Home 2013 July (Page 2)
Chamber Corners Departments

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
413-253-0700
• July 15: Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce 10th Annual Golf Tournament, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., at Hickory Ridge Golf Course, Pomeroy Lane, Amherst.
Registration and lunch: 10:30 a.m. to noon; shotgun start: noon; reception and dinner: 5 p.m. Cost: $125 per player. Presented by the Hampshire Hospitality Group.

CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101
• August 1: Part 3 of a five-seminar series: “Conquering the Challenge of Employment Law Compliance for Small Businesses: What You Need to Know and How to Stay in Compliance,” from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at the PeoplesBank Conference Room, 330 Whitney Ave. in Holyoke. Presenter will be Layla Taylor, Esq. This program will focus on:
• Identifying worker-classification issues (independent contractor versus employee);
• Wage-and-hour basics (minimum wage, overtime, exemptions, and child-labor laws);
• Immigration (I-9 compliance);
• Discrimination laws (federal and state, reasonable accommodation issues);
• Benefits (leave laws and health insurance);
• Communicating with employees without creating a contract; and
• How to stay in compliance (free resources and when to contact a professional).
• August 22: Part 4 of a five-seminar series: ‘Marketing Strategies that Lead to Growth,’ from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at PeoplesBank Conference Room, 330 Whitney Ave. in Holyoke. Presenter will be Mary McCarthy. Concerned about delivering your profit? Unsure how to reach your target audience? Overwhelmed with all the media options available? Smaller businesses often lack the time to execute their marketing tasks, and are challenged with budgetary constraints. This workshop is designed for businesses seeking cost-efficient and effective marketing strategies that lead to growth and seamless communication with their customers. Attendees will learn:
• Branding strategies that will effectively convey your marketing messages;
• How to distinguish your marketing plan from your competition;
• Effective ways to reach your target audience and foster loyal relationships;
• How to connect with today’s tech-savvy customers through social media; and
• Networking essentials that will help you get more business.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414
• July 26: The 29th Annual Golf Tournament, starting at 9 a.m. at Southampton Country Club. Reserve now before it sells out. Team fee: $400. Tee sponsorships available for $75/$125. Would you like to donate a raffle prize and/or to the golfer’s gift bag? Contact the chamber to sign up a team, arrange a tee sponsor, or with your raffle prize or gift donation.

HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376
• July 17: Chamber Business Connections, 5-7 p.m. at the Volleyball Hall of Fame, 444 Dwight St., Holyoke. Networking, refreshments, door prizes, and 50/50 raffle.
• Sept. 18: Save the date! Chamber Annual Clambake, 5-7:30 p.m. Plan now to make the clambake your employee picnic or employee-appreciation event. Watch for more details.

MASSACHUSETTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
(413) 525-2506
• July 22: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament at Tekoa Country Club, Westfield. Shotgun start at 11 a.m. Cost: $100 per golfer. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, call (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected]
• Nov. 12: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon, 9 a.m., at the DoubleTree, Westborough. For more information on ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities, call the chamber office at (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected]

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
413-426-3880
• August 19: West of the River Chamber of Commerce 10th Annual Golf Tournament, Springfield Country Club, West Springfield. Cost: $125 per golfer. Presenting Sponsor: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino of New England. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].
• Sept. 4: Wicked Wednesday, hosted By E.B’s, 5-7 p.m. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to network in a laid-back atmosphere. Cost: free for chamber members, $10 for non-members (event is open to the public; you must pay at the door if you’re a non-member). For more information, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or e-mail [email protected].

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618
• Sept. 11: September WestNet, 5-7 p.m., at the Holiday Inn Express, 39 Southampton Road, Westfield. Come and meet chamber members and bring your business cards for a great networking opportunity. Cost: $10 cash for chamber members, $15 cash for non-members. Walk-ins are welcome. Call the chamber at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail Pam Bussell at [email protected]. Your first WestNet is always free.

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD
www.springfieldyps.com
• July 18: July Third Thursday, 5-7 p.m. at the Sheraton Springfield, 1 Monarch Place, Springfield. Cost: Free for members, $10 non-members.

Agenda Departments

Yidstock 2013
July 18-21: Yidstock 2013: The Festival of New Yiddish Music will bring the top names in klezmer to the stage at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. The Klezmer Conservatory Band will kick off Yidstock on July 18, and the festival will continue with Klezperanto and Margot Leverett & the Klezmer Mountain Boys; Brass Khazones: Steven Bernstein and Frank London; the Wholesale Klezmer Band; Golem; and the Yidstock All-Stars. The weekend will conclude with a massive jam, featuring a Yidstock All-Stars band with players from the weekend’s bands, under the musical directorship of Frank London. Among those all-stars are two of the greatest clarinetists in klezmer, Ilene Stahl of Klezperanto and Margot Leverett of the Klezmer Mountain Boys. A series of workshops and talks is also on the schedule, including a Yiddish folk-dance workshop led by internationally renowned Steve Weintraub; a lecture by Hankus Netsky, a founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band; an instrumental klezmer workshop; and a talk by author and music critic Seth Rogovoy. Back by popular demand, Yosi’s Kosher Falafel Tent will once again be serving an assortment of great food. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit yiddishbookcenter.org/yidstock or call (413) 256-4900.

Golf Tournament
July 22: The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts will hold its Annual Golf Classic at Crestview Country Club in Agawam. Registration opens at 10:30 a.m. with a noon shotgun start for an 18-hole scramble. The cost is $140 per person, which includes golf and cart, lunch and tournament banquet, and team and skill prize eligibility. New this year is the Tee & Tan Golf Option, a nine-hole golf scramble followed by relaxation on a chaise at Crestview’s scenic pool area. The cost for the banquet only is $30. For registration and details, visit www.womensfund.net.

‘Second Chances’ Exhibit
Through July 25: Springfield Pulse Artspace presents a unique exhibition featuring innovative and colorful local artist Whitney Wood Rahm. “Second Chances: Balancing Passion, Purpose, and Obligation” features an eclectic range of original works by Rahm, including her whimsical and popular “Friendly Monsters,” made from barn board, scrap lumber, and found parts. Also on exhibit are Rahm’s highly inventive rescued and revived furniture, contemporary paintings, and unique photography. In addition, the exhibition will include a participatory art experience, where viewers will have a part in providing input for an upcoming piece to be created by Rahm. The exhibit is on display at 11 Pearl Street, Suite 235, Springfield, weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment.

Cars for a Cause
July 28: Berkshire Bank will sponsor Cars for a Cause, a community car-show event, in downtown Westfield from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine, at the bank’s Court Street branch. In addition to showcasing hundreds of classic and modern cars from across the region, the event will feature live music, food, and vendors along with hundreds of cars. Berkshire Bank’s Court Street parking lot will be closed to the public to allow for cars and vendors. Car enthusiasts interested in exhibiting their cars at the show should arrive between 10 and 11 a.m. the day of the event. There is no pre-event registration, and cars will be admitted until space runs out. Cars in the show are asked to enter the bank parking lot from Court Street, where volunteers will assist with parking. Cars for a Cause costs $3 per person to attend, and there is a $10 entry fee for car exhibitors; all funds raised will be donated to the One Fund Boston to benefit the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings in April. Awards will be distributed to the top cars. For more information on exhibiting a car, call Kyle Rosa at Berkshire Bank at (413) 564-6219.

Wistariahurst Exhibition
Through August: Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke has unveiled its Summer Gallery Exhibition, “Behind the Scenery: Sketches to Cityscapes.” Local artist Caleb Colon gives an intimate look at the artist’s process of selection, direction, and creation, featuring displays of the works as paintings begin, progress, and finally reach completion. Works shown in the exhibition are inspired by local scenes and sites along the Connecticut River. Studies, sketches, and photos are also on view, showing another layer of the process. Gallery admission is $3.

Western Mass. Business Expo 2013
Nov. 6: Planning is underway for the Western Mass. Business Expo 2013, a day-long business-to-business event to take place at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. This fall’s show, the third edition of the Expo, which is again being produced by BusinessWest, will feature more than 150 exhibitors, seminars on timely issues of the day, special Show Floor Theater presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and the wrap-up Expo social, which has become a not-to-be-missed networking event. Details will be printed in upcoming editions of BusinessWest and can also be seen online at www.wmbexpo.com or www.businesswest.com. For more information on the event or to reserve booth space, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

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
Trustees of the Yorktown Condominium Trust v. US Bank National Assoc. Trustee RASC 2007 EMX1
Allegation: Claim to enforce a condominium lien for non-payment of common charges and for order of foreclosure of lien for non-payment: $5,000
Filed: 6/11/13

GREENFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Edwin C. Gray and Daniel Gray v. Feed Commodities International Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract and breach of implied warranty pertaining to the sale of bird feed resulting in damaged game birds and eggs, lost profits, and physical and emotional harm: $532,511.55
Filed: 5/31/13

Lane Construction Corp. v. Northern Land Clearing Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of materials and services rendered and breach of contract: $59,573.90
Filed: 5/24/13

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Donna Berry v. NiSource/Columbia Gas of MA
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $25,000+
Filed: 5/17/13

Joan and Robert Blakeslee v. Main Street America Assurance Co.
Allegation: Insurer has failed to pay for losses under insurance policy: $106,000
Filed: 5/29/13

The Dollfus Mieg Co. Inc. v. The JannLynn Corp.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $27,746.67
Filed: 5/17/13

HOLYOKE DISTRICT COURT
Specialized Bicycle Components Inc. v. Competitive Edge Ski & Bike Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract and non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $14,014.43
Filed: 5/6/13

PALMER DISTRICT COURT
City Electric Supply Co. v. Steven Soby, d/b/a Soby Electric
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $17,645.98
Filed: 4/17/13

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Adelphia Graphic Systems Inc. v. W.S. Sign Design Corp.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $9,939.56
Filed: 5/8/13

Maria Tirado v. SJA Real Estate Investing, LLC
Allegation: Negligent maintenance of property causing injury: $5,774.32
Filed: 6/10/13

Nurses on Demand, LLC v. The Northeast Health Group Inc. d/b/a Chapin Center, Governors Center, Willimansett Center East, and Willimansett Center West
Allegation: Failure to pay for nursing services provided by plaintiff: $24,419.13
Filed: 6/3/13

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Martin Topor Oil Co. Inc. d/b/a Central Oil v. W & I Construction Inc.
Allegation: Suit on an unsatisfied judgment: $13,660.03
Filed: 6/5/13

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]

Camp Hard Rock
PicThisHardRockRepresentatives of Hard Rock New England, a local subsidiary of Hard Rock International, the global company vying to build a destination casino resort on the grounds of the Big E in West Springfield, recently announced plans for a first-ever two-day summer music camp. The event, in partnership with the Fender Music Foundation, is limited to the first 150 participants, ages 9 to 16, with intermediate to advanced musical interest. The camp will take place on Aug. 14 and 15 at West Springfield High School. Pictured amid guitars and drum sets are Annie Balliro, senior director of brand philanthropy, and Tim Maland, president of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino New England. Maland explained that the two days will offer music classes, workshops, jam sessions, and a special open-to-the-public performance on Aug. 15 at 6 p.m., directed by Dan Lavery, a two-time Grammy nominee and a past performer with the bands Tonic and The Fray. Proceeds from the $20 tuition will support music-education initiatives in West Springfield and Western Mass.

Big Relief
PicThisARCBigYOKtornadoIn response to the massive destruction from recent tornadoes in parts of Oklahoma, Big Y World Class Markets hosted a special in-store customer and employee donation program in all Massachusetts and Connecticut stores. Including additional support from Big Y, a total of $40,000 was raised, which will be utilized by American Red Cross chapters in both Massachusetts and Connecticut in support of ongoing relief efforts in those devastated Midwest communities. Pictured at the formal check presentation on June 26 are, from left, Rick Lee, director of the American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter; Donald D’Amour, CEO of Big Y Foods; and Mark Brinkerhoff, director of Community Support for the American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter.

Sections Women in Businesss
WPO Provides a Unique Support System for Women in Business

Cathy Crosky

Cathy Crosky says WPO helps second-stage companies — those with more than 10 employees and $1 million in annual revenues — address their specific needs.

Laura Wright calls it her “sounding board.”
That’s one of the many descriptive words and phrases that she and other members applied to the Women Presidents Organization, or WPO, and its Springfield chapter. And they hint broadly at a specific, and distinctive, form of support provided to those who have found it.
Created for women who own or manage what are known as second-stage companies — those with more than 10 employees and $1 million in annual revenues — or direct large nonprofit agencies, WPO is unique in that regard, and also in the way it helps members address their specific problems and issues, said Wright, president of CSW Inc. in Ludlow.
She told BusinessWest that the monthly meetings put her in a room with successful individuals facing similar challenges — and possessing a common desire to help such peers. And this is just the environment she needs at this stage of her life and career.
“I’m in a male-dominated industry,” said Wright, whose company manufactures printing plates and cutting dies for the packaging industry and also offers brand-management services to consumer product companies. “But I found results-oriented women in the group who were focused on their businesses and very successful. And they’ve helped me grow my business.”
Meghan Sullivan concurred.
“It’s very refreshing to be in a room of people that have very similar experiences,” said Sullivan, managing partner of the Springfield-based law firm Sullivan Hayes & Quinn. “Whether it’s being a leader and shouldering that burden or balancing the obligations of work and the joys and obligations of family — we’re all going through the same kinds of things.”
Cathy Crosky, chair of the Springfield chapter of WPO, said the group now boasts 10 members (most chapters have no more than 20) who meet monthly for three hours. They represent a number of business sectors — from manufacturing to professional services to the nonprofit realm — but share common challenges inside and outside the workplace.
“Once you get your business over a million, it requires a different kind of leadership than when you started the business,” said Crosky, an executive coach and organizational transformation consultant with Charter Oak Consulting Group in Williamstown. “You need different things at a different stages, and women don’t have many role models or mothers that did what we do, but they still have the same challenges.”
The organization’s website announces that it provides “a professionally facilitated, non-judgmental forum for second-stage peers to bring the ‘genius out of the group,’ accelerate the growth of their businesses, and to promote the acceptance and advancement of women entrepreneurs in all industries.”
Translating, and elaborating, Crosky said the group makes extensive use of a roundtable process called Peerspectives, developed by the Edward Lowe Foundation (named after the entrepreneur who, among other things, gave the world cat litter) to drill down on an issue and help the individual presenting a dilemma or goal benefit from collective peer wisdom.
“We ask questions, and that requires the person who is looking for feedback to talk through their issue based on the questions,” she said, adding that the group doesn’t provide answers, but rather helps members forge their own. “So, rather than being told, ‘this is what you should do,’ there is a series of questions that brings problem solving to a deeper level — for them and for us.”
For this issue and its focus on women in business, we spoke with a number of members of the Springfield chapter of WPO to find out how this organization benefits its members, and why its roundtable format is successful in generating results for all those involved in the discussions.

Accountability Now
Shalu Arora, president of Skylightsys Strategic Staffing, an information-technology staffing agency in East Hartford, Conn., started her company eight years ago, and is known in entrepreneurial circles as a ‘gazelle’ because of the speed with which her company grew; she hit $1 million in sales in her second year.
And as a gazelle, she has different needs — and conversations — than those who are just getting a business off the ground. Being in a room full of people who understand her situation, mostly because they’ve been there themselves, is one of the biggest benefits from being a WPO member, she said.
“A startup doesn’t need any processes,” Arora told BusinessWest. “Second-stage business owners need the right advice in terms of legal, compliance, staff management, employee handbooks … the list goes on. You go from managing yourself and a few others to having a large group, and there’s a lot that goes with that.”

From left, Shalu Arora, Meghan Sullivan, Pattie Hallberg, and Laura Wright

From left, Shalu Arora, Meghan Sullivan, Pattie Hallberg, and Laura Wright say WPO members are held accountable for taking the steps necessary to solve their issues.

She said she joined WPO to increase her network of business leaders, but also to help build and hone her leadership skills — and the roundtable discussions have certainly helped her do that. “You’re not here to sell yourself or your company, and in every other organization, you have to put your game face on,” she explained. “This is not about a sales opportunity; it’s about a true way to build your leadership skills.”
Arora’s situation, and outlook, are typical of those who have joined the Springfield chapter, one of 105 around the world. Their individual stories vary, but their motivations for joining the organization are essentially the same: they want to grow their businesses or nonprofits, and they want to grow professionally.
And they’ve come to understand that the best way to do that is to be around people who understand what it takes to do both, and can, as the WPO website suggests, pull the collective genius out of the group.
People like Pattie Hallberg.
The CEO of the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts, based in Holyoke, Hallberg is a member of WPO and also involved with the Longmeadow Business Group, which is comprised mostly of men, and said there really is no other women’s group that maintains the continual focus on education and business development that WPO does.
A year ago, Hallberg was looking for opportunities to explore different aspects of business and management, and WPO came into a conversation with a friend. She joined, and helps brings the nonprofit perspective into the group’s discussions, with the understanding that it’s the same perspective of those in business.
“There’s a place for nonprofit conversation that people may think is a little bit different than a business conversation, but there’s really not that much difference — we just have different products,” Hallberg said, adding that she’s intrigued by the breadth and depth of issues put on the table for discussion.
Some of them are strictly business- and bottom-line-oriented, she went on, while others involve the overriding assignment of balancing work and life — and finding a formula for succeeding at both.
Wright noted that many discussions involve how to take a business to the next level, and these conversations are multi-faceted, involving more than spread sheets, sales projections, and marketing strategies.
“Those are the most interesting conversations; it’s a great forum for making a change and making a business what you want it to be,” she explained. “And that all goes back to the members treating each other as the whole person, not just as a businessperson.”
Perhaps the one word that came up most often in commentary about WPO and how it benefits members was accountability. If women want to grow professionally and personally, they have to put plans in place and affect change where it’s needed, said Sullivan, adding that the group works diligently to keep members’ feet to the fire.
Indeed, if the previous month’s meeting spent a good deal of time on one of the member’s concerns, that member should expect to report what’s happened since in the very next meeting, said Sullivan, who, when asked how accountability is achieved, was quick to respond.
“They ask you,” she said, laughing. “They ask, ‘did you do it?’ And they ask why you did or didn’t do it; they put you right on the spot, and it forces you to face that you’re procrastinating, or it forces you to have a perspective that you didn’t have, but you should have had.”
In addition to the Peerspectives roundtable, there are other methods of learning through WPO, including articles and books, business-planning methods, self-assessment tools, and presenting and discussing various leadership topics, said Crosky. But the group has attended some retreats staged by the Edward Lowe Foundation, and a recent addition to the schedule is a new annual conference in Rhode Island with the WPO chapters from Boston and Rhode Island, which allows the Springfield chapter to expand its network and collectively learn from others facing similar challenges.

Tapping into Wisdom
Arora told BusinessWest that it’s hard to look at the bottom line and say her company’s continued growth is due to WPO, but she can state with confidence that it has definitely helped.
“If you help the leader, you help the company,” she said. “I’ve made bolder, better, and swifter decisions than before I was part of this group.”
Enabling its members to say such things is among the many goals of the WPO organization, which acts as a sounding board, as Wright described, or as a board of directors, as others have noted — or as a tough, yet compassionate, group of peers, which is perhaps the most accurate description.
And one can’t underestimate the power of peers.

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Sections Women in Businesss
Women Mentors Help Peers Realize Their Potential

Mo McGuinness, center, has been a mentor to Karah Douglass, left, and Jillian Duclos

Mo McGuinness, center, has been a mentor to Karah Douglass, left, and Jillian Duclos since she hired them to work in Sylvester’s and Roberto’s restaurants.

