he returned to that Au Bon Pain facility in Chelsea, and that process of connecting people with the company’s products, goals, and aspirations.
Completing that story, he gave tours in his Explorer nearly every Saturday for more than two years; there was even a waiting list of sorts created to determine who would get to go next. But there was more to the turnaround process than getting employees into the field.
Indeed, Maguire said the plant had to be cleaned up and renovated, some workforce decisions had to be made — specifically, weeding out people who were not doing their jobs properly — and training had to be implemented for all those who remained.
“But in six to nine months, our customer perception had improved, our employee satisfaction had improved, the facility had improved, and after about a year, we started making a little money,” he noted. “And it started with getting people involved and getting them focused.”
He’ll be doing this on a much larger scale at Friendly’s, and while he won’t be using a Ford Explorer to get people connected and on the same page, he will be using other methods, all designed to improve the level and quality of communication within the company, which means several constituencies, including employees, franchisees, and vendors.
“One of the things we spend a lot of time on is town meetings,” he explained. “Next week, I’m meeting with all our franchise owners and speaking with them about where we’re heading with the business, what matters, and hearing from them on what we can do to better serve them as franchise partners.
“We’re opening up with every constituency in the business — generating that two-way conversation,” Maguire went on. “We’re even doing it with our vendors; we’re bringing all our vendor partners through so they can understand what we’re trying to accomplish, so they can help us in that mission.”
Overall, Maguire is optimistic about the prospects for a turnaround, despite the inherent high degree of difficulty, because other chains have successfully gone back to what made them successful.
“I’ve seen concepts be in worse position than Friendly’s is and reinvent themselves and come back,” he said, mentioning Steak & Shake, Boston Market, Captain D’s (a seafood restaurant), and McDonald’s, which he considers perhaps the best example.
“If you look back 10 years ago, McDonald’s was really in some trouble; their sales were falling, customer satisfaction was down, and they were losing market share to people like Panera Bread and Starbucks. What McDonald’s did was understand that their biggest point of difference is their 10,000 locations with drive-thru.
“They went after Starbucks and said, ‘we can’t compete with you on a $5 cup of coffee, but with 10,000 drive-thrus, we can improve our coffee to Newman’s Own, do it at a better price point, and you’ll pass six of our locations on your way to work. And they took a big chunk out of Starbucks by doing that.”
The place for all those at Friendly’s to start is with brand strategy, Maguire explained.
“One of the questions I asked myself before I came here, as I was going through the interview process, was ‘why should Friendly’s exist?’” he recalled. “And I think it should exist because of the differentiating things we have. We’re different than other concepts; there’s no brand in the U.S. that has the focus on ice cream, breakfast, burgers, melts, fries, and other pieces. But ice cream is the key differentiator.
“The best way to describe what our strategy is and what we’ve already begun to work on is bringing us back to our roots with relevance,” he explained. “We’re going to create a brand strategy: who is Friendly’s? What do we aspire to be? Who is our customer? What are the products that give us credibility in serving them? And what’s the best way to reach them?”

Chain of Events
Moving ahead, the company will attempt to reposition the brand, focusing more on the ‘story’ than on specific products, he concluded, adding that there will be many components to this turnaround effort.
“Businesses are not mathematical equations — they’re living, breathing organisms with many different parts and pieces and things that make them work,” he said. “For us, it will come down to … do we make a few fundamental bets, and do those bets work?”
Maguire noted that, since arriving nearly three months ago, he’s spent considerable time acquainting himself with the many nuances of Friendly’s history, and has met both Curtis and Prestley Blake, the brothers who started it all in 1935, as well as other top administrators from the company’s past.
But for the most part, this was a story he already knew and understood. The place where he logged significant Katie-dad time and listened to stories from his grandfather was now referenced with the past tense.
To fully fix Friendly’s, he has to make that place the center of the company’s future. It won’t happen overnight, he stressed repeatedly, but the process is already well underway.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Health Care Sections
Care @ Home Keeps Clients Independent and Moving to the Beat

Sherill Pineda

Sherill Pineda says she started Care @ Home with some inspiration from her friends and a desire to bring a higher level of service to the region.