Karah Douglass hasn’t forgotten the day she had to fire an employee at Sylvester’s restaurant. “I was so scared, I panicked,” said the eatery’s operations manager.
So she called Maureen “Mo” McGuinness, who owns Sylvester’s and Roberto’s Restaurant in Northampton, asking for advice.
McGuinness has not only been her employer, she has also been a mentor to Douglass since they met six years ago. She told Douglass not to apologize when she let the person go and to keep the conversation brief.
“I always say ‘I’m sorry’ to everyone,” Douglass said, adding that, in this instance, she refrained from doing so. “And after I called the employee, I felt very empowered, strong, and confident.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Mo,” she continued. “She pushes me every day to be a better manager and leader, and whenever I talk to her, she reminds me that I am amazing. Before I met her, I had never made decisions on my own, but she taught me to follow my instincts, that I know what I am doing.”
Sue Rondeau, vice president of Operations for Weed Man in West Springfield, has also relied on mentors to keep her confident about her ability to succeed. She was studying to earn her master’s degree in business administration at Bay Path College when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to stop taking classes to get treatment.
She was also working full-time, and when the treatment ended, she didn’t think she had the strength to continue in the MBA program.
But encouragement from mentor Laurie Rosner, an adjunct professor at Bay Path who has spent years in the banking industry, inspired Rondeau to return to school. She also received support from other women she had met at the college and says the mentoring she received has changed her leadership style at work and caused her to become more compassionate.
“I used to think, when you went to school or work, you needed to leave your troubles at the door. Now, as a manager, I realize that things don’t just happen before 9 a.m. or after 5 p.m.,” she said. “I have learned flexibility through example in the last five years and have had a paradigm shift.”
Rondeau is one of many women who have been mentored by Rosner, who summed up her mentoring approach this way: “my purpose in life is to push others to become uncomfortable so they can become the person they were meant to be. I tell my students they are meant to achieve greatness, and if they are not uncomfortable, they are not growing.
“It takes courage to do new things, but the women I network with are usually on a path; we all need to push beyond our fears because women deserve to be in boardrooms,” she went on, adding that experience provides women with perspective and builds up their bank of knowledge. “I tell women it’s about making mistakes and failing forward.”
Studies have shown that mentoring is powerful, and most women with a record of significant accomplishments can point to a number of supportive people during their careers. A recent study conducted by Susan Schor, a management professor at Pace University, showed that female corporate presidents and vice presidents have had up to four strong mentoring relationships that lasted two to five years, while only half of their male counterparts have ever had a mentor.
Many female executives are becoming advocates for other women, whom they meet in women’s organizations, during educational classes, or within their own workplace.
They say they get as much from the women they mentor as they give them. But unlike males, women turn to their mentors for the emotional support they need to succeed, which can happen when they are faced with a challenging situation or when they find it difficult to balance responsibilities in the workplace with their home lives, especially if they are caring for children or aging parents.
In fact, research shows what they do for each other is different from what occurs in most male mentoring relationships. A 2010 study by the nonprofit organization Catalyst, which promotes inclusive workplaces for women, found male mentors tend to sponsor each other rather than just provide advice and support, while women say gender differences make the emotional boost they give to each other critical.
“We need to continue to mentor other women so we can continue to build each other up,” Rosner said. “Women are so hard on themselves. They need to tell themselves they are smart and say, ‘I believe in me’ even if no one else does. If you accept yourself, the struggle goes away. It’s freedom to say, ‘I can be who I am because I am smart and I believe in myself.’”

Battling Barriers
Beth Lorenz owns the Vehicle Inspection Center Inc. in Greenfield and has been in the automotive industry for 27 years. “In 2010, I downsized my business life as an auto dealer and automotive partner so I could upsize my personal life,” she told BusinessWest. “It has been a journey that included selling a dealership, closing a dealership, separating from a family enterprise, divorcing, and re-establishing myself in a smaller business.”
Lorenz said she could not have achieved her goals without a few individuals who believed in her. She has had male and female mentors who have been younger and older than she is, but turned to the females when she was feeling unsure of herself.
One of them is retired Franklin County Clerk of Courts Eve Blakeslee. “She taught me how to be confident and strong and believe in myself,” Lorenz said.

Laurie Rosner, left, has been a mentor to Sue Rondeau

Laurie Rosner, left, has been a mentor to Sue Rondeau, and was instrumental in her decision to return to the MBA program at Bay Path College after cancer treatment.

When she had difficulty making a decision, Blakeslee would have her voice her thoughts out loud. “I needed someone to say, ‘you are thinking the right way,’” Lorenz said, adding that she feels calm whenever she is around Blakeslee.
Other mentors have taught her different lessons, and she was proud to name them. Susan McDonald from Smith College, who is her healthcare proxy, “challenges me to be the best woman I can be in all phases of my life — at home, at work, and in play.” Meanwhile, Becky Caplice, president and CEO of Greenfield Savings Bank, “demonstrates true love of community and possibilities through hard work, integrity and honesty.”
Then there’s Regina Curtis, executive director of Resource Development at the Greenfield Community College Foundation, who made Lorenz understand the value of networking, while the late Nancie Chamberlin “believed in me when I did not, was a fierce advocate of truth and justice, and was full of love …lots and lots of love. She encouraged me to open myself up to the heart of others.”
While some might wonder what love has to do with business, many of the women BusinessWest interviewed talked about being “compassionate leaders” and how women have changed the culture of the workplace, and will continue to do so as their numbers grow.
Figures from the U.S. Department of Labor Women project that women will account for 51% of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018. And women say their expectations have had an impact on employers. “If employees are happy, a company does well,” Rondeau said. “The focus has shifted from the top down to the bottom up.”
McGuinness talked about the importance of keeping everyone happy, from customers to employees, which requires a woman to be compassionate, yet strong. “We have to prove we are solid and can play our game right, but also have compassion when people have challenges,” she said.
The mentoring Jillian Duclos received from McGuinness has allowed her to grow and inspired her to pursue her interest in politics. Since they met, Duclos has not only been a rising star in McGuinness’ restaurant businesses, she has also been a volunteer coordinator for State Rep. Aaron Vega, communications director for Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, and campaign manager for Holyoke City Councilor Jason Ferreira, which was her first venture into the political arena.
“I had never done it before,” she said, adding that McGuinness taught her what she knew about fund-raising, and she recently landed an internship with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Duclos met McGuinness when she was 18, and said her mentoring began after she was hired at Sylvester’s. The 24-year-old explained that, as time went on, McGuinness expected more and more of her. She met those demands and said she hopes to pay forward what she has received.
“You want to give back what people have given to you. Mo encouraged me to return to school and helped me to go on and do bigger and better things,” Duclos said, adding they attended the Women’s Fund of Western Mass. Leadership Institute for Political and Public Impact together.

Shining Examples
Many women, including McGuinness, Lorenz, and Rondeau, have been successful in male-dominated industries. They were among a small group of female pioneers in Western Mass., and others look up to them today as their role models.
But these women say their journey was made easier due to their own mentors. Auto-dealer owner Lorenz was featured in Time magazine in 2009 when she was chosen to receive the Time Dealer of the Year Award for outstanding performance and being a valued member of the community. She called McDonald when she was in the airport on her way to speak to a crowd of 22,000 people at the National Automobile Dealers Assoc. Convention and had a case of the jitters.
“She has shown me how to be a very strong person,” Lorenz said, adding that the support she received was reassuring, even though they were in different industries.
Since that time, other women have sought her advice. “Women need to see other women who are confident and capable in their industry because they don’t have that opportunity very often. It gives them someone to talk to when they are not feeling that way and allows them to move forward,” Lorenz told BusinessWest.
McGuinness said it is still a struggle for women to rise to the top, especially if they are in male-dominated industries. In fact, people sometimes assume she is an employee of her two restaurants, while that never happens to her male co-owner. “It’s still a male-dominated world, and even though we have made it, young women struggle with the same issues that we did,” she said. “But today I won’t do business with someone if they don’t treat me the same way they would treat a man.”
Rosner concurred. “It’s about respect. We have had to fight the fight to stay on top internally within our organizations,” she said, adding that she started her banking career as a receptionist in 1984. “But you can do anything you believe you can do, and leading with compassion is what makes us amazing women as we help and mentor one another.”

Path to Success
Rosner continuously prods her students to realize their potential. At the end of every class she teaches and in e-mails, her message is the same. “I tell them, ‘now go and be great.’”
So, as more women step up to the plate to help themselves and others, their belief in what is possible continues to grow.
Rosner encourages all women to ask questions and do things even when they feel fearful. “The world is limitless, but you are only as good as the questions,” she said. “So, if you see a woman you admire, ask her, ‘Will you be my mentor?’”

Cover Story
Summer Jobs Initiative Provides Much More Than Paychecks

CoverBW0713bRupert Daniel grew up in the projects in the Boston suburb of Roxbury.
Family life wasn’t working out very well, he recalled, adding that he used the ample amounts of free time he had to get into trouble. He eventually wound up in the first in a series of group homes, where he learned a lesson that would change his life — although he certainly didn’t know it at the time.
“In the group home, you got a weekly allowance of 50 cents, but if you did extra chores like helping to clean the house or the bathrooms, you got $5 a week. I said, ‘OK … if you work, you get money’ — I put that together,” he said, adding that this realization would later help compel him to become a participant in one of this region’s first summer jobs programs in the early ’70s.
And through the process of applying for and then getting work at Forest Park, Emerson Wright Park, and other locations, he learned everything from how to present himself at job interviews to why it’s important to show up every day, on time.
And he learned some other things as well.
“When you’re working like that, you’re around all kinds of people,” he explained. “On the streets, you have your peers, but when you came into the summer jobs program, you had college students, and people involved who were successful. And you ask, ‘what makes them successful?’

Rupert Daniel, now a Springfield Police lieutenant

Rupert Daniel, now a Springfield Police lieutenant, said getting a summer job was in many ways a life-changing experience.

“I came to realize that a lot of it was hard work and education, and as I started getting older, I said, ‘I have a choice — do I want to hang out with these knuckleheads that are still getting into trouble, or do I want to be like these guys?’” he continued, adding that he chose the latter. And he’s been given every job he’s applied for in a career that has included work in corrections, the military (two tours of duty in Iraq and two more in Afghanistan), and 27 years with the Springfield Police Department, which he currently serves as a lieutenant, spending countless hours trying to keep young people from landing in the kind of trouble that he did.
Scripting more stories like Daniel’s is not the official mission of the summer jobs initiative administered by the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County (REB), but it might as well be, said Bill Ward, the organization’s long-time executive director, who said that the jobs program is designed to introduce young people to the world of work and assist them with making some of those important decisions that Daniel made about life and his career.
“This is our future workforce, and if these kids don’t develop solid work habits early on, then when it’s time for them to go to work, they just don’t really have it,” said Ward, using that tiny word to represent the sum of what it takes to thrive in what most would call the ‘real world.’
And with that, he summoned the phrase ‘attachment to the workforce’ to describe the program’s essence — and what it provides to conscientious participants.
“From a big-picture perspective, we’re giving young people an opportunity to learn good work habits,” he explained. “We tell kids that the soft skills are the hard skills — and before long, they know what we’re talking about.”
Brianna Davis certainly knows. Now roughly three weeks into a job with the REB through the summer jobs initiative, she told BusinessWest that she handles filing, copying, reception-desk work, and other duties, for which she is paid $10 an hour. Perhaps more important than the paycheck, though (that’s perhaps), she said she’s getting her first experience working in an office and with other people.
“This is a lot quieter than what I’m used to,” she said with a laugh, adding that her most recent gainful employment has been waitressing. “It’s a lot more focused work — sitting down and completing one task at a time or multi-tasking and getting things done — and I’m learning every day.”
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the REB’s summer jobs program and the many reasons why those who support it describe it as an investment in its participants — and in the region’s future.

In the Right Mold
Joe Peters says he virtually grew up in the company his father started in Chicopee, Universal Plastics, which he now serves as CEO. And one thing he’s always remembered has been the importance his father placed on summer jobs for young people.
“Every summer, he made it a point to make sure that we were definitely employed,” he said, referring to himself and his siblings, “and that even some of our friends were employed.
“His philosophy was that there were always these things that needed to get done and never got done during the year, and summer was a great time to do them,” he went on. “And to have young people doing those things was important to him; it gave those kids something to do, it gave them some spending money, it taught them how to work with others — it was great experience.”
And Peters has continued that tradition, putting his six children (and some of their friends) to work during the summer, while also, and especially in recent years, becoming a strong supporter of the REB’s initiative.

Mark Miller, president of U.S. Tsubaki Automotive LLC, with Tom Portenstein

Mark Miller, president of U.S. Tsubaki Automotive LLC, with Tom Portenstein, who is now spending his second summer working at the Chicopee plant.

When asked why he became involved, Peters referenced a recent report authored by Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, whom he’s heard speak a number of times on the subject of the importance of employment opportunities for young people. He said Sum’s message has always been consistent — and strong.
“The statistics show that a kid who’s employed during the summer … his chances for success going into life are so much better, because that job becomes a foundation for what work is all about,” said Peters. “They learn how you deal with an employer, how you save a little money … the things you need to learn.”
Ward said the Sum study — subtitled “The Case for Increased Youth Workforce Development” — verifies the importance of creating job opportunities for young people, and especially those who are at risk, while offering some chilling statistics about how the numbers of such opportunities are going down when they need to go up. Among the main findings:
• “The labor market for teens in Massachusetts and the nation remains extraordinarily depressed,” Sum writes. “Last year [2012], only 27% of the teens ages 16-19 in our state were employed during an average month. This is the lowest teen employment rate in our state’s history over the past 45 years. Twice as many teens worked in 1999 as in 2012 (54% vs. 27%).
• “Despite job growth in our state and the nation over the past few years, teen employment has continued to decline,” he went on. “From 2010 to 2012, approximately 56,000 more working-age residents became employed in our state, while teen employment fell by 15,000. Across the nation, total employment increased by 5.05 million between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first two months of 2013, while teen employment fell by 12,000 over the same time period.
• “While all demographic and schooling groups of teens have experienced steep drops in their employment rates over the past decade,” he went on, “the youngest teens, males, blacks and Hispanics, and high-school students, especially low-income students, have fared much worse.”
These statistics are verified by the fact that, for every individual who gets a job through the REB’s initiative, there are probably two others who are on the outside looking in, said Ward, adding that, when young people don’t have employment opportunities, they and the region as a whole both suffer. Young men and women don’t get a chance to learn some of the lessons Rupert Daniel did, and the region is impacted long-term when it comes to the quality of the workforce that will be in place years and decades down the road.
Realizing this, state officials, and especially Gov. Deval Patrick, have been aggressive in support of programs to employ young people, he went on, adding that the Commonwealth’s YouthWorks initiative pumps $10 million annually into creating summer employment opportunities, and the $1 million awarded to the REB will fund roughly half of the 1,000 jobs it hopes to create this summer.
Overall, public support will finance nearly two-thirds of the jobs created this summer, he went on, while breaking down the program’s many components.
Close to 500 jobs will eventually be funded by the YouthWorks program, he said, and offered through vendors that include the New England Farm Workers Council (NEFWC) in Springfield, CareerWorks in Holyoke, the Valley Opportunity Council in Chicopee, and Westfield public schools. Meanwhile, another 130 jobs will be funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act and created through a host of vendors, including the NEFWC, the New North Citizens Council in Springfield, the Greater Springfield YMCA, Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School, and Holyoke public schools.
Another 100 jobs will be funded by other public initiatives, said Ward, while 35 will be generated through corporate-sponsored programs that involve the MassMutual IT Academy, Baystate Health, U.S. Tsubaki, and other companies, and another 285 will be created at other private-sector worksites through vendors CareerPoint and FutureWorks. (Companies can fund a position through a donation of $1,000 to the REB.)
The summer program targets youths from low-income families — there are income restrictions that must be met — and individuals who don’t have the skills and/or connections that are traditionally needed to secure employment, said Ward, adding that more than half the participants are African-American, and another 40% are Hispanic.

The Job at Hand
Tom Portenstein is back for his second summer of work at U.S. Tsubaki’s Automotive Division in Chicopee, where he handles a variety of office functions, including data entry and work with human-resources administrators.
A recent graduate of Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, where he majored in marketing and sport management, he said he wants to eventually work in sports, but for the moment is keeping his options open. He said his involvement in the summer jobs program has provided learning experiences on many levels.
“I’ve never worked in an office setting before, and this [opportunity] has shown what you have to do,” he said. “You have to be there every day, five days a week, ready to work; you have to be accountable.”
Over the years, U.S. Tsubaki has provided a number of similar opportunities — in its plants and at other locations — through monetary donations to the REB, said Mark Miller, president of U.S. Tsubaki Automotive LLC and a member of the agency’s board of directors. And like others, he describes that support as an investment in the region and its future workforce.
“The Springfield area is hurting from an economic-development standpoint,” he told BusinessWest, “and whatever we can do to bolster these kids, whether they stay in this region or go somewhere else, is worth doing. We can help keep them off the streets and help them to learn some work habits and discipline — things that will serve them well later on in life.
“If you talk to some of the kids who have been in the program for a couple of years, in some cases it’s been very effective in turning their lives around,” he went on. “For the ones who get the opportunity and then take full advantage it, it makes a difference to them.”
For Brianna Davis, the opportunity to work for the REB represents a chance to earn more than she would waitressing (she’s done that at a local 99 restaurant, and therefore knows that summer opportunities — and hours — are limited) and also gain what she considers more valuable experience as she continues pursuit of a career in journalism at UMass Amherst after recently graduating from Holyoke Community College.
“Through this experience, I’m learning how to work independently, but also in the group context,” she explained, noting, again, that this is a new dynamic for her. “I’m putting my communication skills to work, as well as my group and individual working skills, and I’m gaining confidence in my ability.”
Looking back more than 30 years, Daniel said he took away many of the same things from his experiences, and these are some of the points he drives home when he talks to young people about the importance of staying out of the trouble that often found him in his youth. The general message he leaves is that, to avoid trouble, youths need to stay busy, and this is a need he works to address in many ways, from a boxing program he coordinates to efforts to convince kids to seek out summer employment opportunities, such as those offered through the REB, and then do what’s required to get and keep a job.
“One of the things I like about being a police officer is that you can influence people positively — you can get in there and fix things, or try to fix things,” he explained, noting that he puts his work to encourage people to secure summer jobs in that category.
“I see a lot of kids with the same issues I had when I was a kid, and I’ll flash back and think about what helped me out, and summer work was at the top of that list,” he went on, adding that a few of his boxing charges are now in the REB or trying to get in, and he’s determined to see that they make the most of those opportunities. “I know what it did for me, and I’m going to stay on them and make sure they go to work, and hopefully things will work out for them.”
And while the young people involved in the summer jobs initiative obviously benefit, said Peters, the region and its business community do as well, and in ways that reinforce the notion that support of the jobs program is an investment that will pay dividends.
“It’s good for our future, because we’re going to need employees five years from now, 10 years from now, and 20 years from now,” he told BusinessWest. “And if we don’t get them on the right track, we’re the ones that are going to pay a price down the road.”

Check, Please
Summing up the summer jobs initiative, Ward said there are a number of immediate benefits from the public and private funding of these employment opportunities.
“There’s a huge economic impact — young people now have disposable income, and they use it to buy things for school and for home; that money goes right into the economy.”
But the more significant rewards will come years down the road, he went on, when the region’s employers, and society in general, will benefit from having thousands of young people gain work-readiness skills as well as a greater understanding of what it takes to succeed in the workplace — and in life.
That’s a lesson Rupert Daniel learned while on his first summer job back in the ’70s, and something he’s committed his time and energy to helping others learn ever since. He discovered as a child that work puts money in your pocket — but it also does so much more.
And that’s why he, Ward, Peters, and others say the investments in summer jobs must continue.

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

Community Profile Features
Westfield Takes Flight with New Jobs, Development

CommunityProfilesWestfieldWhen BusinessWest sat down this month with Westfield Mayor Daniel Knapik and Kate Phelon, executive director of the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce, it was just one more connection in what has become a strong bond between the city and its chamber.
Take the monthly Mayor’s Coffee Hour the chamber launched to forge a stronger relationship between the city’s leaders and its business community.
“That gives businesses and residents first-hand access to city officials,” Phelon said. “We’re very proud that we have that kind of access to the mayor; not many cities can say they do that on a regular basis.”
The mayor agrees. “We really have opened the door to businesses,” said Knapik, noting that some companies had never before approached the city about their issues.
“Manufacturing companies have different needs than small operators,” Phelon said. “It’s good that we can have this open-door policy and bring these issues in and have dialogue.”

Mayor Daniel Knapik, left, and Jeff Daley

Mayor Daniel Knapik, left, and Jeff Daley say Westfield’s investments in its infrastructure have already begun to spur more development.

Both of them agreed, however, that much of the dialogue in Westfield has been positive lately, from job-creation success stories — from Armbrook Village bringing in 100 jobs with a new assisted-living community to the expansion of Gulfstream, which will add 100 jobs while retaining 130 more — to the dramatic reconstruction of the Whip City’s downtown that has improved traffic flow and generated buzz and business there.
“The best testimony is from folks who haven’t been in Westfield in a while,” Knapik said, “when they come into the downtown and say, ‘wow, what happened?’ And there’s more coming.”

Ready for Takeoff
They might say the same about Barnes Airport on the city’s north side, which has leveraged millions of dollars in public and private investment in the service of infrastructure upgrades and development projects.
“We’ve had multiple funding sources, at the federal, state, and city levels, to get $14 million for a new runway,” said Jeff Daley, the city’s advancement officer. “The current runway is 28 years old, which is eight years past its life expectancy. They’ll be ripping out the entire 9,500 feet of runway and rebuilding it. A large portion of the north and south end of the runway will be concrete, and the middle section will be a specialized tar pavement that will allow the F16s and other planes not to rip it up.”
The 104th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard has been relocated to Westover Air Reserve Base and Otis Air Force Base during the project, which is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving. Daley said the new runway will attract more commercial use of the airport. Meanwhile, Rectrix Aviation, which bought out Airflyte, is working to increase its investment at Barnes to bring a wider range of services to its clients.
Meanwhile, Daley said, “we obtained a grant from the state to redesign and rebuild Airport Industrial Park Road. It was a $2 million grant, and we’re returning $800,000 back to the state; we managed to do it with $1.2 million. We made it safer with a full redesign; the hairpin turn there was dangerous. We paved it, and we’ll have some new signage to alert people to come to the industrial park.”
That’s where the city is developing 80 acres — perhaps 12 to 15 subdivided lots — for light-manufacturing and aviation-supported businesses. “We’ve had serious conversations with four or five companies looking there, waiting for the road to be finished,” Daley said.
“Add to that Gulfstream’s expansion, and we think Barnes is in a position of growth, with the most action we’ve seen there in years,” Knapik said, noting that the airport is on the cusp of generating more revenue than the city is investing in it. “We’re close to breaking even now, and some of the other situations coming to light will add more revenue to the city. It took a long time to bring it to break-even status.”
Speaking of breaking even, the mayor said, one of the best stories in the city recently is the turnaround of Noble Hospital. After seven years running a deficit, it was able to turn a profit last year.
“It’s great what they’ve been able to do, to modernize the hospital and open up space that had been shuttered and really find niche services for our community, from gastroenterology to expanding the breast-cancer unit,” he continued. “When I came into office, it was pretty dire over there, but it’s been astounding. They’ve been able to invest in their physical plant and turn a profit, which is great news. They seem to be in position for a pretty strong future now.”

Bridges to Progress
So does the downtown area, following a $14.5 million reconstruction of Main and Broad streets and the Park Square Green, and the four-year Great River Bridge project that paired the renovation of that span, over the Westfield River, with the construction of a second bridge next to it.
Those successes will be followed by a significant commercial development at Elm and Arnold streets, featuring a 130,000-square-foot mixed-use facility, a 2,000-square-foot transportation center, and a five-story parking garage. Daley pegged completion of the project — which has been discussed in some form or other for decades — for 2015 or 2016.
“There have been lots of iterations to it,” he said, noting that the city would like the mixed-use facility to include retail, restaurants, and office space. As for the parking garage, “we’re fortunate to have parking problems, and we’re developing up to 500 new spaces to make it a more attractive prospect to come downtown and shop and have dinner.”
The mayor is excited by the prospects. “We’ve said for years that, if the city took care of its property and infrastructure, which we’ve been doing, the rest will follow,” Knapik said of the proposal, and the hope that it will continue a downtown revitalization that has already seen a number of new businesses open on that stretch of Routes 10 and 202.
Those include eateries and a copy center, businesses that will cater to a growing number of college students living downtown following the conversion of the Lansdowne building on Thomas Street into a 216-bed dormitory for Westfield State University. In addition, the former WSU training school building on Washington Street is being redeveloped into privately owned market-rate housing, which would add more student life to Westfield’s downtown.
“We’ve already seen the opening of many new downtown businesses that cater to the young folks living downtown,” Knapik said, including three restaurants with outdoor seating.
“With the City Council allowing outside seating, that’s a first for Westfield,” Phelon said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had that before. Now people will see people sitting and eating outside,” creating more energy downtown.
The city is also moving forward with plans for the riverfront area on the south side of town, which may include a mix of uses. “We’re reviewing four concepts now, and we’ll unveil those to the public over the next two months or so,” said Knapik, who would like to see that project connect with the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail. “These are all things that have been kicked around the city for 20 years or so, and they’re all starting to click now, so we’re happy about that.”

Challenges Remain
Knapik said the city’s unemployment rate, hovering between 6.5% and 6.8%, “isn’t bad, but we need it to be better to really knock us out of the economic slowdown we’re in. But we feel like, with the diverse base we have — including military, healthcare, precision machining, and warehousing — we’re seeing excellent growth in some areas.”
Daley noted that, since 2010, the city has attracted more than $120 million in private investment and has another $72 million in the pipeline. “Currently, 7,000 jobs have been retained by those efforts, and 800 new jobs over three years. There’s a pretty good story to tell there. We’re working very hard to keep retention up … and to make Westfield a place where people want to grow and stay.”
Phelon said the city is working to cultivate its creative economy in an organized way, as nearby communities such as Northampton, Easthampton, and Holyoke have done. “We’re in the infant stages of this. We applied for a grant to take inventory of the creative economy in the city. That can drive economic development, and the chamber is happy to be a part of that.”
The idea, Knapik said, is to bring different “puzzle pieces” that make up the city’s economy out of their individual silos and into an organized effort to promote Westfield’s vitality.
The mayor also touted the city’s efforts to keep property taxes lower than in some surrounding cities and towns. “We want to be that business-friendly community.”
It has tried to do so at a time when state aid to cities is low — in Westfield’s case, down about 30% since before the recession. Yet, plenty of investment continues, giving the mayor plenty to talk about at those coffee hours.
“It’s good,” he said of that communication. “A lot of times, policy is made in an echo chamber. This way, we ensure that both sides are heard. We hear them, and they hear us.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Opinion
The Power of Summer Jobs

Rupert Daniel will tell anyone who will listen — and he’s committed a good deal of time and energy to the task of compelling people to listen — that a few summer jobs changed his life.
Relating the story (see page 6), he said that he was in trouble early and often in his youth, and was certainly headed in the wrong direction, when he landed a summer job through a federally funded program back in the ’70s. He acknowledged that his primary mission was to make a little walking-around money, but he came away with much more.
As he told BusinessWest, in the course of working at a few parks in Springfield, he came into contact with individuals who gave him something to think about — or something else, as the case may be. These were college students or people who had used their college educations to earn good-paying and highly rewarding jobs. Rupert said he soon realized that he had a choice to make: stay on the course he was on (the one that landed him in trouble and a series of foster homes) or attempt to emulate the successful people he met during the summer.
He chose the latter, and eventually embarked on a career that would include tours of duty as a Green Beret and work with the Springfield Police Department, which he now serves as a lieutenant.
Not everyone who lands a summer job would describe the experience as life-changing, certainly, but most would describe it as a positive development, from which they gained much more than a small paycheck. They would say they also learned lessons in responsibility, teamwork, communication, accountability, and how to function in the workplace — be it at an office, a Friendly’s restaurant, a tobacco field, or Riverside Park (now Six Flags).
And this is why the summer jobs program conducted by the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, and others like it, are so important. Publicly and privately funded (more the former than the latter), these programs provide opportunities to people who might not otherwise be able to experience what Rupert and countless others have over the years.
That’s the good news. The bad news, as related by the REB’s long-time director, Bill Ward, is that, for every 1,000 people who land a job through his program (and that’s the annual goal), probably twice that many are left on the outside looking in, and missing out on an experience that could shape a life in the way that Rupert’s was.
This statistical dilemma is verified in a report conducted recently by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. It revealed that roughly half as many teens ages 16-19 (27%) in this state were employed during an average month in 2012 as there were in 1999 — and there is little to suggest that improvement is in the offing.
And if things don’t improve, thousands of young people will suffer the consequences, and so will the region as a whole.
Indeed, today’s teens are tomorrow’s workforce, and the quality of that workforce will go a long way toward determining future growth and economic vibrancy in cities like Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, and Westfield.
The state’s elected leaders, and especially Gov. Deval Patrick, have stepped up to the plate on the summer jobs issue, pumping $10 million annually into the YouthWorks initiative, and federal funding has also been steady. These efforts must continue and expand, and area employers must pitch in as well to help increase the number of young people who can earn a paycheck in the summers to come.
Such jobs are not necessarily going to change a life — although one did for Rupert Daniel — but they will help change the equation for generations of young people and the Pioneer Valley as a whole.

Opinion
A Critical Vote for Springfield

Almost one year ago, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce began discussing what impact an $800 million gaming resort would have on the city of Springfield and its residents, workforce, and business community. We engaged all the developers, consulted with chambers of commerce throughout the U.S. that had casinos in their cities, and completed extensive analyses.
We wanted to be sure we thoroughly understood the issues and also understood how to capitalize on the positive impact an $800 million investment would have on the city and the region, and minimize any potential drawbacks. In the end, we determined that the benefits presented by this opportunity far outweighed any reservations, and the chamber membership endorsed a Springfield-based casino.
The city of Springfield has now chosen MGM as its preferred applicant for the sole Western Mass. license. The Springfield Chamber stands firmly with the city on its decision and supports a ‘yes’ vote on July 16.
So, why does the Springfield Chamber of Commerce take this stand? There are many reasons, including:
• Jobs. According to the analysis, 2,000 construction jobs will be followed by 3,000 permanent jobs covering a broad spectrum of career and occupational opportunities, from the service sector to manufacturing to professional services. These 3,000 jobs are new jobs for Springfield and the region. With jobs come opportunities — for educational and professional advancement, financial stability and financial independence, home ownership … the list goes on. With those jobs comes increased disposable income. And the business community reaps a benefit as well: dollars will be spent locally with existing businesses, expanding businesses, and fueling our future entrepreneurial opportunities.
• Tax revenues. Significant amounts of tax revenues, including property taxes, meals taxes, and hotel-room taxes, along with several other dedicated funds to be paid by MGM as committed to in the host-community agreement, will flow to the city.  These added revenues will aid Springfield in enhancing public safety, supporting our school system, maintaining roads and parks, and much more.
• Business development. The chamber strongly believes that there are many opportunities for existing businesses to become vendors of goods and services to the resort. Written into the signed agreement between the city and MGM is a commitment to provide $50 million per year of procurement opportunities for locally provided goods and services to meet MGM’s needs. As part of the chamber’s due diligence, it solicited feedback from other business organizations where MGM has a gaming facility and found that MGM has been true to its word.
The chamber also wanted to be sure that local businesses, especially those that have been the lifeblood of the city for many years, were not disadvantaged by the resort. Again, MGM’s commitment in the host-community agreement reaffirmed its support for our business community, and the chamber is now very involved in reaching out to its members to determine what the supply of these goods and services is in our area and to assist any and all businesses in qualifying as vendors and increasing their production capacity if need be.
• Community support. MGM has also committed itself to the city and its people. Its commitments in the host-community agreement include numerous recreational amenities, such as an ice-skating rink, a vibrant riverfront, and an enhanced public golf course. Our world-class existing facilities, including the MassMutual Center, Symphony Hall, and CityStage, are all incorporated into the plans, and the commitments will help solidify the future of these great venues.
So, why does the Springfield Chamber of Commerce support a ‘yes’ vote? Jobs, income for individuals and families, property upgrades, discretionary spending kept within the community, enrichment to our existing cultural and recreational treasures, financial assistance to Springfield, and economic opportunities for all. These are the reasons  why the Springfield Chamber urges its members and the citizens of Springfield to embrace MGM and vote ‘yes’ for the city’s future on July 16.

Jeffrey Ciuffreda is executive director of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

Features
Impacts of the Supreme Court’s Decision are Wide-ranging

By KATHRYN von SCHOELER, Esq., CARLA NEWTON, Esq., and MICHAEL SIMOLO, Esq.
On June 16, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in the case of Windsor v. United States holding that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), enacted by Congress and signed by President Clinton in September 1996, was unconstitutional. In essence, the court held that Section 3, which provided the federal definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, deprived same-sex couples of equal liberty.
As a result, for all federal purposes, same-sex marriages are to be treated in the same manner as heterosexual marriages.
Massachusetts, of course, was the vanguard in the same-sex-marriage arena in 2004, when its own Supreme Judicial Court held in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional (referring to the Massachusetts constitution) to allow only heterosexual couples to marry. Notwithstanding that decision, however, no same-sex couple married in Massachusetts (or in any other state that allows same-sex marriage) enjoyed the federally created benefits (and burdens) of marriage. In essence, such couples were married for state purposes, but not for federal purposes.
With the Supreme Court’s historic Windsor decision, however, all same-sex couples legally married under state law will be treated as legally married under federal law. The consequences of this ruling range from the truly historic to the mundane, but they are all important, and they will all have an impact well beyond the same-sex couples directly affected. This article will explore, on a basic level, some of those consequences for both individuals and businesses.

Business Considerations
The Windsor case raises several issues for employers and employees:
• Couples in federally recognized same-sex marriages may now file joint tax returns. As a result, affected employees may want to consider amending their IRS Form W-4 so that their employers can withhold the correct federal income tax from their pay;
• Employees who were previously precluded from including their same-sex spouse from their health plan may now add their federally recognized spouses and their stepchildren;
• Employers who already offered health benefits to same-sex spouses, but were required to treat the value of that benefit as taxable income to their employee, are no longer required to do so, which will reduce both the record-keeping and overall tax burdens of both employer and employee;
• Employers who previously ‘grossed up’ the affected employees’ pay to compensate for the taxed health benefit will no longer need to do so to achieve net pay equity for employees in same-sex marriages;
• Employees who have access to flexible spending accounts may now use the accounts to cover the expenses of their same-sex spouse and step-children;
• Individuals in same-sex marriages will now be entitled to survivor benefits from a federally recognized spouse’s pension or other tax qualified plan;
• Employees in federally recognized same-sex marriages who work for employers subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) will be entitled to the benefits of the act to care for a federally recognized same-sex spouse, and employers who had created FMLA-like policies for their employees in same-sex marriages may now abandon those policies; and
• The immigration status of individuals in federally recognized same-sex marriages will change, and in many cases, this will eliminate administrative burdens on the immigrant employee and his or her employer.

Changes for Individuals
The Windsor case involved an estate-tax dispute, and the court’s decision brings about numerous changes in the estate-planning and individual income-tax realms. Initially, it is important to note that, because Section 3 of DOMA has been ruled unconstitutional, it is deemed void from its inception. As a result, same-sex married couples may want to amend earlier tax returns as discussed below.
Those amendments may be curtailed, however, by applicable statutes of limitation. These limitations issues do add some urgency to considerations of amending previously filed returns. The changes now in effect include the following:
• Married same-sex couples now enjoy the unlimited marital deduction for both gift- and estate-tax planning. As such, all sums gifted during life, or bequeathed at death, by one spouse to the other will pass gift- and estate-tax free. It should be possible to amend previous estate- and gift-tax returns to obtain these benefits, subject to the applicable statute of limitations.
• Married same-sex couples may now ‘gift split’ during life to third parties for gift-tax purposes.
• Married same-sex couples may now enjoy the so-called ‘spousal rollover’ for certain retirement and IRA plans. This provides more tax advantages than previously available to same-sex couples. Also, married same-sex couples will now be automatically entitled to the survivor benefits of certain of their spouse’s retirement accounts absent a signed waiver.
• Married same-sex spouses may now enjoy ‘portability’ for estate-tax purposes — that is, the use of their deceased spouse’s unused estate-tax exemption, even absent the use of a so-called ‘shelter trust.’
• Most obviously, married same-sex couples now have the ability to file joint federal income-tax returns, as well as to amend previously filed separate income-tax returns, subject to limitations issues. Note that, for certain high- and low-income couples, the elimination of the ability to file as a single individual may actually result in a tax increase.
• Married same-sex couples will now be entitled to spousal and survivor Social Security benefits.
Inevitably, any law that impacts marriage will also have some impact on both marriage planning and divorce. While divorce is a matter of state law, DOMA had the effect of both limiting the options available when couples divorced and imposing tax burdens not suffered by heterosexual couples.
Options now available for prenuptial planning or for divorcing couples include:
• Spousal support (alimony) and unallocated family support will be recognized and treated as taxable to the recipient and deductible by the payor.
• Retirement benefits can be assigned and transferred by a qualified domestic-relations order without creating a taxable event.
• Marital assets can be assigned to either spouse at the time of divorce without creating a taxable event.
• Spouses will enjoy greater options for coverage of health benefits at time of divorce.
• Parties to marriages which exceed 10 years will qualify for spousal Social Security benefits after divorce under the same criteria as have been in place for heterosexual married couples.
Numerous questions remain on several issues relating to DOMA, including tax issues for previously divorced same-sex couples (impacting alimony and ‘basis’ for capital-gains purposes in certain transferred property). The exact resolution of some of these questions will play out over time as the IRS and related entities issue guidance on them.
It is clear, however, that the impact of this ruling will be wide-ranging, both on employers and individuals, and that care must be taken in exploring, understanding, and implementing the changes that the Windsor case has brought about.

Kathryn von Schoeler is an attorney with Robinson Donovan, P.C., specializing in employment law; (413) 732-2301. Carla Newton is an attorney with Robinson Donovan, P.C., specializing in employment law; (413) 732-2301. Michael Simolo is an attorney with Robinson Donovan, P.C., specializing in estate planning, estate and trust administration, business law, and fiduciary litigation; (413) 732-2301.

Business Management Sections
Executive Coach Helps Clients Get to the Next Level

Anne Weiss

Anne Weiss says that, while she sometimes helps clients affect change, more often, she is engaged in “tweaking” their habits and thought processes.

Amy Jamrog remembers the first time she met Anne Weiss — and coming away both impressed and more than a little scared, which, in this case, was a good thing.
“She thinks really, really big,” recalled Jamrog, a wealth-management adviser and principal with the Jamrog Group, affiliated with Northwestern Mutual, adding that her career in financial services was then about five years old and at what could only be described as a crossroads, which is why colleagues had referred her to an executive coach and, specifically, Weiss.
“If you mention that someday, one day, you hope to accomplish ‘X,’ she’ll want to get that done in the first year,” said Jamrog while elaborating on what she found scary about her new coach. “And that’s what we did; I told her my three-year vision for my practice, and she said, ‘why don’t we do that in 12 months?’
“She’s synonymous with ‘tough love’ — if you say this is what you want to accomplish, she will not let up in seeing that you do,” Jamrog went on, adding that, overall, what Weiss helped her find professionally were consistency, accountability, and a calendar that consistently generated a proper work/life balance as her circumstances changed.
And because she’s been able to do that for a number of clients, she’s considered one of the most successful executive coaches in this area.
Over the years, she’s grown her client portfolio to include bank presidents, lawyers, accountants, architects, executives with large corporations, owners of small businesses, and even some business consultants.
They all have specific needs, and all were at some kind of proverbial crossroads when they decided to seek out her services, said Weiss, but there is a simple and basic pattern to the client-coach relationship, one that she has mastered to the point where she now counts nearly 20 clients from both inside this region and well outside it.
“It starts with both parties being clear about the result that they want to be accomplished,” she said, “and then creating a plan to have that goal accomplished, and then holding people to account for accomplishing it.”
Sometimes, this accountability process requires a phone call a week, other times one lengthy meeting each month, she went on, adding that, in general, having a coach makes them more effective, gives them peace of mind, or both.
She said her coaching role, which is a huge part of her consulting practice, involves working with clients on any number of issues or challenges, from teaching them how to network (a critical skill when it comes to building a business) to advising them on setting and reaching goals, to enabling busy professionals to effectively learn how to say ‘no’ to some of those requests for their invaluable time.
“A lot of times, I don’t have the answer,” she said as she said as she talked about her work. “But in talking with the client, we come up with something that would be an answer, and then we say, ‘this is good — let’s go for it.’”
Overall, Weiss said, while she sometimes brings about real change in people, more often she is “tweaking” their style when it comes to everything from how they interact with people to how they manage time to how to become more punctual.
“Sometimes people need to change, and other times people need to be tweaked, but even tweaking can often make a profound difference,” she said, referring to both an individual’s career and a company’s bottom line.
For this issue and its focus on business management, BusinessWest talked at length with Weiss about executive coaching and how she uses that tough love Jamrog described to help get through the crossroads and into the fast lane when it comes to personal and professional growth.