Sherill Pineda calls them her “angels.”
These are the close friends who starting coming to her in the summer of 2010 looking for help with the care of aging parents, many of them veterans, in their homes. And they are the individuals Pineda, a veteran of the home health care industry, credits with giving her the motivation, confidence, referrals, and a solid foundation in the form of a growing client base to start a business she calls Care @ Home.
“My friends said, ‘don’t worry about the money — worry about taking care of our parents; that’s the most important thing,” said Pineda. “That same set of values — safety and independence and quality care — is what we have put in place for all our clients.”
And today, it is those friends, not to mention a host of other clients, who are using that word ‘angel’ to describe Pineda and her staff members, who bring a decidedly personalized style of care to their work, one that has enabled the company to achieve steady growth and a reputation for education, innovation, and giving back to the community.
Regarding the latter, Pineda has created what she calls the CARE Foundation, which stages a number of fund-raising events, with some of the proceeds funneled to local charities, veterans groups, and other local help organizations. “We try to do our part, whether it be big or small,” she told BusinessWest.
As for education and innovation, Pineda does a good deal of speaking, especially on the subjects of Alzheimer’s disease and the importance of physical fitness to the quality of life of all seniors. In fact, she’s a certified instructor in what’s known as Zumba Gold, a modified version of the increasingly popular Latin dance workout program designed especially for Baby Boomers.
And she’s brought it to a number of area senior centers and other gathering places, with solid results in terms of participation and reception.
She admits that she never thought that she’d be educating and entertaining seniors to the beats of ’40s ‘boogie woogie’ or ’50s Elvis Presley tunes through the popular Zumba dance-exercise routine, but it has become a big part of her community outreach.
In fact, it’s working so well that her fitness work, and her ties to the veterans community, led the 44-member 215th U.S. Army Band to reach out to Pineda and volunteer its talents for a CARE Foundation fund-raiser that became “A Tribute to Our American Heroes,” staged recently in the Holyoke High School auditorium. The event raised funds for homeless veterans.
Pineda told BusinessWest that other programs, in addition to 24/7 home care, include educational outreach in the workplace (called Care @ Work), at assisted-living centers, or anywhere she can plug in her speakers and iPod and get people dancing. In some way or shape, Pineda says all outreach, volunteer or otherwise, benefits the company, the client, or the community.
With a trained staff of 40, Care @ Home is well on its way to securing a firm foothold in the home-care industry in the Pioneer Valley. And for this issue, BusinessWest takes a look at the company and its ability to give back to the community in unique ways, while also offering skilled nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNS) to care for those who need compassionate, sometimes physical, and usually fun care and attention.

Working Relationships
In Pineda’s East Longmeadow office, there is a wall of yellowed, official Armed Services portraits, as well as recent photos, that showcase some of her first clients.
While veterans are not her only target group, they are the core of her young company’s client base. The company is an authorized agency for the Veterans Administration (VA), she explained, “and based on their eligibility and the VA requirements, if veterans meet the standards, they can receive home-care services through what is known as the Home Base Program; our state really supports our veterans.”
Kathleen Plante, care transition and community liaison for Care @ Home, adds that the Home Base Program’s goals mirror those of the agency, and include safety, independence, and reducing the need for future hospitalizations.
“The program is designed to facilitate keeping them at home as opposed to having to go into an institution or other facility,” she explained. “Our person-centered approach is the mission of the agency, and it secures the best possible outcome for our clients and their families. And, of course, our skilled nurses work with the physician, all to reduce the potential for relapse of a health issue, which could mean going back into an institution and the loss of their independence.”
Potential clients are introduced to the agency through relationships built by Pineda and her team. In fact, it is through current relationships, especially connections in the business community, that she projects strong growth for the new Care @ Work program.
The planned outreach to employers and employees through Care @ Work serves to explain to those still working and caring for a family member of any age, and for pretty much any medical reason, that help is available. The presentation, which is in the development phase, is designed to move through a human-resources department or employee-assistance program.
Whether from a work-related injury or one of the top four health issues Pineda sees — dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder, diabetes-related aliments, and cancer — transitional efforts from hospital to home or assisted living can be traumatic. Pineda and Plante both say that, from the start, effective care planning and medical follow-through both lead to better overall health and a sense of security for the clients and their families, including the need for respite services.
Early transition planning, quality care, and engagement, said Pineda, are qualities that make Care @ Home a different and innovative aging-in-place company.
“We are clinically and socially involved with our clients,” she noted. “We’re creating an individualized care plan and making sure we continue to have activities with them.”

Young at Heart
But when Pineda means ‘activities’, she’s not talking about crossword puzzles and bingo. In fact, she finds that some of her volunteer speaking and Zumba Gold requests stem from the fact that older individuals don’t want to play bingo anymore.
“They say to me, ‘we don’t want to hang out with those ‘seniors’ at senior centers … we want to learn new things; we’re tired of playing bingo,’” said Pineda.
Plante added good naturedly, “they don’t think they’re old; they think the others are old!”
And that dislike of a ‘center for old people,’ explains Pineda, is what is keeping many younger seniors away from physical activity, which is typically offered only in the local senior centers — and she notes that using the words ‘senior,’ ‘golden,’ and ‘elderly’ is already becoming increasingly unpopular among her clients.
This changing view of what old age really means to her clients, coupled with her awareness of the importance of staying active throughout one’s life, explains the emphasis Pineda places on physical and mental fitness in her work.
Last year, she became an Advisory Council member of the Western Mass. Healthy Aging Coalition, and a Matter of Balance coach in partnership with the Mass. Department of Public Health.
“Through the Matter of Balance program, we do a series of eight sessions that are two hours each, educating our aging population about fall prevention,” said Pineda, adding that one bad fall can physically and emotionally shut a person down due to the severity of the incident, resulting in depression and the often-debilitating fear of falling again.
But Pineda says learning and then practicing dance can potentially provide a needed confidence level to those who have fallen and fear a repeat, and this is one of many reasons she has tried to introduce audiences to Zumba Gold and its many potential benefits.
As a certified Zumba Gold instructor, Pineda has incorporated her exercise routine, a combination of Latin and international music with a fun and effective workout program, into weekend programs in which she educates her audience (people in their 60s and 70s), about the importance of staying active, no matter their age.
In that class, she discusses exactly what Alzheimer’s disease is, the early signs, what future help will be needed, and, more importantly, how staying healthy may slow or prevent the onset of the disease and various forms of dementia. Staying as active as possible is the key, said Pineda, who also serves as chairperson of the Alzheimer’s Assoc. Diversity Advisory Council of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
After some quick discussion with questions and answers, she explained, Zumba begins.
“Then, and only then, do they get to do the dancing; they have to listen first, and then we have fun.”
But she stressed repeadedly that the dancing is far more than just fun; it’s medically important, and will become ever more so as the huge Baby Boom generation continues to age.

All for One, One for All
While Pineda is building her business to care for those in need now and in the future, she and Plante will complete the structure of the CARE Foundation, and will soon have a board of directors to determine the future beneficiaries of fund-raising events for local charities, and a possible endowment for clients that need help with financing their care.
To that end, Pineda says Care @ Home is constantly looking for collaboration and partnership, not just in home health care and fund-raising, but with other skilled professionals who can assist Pineda with bringing more educational outreach to the seniors and family members.
“We’re bringing health care to the next level,” said Pineda. “And that next level means breaking old molds and keeping as many seniors moving, educated, and engaged as possible.”
Plante agreed. “This whole model of reaching into every piece of people’s lives is what health care is going to be; we’re being proactive about it.”
And Pineda, who by all accounts is now fulfilling that role of ‘angel’ to her clients, will be singing and dancing to Elvis, or whatever song of choice her audience wants to step to, just to keep them moving, safe, and independent at home, or wherever home is.
“As long as I have my portable speaker, my iPod, and my flats,” she said, “I’m ready to go.”

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of July 2012.

AGAWAM

Advantage Insulation Group
1057 Main St.
Rhiannon Eiffort

Crazy for Charms
409 River Road
Barbara Cross

Handyman Cleaning Services
204 Brookfield Lane
Helen Schuler

Patriot Auto School
301 Springfield St.
Anthony Spear

Smiling Stars Photography
569 Springfield St.
Matthew Hanlon

CHICOPEE

BCN Mechanical
100 Lawndale St.
Benjamin Nyzio

Jan’s Novelty Gift Shop
38 Oriole Dr.
Janice E. O’Connor

KNS Construction
83 Ingham St.
Keith Robitaille

Strong Backs Moving & Hauling
54 Warwick Road
Keith Godek

EAST LONGMEADOW

Dollar Tree
406 North Main St.
Rosalie Beaugard-Lee

Pride Market
13 North Main St.
Robert Bolduc

White Dog Services
191 Maple St.
Robert Nowak

GREENFIELD

Barlow Tree Landscaping & Excavation Inc.
77 Davis St.
Bryan Barlow

Floral Affairs
324 Deerfield St.
Rebecca Guyer

Goly’s Garage
286 Federal St.
James Byrne Jr.

Heart Boats Music Therapy
76 Hastings St.
Michael Williams-Russell

Metals Plus
23 Woodard Road
Lawrence Foster

Pale Circus
24 Franklin St.
Alexander Phillips

Shaw’s Mart
239 Main St.
NaxMart LLC

HOLYOKE

A-1 Nolan Realty LLC
580 Appleton St.
Patrick S. Nolan

Claire’s
50 Holyoke St.
Sonia Tejada

G & P, Inc.
50 Holyoke St.
Rajat Ghosh

Hillside Holdings Inc.
80 Jarvis Ave.
Jeffrey S. Aldrich

Holyoke Towers Associates
582 Pleasant St.
James N. Sullivan

Milkman & Co. Inc.
16 Arden St.
Terril L. Mancuso

Sephora USA Inc.
50 Holyoke St.
Sherman Hoo

LUDLOW

Bridge Premedia
45 Tyburski Road
Ann Lukasik

PALMER

Accu-Siding and Home Improvement
P.O. Box 127
Wayne Quinn

Awsstores.com
1581 North Main St.
Brian Green

Azaya Inc.
1059 North Main St.
Jitendra Changela

Baldyga Inc.
1221 South Main St.
Mark T. Baldyga

Buddy’s Cities Service
1150 Park St.
Arthur D. Tripp, Jr.