Getting Down to Business

Amy Jamrog

Amy Jamrog says Anne Weiss helped her with many aspects of career and business development, the most significant being the ability to work consistently.

Weiss told BusinessWest that executive coaching is certainly not a recent phenomenon — people have been doing it for decades, and in recent years, as in many fields, it has become a specialized profession, with individuals developing niches in sometimes quite specific aspects of business management.
What might be considered new, she went on, is a realization among a growing number of business owners and managers that, while they may know their industry and vocation, they don’t know everything about succeeding professionally.
And this is why her client list has grown steadily over the years, with the notable exception of the peak years of the Great Recession, when many executives decided that, despite apparent need, they felt they just couldn’t afford a coach during those lean times.
The portfolio is now larger than it was prior to the crash of 2008, said Weiss, adding that this is both a good barometer when it comes to the economy and an indication that a growing number of professionals are becoming comfortable with the concept of hiring a coach.
When asked how someone will know when they’re ready for that step, she said simply, “when you need to produce something you can’t produce on your own.”
And in the business world today, that’s most people, she went on, adding that a coach can provide such individuals with a unique, outside perspective not available from a mentor, per se, or from someone inside a company or organization.
“I’m not their advisory board, and I’m not their board of directors,” she explained. “So there’s a level of accountability and understanding, so they’re free to be able to say, ‘here’s what’s working, and here’s what’s not working.’”
Weiss brings a broad range of experience to her role as coach. Earlier in her career, she worked in sales and marketing, and eventually segued into consulting, with a heavy emphasis on executive coaching. In the mid-’90s, she partnered with two others in a venture called TLD Consulting, which was based in New York, but has been on her own for the past 16 years.
Most all of her business comes from referrals, she noted, adding that she works with individuals in a wide array of sectors, including financial services, education, and manufacturing, and has assisted a number of entrepreneurs as they have struggled to take ventures to the next level or juggle several initiatives simultaneously.
As she elaborated on what she does and how she does it, Weiss came back repeatedly to the phrase “holding people accountable” for meeting or surpassing the goals they have set for themselves.
And she does so with a passion that that prompted Jamrog to summon not only that word ‘scary’ but also ‘intimidating,’ and another business owner to note in an online testimonial that she has “ruthless compassion,” which sounds like a synonym for tough love.
“She asks really hard questions and then waits for you to figure out the answer,” said Jamrog, adding that, shortly after becoming a client, she developed a strong desire not to disappoint the coach.
“When I had to be accountable to her, and pay her, that became a real motivator for me — when I told her I was going to do something, I didn’t want to let her down,” she said. “And that made it an interesting relationship, different from anything I’d had before. She wasn’t my boss, she wasn’t my mom, she wasn’t even a colleague, but I wanted to do what I said I was going to do, because she was counting on me. The coaching relationship is very interesting like that.”

Accounting Lessons
When asked what problem, or professional weakness, Weiss was most helpful with, Jamrog said it was consistency in her work.
“I would work really hard, then I wouldn’t, then I’d work really hard again, and then I wouldn’t,” she explained. “It was a very inconsistent — and also very stressful — way to work. She helped me really build in consistent practices that became habits over time.”
But that proved to be simply one of many ‘projects’ the two would work on over a coaching relationship that would last eight years and ended only because Jamrog had reached a point professionally where she was comfortable and simply didn’t want to take on any more projects.
Weiss said her clients have different motivations for seeking out her services. Many, like Jamrog, had reached a point in their career where they realized that to get to the next level — whatever that might be — they would need some help getting there. Others, meanwhile, don’t feel accomplished in their career, despite a decent level of success, and need help reaching that station. And still others understand that, while they may be good at what they do professionally, they need a coach to help them to maximize their potential, set the bar higher, and then clear the bar.
Sometimes clients simply need some help with those people skills that are often as important as technical ability when it comes to growing a book of business.
“It’s not the same dynamic anymore,” she said of business in general. “What used to be a handshake now requires a contract, and what used to be an old-boys kind of network isn’t like that anymore. Being in business requires a lot more networking, and one of the trends I’ve seen is that people need to be trained in how to network, in how to grow their business.
“Lawyers went to school to practice law; they didn’t know that they were going to have to be accountable for going out and growing their business,” she continued. “Architects thought their job was just to draw and build. Instead, they need to be the ones on the street meeting with facility managers and learning that there’s a new job at Smith College, and that company should get it.”
Beyond these hard lessons and the broad assignments of holding clients accountable for their stated goals for themselves or their company, Weiss said she also helps with that ‘tweaking’ she described earlier, noting that, quite often, seemingly small changes in style and performance can bring about significant impact in both the efficiency of an operation and how a leader is perceived by employees, customers, and the business community in general.
“If someone alters some way that they act — they’re on time, they answer e-mails, they return phone calls — those little things will matter in how people interface with that individual and how they respond to that person,” she said. “If you show up to a meeting with an agenda, start it on time, and end it on time, there’s a respect that people will have for you, and as you keep doing that, people will start to respond very positively.”
As an example of such tweaking, Weiss cited a local banking executive who was consistently late for appointments and, more importantly, not feeling accomplished professionally.
“So we took apart his entire job to find out why,” she explained. “And what we found is that he had said ‘yes’ to more requests to be on boards, to be on committees, to be on subcommittees to committees … it’s no wonder he couldn’t handle it all. He said ‘yes’ to way too many things, so we had to unravel and undo and revoke some of the things he had said ‘yes’ to and replace him on some of those boards and committees, while keeping him on in the things that mattered most to him.”

Coach Class
Weiss noted that, while her work can at times be frustrating — over the years, a few clients have eventually been deemed ‘uncoachable’ — it is usually quite rewarding.
That’s because people come to her when they realize that they need to produce something and can’t produce it on their own, she said, adding that helping them get there by asking the hard questions, working with them to find answers, and then holding them accountable for results is very fulfilling work.
This is the essence of tough love, or “ruthless compassion” in the business world, and Weiss has it down to a science.

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

Business Management Sections
Clear Vision Alliance Helps Businesses Focus on Tomorrow

Ravi Kulkarni and Lynn Whitney Turner

Ravi Kulkarni and Lynn Whitney Turner say many business leaders make the mistake of focusing on their day-to-day operations instead of seeking answers about what it will take to grow in this economy.

Ravi Kulkarni and Lynn Whitney Turner say great vision is a journey, and business owners who create compelling visions focus as much on their personal growth as they do on business growth.
The owners of Clear Vision Alliance not only do consulting, but also speak across the nation, telling people that organizations stop growing when their leaders stop growing. They were once competitors, but joined forces in 2007 to help executives learn how to create new visions and strategies for growth.
Their advice is based on statistics gleaned from their clients’ histories, coupled with relevant case studies pertinent to each industry, and they told BusinessWest they have seen many business executives so focused on their day-to-day operations that they fail to seek — and grasp — opportunities for the future.
“We have asked CEOs in large organizations to tell us what their vision is, and none of them were able to articulate it,” said Kulkarni. “And leaders of nonprofits are all about immediate needs. They are not driven by passion and don’t know what is possible, so they aren’t able to come up with innovative programs.”
Turner agrees, and says many clients tell them that they ‘hope’ their business will do well. “But hope is not a strategy, and if you put all of your eggs in one basket and the plan falls through, the business can fail.”
They added that many businesses get stuck when their revenues reach between $2 million and $10 million, which often happens after the founder’s original goal is achieved. “The owner had a vision, took it to that point, and may not have looked beyond it,” Turner said.
Kulkarni concurs, and says many companies get into a comfortable niche once they know they can survive. “Some have been in business for 30 to 50 years and they justify their stagnation by saying they have reached market saturation, or, in the case of manufacturers, that there is an excess of things being outsourced.”
In addition, the many nonprofits in Western Mass. experience problems because their services often overlap, and competition to raise money through fund-raisers such as golf tournaments is fierce. “Although most of them do an excellent job in providing services, many are always in survival mode,” Kulkarni said.
Change is possible, but may never occur until a crisis looms, they said. This happened to a nonprofit in Kansas that called upon Clear Vision Alliance to help reformulate its business model when it was nearing bankruptcy.
“After they changed their marketing strategy, they were able to expand into Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa, and Washington D.C., and grew from four employees to 23 employees,” Kulkarni said.
The basis of the nonprofit’s operation was an activity program used in schools, and it turned things around when it began marketing it by using up-to-date research findings showing there is a correlation between a child’s learning, behavioral problems, and the amount of activity they engage in (more about that later).
“People come to us when they run out of ideas; most of them have made strategic decisions based on emotion and opinions, but we are data-driven,” said Kulkarni, noting that applying principles of neuroscience, combined with the latest technology and a global market analysis, can make a world of difference.

Changing Paradigms
Many firms hold annual weekend retreats for their executives that never result in change. Although team members may seem to be in agreement during these meetings, Kulkarni and Turner say they are actually in “artificial harmony,” since power struggles, individual insecurities, egos, and biases play into what happens when they return to the office.
Teamwork needs to be inspired, she went on, by competent executives who hold healthy and honest debates, do research into best practices, and employ strict discipline.
But Kulkarni says problems arise because these leaders lack “strategic humility.” In the past, he explained, executives believed they had to have all of the answers and worked in isolation to find solutions to problems, with no one to challenge their assumptions.
Although that course of action is not effective in today’s marketplace, many don’t know what it will take to grow their business beyond the point it is at and don’t ask for help.
If they do, however, the first step is to make them understand it is critically important to invest in their own education, and Clear Vision Alliance accomplishes this goal through a series of questions.
“We ask clients how they will survive over the next 10 years, but many don’t have an answer,” said Kulkarni. “They cite past knowledge and experience, but that really isn’t relevant to the future. Technology has generated a gap between what they did and the way consumers will buy in the future, and their plans are not based on current data.”
He added that formulating a plan for continued growth should be an ongoing process, but when executives are queried about how their company is doing, 90% of them answer, ‘we are busy,’ and when they are asked, ‘are you making money?’ the typical answer is ‘we hope so.’
Turner says the word ‘hope’ is simply wishful thinking. and means the company is not using the right metrics to measure its growth.
Most of Clear Vision’s clients haven’t seen their revenues change much in the past 10 years, and although they think they are doing fine, when they are told to superimpose an annual rate of 2% to 20% in inflation over the next 10 years, they realize they will lose money if they don’t increase their earnings.
“It’s a wake-up call,” said Kulkarni, adding that one company he and Turner worked with had been in business for a century, but called upon the consultants because they felt they had reached market saturation. “We created an educational process for them,” Kulkarni said, explaining that they gave the executive team Harvard case studies and other reading materials applicable to their situation, then had them debate the cases.
“One CFO told us that, when he first did the reading, he became angry, then realized he had been doing something wrong,” he continued. “And this year, the owner told us, ‘you made me very uncomfortable, and it was a good thing,’ while the entire executive team had similar comments. When people say they are comfortable, it means they are complacent.”
Turner said many firms get into a mode of doing business as usual, and don’t snap out of it until a crisis occurs. “We try to circumvent that process,” she noted.
When a crisis does hit, many think it occurred without warning, but it usually happens because leaders have not looked ahead and kept up with changes in technology and the economy.
Kulkarni gave the example of a local precision manufacturer that invested $6 million in new equipment, hoping to get $10 million in business contracts from the defense industry during a time when the government was cutting back on military spending. “A catastrophe is often in the pipeline, but people don’t see it coming,” he told BusinessWest.
He gave another example of an area manufacturer who makes home insulation from newsprint. When its leaders called upon Clear Vision Alliance for help, home building was on the rise, but print newspapers were declining, so the owner was sending trucks to Pennsylvania to purchase outdated books, even though the quality of the paper in them was inferior to newsprint. “I asked him how long he thought it would be before his sources dried up,” Kulkarni said.
Another problem occurs when business owners want to retire and discover that no one in their family is interested in taking over, and there is a discrepancy between what they think their business is worth and what a buyer thinks is a fair price. As a result, they often keep working. “Some want to get out, but they can’t because they are attached to their employees,” Turner said.

Different Focus

Although it’s easy to get caught up in solving daily problems, many of Clear Vision’s clients make the mistake of directing their focus internally with the goal of improving their systems and productivity.
“They haven’t looked at the world outside and how it will impact them, which will not help them long-term,” Turner said.
Kulkarni said one client they worked with told them he learned that “bad strategy with great execution will get you in the wrong place that much faster.”
He said the Kansas nonprofit mentioned earlier was able to reach new heights by coming up with an innovative plan. But in order to create that, the top executives needed to see what was possible.
To facilitate that, Kulkarni and Turner took the company’s leaders to visit nonprofits in Connecticut and Tennessee, where research in neuroscience, technology, and behavioral science was being applied to improve programs.
“It opened new doors for them,” Turner said. “Once their minds were open, they began doing research, and a top university connected with them to work on a project.”
By keeping up with the times, she added, the nonprofit became eligible for federal and educational grants as well as other new sources of funding, because it had differentiated itself from other nonprofits.
“Private corporations want to invest in research projects which lead to project development and new partnerships,” Kulkarni said.
Although some executives think reading will keep them up with the times, Turner says it is not enough. “When they actually see and experience something, they are able to see what they can apply to their own business,” she said. “We make them do homework beyond their current direct competition.”
However, formulating a plan to move forward isn’t easy. It requires using objective data pertinent to a target market. In addition, bringing new ideas to the team members who will be responsible for implementing change and getting them to carry them out require honed leadership skills.
“It’s very common in large corporations for people to agree during a meeting, even though they will not pull in the same direction when they leave the room,” Turner said, as she continued to talk about how top executives need to become group facilitators, as opposed to the person with all the answers, which involves examining their style of communicating and whether they make people feel comfortable enough to speak honestly.

Bottom Line
Kulkarni said organizations grow stagnant due to a lack of focus and direction on the part of their leaders.
“They have no vision, have become comfortable looking inward, and don’t have knowledge of the skills and changes they need to have an impact,” he said.
“Great vision is a journey,” he reiterated, and the path executives choose can either inhibit growth or allow them to keep pace with today’s global economy.

Construction Sections
Rebuilding Together Helps Transform a Springfield Neighborhood

Frank Nataloni

Frank Nataloni says the energy created on Tyler Street and the way the project brought people together was a gratifying benefit.

Frank Nataloni compared the bustling scene to a film set. But what the throngs of people created was far more impactful than a lively matinee.
“It was like a movie,” he said of the day in April when more than 1,000 volunteers descended on Tyler Street, in Springfield’s Old Hill neighborhood, to renovate, repair, and refurbish 25 homes there. The ‘cluster rebuild’ was a project of the Springfield affiliate of Rebuilding Together, a wide-reaching organization that promotes a National Rebuilding Day every spring.
According to Nataloni, owner of Curio Kitchens & Baths in Springfield and president of the local Rebuilding Together board, the organization had long participated in that event by helping dozens of needy homeowners around the city on a single day to repair their homes. But the group had never tackled an entire street at once.
“This was the first time we had tried this,” he told BusinessWest. “The reality was, it went far beyond what we anticipated. And we feel like it’s something we will continue to do.”
Colleen Loveless, executive director of Rebuilding Together Springfield — which restores houses year-round, including 71 in 2012 — said the project was modeled after a similar effort in another part of the Northeast.
“The Philadelphia affiliate did an excellent job the year prior. We’d gone and attended a conference training on cluster rebuilds, and it really made a lot of sense to revitalize a neighborhood,” she explained. “I know we do it house by house, but with a cluster, you can have a sustainable, profound impact on the entire community. And by really focusing on one block, we were able to leverage funding and volunteers, and increase our economies of scale and savings.”
Nataloni agreed. “I think it was probably one of the best ideas we’ve had in quite awhile because it promoted a lot of energy. Before, we’d fix a house, but it was still in an area where the next house could have been twice as bad. When we did one street, all of a sudden, it changed the neighborhood.”
Rebuilding Together Springfield referred to the project as a Green-N-Fit Neighborhood Cluster Rebuild, emphasizing a goal of creating energy-efficient and healthy homes, not just better-looking ones. Major renovations included the conversion from oil heat to natural gas, with street hook-ups as part of an in-kind donation by Columbia Gas and A-Plus HVAC, as well as new and proper insulation of homes and apartments.
About 70 area businesses donated resources to the project, which included new roofs, energy-efficient windows and doors, proper ventilation, mold remediation, pest control, painting, ‘age-in-place’ modifications, electrical and plumbing repairs, smoke and carbon-monoxide detector installation, deadbolt locks, vinyl siding and ramps, and yard cleanup, fencing, landscaping, and planting of shrubs and flowers.
“We focused on healthy and energy-efficient homes, and also reduced the carbon footprint, which helps everyone, not just the people in the neighborhoods,” Loveless said. “We did the full gamut of work, from exterior to interior — repairs, modifications, making things handicapped accessible, age-in-place modifications. We really improved people’s quality of life.”

Meeting a Need

Before-and-after shots

Before-and-after shots of 171 Tyler St. represent one of the 25 Old Hill homes that benefited from the recent ‘cluster rebuild.’

After deciding to do a cluster rebuild — which was totally funded by private businesses, organizations, and individuals — the question became where.
“We spoke with the city and also MassMutual, our largest sponsor,” Loveless said. “Old Hill is the poorest neighborhood in Springfield; it may be the poorest in Massachusetts. As far as median income, it’s in the bottom 15% nationwide. We were able to reach out to plenty of people; we have a good base of volunteers and a good board of directors who supported this effort financially.”
She noted that several homeowners in the neighborhood had benefited in the past from restoration and rebuilding projects funded by HAPHousing, Springfield Housing Services, and Habitat for Humanity, but plenty of opportunity remained. “People had lived there 35, 40, 45 years, through some hard times, and their neighborhood has seen its struggles. These people were in need. A lot of senior citizens there are on Social Security, and the cost to repair or replace a roof, for example, was really prohibitive, something they could not afford.”
Rebuilding Together has been assisting homeowners since the early 1990s, one at a time, all over the city and throughout the year, but the idea of a one-street cluster revitalization appealed to the organization, said Nataloni, noting that the choice of street was a good one, and not just for its economic demographics.
“In hindsight, it was perfect. It’s a long, level street,” he explained, adding that it was easy to establish a staging area to coordinate volunteers and deliveries. Meanwhile, residents from Tyler and surrounding streets regularly walked down the street to see what was going on, generating palpable energy in the neighborhood. “It was such a good thing. When I think about all the work we did, some of the houses were in tough shape, and we were able to improve them. It’s a modest-income area, and now that’s one concern they don’t have to have.”
Loveless said volunteers were able to close down the whole street to traffic. “That was helpful, because we were able to bring our deliveries up and down the street, dump large piles of mulch and topsoil on the street. Volunteers came up with wheelbarrows and planted shrubs and flowers.”
The neighborhood benefited in other ways as well. Volunteers spruced up a neighborhood playground on nearby Pendleton Avenue and created a community garden for growing fresh fruits and vegetables. They also made improvements to the Old Hill Neighborhood Council office on Eastern Avenue and Quincy Street, and to the Masonic Lodge on Tyler Street. “We put black fencing in and actually gave the neighbors a whole new look right down the street.”
Loveless said about 80% to 85% of the work was completed on that one April day, which was followed by a week of ‘punch-list’ activity in June, featuring volunteers from the New England Lutheran Synod Church, the United Methodist Action Reach-Out Mission by Youth, and Liberty Mutual.
“It was a true community effort — church groups, individuals, community centers, the neighbors themselves,” she told BusinessWest. “So many were involved, along with businesses and organizations throughout Massachusetts and even outside the state. It made such a profound impact, and we were able to get so many resources to people.”