Dream Catchers
1440 North Main St.
Charles L. Hood, III

Flamingo Racing
2 Wilbraham St.
Eric W. Sanderson

Floormax Coating
21 Wilbraham St.
John C. Becker, IV

Friendly’s Ice Cream
1519 North Main St.
Shanna Rhoades

SOUTHWICK

Jericho Builders
6 Hidden Place
Bernard Berard

SUP Lake Congamond
49 Mort Vining Road
Diana M. Flynn

SPRINGFIELD

Griffin Consulting Firm
1592 Plumtree Road
Nicole Griffin

Heavenly Air
83 Kathleen St.
Michael R. Rock

Heavenly Essence
588 Carew St.
Hamzah A. Latif

Johnny’s Janitorial Service
51 Nelson Ave.
Johnny M. Kyles

Jupiter Consulting Group
97 Overlook Dr.
Moira Catherine

Kitchen Counsel
270 Maple St.
Michael L. Talmadge

Lamontagne Auto Body Inc.
33 Stafford St.
Glen Robert

Lyndale Garage Inc.
87 Warehouse St.
David E. Vedovelli

Mexico Money Express
2766 Main St.
Ady N. Rosario

N.Y.C. Variety
195 Pine St.
Johnnie Young

Nayab Enterprises LLC
273 Hancock St.
Muhammad Imtiaz

New England Export and Import
764 Main St.
Riswan Raufdeen

OSB and Services
346 Page Blvd.
Carlos E. Martinez

Platinum Image Luxury
57 Haskin St.
Tamika McKenzie

Real Talk Tee’s
34 Clarendon St.
Evelyn Bethea

Robert Valenti Design
25 Hilltop St.
Robert A. Valenti

Roberto’s Bar & Grill Inc.
80 Worthington St.
Paul Ramesh

Saigon Springfield LLC
398 Dickinson St.
Thomas Vuong

Silver Shield Security
185 Belmont St.
Gary L. Berte

TD Bank
1800 Boston Road
Diane Ryan

Vito’s Barber Shop
654 Page Blvd.
Ciro Ricciardi

Wingate at Springfield
215 Bicentennial Highway
Sec Springfield Inc.

Wolfetones Gaelic Football
33 Progress Ave.
John B. O’Reilly

Xtraordinary Recording
2 Chestnut St.
Tony A. Mebane

WESTFIELD

Sandy L. Design
39 Magnolia Terrace
Sandra Fiedler

Timber Ridge Tree Expert
217 Lockhouse Road
Christopher Rafus

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Flowers by Webster LLC
82 Elm St.
Gail Kelly

Friendly’s
1094 Riverdale St.
BDL Restaurant Inc.

K Brothers Construction
1111 Westfield St.
Yuriy Krasnov

Knightly Billing
126 Maple St.
Paul M. Corey

Mind, Body & Skin
117 River St.
Kelly L. Rondeau

Paul H. Boudo & Associates
519 Gooseberry Road
Paul H. Boudo

Power Washing
29 Neptune Ave.
Thomas M. Bienia

Departments Incorporations

The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.

AGAWAM

Squires Bistro Inc., 161 Main St., Agawam, MA 01001. Frederick C. Withee, 111 Cottonwood Lane, Agawam, MA 01001. Bistro/restaurant.
 
ATHOL

North Quabbin Trails Association Inc., 100 Main St., Athol, MA 01331. Robert Curley, 329 Bearsden Road, Athol, MA 01331. To sustain and work toward outdoor trail development, maintenance, and improvements, and to create stewardship with other
outdoor organizations, groups, and individuals to further this goal.

CHICOPEE

Out of Wood Inc., 291 Burnette Road, Chicopee, MA 01020. Phil Karwonski Jr.,
55 Yvette St., Chicopee, MA 01020. To engage in the sale and service of bowling equipment and supplies.

Yankee Auto Sales Inc., 162 Chicopee St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Russel R. Foisy, 16 Lathrop St., South Hadley, MA 01075. Used auto sales.

GREENFIELD

Smith Ventures Inc., 73 River St., First Floor, Greenfield, MA 01301. Tyler S. Smith, same. E-commerce.

HOLYOKE

Gilburg Global Enterprises Inc., 88 Westfield Road, Holyoke, MA 01040. Karen L. Gilburg, same. E-commerce.

LEE

Genesis of Lee Inc., 980 Pleasant St., Lee, MA 01238. Khandubhai Patel, same. Hotel.