Raising All Boats
Rebuilding Together is no stranger to amassing resources; it enlisted 5,000 volunteers last year in rebuilding 71 homes — in the process earning the Booz Allen Hamilton Management Excellence Award as the top affiliate of the year among some 200 Rebuilding Together chapters nationwide.
“When I first got involved with this, I was looking for something to put some energy into that would make an impact,” Nataloni said. “My business is on Boston Road in Springfield, and I know the needs in the city, so to me, this was a good fit.
“The people that we help, we’re happy to be involved with them,” he added, citing examples like a woman who simply needed to replace her windows to keep her home insulated, but couldn’t because of health and financial issues. Nataloni also finds it gratifying that so many people from the area are willing to lend a hand. “We had kids from the Western New England football team, kids from Springfield College … they’re in the city, and this helps the entire city. It’s a really good feeling.”
He said the cluster rebuild impacted Tyler Street in social ways as well. “There were a lot of residents who never knew who their neighbors were, never talked to them,” he noted. “One gentleman, who hadn’t been on his front porch for five years, actually came out and introduced himself to the others. It went beyond my wildest dreams. I couldn’t have planned that. Even in situations where the house was a rental and the landlord wasn’t participating in the total program, the tenants came out on their own and fixed up their yard. You can’t buy that. That’s the type of impact; it was just exponential, really.”
Rebuilding Together tracks the impact of its work every year, and much of it is fiscal. For instance, the 71 home projects in 2012 — 37 of them damaged by the June 2011 tornado — generated $75,500 in tax revenue for the city when 23 homeowners paid back taxes prior to work being completed on their homes, and another $49,000 in property taxes from 14 homeowners who were able to remain in their homes after repairs were completed.
“All year long, we work on houses throughout the city, depending on what funding comes through,” Loveless said, noting that those funds are typically leveraged so that every dollar spent generates $4 in the local economy.
“Every single month of the year, we’re working on homes, although some months are busier than others,” she said, noting that volunteers are generated through schools, churches, businesses, and old-fashioned word of mouth.
“A lot of people hear about us and say, ‘hey, I’d like to participate,’” she said. “It’s great because we do a full range of volunteer work on homes, so you don’t have to have special skills; you can plant trees, lay down mulch, help paint a house, do cleanups, things like that. Then there’s skilled work like installing kitchens and new roofs.”
Nataloni said the goal was to impact as many homes at once as possible, but the individual stories resonate. For instance, one of the repaired homes is owned by Oscar and Carol Granado, who have lived in their home for 32 years and raised their children there. Oscar is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who still works full-time at age 72 to provide good health insurance for his wife, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. For families like this, home repairs — including efforts to simply make their residences healthier — often fall by the wayside.
“Go down the list: there’s all kinds of issues, big and small, and, again, you’re doing something and seeing an immediate impact,” Nataloni told BusinessWest, again explaining why he values the hands-on nature of Rebuilding Together. “It’s not like, ‘OK, here’s a check,’ and you don’t know where it goes.
“One thing I’ve heard throughout all this is that, in our country, we spend billions of dollars all over the world and do a lot of great things in a lot of great places,” he said. “But the reality is, there are a lot of things that need to be done right here that fall under the current of what people are aware of. That’s why I enjoy being a part of Rebuilding Together.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Construction Sections
Northampton-based Builders Make a Living on the Cutting Edge

Mark Ledwell, left, and Jonathan Wright

Mark Ledwell, left, and Jonathan Wright stand next to the remains of the entrance pillars to the former Northampton State Hospital, where the Village Hill mixed-use complex is taking shape.

It’s called the “home of the future” by its designer, Bruce Coldham of Coldham & Hartman Architests in Amherst, but it’s being lived in today.
This would be the 2,700-square-foot structure in Hadley that was honored by GreenBuilder magazine with one of its ‘Home of the Year’ awards in 2011, the only house in the Northeast to be so recognized. There are many numbers associated with this dwelling — and that prestigious award — but the most significant is 33, or minus 33, to be more precise.
That’s what the house earned for a Home Energy Rating, or HERS, which means that it produced 33% more energy than it consumed for the previous year, said Jonathan Wright, founder and president of Northampton-based Wright Builders, which constructed the home.
“Through an extremely well-designed plan, a very tight building envelope, and PV [photovoltaic] panels, we went way past zero,” said Wright, referring to the term ‘net zero’ — a benchmark used to describe structures that don’t consume more energy than they create — and putting heavy emphasis on the word ‘way.’
The GreenBuilder award judges were suitably impressed, noting that “this home’s building science is well ahead of the curve.”
That term is one increasingly used in association with projects undertaken by Wright, a nearly 40-year-old company that specializes in residential, commercial, and institutional building, and has a hard-earned reputation for being on the cutting edge of new building processes and techniques, especially with regard to energy consumption and conservation.
“Before these certifications were around, we just considered it smart building,” said Mark Ledwell, Wright’s long-time partner and the company’s co-principal, referring to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and other building benchmarks used today. “We’ve tried to keep abreast of the materials and new technologies and stay on the cutting edge; we want to make buildings that last.”
This philosophy has guided the company through every project in a broad portfolio that includes everything from a host of buildings at Smith College (one of the firm’s many clients in the education sector) to several components of the multi-faceted initiative taking shape on the grounds of the former Northampton State Hospital.
For this issue and its focus on construction, BusinessWest talked with Wright and Ledwell about the business they’ve built, the philosophies that shape it, and where they want to take in the future, which, in many respects, as mentioned earlier, is already here.

Framework for Success
Wright was a member of the first graduating class at Hampshire College in 1970. He liked to write and was contemplating careers involving that skill, but a number of summers spent doing carpentry work eventually took him down a much different path.
“It was supposed to be a pause on the way to some other career that never happened,” he told BusinessWest, “because this one [building] got really interesting really quickly.”
Indeed, soon after graduating from Hampshire with a liberal arts degree, he started Wright Builders and, soon thereafter, another, somewhat related venture called Wright Architectural Millwork, also in Northampton, which created custom wood interiors for offices and private residences.
While he operated them both successfully, Wright eventually realized that he needed to focus his time and energy on one or the other, and in 1994 he sold the millwork operation to employees Walt Price and Mike Buell and concentrated solely on Wright Builders.

The award-winning Cave family home in Hadley

The award-winning Cave family home in Hadley was designed by Coldham & Hartman Architects of Amherst and built by Wright Builders.

And he was joined in that venture a few years later by Ledwell, who had started his own company, Ledwell Woodworking and Building, in 1985, but 15 years later was ready for a change and a new challenge.
“I was getting a little tired of pushing my own rock up the hill,” said Ledwell, who was looking for high-quality product output in a larger establishment — and found that all that at Wright Builders.
The two have been partners since 2007, and they’ve established the company as an innovator, not only in building techniques, but in operating philosophy and policies for its 28 employees.
For example, Wright was one of the first builders to offer health insurance in 1976, and later added maternity leave for both men and women. Today, employees are allowed a week’s vacation in the summer, a rare perk in an industry that must make the most of this region’s comparatively short building season.
“Part of our job as leaders is to see not only where we’re going, but where we want the business to go and where the people who are crucial to our business are going with their careers,” said Wright.
But that term ‘innovator’ is most often used in reference to the company’s leading-edge work in building strategies and processes, especially with regard to the environment.
And this is hardly a recent phenomenon.

LEED by Design
When Wright started out in the ’70s, he was already working on passive solar homes, and was recognized by then Gov. Michael Dukakis in the area of energy efficiency and high-performance building. While the science and technology of the emerging green-building trend has been a consistent theme for the company, the world has in some ways caught up with Wright Builders, which is nonetheless commited to staying ahead.
“We’re really able to focus on building the best-performing and most environmentally friendly buildings that we possibly can,” said Wright, adding that this mentality crosses into all aspects of the company’s work, from residential to institutional.
Ledwell concurred.
“Water is the enemy in our business, and today our homes are tighter, healthier, and more comfortable, and use a lot less energy,” he said, “which is easier on our customers’ pocketbooks and good for the overall health of the environment.”
Referencing their broad portfolio, Wright and Ledwell said their projects fall into three main categories: personal, institutional, and what they call ‘performance.’
In the personal category, especially with Wright’s and Ledwell’s carpentry background, are projects that allow them to get involved with an individual’s or organization’s creative process.
Wright said that perhaps the most gratifying example of such work was a recent project for New York Times bestseller and Emmy Award-winning children’s-book author Mo Willem, who penned Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and the Knuffle Bunny books. He needed a complete renovation and a writing studio created in his roughly century-old Northampton home, and commissioned Wright to handle the work.
In the institutional realm, the company has carved out an effective niche, handling work for a number of area schools. Wright said the work is rewarding and uniquely challenging because the buildings stand for decades and often become symbols of the institutions in question.
“You’ve got to do a good job there because that building’s going to be in service for the next 30 or 40 years,” said Wright, noting that some on the campus of Smith College joke with Wright and Ledwell, calling the main gate of the college ‘Wright’s Corner,’ because three of the four corners are Wright Builders projects.
Meanwhile, the partners consider the performance category to be the most intriguing in many respects, because it’s based on the technology that is enabling them to build amazingly sustainable buildings.
The aforementioned home in Hadley falls into this group, said Wright, noting that GreenBuilder selected 10 outstanding projects displaying the best and most cutting-edge green residential building.
Wright and Ledwell point proudly to two other sustainable projects, one brand new, the soon-to-be-constructed net-zero Welcome Center at Hampshire College  — the school’s first new building in a decade — and the Village Hill project.
Wright and his wife, Meg Kelsey Wright, a professional musician, now call Village Hill home, making them one of many to be drawn to the attractive mix of townhouses and single-family homes that are a key component of the massive, mixed-use endeavor.
“It’s a source of satisfaction for Mark and I,” said Wright, noting that the company has worked with Kuhn Riddle Architects and Berkshire Design Group, both of Amherst; Goggins Real Estate; Florence Savings Bank; MassDevelopment; and the City of Northampton to bring the project to life. “To put together the financing, the vision, and work with the state agencies and bring together all the talent that is needed to pull it off is very rewarding.”

Finishing Touch
Wright, now in his early ’60s, understands that this is the age when many people in business start to think about slowing down.
But he’s having none of that.
“I’m not done,” he laughed, “because there’s just really interesting stuff to do now. It’s different than it was five years ago, and I just wake up every morning, and I can’t wait to work on it all.”
This is the way it’s been from the start for this company, which has always been on the cutting edge, and has no intention of being anywhere else.

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Banking and Financial Services Sections
How to Appropriately Account for Incurred Business Expenses

Jennifer Reynolds

Jennifer Reynolds

As a business owner, have you ever asked yourself, ‘am I accounting for employee-incurred business expenses appropriately?’ The answer, as always, is … it depends.

Accountable Versus Non-accountable Plans
Please don’t stop reading; these are really just technical terms for something rather non-technical. When a business owner reimburses an employee for expenses incurred during the normal course of business, as an employee, how that owner reimburses the employee determines the tax implications to both the employer and employee.
Under an ‘accountable plan,’ if the employee substantiates his or her expenses incurred (i.e. provides receipts to the employer), the employer can reimburse the employee for those expenses. This reimbursement is not considered taxable income to the employee, nor will the employer be required to withhold federal, state, or FICA taxes on the reimbursed amount.
Alternatively, under a ‘non-accountable plan,’ if an employer reimburses an employee without requiring the employee to substantiate expenses (i.e. no receipts or other documents submitted to the employer to confirm the expense), the payment to the employee becomes taxable income to the employee and is further subject to payroll taxes to both the employer and employee, and is also subject to federal and state income tax withholding to the employee.

Criteria for an Accountable Plan
For a company plan to be accountable, your company’s employees must satisfy three requirements. They must have:
• Paid for or incurred deductible expenses while performing services as an employee of your company;
• Adequately accounted to the company for the aforementioned expenses within a reasonable period of time; and
• Returned any excess reimbursement or allowance within a reasonable period of time back to the employer.
To adequately account for the employee’s expenses under the second requirement, employees must provide the company with substantiation of his or her travel, mileage, or other employee business expenses. For example, the employee must supply receipts and a statement of expense, account book, or similar record where the employee entered each expense at or near the time it was incurred in order to meet the contemporaneous requirement. Special rules apply to ‘per-diem’ reimbursements and are discussed later.
For the third requirement, an excess reimbursement or allowance is any amount a company pays an employee in excess of the actual business-related expenses for which he or she has adequately accounted. For example, if your company’s plan advances money to employees, the third requirement will be met only if the advance is reasonably calculated not to exceed the amount of anticipated expenses and the company policy requires the employee return the excess advance within a reasonable period of time.
The IRS has recognized that a ‘reasonable period of time’ depends on facts and circumstances. The following time frames were deemed to have taken place within a ‘reasonable period of time’ for guidance:
• The company advances to an employee within 30 days of the date the employee incurs the expense;
• The employee adequately accounts for his or her expenses within 60 days after the expenses were paid or incurred; and
• The employee returns any excess reimbursement within 120 days after expenses were paid or incurred.
As an alternative, many companies have abandoned the practice of expense allowances and implemented a reimbursement policy, whereby employers reimburse the employees weekly or monthly for out-of-pocket expenses incurred on the company’s behalf rather than tracking advances against actual expenses and reconciling any differences. To receive reimbursement, the employees must submit expense reports with attached receipts and adequate documentation to support a contemporaneous reimbursement.
What if an employer maintains an accountable plan but the reimbursement excess isn’t returned? What happens if an employer maintains an accountable plan that requires the return of excess advances, but the excess isn’t returned by the employee? If an adequate accounting is made to comply with all criteria of an accountable plan except the excess isn’t returned by the employee, then the employer must report the excess amount as wages.
However, if the IRS concludes that an employer’s reimbursement or other expense-allowance arrangement evidences a pattern of abuse of the rules and regulations, all payments made under the arrangement will be treated as made under a non-accountable plan, and the entire payment to the employee (both substantiated and excess) will be included the employee’s gross income, and will be reported as wages and subject to withholding and employment taxes.

Travel and Mileage Rules
A reimbursement arrangement that pays employees a fixed ‘per-diem’ amount for hotel, meals, and incidentals or a mileage-based amount (for business use of the employee’s vehicle) requires neither substantiation of actual amounts spent or the return of reimbursement in excess of the employee’s actual expense.
The IRS has issued tables defining maximum allowed per-diem rates for employers to treat per-diem or mileage-reimbursement plans as accountable plans, provided the amount paid is equal to or less than the maximum allowable rate.
Even if the employer’s reimbursement rates do not exceed the IRS rates, the employee still needs to substantiate time, place, business purpose, and mileage amounts (for mileage reimbursements) in order to comply with an accountable plan and to be excluded the reimbursement from wages, employment, and withholding taxes.
The tax rules relating to accountable plans can be complex, so addressing them now will avoid year-end payroll problems. This article is intended to provide general information regarding accountable plans. As always, you should consult your tax or legal advisor before applying it to your specific business situation.

Jennifer Reynolds is a tax manager with the Holyoke-based certified public accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; (413) 322-3542; jreynolds@mbkcpa

Banking and Financial Services Sections
Is a Powerful Storm on the Horizon in Western Massachusetts?

“It is said,” Ralph Waldo Emerson noted, “that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.”
Like many other areas of law, bankruptcy unfortunately rides the ebb and flow of politics. History demonstrates that bankruptcy-law expansion and contraction is often based on societal factors and perceptions, including economic growth or recession, employment rates, interest rates, and — maybe most importantly — the public perception of bankruptcy effectiveness.
As the U.S. Constitution leaves bankruptcy regulation squarely in the hands of Congress, this power has been exercised several times. One of the most significant revisions was the implementation of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, which created the modern day Bankruptcy Code and set the foundation for the bankruptcy system we use today.
To promote efficiency and protect the integrity of the federal bankruptcy system, the act established the U.S. Trustee Program as a component of the Department of Justice to monitor the conduct of bankruptcy parties and generally act to ensure compliance with applicable laws and procedures. The U.S. trustee also identifies and helps investigate bankruptcy fraud and abuse in coordination with U.S. attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law-enforcement agencies. Essentially, the primary role of the U.S. trustee is to serve as the watchdog over the bankruptcy process. As stated in the their mission statement, “the mission of the United States Trustee Program is to promote the integrity and efficiency of the bankruptcy system for the benefit of all stakeholders — debtors, creditors, and the public.”
The inherent premise of bankruptcy is the creation of a system that gives good, honest, hardworking people a fresh start. Over time, the bankruptcy system became an effective way for many Americans facing extreme financial hardship to discharge significant debt. In fact, in the early ’80s, annual consumer filings hovered around 300,000. However, by 2004, the number of filers had skyrocketed to 1.5 million. These increasing numbers became a great concern to the lending community, which was forced to write off ever-increasing amounts of discharged debt.
Interested in examining the reasons behind the increasing number of bankruptcy filers, Congress formed the bipartisan, nine-member National Bankruptcy Review Commission in 1994. When Congress created the commission, it did not feel consumers were abusing the bankruptcy system, or that the code needed to be restructured to respond to increased credit-card use; rather, the commission’s work was more investigative, as it was charged with “reviewing, improving, and updating the code in ways which do not disturb the fundamental tenets and balance of current law.” Following an exhaustive three-year investigation, and despite enormous lobbying pressure from the credit-card industry, in 1997 the commission produced a voluminous, 2,000-page report that ultimately rejected any significant changes to the bankruptcy system.
Unfortunately, a minority number of committee members were fundamentally unsatisfied with the conclusion of the committee’s findings, and wrote dissents because they felt the installation of credit counseling and a ‘means test’ were warranted to limit Chapter 7 bankruptcy only to those who could prove they lacked the ability to repay their debts. Specifically, four dissenting members sought significant change in the bankruptcy laws because they perceived a societal harm was occurring. They believed society no longer perceived bankruptcy as morally offensive and, as such, bankruptcy was now being used an easy first resort (instead of the intended last resort) that allowed someone to walk away from their debt responsibility without significant consequence.