LUDLOW

HK Collections Inc., 78 Glenwood St., Ludlow, MA 01056. Hanil Kang, same. The operation of a debt-collection agency.

LONGMEADOW

Goldsmith, Katz & Argenio, PC., 1350 Main St., Suite 1505, Springfield, MA 01103. Jonathan R. Goldsmith, 104 Fairhill Dr., Longmeadow, MA 01106. Law practice.
 
 
NORTHAMPTON

Igualidad as Friends of the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School Inc., 67 Woodlawn Ave., Northampton, MA 01060. Janet M. Sheppard, same. To provide educational and financial support to the children at the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School.

PITTSFIELD

J. Allen’s Clubhouse Grille Inc., 15 Marcella Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201. David Powell, same. Restaurant.

SOUTHAMPTON

The Greater Easthampton St. Patrick’s Day Committee Inc., 22 Pomeroy Meadow Road, Unit 1, Southampton, MA 01073. Nancy L. Lech, same.

SPRINGFIELD

Accountable Care Clinical Services, P.C., 354 Birnie Ave., Springfield, MA 01107. Phillip F. Gaziano M.D.,16 Peak Road, Wilbraham, MA 01085. Practice medicine.

Campus Neighbors of Springfield MA Inc., 15 Birchalnd Ave., Springfield, MA 01119. Shawn Corbitt, 69 Ashland Ave, Springfield, MA 01119. Nonprofit corporation.

CHC Realty Manager Inc., 1145 Main St, Springfield, MA 01103. Elizabeth Glenn. 664 Roosevelt Ave., Springfield, MA 01109. Domestic profit corporation.

Hampden Investment Corporation II, 19 Harrison Ave., Springfield, MA 0110. Glenn S. Welch, 55 Rosewood Dr., Suffield, CT 06078. Security corporation status under Massachusetts general laws.

Hidden Capitol Group Inc., 1350 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103. Christopher Lessard, same.

Iglesia Pentecostal Jehova-Jireh Inc., 712 Dwight St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Jaqueline Villanueva, 1375 Dwight St., Springfield, MA 01109. Church.

Keep Youth Dreaming and Striving Inc., 1498 Plumtree Road, Springfield, MA 01119. Latoya Bosworth, 43 Pearl St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Charitable organization dedicated to making contributions to tax exempt 501(c)3 organizations.

Naranjan Inc., 55 Briarwood Ave., Springfield, MA 01118. Sukhbrir Kaur, 22 Hopkins Dr., New Haven, CT 06512. Restaurant.

One Source General Contractors Inc., 36 Colonial Ave., Springfield, MA 01109. Dennis Forbes, same. General contractor.

SOUTH HADLEY

IQRA Inc., 24 Michael Dr., South Hadley, MA 01075. Amir Paracha, same.
 
LBLeasing Inc., 27 Hadley St., outh Hadley, MA 01075. Carol D. White, Same. Leasing of vehicles.

TURNERS FALLS

Humphrey Garden Design and Landscape Inc., 8 Burnett St., Turners Falls, MA 01376. Kevin Humphrey, same. Landscaping service.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

1st Stop Café Inc., 369 Walnut St. Ext., Agawam, MA 01001. Jennifer K. Haile, 55 Irving St., West Springfield, MA 01089. Coffee shop and restaurant.

F.T.N. Realty Inc., 1424 Piper Road, West Springfield, MA 01089. Thomas J. Nault, same. Own, rent, lease, and manage real estate.

WESTFIELD

Bahre’s Cure Cancer Concerts, Corp., 40 Pinewood Lane, Westfield, MA 01085. Jason E. Bahre Sr., same. Non-profit organization established to host public concerts to raise money/donations, which will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Complete Tax Service Inc., 85 Reservior Ave., Westfield, MA 01085. Shelley Hope Lacross, same. Bookkeeping and tax-preparation services.

Mancino Farms Inc., 354 North Road, Westfield, MA 01085. Joeseph A Mancino, Same. Farming with retail sales.

TCIS Inc., 83 Ridgecrest Dr., Westfield, MA 01085. James C Tierney, Same. Private investigation services.