Under Attack
As some members of the lending industry were upset that the commission report failed to recommend restricting bankruptcy eligibility, a few lenders instead attacked the majority’s conclusions in the report as being incorrect, and went further by extracting and using the dissenting commission members’ comments to target Congress and justify the need for significant change in the bankruptcy system. Over the next eight years, spurred on by banking-industry lobbyists, Congress worked on and revised various versions of a new bankruptcy law that focused primarily on reshaping Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Citing questionable data that had been presented to the committee, the House reports show that Congressional supporters came to believe that liberal bankruptcy laws were filled with loopholes that encouraged abuse, and this in turn increased credit costs for all Americans. The lender lobbyists claimed that the current bankruptcy laws imposed an annual $300-$500 surcharge on all responsible Americans who did not file bankruptcy, and as such, the rest of us were the ones ultimately responsible for paying debts discharged in bankruptcy. Successful lobbying convinced some in Congress to think of bankruptcy as basically another governmental benefit (like food stamps), as opposed to its prior status as a right.
This shift in thinking was significant. Instead of a person filing bankruptcy and obtaining the right to a fresh start, someone in financial distress must now first prove they are deserving of bankruptcy protection before becoming eligible for a fresh start in bankruptcy.
In 2005, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which in turn was signed into law by President Bush. Although there are many parts to the law that affect both individuals and businesses, the primary thrust of BAPCPA was to cut down on abusive or fraudulent filers in the bankruptcy system. As Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis), one of the bill’s key supporters in the House, argued, “this bill will help restore responsibility and integrity to the bankruptcy system by cracking down on fraudulent, abusive, and opportunistic bankruptcy claims.” This was accomplished by the law primarily doing three things:
• BAPCPA created a new, complex, mostly mathematical analysis known as the ‘means test’ to determine Chapter 7 bankruptcy eligibility and abuse. This task had previously belonged to bankruptcy judges; however, it appears Congress felt bankruptcy judges were either unable or unwilling to perform this duty, and thus Congress removed this subjective component. BAPCPA instead created a largely automated and mechanized formula to determine abuse. If the means test demonstrates that a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing is ‘abusive,’ the bankruptcy case is either dismissed (meaning the debtor is put back in the same debilitating financial position they were in before they filed bankruptcy), or they might instead be able to convert to a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Known as a reorganization, a Chapter 13 is designed to create a long-term repayment plan for debtors (often running three to five years) in which the debtors repay some or all of their obligations. In addition to often being two to three times more expensive to hire a lawyer to do a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the monthly payment and extended time commitment make the process untenable for most Chapter 13 debtors.
• The new law required all debtors to take two classes as part of the bankruptcy process. First, unless a debtor meets a very narrow group of exceptions, a pre-filing credit-counseling class must now be taken within 180 days before filing bankruptcy. The class is designed to require the debtor to review the opportunities for available credit counseling and assist them in performing a related budget analysis. After filing bankruptcy (and before the debtor can receive a discharge and finish the case), the debtor must also take a financial-management education class to help him or her understand budgeting and other financial basics with the hope that this information may reduce the need to file bankruptcy in the future.
Again, the message Congress sent with these changes was that it lacked confidence in the bankruptcy process. Specifically, it become apparent that Congress felt lawyers were doing an inadequate job counseling their clients about their bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy options, and lawyers were perhaps instead pushing people who really didn’t need to file bankruptcy into bankruptcy simply to earn a legal fee.
• Finally, the law sought to stop repeat bankruptcy filers by extending the time of eligibility between bankruptcy discharges from six years to eight years. Apparently, judges, the U.S. trustee, and lawyers were not able to prevent what Congress deemed ‘abusive repeat filers,’ so Congress decided to again take charge and simply extend the time for which repeat filing is a possibility for everyone.
The theoretical justification behind BAPCPA is that it would first inhibit and reduce bankruptcy filings; in turn, bankruptcy-related losses to lenders would be drastically reduced. Those lenders would then pass on the savings to the rest of us in the form of lower interest rates. Although this theory was unproven at the time of passage, it was known that BAPCPA would make bankruptcy harder to file and more expensive, and would automatically carve out a group of people who would now be ineligible for Chapter 7 relief.

The Results, Eight Years Later
After the passage of BAPCPA, did bankruptcy filing rates significantly decline? Yes and no. Although BAPCPA was signed into law on April 20, 2005, most of the law did not become effective until Oct. 17, 2005. The number of bankruptcy filings took a significant drop after BAPCPA’s effective date. Although this may seem to justify the need and effectiveness of BAPCA, a broader perspective is important.
In actuality, because of the six-month grace period, the publicity surrounding the law’s existence, and a general fear by those in financial crisis over whether or not they would remain eligible for bankruptcy protection after Oct. 17, large numbers of people who had considered bankruptcy even very briefly went ahead and filed for bankruptcy prior to the Oct. 17 deadline. Although the filing numbers plummeted to 600,000 the year after BAPCPA, it is important to note that the signing of the law caused filings to skyrocket to more than 2 million in 2005. As such, the numbers of filings after BAPCPA were negatively skewed, thus also skewing the perceived effectiveness of the law. Furthermore, since 2006, the filing numbers have generally trended upward, and are again at approximately pre-BAPCPA levels.
If the objective of BABPCA was to produce a long-term reduction in consumer filings based on implementation of a means test, credit counseling, and limiting repeat filers, Congress failed. In addition, it is interesting to note that, during the period where bankruptcy filing rates significantly fell following enactment of BAPCPA, despite Congress’s hypothesis, there is no evidence that the lending industry lowered interest rates on credit cards and other loans. Although theoretically saving hundreds of millions of dollars due to significantly fewer discharged debts, it appears some in the lending industry actually increased credit-card fees.
There is also evidence that BAPCPA failed to adequately encourage consumers to utilize debt more cautiously. In fact, during the first year that BAPCPA was in effect, revolving debt per household rose by 5.3% — higher than the rate of increase during any of the previous five years.

A Surge in Bankruptcy Filings?
Although BAPCPA seems to have failed in its primary objectives, experts are pondering the effect of its eight-year anniversary. Specifically, as that anniversary will occur this October, will there be a flood of new bankruptcy filings, as the enormous number of people who filed bankruptcy in 2005 will now be eligible to re-file?
As the economy has continued to struggle, and many people have not been able to financially rebound since their last bankruptcy filing due to the ongoing recession, lawyers in Western Mass. are preparing for a possible rush of large numbers of people needing bankruptcy assistance who will again become eligible to file bankruptcy this October.
In addition to lawyers, it also important that local banks and lenders be prepared to deal with a possible increase in bankruptcy notices. From a lender’s perspective, in anticipation of a possible filing spike, it would be prudent to have legal counsel review proper bankruptcy-notice protocol with loan and collection officers. Generally speaking, communications regarding a debt (both verbal and written) from the lender to a debtor in bankruptcy could be deemed a violation of the automatic stay, and expose the lender to sanctions.
Only time will tell if we will soon experience a spike in bankruptcy filings. As with most things in life, the best offense may be a strong defense — prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Attorney Justin Dion is a professor at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, where he teaches in the Legal Studies Department, and is director of the Bay Path College Pro Bono Bankruptcy Clinic. He is also associated with the firm Bacon Wilson, P.C., in Springfield, and practices bankruptcy law; [email protected]

Banking and Financial Services Sections
Sumner & Toner Offers Generations of Insurance Expertise

The two generations of leaders at Sumner at Toner

The two generations of leaders at Sumner at Toner: From left, Warren Sumner, Bud Sumner, Bill Toner, and Jack Toner. Together, they’re charting a course for a company now 80 years old.

There’s an oversized postcard prominently displayed on the bookcase in the conference room at the Sumner & Toner Insurance Agency in Longmeadow. Its few words and accompanying photographs effectively tell the story of this enterprise and the recent history of the insurance industry in general.
Well, they begin to tell the story.
Pictured on one side of the missive is Warren Sumner, and on the other is William “Bill” Toner Jr. In between is a message, written in the form of a subtle warning: “Always treat your competitors with respect,” it reads. “You may end up sharing office space.”
That’s exactly what happened in 1998, when Sumner, a principal with the Sumner Spingler Insurance Agency, located on Williams Street, decided to join forces with Toner, a principal with Smith & Toner, located just a few hundred yards away on Bliss Road.
This merger, which came a few years after Richard Smith and Douglas Spingler both retired from the firms that bore their names, is typical of the many consolidation initiatives that have taken place in the insurance industry over the past few decades. Such unions have materialized with the knowledge that two companies can, theoretically, succeed better as one, with a shared office, computer network, telephone system — and philosophy about how to thrive in an increasingly competitive insurance landscape.
“We have me here, and Warren Sumner across the street,” said Toner, reflecting back on how and why the merger came about. “After three years of that, we said, ‘let’s merge.’ And when you put two businesses together, there are synergies — you don’t have to duplicate expenses.”
But what ultimately determines how successful such mergers are isn’t bottom-line savings on rent and utilities, said Sumner, but how well the new company melds the talents of the merged entities to effectively serve customers and negotiate the many challenges now facing those in a rapidly changing insurance industry.
And the company now known as Sumner & Toner — which sprung from an enterprise born 80 years ago — has been successful with this, Toner said, noting that his expertise in commercial products (especially with contractors’ needs), coupled with Sumner’s experience in personal lines and marketing, has given the company a competitive edge.
“There was and is good synergy between the two of us — we were able to bring our collective expertise to the table,” Toner noted, adding that the next phase of this process is greater use of social media to market the company and communicate with clients and potential clients.
And this is one of many assignments that will mostly fall to the next — and, in many respects, current — generation of leadership at the company, specifically Jack Toner (Bill’s son), and Bud Sumner (Warren’s son).
These younger principals have complementary skill sets as well, said the elder Toner, referencing Bud’s expertise in medical and professional offices on the commercial side of the ledger, and Jack’s work with younger individuals — both as an insurance executive and as current co-vice president of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield (YPS).
For this issue and its focus on banking and financial services, BusinessWest takes advantage of the recent milestone anniversary to offer an in-depth look at how Warren Sumner and Bill Toner came to be on that postcard, and what happens next for this enterprise, where things have certainly come together nicely, and in more ways than one.

Policy Makers
As he traced the history of the company, Bill Toner started with his transition from work within an insurance company to owning an insurance agency.
It’s a significant if not uncommon career shift, he said, noting that insurance companies, or carriers, assume the risk for the policyholder and pay the claim when something happens. The agency, or what he called the “intermediary,” helps to market the different insurance products and services of the insurance companies, selling on behalf of those corporations.
Toner said he was drawn to the agency side of the industry after working for one of the many large insurance companies in Hartford. After serving in the Army for three years, he acquired from his father the Angers Agency Inc., the Springfield-based entity founded in 1933 that the elder Toner purchased upon his retirement from the General Accident Insurance Co. in New York. (It is the 80th anniversary of that business venture that is being celebrated this year).
Bill Toner said he ran that agency for 14 years, before opting to merge with Smith in 1984, and then with Sumner in 1998.
Warren Sumner was a marketing and sales vice president for Milton Bradley for years, but, as with Bill Toner, the entrepreneurial bug was biting, and he decided to venture out on his own by purchasing the Spingler Insurance Agency in 1987. A few years later, he merged with his friendly competitor across the street to form Sumner & Toner.
“My father has the advertising, marketing, and sales background, which, with the product knowledge in insurance, makes him a great salesman and advocate for his clients when a claim arises,” said son Bud Sumner. Currently, the elder Sumner is starting to get a small taste of retirement by reducing his hours.
Bud Sumner, who started with Aetna but founded his own small agency in Needham, decided to merge that venture with Sumner & Toner in 2001, giving the company a foothold in Eastern Mass. and Rhode Island — geographical diversity that has benefited the company in a number of ways.
The current leadership team became complete when, after a brief stint as a leasing agent for a real-estate company directly after graduating from Georgetown University — his father’s alma mater — Jack Toner joined the company in 2007.
Together, the two generations of Sumners and Toners are doing what agency operators across the region are trying to do — maintain and ultimately grow market share at a time of change, heightened competition, challenge, and opportunity.
All of those dynamics come together amid the proliferation of online giants such as Geico and Progressive, said Jack Toner, adding that these companies present a challenge because their marketing pitches and promises of savings are alluring, and they essentially eliminate that intermediary role that agencies play.
But they also represent an opportunity, he went on, because those same agencies can let clients and potential clients know that they usually can’t click their way to solutions for their insurance needs. This is the message he’s imparting to many young professionals in YPS, some of whom are buying insurance for the first time.
“The product that we’re offering and the services that we promise to offer are sophisticated,” said Bill Toner, explaining his caution for online one-size-fits-all insurance products. “It’s a complex sale; people think that they can go online to buy auto and home insurance — and they can — but they don’t have the expertise to know what they are missing, and that sophistication of the sale brings us to the table because we can offer that advice.”
Bud Sumner agreed. “Anybody can save you 15%; just don’t call them when you have a claim, because all [national online companies] are doing is raising your deductible and lowering your limits.”
Or they’re taking away coverage, Bill Toner added. “We have the philosophy that we should take the time and labor, which is our capital, to invest in the relationship so that, six months to a year later, they’ll realize we’ve been something of value for them. That’s our general philosophy of business.”
The two terms ‘challenge’ and ‘opportunity’ could also be ascribed to other changes within the industry, said Bill Toner, specifically citing the deregulation of auto insurance in the Commonwealth in 2008, which allowed insurance companies to set their own rates, and agencies to offer package discounts for auto and home or auto and boat, Bill said.
“This was good for the consumer — they got discounts,” he explained. “But it was good for us because we were able to develop the entire account and develop relationships.”
But Sumner & Toner isn’t out to sell everything to everybody, he went on, noting that, with a client base that is 60% personal and 40% commercial, the agency would rather offer advice and good service instead of pushing what Bill calls the ‘horror-story’ campaign. That would be advertising by fear, as in, what would happen if someone came over to visit and fell down the stairs?
“Our proposition has always been a quality product and package that will fit into your financials, which you can afford and protects your assets,” said Jack Toner.
Still another challenge moving forward is creating a strategy for effectively using social media to promote the agency and its services and also communicate with clients and potential clients.
“That’s a whole other arena we’re entering into,” said Jack Toner. “I think that our industry has a place, or is finding a place, in social media, and while we’re not totally sure where we want to place ourselves, we’re very aware of it.”
Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and all the other forms of social technology have created new marketing avenues, but industry-wide, there is no clear consensus on how to best meld these vehicles, said Bill Toner, adding that the company is currently grappling with the question of whether to hire someone to devote specific time to social media.

Predicting the Future
Stating that he’s not an actuary or a meteorologist, Bill Toner explained that the future will only get more expensive for the consumer through property-insurance premium increases due to the many recent instances of Mother Nature’s wrath and the potential escalation of extreme weather globally.
“Obviously, the insurance companies set their rates contemplating catastrophic things, because no insurance company I know of went financially bankrupt or went out of business,” he said, referencing the recent past and its tornadoes, ice dams, freak October snowstorm, and more. “But they found that it was difficult and that, actuarially, they have to cover catastrophes like what we’ve all experienced, because they’re predicting scientifically that it’s going to happen moreso in the future.”
There is no crystal ball for Sumner & Toner to predict the weather, but putting clients together with the best products — and assisting them with their claims should catastrophes, large or small, happen — is the firm’s main mission.
And the effective way they’re varying that mission is proof positive of what’s written on that aforementioned postcard. Sometimes, companies do wind up sharing office space with their competitors, and, in this case, it brought together families, generations, and a shared formula for success.

Elizabeth Taras can be reached at [email protected]

Banking and Financial Services Sections
Sosik Succeeds Hogan at the Helm of Easthampton Savings Bank

Matt Sosik says he wasn’t looking for another job, and, in fact, didn’t have an up-to-date copy of his résumé at the ready.
“I didn’t need one — I loved what was I doing,” said Sosik, then CEO of Hometown Bank, formerly Webster Cooperative Bank, which he had guided to exponential growth since arriving in 1997. “We had a great professional family there that was certainly hard to leave, and frankly hard to even think about leaving behind.”
But when Bill Hogan initiated discussions with him several months ago about possibly joining the competition that would identify his successor as president of Easthampton Savings Bank, Sosik’s imagination took him to where he never thought it would.
And the reason was fairly simple, he told BusinessWest just a few weeks after assuming his new post at the institution on Main Street, in the shadow of Mount Tom.
“This particular opportunity caught my attention because I’ve known Bill for many years, and I’ve known others inside the bank for a number of years,” said Sosik, who took the helm on June 17. “And I’ve come to know a lot about Easthampton Savings Bank, and the cultural fit was perfect. Culturally, Hometown and Easthampton are very similar institutions.”
Sosik takes the helm at ESB at an intriguing time for the bank — and the region’s banking sector in general. “Hyper-competitive” was the word he used to describe the financial-services landscape in the region, noting that many communities are saturated with branches, if not oversaturated, and many institutions, including ESB, are flush with capital and looking for opportunities to grow in a region where there has been little economic growth.
Thriving in this climate will require a plan, said Sosik, who said that drafting a strategic initiative, or updating the one already in place, as the case may be, is at or near the top of his to-do list. But it will also require patience, he said, noting that this is one of the lessons he’ll take with him from his time at Hometown, were he shepherded the bank from a mere $33 million in assets to more than $340 million.
“This is a long-term process,” he told BusinessWest. “If you try to do this in six months, you will fail. I spent 17 years at Hometown building that balance sheet, and it’s a pretty attractive balance sheet. It’s going to take awhile, you have to be patient, and we have the business structure to be patient; we have a lot of things going for us.”
At present, Sosik is still in what he called “evaluation mode,” meaning that period when he comes to familiarize himself with the staff and the bank’s immediate goals — and strategies for reaching them.
“The next frontier here is really about leveraging the strengths of the institution,” he said, summing up what he’s learned — or already knew before he arrived. “We’re a well-capitalized bank, and we have plenty of growth opportunities because of that capital. Other banks of similar size in the Pioneer Valley don’t have that luxury.”

Person of Interest
Sosik began his career in financial services as a bank examiner with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., working in Massachusetts and Northern New England. In 1996, he joined Webster Cooperative, and a year later became its CEO.
Over the next 16 years, he implemented a wide-ranging strategic initiative that included a name change to Hometown Bank, as well as geographic growth (from one branch to six), acquisition of the Athol-Clinton Cooperative Bank in 2011, and more than tenfold growth in total assets.
When asked how all that was accomplished, he said simply, “from grinding it out.” He then elaborated, noting that the bank was very small when he arrived, and needed to grow simply to survive.
“That helps energize the team and yourself every day, knowing that you have to get to a certain place so that you can remain viable,” he said with a laugh. “It allowed the fire to remain well-lit, knowing that you were fighting for your long-term survival.”
The situation is much different at ESB, he acknowledged, adding quickly that there is still a strong need to grow, and the bank has the inclination, capital, and opportunity to do so.
And as he talked about what might come next, he said that, while he’s spent his entire banking career in Central Mass. and, more specifically, the Blackstone Valley (Webster is roughly 20 miles south of Worcester), he is quite familiar with the Western Mass. market, its challenges, and its opportunities.
He told BusinessWest that the Central Mass. and Western Mass. banking markets are similar in many respects — both regions have been experiencing relatively flat economic growth, he explained, while the respective banking sectors have been extremely competitive, with many players and some new arrivals in recent years.
But there are some distinctions, he said, adding that perhaps the most significant is that many of the community banks in this region are quite larger than the ones he encountered in Central Mass., with many at or well above the $1 billion mark in assets, a milestone ESB is now approaching.
And this makes them stronger competitors, he went on. “These larger banks simply have more resources, and they can make longer-term decisions and absorb more risk.”
Summing up the situation, Sosik said that ESB, like other banks in this region, must “manufacture their own market share,” which means, in essence, taking it from rivals.
And this ‘manufacturing’ is not easy, he said, noting both the amount of competition and the fact that many of the large regional and super-regional banks are becoming more effective competitors — a trend he expects to continue and accelerate.
“They got away from some of the things you need to do to be good competitors,” he explained. “And they recognized that, and now they’re seeing some of the value of banking on Main Street again, for a variety of regulatory and financial reasons. That shift has about run its course.”
But growth can be attained, he said, stressing again that whatever takes shape in ESB’s new strategic plan, the overriding philosophy will be slow and steady.
“We have to be the better competitor and the smarter competitor,” he said. “We have to do our job of serving the customers in the community better than the ladies and gentlemen down the street.”
When asked what direction the bank’s growth initiatives will take — meaning both strategically and geographically — Sosik was shy with specifics, as might be expected. He did say, though, that the bank, which has 10 branches stretching from Westfield to Belchertown, Agawam to Northampton, will be “open-minded” when it comes to future expansion, but also smart.
Elaborating, he said that means choosing potential branch locations carefully and, in general, avoiding those communities, or regions, that are already saturated — or worse.
“We’re certainly open-minded to going where we believe there are opportunities to leverage what Easthampton Savings Bank does best,” he said, leaving plenty to the imagination. “We won’t be relying on a strict geographic pattern — I don’t mind skipping over markets to get to a market we think we can find success in — but there are obviously places that are very much overbanked; we’re not going to stick our nose in there, but we go can beyond there and to places where we think we can do well with what we do best.”
And while likely expanding geographically, ESB will also be leveraging its capital to grow its commercial-loan portfolio, said Sosik.
He acknowledged that many other banks in the region, including those highly competitive community banks he mentioned, are looking to the same, but he said this represents one of the more solid growth opportunities at present, and a key element in bringing an effective mix to a balance sheet at a time of narrow margins.

By All Accounts
Summing up the challenge ahead for himself and the institution he now leads, Sosik said simply, “there is no quick fix for the hyper-competitive market, there is no quick fix for the fact that all of these bankers and banks are almost tripping over themselves.
“This is a long-term process to ensure that you stand out, and ensure that you are relevant in the marketplace,” he continued, hinting that his philosophy will be to attempt a slow-and-sure fix.
“Growth is definitely an important factor to running a community bank like Easthampton Savings successfully,” he said in conclusion. “It’s something we’re going to work hard to attain.”