Briefcase Departments

$21 Million Approved for Union Station and PVTA
SPRINGFIELD — Congressman Richard Neal recently announced that nearly $21 million in federal funding has been formally approved for the planned renovation of Springfield’s Union Station, a historic landmark, and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). Of the $21 million, $17 million will help support the renovation of Union Station into a regional transportation center, which is estimated to cost $45 million. The remaining $3.9 million will be directed to the PVTA to help underwrite maintenance of the local public-transportation system. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Raymond LaHood visited Springfield in late July to tour the historic train station and meet with local officials to discuss the redevelopment project. Neal, who has spearheaded this project since the late 1980s, expressed his satisfaction with the recent funding approval and thanked LaHood for his attention and assistance. “I have been determined to turn Union Station into a modern intermodal transportation center for many years,” said Neal. “Restoring this historic structure and turning it into a thriving 21st-century transportation center has been a top priority of mine going back to my days as mayor of Springfield. I remain convinced that the successful renovation of Union Station can literally transform the northern blocks of downtown Springfield. The renewal of this local treasure has been confirmed with this announcement, and a new generation of travelers will soon be passing though its doors.” Neal reported that $72 million in federal funding is being used to renovate the Connecticut River rail line and bring high-speed rail to Western New England, and more than $100 million is being invested in the local infrastructure. The Springfield Redevelopment Authority owns Union Station, built in 1926. Demolition of a portion of the building will commence late this year, with construction for the new renovations expected in the spring of 2013.

Pro Springfield Media Launches Web Publication
SPRINGFIELD — Pro Springfield Media, a nonprofit organization that was established in 2011 with a campaign to encourage area residents to “say something nice about their city,” recently launched an online publication called Speaking of Springfield. The publication will feature good news about the city — upbeat, up-close, and uplifting stories about residents, businesses, and neighborhoods. A section entitled “Sensations” features city sights, sounds, and signs as part of the editorial content. The publication is being managed and produced by TSM Design with support from local writers, photographers, and videographers. Speaking of Springfield is a free public medium and is funded through the support of corporations, foundations, and individuals through grants, underwriting, and donations. Individuals are encouraged to subscribe to the e-zine in order to be notified when articles are posted by logging onto www.speakingofspringfield.org.

Agenda Departments

NEBA Golf Tournament
Aug. 26: New England Business Associates (NEBA) will host a golf tournament on at Tekoa Country Club in Westfield. Proceeds from the tournament will benefit NEBA’s skills-training, supported-employment, academic-achievement, and self-employment programs for individuals with disabilities. The tournament will begin with a shotgun start at 1 p.m., and an awards and dinner ceremony will follow the finish. Sponsorship opportunities are available, and all golfers will have an opportunity to participate in contests and win prizes. To participate in the tournament and/or become an event sponsor, visit neba.eventbrite.com or contact David Parkinson, tournament director, at (413) 821-9200, ext. 145, or [email protected].

Massachusetts Chamber Business Summit
Sept. 9-11: The Massachusetts Chamber board of directors will conduct its annual Business Summit and Awards Ceremony at the Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis. The two-day meeting allows participants to meet with business professionals from across the state, as well as listen to state and local elected officials who will discuss the future of business in Massachusetts. Additionally, representatives from the Mass. Office of Economic Development will discuss loans, grants, and tax incentives available to business owners. Industry experts will also be on hand to discuss topics such as leveraging social media, search-engine optimization, and health care cost containment. The winners of the Business of the Year Award and the Employer of Choice Award will also be announced during the summit. For more information, call (617) 512-9667 or visit www.masscbi.com.

World Affairs Council Annual Meeting
Oct. 10: Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash will speak at the World Affairs Council of Western Mass. Annual Meeting & Dinner in the Mahogany Room of the Springfield Sheraton Hotel in downtown Springfield. More details will be forthcoming. Lash is an internationally recognized expert on practical solutions to global sustainability and development challenges. Before he became president of Hampshire College in 2011, he served as president of World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental think tank with offices in eight countries and partners in more than 50 countries. WRI is an international leader on issues ranging from low-carbon development to sustainable transportation. From 1993 to 1999, Lash was co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, a group of government, business, labor, civil-rights, and environmental leaders appointed by Bill Clinton that developed visionary recommendations for strategies to promote sustainable development. He played a key role in the creation and success of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which in 2007 issued the highly influential “Call to Action” on global warming. Prior to WRI, Lash held posts as director of Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center, Vermont secretary of Natural Resources, and Vermont commissioner of Environmental Conservation, as well as as a federal prosecutor. For more information on the event, call (413) 733-0110.

Western Mass.
Business Expo
Oct. 11: BusinessWest will again present the Western Mass. Business Expo. The event, which made its debut last fall at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, will feature more than 180 exhibitors, seminars, special presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and the year’s most extensive networking opportunity. Comcast Business Class will again be the presenting sponsor of the event. Details, including breakfast and lunch agendas, seminar topics, and featured speakers, will be printed in the pages of BusinessWest over the coming months. For more information or to purchase a booth, call (413) 781-8600, e-mail [email protected], or visit www.wmbexpo.com.

40 Under Forty Reunion
Nov. 8: BusinessWest will stage a reunion featuring the first six classes of its 40 Under Forty program. Details on the event will be forthcoming. What is known is that it will be staged at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke, and will be open only to 40 Under Forty winners, sponsors, and their guests, as well as judges of the first six contests. For more information on the event, call (413) 781-8600, or e-mail [email protected].

Chamber Corners Departments

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
413-253-0700
• Aug. 15: Chamber After 5, 5-7 p.m., at the Amherst Brewing Co, 10 University Dr., Amherst. Joi• us for the debut of Live United 365 brew. Help the United Way of Hampshire County and network with chamber members at the same time. Admission: $5 for members, $10 for non-members.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376
• Aug. 15: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m. Hosted and sponsored by Hamel’s Creative Catering at the Summit View Banquet and Meeting House, 555 Northampto• St., Holyoke. Admissio• is $10 for members, $15 cash for non-members.
• Aug. 22: Summer Salute Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m., at the Yankee Pedlar, 1866 Northampto• St., Holyoke. Cost is $20 i• advance, $25 at the door.

QUABOAG HILLS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.qvcc.biz
(413) 283-2418
 • Aug. 25: Community Celebratio• 2012, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Joi• Life’s Memories & More and the Collaborative for Community Health for a day of community celebration. Crafters, artisans, and vendors will be o• hand with a bounty of great items to view and purchase. Enjoy musical entertainment. Get a henna tattoo or treat yourself to one of the collaborative services like chair acupuncture, chair massage, or Reiki, and try some delicious food. For more information, contact [email protected] or call (413) 283-4448.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com  
(413) 426-3880
 • Aug. 20: 9th Annual Golf Tournament at Springfield Country Club. Proceeds will go toward the WRC Educational Fund, which supports the Business Educatio• Grant Program and student scholarships for Agawam and West Springfield Students. To register or for more information, contact the chamber at (413) 426-3880 or at www.ourwrc.com.

Court Dockets Departments

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT
Air Distribution Corporation v. Curry Realty, LLC and Curry Automotive, LLC
Allegation: Plaintiff asserts its mechanics lien rights for materials provided in a construction project owned/leased by the defendants: $20,330
Filed: 7/25/12

Lisa Pereira v. Hampton Inn
Allegation: Negligent maintenance of property causing slip and fall: $3,343.12
Filed: 7/19/12

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT
Donald K. Carew v. Riverside Industries Inc. and Carolyn M. Dineen
Allegation: Motor vehicle negligence and personal injury: $45,906.85
Filed: 6/13/12

LaMountain Brothers Inc. v. Pan Am Southern, LLC
Allegation: Action to enforce a mechanics lien upon the property of the defendant: $91,733.33
Filed: 6/17/12

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Carol and John Walsh v. New Tradition Millwork Inc.
Allegation: Breach of construction agreement: $29,692
Filed: 6/21/12

Edward and Joan Haley v. Verizon New England Inc.
Allegation: Placement of utility poles without owner’s consent: $2,800
Filed: 6/28/12

Hampden Bank v. Patient Edu, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of promissory note: $1,175,000
Filed: 6/25/12

Isabel and Jose Sanchez v. Hani Haddad, M.D. and Valley Women’s Health Group, LLV
Allegation: Medical malpractice: $25,000+
Filed: 6/25/12

Lillian Colon, as administratrix of the estate of Jose Colon v. The Mardi Gras
Allegation: Negligence in security causing wrongful death when the decedent was shot and killed by another patron of the Mardi Gras: $1,000,000+
Filed: 6/26/12

PALMER DISTRICT COURT
Camerota Truck Parts v. L.J.R. Trucking, Inc. and Robert Levesque
Allegation: Failure to pay for goods provided and breach of contract: $10,299.95
Filed: 7/6/12

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
A-Tech Commercial Parts & Service Inc. v. Kentucky Fried Chicken
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $7,483.22
Filed: 6/21/12

Baystate Elevator Company v. Western New England University
Allegation: Non-payment of labor and materials for repair and maintenance of elevators: $8,760.00
Filed: 7/31/12

Bradco Supply v. C.S. Alexander Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment on promissory note: $3,910
Filed: 7/6/12

Perkins Paper Inc. v. Chez Josef Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $4,075.64
Filed: 6/25/12

Sesac Inc. v. Skyplex
Allegation: Breach of performance license agreement: $6,160.07
Filed: 7/5/12

Departments Picture This

Send photos with a caption and contact information to: ‘Picture This’ c/o BusinessWest Magazine, 1441 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103 or to [email protected]

Gold Standard

Douglas Bowen, president and CEO of PeoplesBank, and Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, chair of the U.S. Green Building Council, Massachusetts Chapter – West Branch, display the LEED Gold certification for the bank’s year-old branch at 547 Memorial Ave. in West Springfield, which was constructed, and operates, in an environmentally friendly manner. It is the second PeoplesBank branch to receive LEED certification, the first building to be awarded a LEED certification in the town, and one of only two community banks in Massachusetts that has achieved LEED Gold status.

