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

Banking and Financial Services Sections
Mobile Banking Is the Hot Trend in Personal Finance

MobileBankingDPartMore than ever, Susan Wilson says, people aren’t content to just get around. They want to get things done, even while moving from place to place.
“Everyone is on the go, and everyone’s got some kind of mobile device, whether it’s an iPad or an iPhone,” said Wilson, vice president of Corporate Responsibility at PeoplesBank. “Take a look out the window and watch people walking down the street.”
Indeed, smartphones and tablets have made it possible for individuals to e-mail and text friends, engage in social media, and play games while on the move. And, increasingly, get a little banking done.
“Right now, we have a mobile browser and mobile apps for both iPhone and Android,” said Mike Raposo, eChannel product manager at PeoplesBank. “They can use it for transaction history, transfers, and bill payments, and we have some graphs to track their expenses; these are the main components of the mobile app right now.”
Five years after introducing mobile products to customers, the bank has witnessed a dramatic rise in their use, he noted. “We typically see about 50% growth in mobile users each year, and that’s pretty consistent with what we’re forecasting going forward.”
Joan Klinakis, senior vice president of Operations at United Bank, said her institution also launched mobile banking about five years ago and has seen a steady increase in its use.
“It is definitely becoming more and more popular,” she told BusinessWest. “We have an app customers can use; you can find it in the iTunes app store or the Google Play shop if you have an Android.” Like most banks, United also has a text offering, where customers can text a code to check information like balance transfers.
The ubiquitous nature of mobile devices has most banks following suit, including Florence Savings Bank, which introduced what it considers a ‘basic’ mobile suite in March, said Becky Lynch, eproduct manager.
“The customer can either use the browser on their cell phone, use our app if they’re running iPhone or Android, and also do SMS texting to do basic functions like account history and transferring funds, as well as get the bank’s locations and that type of information.”

Becky Lynch says Florence Savings Bank will soon expand on its recently launched mobile platform.

Becky Lynch says Florence Savings Bank will soon expand on its recently launched mobile platform.

Increasingly, a smartphone culture is becoming more accustomed to moving functions once performed on desktops to the computers they carry in their pockets and purses. Rohit Sharma of Virtusa Corp., an information-technology consulting firm, recently wrote at banktech.com that mobile devices have already displaced desktop-based Internet access and will soon become the preferred vehicle for carrying out banking activities.
In fact, as far back as late 2010, according to research by Google, more consumers were using smartphones to access the Internet than PCs, and that trend has only accelerated. “As such,” Sharma said, “the tipping point for smartphones has already arrived.”
And banks, increasingly, are responding to that shift.

Smart Response
Klinakis said use of United’s mobile platform continues to grow every month, a direct result of people becoming more reliant on their smartphones and tablets. “That seems to be where everyone is going; we see a steady increase month after month in adoption rates.”
And the shift seems to be occurring across all age groups, not just the younger generations who were the first to embrace online banking a decade ago. “It doesn’t seem to be age-related any longer,” she told BusinessWest. “It may have started out that way, but these devices are popular across the board, and everyone is following suit.”
United is no stranger to technological change, having delivered online-banking options since 1997. “Back then, we still had to mail floppy discs to customers,” Klinakis said with a laugh. “I think mobile is still something that’s still up and coming; it hasn’t plateaued yet. It’s still moving in a forward direction.”
Raposo agrees. “As more and more mobile phones and tablets get in people’s hands, the age doesn’t really matter. Whoever has mobile devices use them for their banking,” he said. “Especially over the last few years, people are feeling more secure using mobile devices for everything.”
Data security is, of course, a concern, but it’s one that customers are less anxious about, according to the banks we spoke with.
In fact, “they say nothing. They just forge ahead and use these services,” Lynch said. “We have a level of trust with them. We consider mobile part of our online channel, even though it’s not Internet-based, because the service goes through all the same security reviews and risk assessment that our online banking does. Customers don’t ask about it because they know we’re securing their online banking session, and they think of them similarly.”
Wilson agreed, noting that, “based on our adoption rates, we would say it’s not a primary concern.”
Those rates, she added, have been strong. “We’ve seen tremendous growth. We started this journey in 2008 when we introduced the mobile app, and since then we’ve been adding to it. Last year we introduced the mobile triple play,” which is a combination of browser, app, and text services on one platform.

Joan Klinakis

Joan Klinakis says growth in mobile banking is largely related to Americans’ increasing reliance on their smartphones.

Although customers turn to mobile banking for a number of uses, Wilson noted, transferring funds seems to be one of the most popular, based on the bank’s internal statistics. “Sometimes people are making some sort of impulse purchase and want to transfer the funds to make sure they’re available.” Meanwhile, she added, mobile bill payment is on the rise as well.
Lynch said the majority of users of Florence Savings Bank’s mobile services check balances and transfer funds. “If you need to pay a bill, you can move money from one account to another to avoid fees. You can set up alerts based on low balance and any other kind of activity. You can move money into savings, that kind of thing.”

Making Connections
Chrissy Kiddy, eChannel specialist at PeoplesBank, told BusinessWest that even mobile users who don’t want to download an app can engage in commerce on their smart devices through a ‘responsive website.’
“In the past, PeoplesBank has always prided itself on offering customers the tools they need to be financially successful. In the case of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to launch a new, responsive website that really optimizes to whatever mobile device you’re on, which makes navigation much simpler for our customers.”
The issue with many websites is that they’re optimized to be viewed on a PC screen, not on the smaller screen of a mobile device, but PeoplesBank has customized its website to be easily readable and navigable on any device.
“Whether they have a smartphone or tablet or desktop, they’re able to see all the information they need to see in order to make the transaction — do online banking, view products, view rates,” Kiddy explained. “No longer do customers have to pinch and zoom on mobile devices. Our customers are now able to receive accurate online information and view it on their mobile devices.”
She cited a report at mashable.com suggesting that many mobile users would rather use their browsers than an app, so providing both makes sense. “We’ve now optimized our website and app to cover all customer bases.”
Klinakis agreed that many customers still want to use a browser, and the banktech.com report suggested that online banking on desktops isn’t going away anytime soon.
“Smartphones are predominately used for transactional or quick access, such as looking up restaurants, products, or transit information. A consumer is more likely to use a tablet or a desktop for more analysis-based activity,” Sharma said. “In terms of banking, one can think of transactions being completed through mobile devices, but budgets or financial planning will still be done on desktops, potentially to be replaced by tablets.”
Klinakis added that more mobile features could be in the works, including the ability for customers to snap a photo of a check and send the image to the bank to deposit it. “That’s one of the key things I hear everyone moving toward. In general, customers seem to like that feature.”
As for Florence, it’s relatively new mobile platform won’t stay ‘basic’ for long.
“We will continue to enhance it, to offer solutions that will allow for some bill payments and mobile alerts — account alerts you set up yourself to deliver to your cell phone,” said Lynch. “You’ll eventually have the ability to deposit checks using the camera on your cell phone — what we refer to as ‘consumer deposit capture.’ That’s really kind of a next step. Big banks have been doing it for awhile. For us, we’re just trying to analyze risks and costs, and we’ll more than likely have more solutions soon.”

Rolling It Out
With only a few months under its figurative belt, Florence’s suite of mobile services are being used by only some 5% of customers, and the bank has tried to roll it out quietly as it evaluates user response and gauges what needs to be done next. But if the accounts of other banks hold true, the user rate won’t remain in the single digits for long.
“It really goes hand in hand with smartphone adoption, which isn’t surprising,” Lynch said. “If people are comfortable with a smartphone, they’ll want to get their banking done as well.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Columns Sections
Time is Money, So Manage More Effectively

Patricia Murphy

Patricia Murphy

Time management in the life of the busy professional is always a challenge. The balance of one’s commitments at work and at home can be difficult and, at times, overwhelming to manage.
Modern technologies intended to make our lives easier, often add too much information and clutter, forcing us to spend time on unimportant and unprofitable tasks. Whether you are a small business owner, in commission sales, or an employee of a small or large company, using your time wisely is essential to your individual production and overall profit. As the old saying goes “time is money.”
While we can’t add more time to our days, we can manage the time we have more effectively. Finding a time-management strategy that works depends on the individual and their environment. Hopefully, these tips can help you more effectively manage your time.

Planning
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Reviewing your calendar and identifying your commitments can help you manage your priorities and make the most of your time. Looking at the week ahead can help you make the distinction between what is urgent and what is important. Making planning a habit and doing it religiously is crucial to maintaining control over your time. Here are some additional thoughts:

• Spend time at the beginning of each week planning for your week ahead. Planning in advance gives you time to react to unforeseen situations and plan for things you want to do;
• Plan for tomorrow before today ends. Spend some time planning for your next day’s accomplishments;
• Try to limit scheduled time too, because distractions always seem to arise.

Task Lists
To effectively manage all of the outstanding tasks, commitments, and engagements, we cannot rely on our memory alone. The average person has 50 tasks in their heads at any given time according to the “Getting Things Done” time-management system created by David Allen. Maintaining a reliable and well-kept list allows us to reduce the mental energy required by storing the list in our heads, resulting in forgotten items and missed tasks.

• Make a list of all the things in your world that need resolution;
• Go through each of these items and assign it a letter of importance from A (very important) to C (unimportant);
• Assign an amount of time to complete each of the items;
• Prune your list by following the ‘4-D theory’: do it, dump it, delegate it, or defer it, making it manageable; and
• Remember that multitasking can actually lower the quality of work; try to devote full attention to one task at a time.

Calendars
In order to help manage meetings and events, it requires the effective use of a calendar. Whether it’s paper or electronic, you need a system where you know where to be and when. A calendar which shows the entire month at a glance is better than one that shows a week at a time.
Viewing your calendar monthly will help you to obtain a better picture of your time and it will help you to plan on a weekly basis. Here are some tips:
• Input only time and day-specific items; try not to over clutter;
• Set up recurring events;
• Color code your calendar (green for personal; red for meetings; blue for phone calls, for example);
• Use notifications and reminders;
• Automatically add holidays into your calendar; and
• Syncronize calendars whenever possible.

E-mail
E-mails have become a necessary evil in today’s business world. While e-mails can save time and long conversations, they can also be misleading, overused, and misinterpreted. Using e-mail more effectively will not only save time but could actually help increase productivity. Keep these suggestions in mind:
• Keep an empty inbox — read the e-mail once and decide what to do with it. As with the task list, use the 4 D theory: do it, delegate it, defer it or delete it (file);
• Try to limit e-mails to a few sentences — get right to the point;
• Make your subject line obvious;
• Try to write fewer e-mails and avoid copying unnecessary recipients;
• Set aside time to check and respond to e-mails, especially during “low productivity time” (i.e. lunch);
• Avoid checking e-mails first thing in the morning. This will help you to avoid reacting to others demands and will allow you to stay focused on your own demands;
• Write smarter e-mails and be clear. Try to anticipate the next reply in order to answer any potential questions;
• Set up folders to have a good email filing system;
• Route annoying e-mails to junk and non-essential e-mails (newsletters or blogs) can be set up to go straight to a folder;
• Turn off the visual and audible e-mail alerts; and
• Create an e-mail template for recurring e-mail messages sent, such as thank-you notes and meeting confirmations.

Get Organized
Paperwork can easily get out of control and eat up valuable time you could be using to accomplish your goals. Keeping your desk clean is crucial to avoid getting overwhelmed by the clutter and maintaining control of your environment. Here’s how:
• Try to touch each piece of paper only once, using the 4 D theory discussed above;
• Set up a well-maintained filing system; and
• Add an extra monitor or two, which will allow you to have multiple screens open at the same time, significantly increasing your efficiency.  Monitors are even portable; they are lightweight and are the size of a legal pad.
Even the best strategies we implement can’t work without the dedication to making them work and the consistency it takes to make them a habit. If we can start to think of time as a commodity, as we do money, we can start to put a value on our time and question how we spend it.
Using your time wisely will allow you to be more effective with the time you do have.
Staying focused on what is important and being proactive rather than reactive will result in increased productivity, reduced stress and devoting more time to important and rewarding projects. Overall, successful time management will make a positive difference in your career and ultimately your bottom line.

Patricia J. Murphy, CPA, is a Senior Associate with the Holyoke based public accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; (413) 322-3540; [email protected].

Health Care Sections
Don’t Put Off Estate Planning for Your College-aged Children

Lisa L. Halbert

Lisa L. Halbert

Summer is here, and your college-aged kids (or grandkids) are on break, or home from school, if only for a short period of time. While these technically ‘legal’ adults are likely trying to work, catch-up on Zs, and reluctantly make the rounds for various doctor and dentist appointments, it’s a good idea to add an appointment with a lawyer to the list.
Everyone over the age of 18 — including college- or post-college-aged individuals — should consider the prudence of executing a healthcare proxy and a durable power of attorney.

Healthcare Proxy
A healthcare proxy (HCP) is a document by which a legally competent person over the age of 18 (usually referred to as the ‘principal’) appoints another adult (the ‘agent’) to help make healthcare decisions for the principal, but only if the principal is unable to either make or communicate their own healthcare decisions.
Signing an HCP does not allow an agent unfettered access to the principal’s healthcare information. So long as a principal has the requisite capacity, an agent cannot access the principal’s medical information unless or until a medical release (and not just the HCP) is signed by the principal.

Durable Power of Attorney
Conceptually, a durable power of attorney (POA, or sometimes referred to as a DPA) is similar to an HCP in that the principal (in this case the college-aged student) nominates another adult (usually referred to as an attorney-in-fact) to step into the shoes of the principal and act on his or her behalf for almost any financial transaction. The proposed attorney-in-fact needs to be trustworthy, in an almost blind-faith sort of way. The attorney-in-fact may be a parent, trusted friend, sibling, or other advisor. Authority granted under a POA is typically quite comprehensive, with college-aged adults frequently concerned about the following:
• Banking, including online accounts, check writing, opening and closing accounts, and transferring funds between accounts (especially where money is coming from parents);
• Entering into or changing contracts, i.e. for rental agreements, airline flights, cell-phone and Internet access, student loans, and credit cards;
• Changing beneficiaries on contracts, including creating and funding of individual retirement accounts; and
• Buying and selling cars, securities, or real estate, although these are less-often needed by college students.
The document should be durable, so that it remains in force and effect even at a time when the principal might lose legal capacity, whether due to periods of serious mental or physical illness or injury resulting from a fall, car accident, alcohol, or drugs, which leaves the principal alive, but unable to think or reason clearly.
If the POA does not reference that it is durable, then if the principal becomes incapacitated or incompetent, and unable to think or express thoughts clearly, the authority of the attorney-in-fact terminates. And whether the document is durable or not, upon the death of the principal, all authority terminates, and the attorney-in-fact is no longer authorized to act.
While an HCP can be used or invoked only where the principal is not able to make certain decisions (and therefore cannot be used when the principal is fully able to think and reason), a POA can be crafted to allow the attorney-in-fact access to financial affairs at the same time as the principal, or to take effect at a later time, whether based on the principal’s losing capacity or upon certain events (such as a trip out of the country).
As a general statement, if the principal does not (almost) blindly trust the appointee with access to his or her finances, then do not appoint that person. And if you do have that kind of trust, then it is likely administratively easiest to have the document in full force and effect from the original date of signing, as opposed to a later date.  If you decide to make the POA invoked upon injury or illness, it may not be easy to get you to agree to see a doctor, or it may take time to get an appointment, both of which can delay the process during a pivotal time.
The principal may want to consider appointing not just one person, but likely up to three individuals to serve consecutively under both the HCP and POA. Therefore, if the first person becomes unable or unavailable, there is a second person to act, etc. If the principal does not change his or her mind about appointing these same people, then by naming individuals to serve consecutively, the document should remain viable and valid for a longer period of time.

Good Reasons
Why should you encourage your son, daughter, or grandchild to meet with an attorney and sign a healthcare proxy and separate durable power of attorney?
Many 18- to 25-year-olds do not live at home. They are at college, or beginning to branch out and live far away from home. Many want their independence but have not yet really learned to plan for the unexpected, at least in terms of legal documents. Your adult child could have a medical emergency, perhaps due to being hit by a drunk driver, a fall down stairs, an emotional issue that severely impacts thought processes, or a financial situation that needs prompt or urgent action (such as limited access to bank funds while traveling in a foreign country).
With a healthcare proxy and durable POA in place, these and many more issues can be addressed quickly and in a cost-effective manner by someone whom your child has chosen.
The ramifications of not having the documents in place could mean that court action may be necessary in order to have someone appointed to make medical decisions, or to help access accounts and/or address various financial issues. The cost associated with a court action, in terms of time, emotions, and money, can be problematic.
Further, if court action is necessitated because the person did not have a POA or HCP, then it is someone around the principal who initiates the request for court assistance or intervention. In effect, the principal loses control of choosing who makes certain decisions (whether medical or financial) and whether they will be made consistent with the principal’s approach.
This summer, consider a unique way to express your love and caring to your independent-minded 18- to 25-year-old. Gently suggest that he or she take an hour or so to talk to an attorney about these documents. You can even make a present to your child or grandchild that covers the cost of having the work done. In the long run, having an HCP and POA is a great investment in your child or grandchild by encouraging their independence and sense of responsibility to self. It shows that someone cares enough to help them plan for the unexpected. The documents are valid for years into the future, with originals being kept safely at the law firm or in a safe. If properly authorized, copies can be provided to medical professionals, financial institutions, and the named appointees, or provided via computer, as well as kept with passports or travel itineraries.

Lisa L. Halbert, Esq. is an associate in the Northampton office of Bacon & Wilson, P.C. A member of the estate-planning, elder, and real-estate departments, she is especially focused on legal matters relating to elder and estate planning and asset protection; (413) 584-1287; baconwilson.com/attorneys/halbert

Health Care Sections
Sleeve Gastrectomy Is the Hot Option in Weight-loss Surgery

Dr. John Romanelli

Dr. John Romanelli says sleeve gastrectomy is “elegant in its simplicity,” offering the effectiveness of gastric bypass, but with much lower risk.

Surgically shrinking the stomach to combat obesity is nothing new in the medical world.
But the options for doing so are looking better all the time.
Specifically, sleeve gastrectomy has begun to overtake gastric-bypass surgery and gastric-banding procedures as the surgical weapon of choice, boasting comparative effectiveness with far fewer side effects.
“This operation is elegant in its simplicity,” said Dr. John Romanelli, medical director of the Weight Loss Surgery Program at Baystate Medical Center. “Anyone in the public can get this. We make the stomach smaller, and the way we do that is, we take out everything but the lesser curvature side of the stomach. In other words, we make a sleeve or a tube of the stomach the width of the esophagus, which comes down until it gets to the bottom of the stomach.”
Unlike gastric bypass, which moves a portion of the small intestine, sleeve gastrectomy is performed only on the stomach itself, he noted, so the digestive process is unaffected. “The intestine is left undisturbed, so it’s closer to gastric banding in terms of digestion, and closer to gastric bypass in terms of performance.”
The procedure, which is irreversible, reduces the stomach to about 25% its original size, thereby suppressing appetite in the same way gastric bypass or gastric banding do, said Dr. Andrew Lederman, director of the Berkshire Medical Center Weight Loss Surgery program.
Sleeve gastrectomy was originally performed as a modification to another bariatric procedure, the duodenal switch, and then later as the first part of a two-stage gastric-bypass operation on extremely obese patients for whom the risk of performing gastric-bypass surgery was deemed too large, he noted. The initial weight loss in these patients was so successful, it began to be investigated as a standalone procedure. Today, it’s the fastest-growing surgical option for weight loss in North America.
The reduced impact on digestion is only one reason why sleeve gastrectomy is attractive to patients and surgeons, Romanelli said.
“From my end of things, very simply, the complications are so much lower than bypass or banding. As one of my colleagues said, ‘it’s like bariatric surgery, except you get to sleep at night.’ That’s key; most surgeons report complication rates of 20% to 30% with gastric bypass.”
He explained that there might be 10 or so little things that could go wrong with bypass, and while each may happen only 2% to 3% of the time, combined, the odds add up. With banding, complication rates are 5% per year, and it’s not uncommon for patients to have to undergo repeat procedures.
“It’s easy for patients to understand, easy to perform, with a minimum of complications,” Romanelli told BusinessWest. “In a lot of respects, it’s the holy grail of operations.”