Check, Please

Max Burger, the second upscale burger restaurant and ninth restaurant of the Hartford-based Max Restaurant Group, celebrated a grand opening in late July at its 684 Bliss Road location in Longmeadow. A portion of the evening’s proceeds, totaling $9,025, were presented a week later to the Longmeadow Excellence in Education Foundation (LEEF), a private, volunteer, nonprofit educational foundation that was created to enrich and enhance the quality of education in Longmeadow public schools. Pictured, from left, are Justin Dion, president of LEEF; Tim Taillefer, managing partner of Max Burger; and Todd Ratner, LEEF board member.





Dream Car

Mike Balise (far left), vice president of Balise Motor Sales, shows off a Lexus LFA (sticker price: $454,000) at an unveiling celebration at the Lexus showroom on July 26. This model is one of only 500 (the 349th, to be exact) in the world, and one of only 50 with the specialty ‘Nürburgring package.’ The car, which has a V-10 engine, was tested at the famous German Nürburgring track and set the 10th-fastest time ever for a production vehicle. The orange racecar will be viewable at Balise Lexus and various promotional events in the New England area.

Columns Sections
Adopting His Philosophy Would Certainly Be a Successful Habit

Charlotte Cathro

Charlotte Cathro

Stephen R. Covey, a teacher, author, and business consultant, passed away in July at age 79 from complications after a bicycling accident. Known for his bestselling books, his words affected millions of people, and in his passing, many reflect on his teachings.
Covey’s management principles were founded on values and behavioral psychology. Part motivational speaker, part business consultant, his concepts have been embraced by an international following.
Covey graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree and Harvard Business School with a master’s, both in Business Administration. Dedicating himself to teaching, he completed a doctorate degree at Brigham Young University. In 1984, he left his life as a university professor and founded the Covey Leadership Center. The center merged with FranklinQuest in 1997 to become Franklin Covey Co., a publicly traded company providing services in 147 countries worldwide. The management-consulting firm specializes in leadership training, improving productivity, and implementing business strategies.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is Covey’s best known work. The book has sold more than 20 million copies and was named the most influential business book of the 20th century. The success of 7 Habits spawned a series of followup editions, Webinars, and management trainings. The seven habits have been adapted for families, associates, and managers. Covey toured the world lecturing and facilitating workshops. Business courses at universities often include the book in their curriculum and show excerpts of his presentations. Fortune 500 companies have even accredited his management principles as the foundation for their business processes.
The habits focus on maximizing individual effectiveness while improving teamwork and communication. For instance, Covey comments on the distractions that have come along with advanced technology and their polarizing effect on interpersonal relationships. e-mail, for example, muddles communications. Active listening is not just hearing a person, but also seeking to understand. The book defines for us the differing realities of the personal and the interpersonal. Our intentions and expectations are not always a shared understanding. Working together as a team, our individual self can get in the way of common goals. We are most successful when we are able to achieve the ‘win-win’ scenario.
Time management is a concept we all struggle with. When people are busy, they become overwhelmed by small tasks and have trouble prioritizing. Covey presents a matrix for determining how to plan and execute assigned responsibilities. As a famous exercise at his workshops, he demonstrates this concept with different sizes of rocks and a glass jar. The large rocks represent the most important considerations in your life — for example, family time. The small rocks are the small daily jobs we all have to do, like laundry. If you pour the small rocks into the jar as you place the large rocks, you can then fit in everything you need to accomplish.
The book is motivational, with step-by-step processes and relatable anecdotes. Included are visual and mental exercises designed to reinforce the material. Concepts in 7 Habits are assigned buzzwords, which have since been adopted into the language of business. These terms include ‘win-win,’ ‘proactive,’ and ‘synergy.’ The secret to the book’s success, however, is the understanding of human nature it demonstrates the behavioral commonalities we all share. The insights span both business and personal relationships, and thus countless individuals have found them applicable to their lives.
Accolades for Covey and his work are too numerous to mention. Covey was named one of Time magazine’s 25 most influential Americans in 1996. He received eight honorary doctorate degrees, an International Man of Peace award, and an International Entrepreneur of the Year award. A dedicated family man with nine children, 52 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, he was also awarded with a Fatherhood Award from the National Fatherhood Initiative. He considered this to be the most meaningful award that he ever received.
Covey dedicated his life to helping people achieve their business and personal goals though books, workshops, and lectures. An international management icon, he shaped what business is today and what it strives to be. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey addressed tendencies that hold people back from achieving their best in life. While he admitted that, at times, he himself had trouble applying his concepts to everyday life, he no doubt achieved a great deal of success in his time.

Charlotte Cathro is a tax manager with the Holyoke-based CPA firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; (413) 536-8510; [email protected]