Who Qualifies?
Sleeve gastrectomy uses a stapling device to create a thin, vertical sleeve of stomach, with most of the original organ then removed. It differs in many ways from both gastric bypass, which divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger ‘remnant’ pouch and then rearranges the small intestine to connect to both; and gastric banding, which incorporates an inflatable band around the upper part of the stomach to create a smaller pouch. But all three procedures have the same goal: to limit food intake while creating a sated feeling.
Romanelli performed his first sleeve gastrectomy in 2006, and it became more common in 2008 and 2009 as more insurers began covering it. “Success bred success,” he said, “and more patients started asking for it.” By 2010 and 2011, the procedure had gained wide approval, and virtually all payers were on board.
Lederman said people considering weight-loss surgery must have a body-mass index greater than 40, between 35 and 40 with two weight-related health risks, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiac disease, obstructive sleep apnea, arthritis and joint pain, and incontinence, among others. Typically, candidates are 100 pounds or more overweight, and have already tried other options to lose weight.
He added that, when surgical patients begin losing weight, those obesity-related medical problems often disappear; in fact, 86% of diabetics improve with bariatric surgery, while 74% of type II diabetics are effectively cured of their diabetes.
Romanelli said Baystate’s standards are similar, and he’s particularly intrigued by candidates who present with those ancillary medical issues.
“Those are the people I’m more interested in because we can make those diseases go away and add 10 years to their life,” he said. “I don’t care what dress size they wear; I want them to throw the pillbox in the garbage. They desperately need that.”
As for the age range, typically Romanelli performs sleeve gastrectomy on those between 18 and 65. He said 18- to 21-year-olds are often an underserved population in healthcare in general because they’re transitioning from a pediatrician to an adult doctor and often don’t have a primary-care physician. But it’s important to establish a surgical track record with that group to determine whether even younger patients would be good candidates for the procedure.
When talking about 16- and 17-year-olds, he continued, “the problem is the psychological component; kids aren’t at maturity, so you’ve really got to be careful. A lot of adolescents have serious emotional problems and are probably not suitable candidates.”
In addition, he added, “we’re sifting through much more variable family dynamics.” For instance, if a teenager lives in a house with two morbidly obese parents who do not plan to change their lifestyles, that’s not an ideal environment for gastric surgery.
The upper age limit isn’t set in stone, either, Romanelli said. “It’s not like, on their 66th birthday, they no longer qualify. But a fair amount of data shows that cardiac diseases don’t go away as easily when they turn 65. They’ve already got hardened arteries; the damage is already done.” Meanwhile, complication rates rise in older patients as well.
“But someone who is, say, 67 and in reasonable health, if they want weight-loss surgery, we wouldn’t turn them away. Age 70 has been my limit, but others have gone up to age 80, which I think is a bit excessive.”
That said, Romanelli told BusinessWest, “I’ve done more surgeries on 65- to 70-year-olds in the past year than ever before. There are a fair number who are healthy. But we do take a closer look at them. I have medical colleagues who work with us to give them a once-over before we put them through this elective operation.”

Risk and Reward
All surgery involves risk, Lederman stressed, and even with the reduced odds of complications in sleeve gastrectomy, patients still undergo a medical and psychological evaluation to determine if they are healthy enough to undergo the procedure. Meanwhile, all types of gastric surgery require serious lifestyle adjustment.
“Weight-loss surgery was not an easy way out,” said Tracy DiGrigoli, one of Berkshire Medical Center’s gastric-surgery patients. “I have to make an effort every day to make the right choices in what to eat and to exercise.”
Added patient Michelle Simon Grady, “there are days I get down, but I keep a picture of myself 100 pounds heavier, and people will see me and say, ‘you look wonderful. How do you do it?’ Well, it’s not easy. I eat in moderation, not binging the way I did before.”
Meanwhile, even sleeve gastrectomy carries some drawbacks, Romanelli said. Nausea is common during the first six weeks following the surgery; for some patients it’s profound, while others have a relatively easy time.
But, buoyed by their own research and desire to lose triple-digit weight, patients are increasingly clamoring for this relatively new option.
“I would say 50% who come in are already asking for this operation,” Romanelli said. “The bottom line is, if you’re going to have an operation, the results are about as good as bypass, but it’s a lot safer.”
He went so far as to predict that gastric banding will become relatively rare within three to five years. “I do think diabetics do better with gastric bypass, but everyone else will get sleeves. I think that’s where we’re heading. I’d like to tell you that one operation fits all, but I’m not convinced; it’s not that good, to where we’d do that and nothing else. Patients should have a choice.”
Indeed, “I don’t go out of my way to encourage banding, but if a patient wants it and it’s reasonable, I’ll do it,” Romanelli said, noting, for example, women who want to get pregnant at some point in the future; they can have the band deflated during the pregnancy and tightened afterward. “So there’s an adjustability factor for women of childbrearing age. And bypass is good for people with metabolic disease. But for most people, sleeve gastrectomy is becoming the most popular.”
“Between its effectiveness and relative safety, it’s really the best of both worlds,” he told BusinessWest. “I know that makes it sound too good to be true, and maybe five, 10, 15 years from now, like all things in the media, people will be saying, ‘yeah, that’s too good to be true.’ But the results have been great, and patients are happy. They come in and say, ‘I can’t believe how easy this is!’ I never hear that with gastric bypass. I never hear that with banding patients. But I always hear it with sleeve patients.
“They can eat what they want, just less,” Romanelli concluded. “So they keep the same quality of food and lose weight every week. Who wouldn’t want that?”

Entrepreneurship Sections
‘First-to-file System’ Represents a Significant Change in the Rules

RacePatentOfficeOn March 16, the U.S. patent system changed from what’s known as a ‘first-to-invent’ system to a ‘first-to-file’ system. This significant change means that only the first person to file a patent application on an invention can receive a patent, with few exceptions.
In other words, an inventor can race to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the Patent Office) and attempt to beat out a prior inventor who waits to file.
There is however a one-year grace period for an inventor, or company, to file a patent application after initially disclosing an invention or offering it for sale. If the inventor decides to file, he can prevail over someone else who filed a patent application earlier that year.
In addition, someone who derived the invention from you, whether directly or indirectly cannot beat you in a race to the Patent Office. That’s because the Patent Office has a procedure (called “derivation proceedings”) to try to sort out the facts.
There are expenses and uncertainties, though, in trying to prove that you are the first inventor.
To avoid these scenarios, most companies should file provisional patent applications rather than non-provisional patent applications (a.k.a. ‘regular’ or ‘utility’ applications) before initially disclosing their inventions or offering them for sale (at trade shows, for example).
A provisional application is an informal, yet complete, disclosure of an invention filed at the Patent Office.  The provisional application is not prosecuted by the Patent Office and does not, by itself, result in a patent. It buys the inventor (or his assignee) one year to decide whether or not to file a regular patent application. If the regular application is filed within that year, the regular application can claim the benefit of the provisional application’s earlier filing date.
Provisional patent applications are relatively inexpensive. Therefore, most companies should file their provisional applications as soon as possible after creating inventions. Update your provisional applications upon creating major changes (for a production model, for example).
Before you file, conduct a preliminary patent search using Google® Patent. Also search the Internet for your product.
If you do not find it, contact a patent attorney to conduct a more detailed search or to file a provisional patent application.  Your company’s initial marketing efforts or public disclosure may dictate if you file before or after conducting a detailed search.
This change from a ‘first-to-invent’ system to a ‘first-to-file’ system is a significant development when it comes to patents, and inventors and entrepreneurs should fully understand what it means to their efforts to bring new products to the marketplace.

Donald Holland is a principal with the Longmeadow-based law firm Holland & Bonzagni, which specializes in intellectual property, patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, computer law, cyber law, joint ventures, technology transfers, licensing, and related litigation; (413) 567-2076.

Entrepreneurship Sections
Former Ballplayer Shifts to Another Field — Entrepreneurship

Peter Fatse says his entrepreneurial venture is focused on all aspects of the development of student athletes.

Peter Fatse says his entrepreneurial venture is focused on all aspects of the development of student athletes.

Peter Fatse remembers having an interesting mix of emotions as he officially ended his professional baseball career several months ago.
An undersized utility player who could handle several positions on the diamond, Fatse, who starred at Minnechaug High School and later the University of Connecticut before being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2009, spent a few seasons shifting between the lower minor leagues and Independent League rosters. He did, however, get one at-bat in the majors.
That was during spring training in 2010, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has the baseball commemorating that event, and the ability, as most athletes do, to recall all the details. “I was the last out of spring training, I went up in the ninth inning and struck out,” he told BusinessWest. “It was against Chad Qualls; I started fouling pitches off, and then he threw me a breaking ball and it was over.”
Fatse would later be signed by the Baltimore Orioles, and continued to work out last fall and early this year in anticipation of maybe getting another phone call from a team looking to see what he could do. Such a call never came, however, and Fatse decided to call an end to his baseball career and launch another one in business.
“You sign these retirement papers to make it official, and it’s kind of depressing” he recalled. “You sit back and think of all the times when all you ever wanted to do was play, and it’s like, ‘wow, you’re not playing anymore.’ But I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t comfortable with the decision.”
And that comfort level was created, in large part, by the realization that he could now devote all or most of his energy (he’s also a hitting coach for the Holyoke Blue Sox) to a potential-laden entrepreneurial venture he’s been developing over the past few years.
It’s called Advanced Performance Player Development, and while those first two words are in all caps and a larger type size on Fatse’s business card and signage, and form the company’s acronym (AP), emphasis is on the terms ‘performance’ and ‘development.’ The former speaks for itself, mostly, but the later needs some clarification.
Indeed, with this venture it refers to everything from help with hitting a curveball off a lefthander, as dialed up by the operator of the company’s new, state-of-the-art pitching machine, to making the transition from little leagues to high school ball; from help with deciding which college might make the best fit for a player weighing several scholarship offers, to advice on dealing with prospective agents.
“I offer individualized instruction, including a lot of video analysis, and we offer a high-level baseball instruction,” Fatse said of the venture operating in a large space, complete with artificial turf and batting cages, in the former home of Maybury Material Handling in East Longmeadow. “But what we’re moving toward is more player-development based.”
Elaborating, he displayed a poster for one of AP’s upcoming initiatives, called the Rising Freshman program, in which he and others will help 13- and 14-year-olds make the transition — athletically and academically — to high school.
“The focus will be on baseball instruction, but we’ll also bring in an academic advisor and speakers to talk to the kids about the many responsibilities of being a student athlete — focusing on such things as how to handle yourself, coach/teacher communications, managing study skills, and more.”
Meanwhile, for older youths, the company is finalizing a college-development program, during which high school underclassmen will receive similar assistance with the transition to their next level.
Overall, this range of services, the potential to work with clients over several years of development, and the prospects for eventually adding more sports to the mix, gives AP strong growth potential, said Fatse, adding that it is currently working with roughly 125 athletes from a wide geographic area and looks to greatly increase that number in the years to come.
An early measure of AP’s success is the number of caps mounted on one wall in Fatse’s office and the collection of baseballs on a nearby bookcase. These items were sent along by players who have trained at the facility or taken part in some of its programs. And the collection will certainly grow this summer and fall as ‘clients’ (that’s one of many terms Fatse uses to describe those he serves) move onto college or pro ball, as in the case of Mike Ahmed, the East Longmeadow and Holy Cross product who was selected in the 20th round of the recent draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
For this issue and its focus on entrepreneurship, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at an intriguing new venture, and how its founder is swinging for the fences — from a business perspective.

Working the Count
On a wall near a few of AP’s batting cages are two boards featuring a number of playing cards. Before taking their swings, hitters try to quickly find the cards as they are called out by one of the instructors.
“It’s an exercise designed to build eye-hand coordination,” said Fatse. “It helps gets your eyes loose, and for the younger players, it helps show that there’s things you can do without a bat in your hand.”
The playing-card exercise is one of many instructional tools used at AP, said Fatse, adding quickly that his business is not a baseball camp like many others conducted by current and past players. Nor is it a purely instructional facility, along the lines of the famous (or infamous) Tom Emanski videos hyped in those commercials on ESPN showing players trying to throw balls into barrels from the outfield to improve accuracy.
Instead, it is a business focused on the myriad aspects of developing scholar athletes, said Fatse, adding that this entrepreneurial venture was driven by a need he recognized — from both personal experience and watching dozens of young people, and their parents, struggle with the complicated process of entering, and then thriving in, professional baseball.
Fatse said his own career was typical of many players from the Northeast. He was a 24th round draft pick, which meant he was in many ways a long shot to make it to the major leagues, and he thrived in that underdog role.
“Getting into pro ball was something I always wanted to do,” he explained, “and I guess I had a knack for proving people wrong my whole life because I was undersized.”
He was drafted as a second baseman, but played mostly outfield in the minors, rising to what’s known as ‘high A ball’ with the Brewers and Double A with the Orioles.
He remembers all through his career that his family and coaches encouraged him to pursue a baseball career, but also be prepared for life after the game — whenever that transition was destined to occur. And he told BusinessWest that he always had some entrepreneurial tendencies and was in many respects ready for the day when he hung up his spikes.
“I had always done some lessons, some modest work with some of the local guys,” he explained. “But this past off season, I got an office and started putting together a business plan for something that would be different. I started to see how much I enjoyed doing this kind of thing, and I’m enjoying the transition into business.”
And when asked to describe that business, he said it’s a combination of a number of things, including technical instruction and, perhaps more importantly, mentorship.
“I always talked to my coach at UConn Jim Penders, who was an unbelievable coach,” he recalled. “I always liked his approach to how he did things, and it wasn’t until perhaps my fourth professional season that I realized the value of what he brought to the table. And I started thinking to myself that if I could bring some of that to the guys around here, at a younger age, I think it will help them out tremendously, especially those who want to pursue playing at the next level.”
As he mentioned earlier, AP is developing into a company focused on much more than technical instruction, although that’s a big part of the operation.
Fatse has plans to create programs designed for both athletes and their families, and on subjects ranging from how to handle the college-recruiting process to deciding if and when to turn pro.

Covering All the Bases
As he talked about the science of hitting a baseball, Fatse provided some insight into both the complexity of that task and the art of teaching people how to do it better.
“I try to work on their mental approach to hitting and utilize as much of their athleticism as possible,” he explained. “We want them to use their athleticism in a controlled swing pattern. How they do it — the rhythm techniques they use — vary, and that’s why we use video analysis so much. We like to look at what some of the best in the game are doing, and there are checkpoints in every swing that I try to replicate, such as with the hips and how the hands work.
“I didn’t have a fantastic approach until I really started learning how to hit in my third year in pro ball,” he went on, using his own experiences to get some of his points home. “I use the phrase ‘give a little to get a little’ — seeing pitches, seeing arm action, studying pitchers, and writing charts. The more I became aware of the mental part and how much being a student of the game mattered, the better I became.”
Overall, he said, there is a process to becoming a better player, one that focuses on both the mental and physical aspects of the game. And it is this process that is at the heart of AP’s business plan, which is still very much a work in progress.
But the building blocks are coming together, he told BusinessWest, adding that they are centered around helping those who come to AP’s facilities focus on what he called “complete player development.”
And by this he meant everything from what happens on the athletic field and in the classroom, to properly representing one’s community.
“Probably the most important thing I tell guys is that they’re representing a lot when they put that uniform on — themselves, their families, their school, their community — and it’s a privilege.”
Complete player development is what amounts to a business model for AP, one that Fatse believes is quite unique — in this region and nationally — and that’s why he’s confident that this venture will be a major league success.
Already, he’s drawing athletes from communities across this region, but also well outside it, with clients from Vermont, New Hampshire, and other regions of Massachusetts. The portfolio has grown mostly through word-of-mouth referrals, and he expects that process to continue and accelerate, especially as the company expands into other programs, such as the Rising Freshman initiative.
Meanwhile, there are growth opportunities from expanding into other sports, he said, listing lacrosse and hockey as possible additions to the roster.
“My vision is for a place where kids can come and get their work in, but also watch video, do their homework, and maybe meet with an academic advisor,” he said. “They could get their athletic training and academic work done in the same place, be around good, positive role models, and be the best they can be.”

Expert in His Field
In addition to the caps and baseballs in his office, Fatse is also working on a uniform collection for his conference room.
There are now three framed and on the walls — one of his from his UConn days, and one each from the Ahmed brothers, Mike and his older brother, Nick, currently in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ system.
They serve as reminders of what can happen when one can effectively blend hard work with determination, patience, the proper attitude, and sound decision-making.
These are things that Fatse will try to teach his clients — along with how to hit that curveball from a left-hander. It’s a business model he believes is loaded with potential, and one that will give him an opportunity to strike out on his own — this time in a very positive way.

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

Opinion
Education Reform at 20; There’s Work to Do

By Tom Birmingham
If you had told me on that hot day in Malden 20 years ago when Gov. Bill Weld signed the Education Reform Act that over 90% of Massachusetts students would pass MCAS, or that the Commonwealth’s SAT scores would rise for 13 consecutive years, or that our students would become the first in every category in every grade on national testing known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” or that Massachusetts would rank at or near the top in international science tests, I would have thought you wildly optimistic.
Massachusetts public schools have achieved all these results and more since 1993, but there is still more to do. I am troubled, for instance, by race- and class-based achievement gaps. Nonetheless, two decades after the passage of education reform, we have much to celebrate.
Hardworking students and committed teachers deserve the lion’s share of credit for our success, but policy makers established a structure that enabled educational progress. The Education Reform Act is a complicated piece of legislation containing many innovative initiatives, including the creation of charter schools.
But for all its complexity, the Education Reform Act can be reduced, in essence, to two propositions: We will make a massive infusion of progressively distributed dollars into our public schools, and in return, we demand high standards and accountability from all education stakeholders. This grand bargain is the cornerstone of education reform.
Our fidelity to these two core principles helps explain our extraordinary achievements. Throughout the 1990s and in the first years of this century, support for public education was the top priority of state government, and our budgets reflected this. From 1993 to 2002, state spending on public schools increased 8% per year, for a total of more than $2 billion. Our success correlated with the adoption and application of the criterion-based MCAS testing, with state leaders (notably including Paul Cellucci) united in support despite repeated requests to retreat.
Today, I fear we may be veering away from the act’s two core values — adequate funding and rigorous standards. If we abandon the bedrock principles that have proven to be historically successful, we imperil the progress we have made. In the last decade, support for public schools lost its primacy on Beacon Hill and state budgets reflect that. Today our inflation-adjusted education appropriation is the same as it was in 2002.
In contrast to the generous expansion of the 1990s, education funding for the last decade has remained flat. As a result, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, many (mostly low-income) school districts simply do not have the resources needed to provide the caliber of education envisioned in the reform act’s foundation budget.
I also fear that universal high standards and objective assessments are being jettisoned in favor of a return to vague expectations and fuzzy standards. The Patrick administration’s embrace of so-called “21st-century skills” elevates concepts like “global awareness” and “systems thinking” to new prominence in the public-school curriculum. I’m all for higher-order thinking, but students must accumulate the background knowledge that gives them something to think about.
As education theorist E.D. Hirsch Jr. has demonstrated, achievement gaps are really knowledge gaps. Poor kids tend to have access to less background knowledge outside school than privileged kids. Unless poor kids are exposed to the same academically rich content in school that more affluent kids can get at home, we consign these students to second-class citizenship.
I’m also troubled by the Commonwealth’s willingness to replace our tried-and-true standards and MCAS with totally unproven national standards and testing. This conversion will come at an estimated cost of $360 million for new textbooks, professional development, and technology, according to the Pioneer Institute.
I am not suggesting that we adorn our public schools with “Mission Accomplished” banners. Indeed, we must always strive to improve K-12 public education. But education reform has worked far better than we could have reasonably hoped. Given our incontrovertible educational successes, those seeking changes should bear in mind the admonition of the Hippocratic oath: “First, do no harm.”

Tom Birmingham, former president of the Massachusetts Senate, is senior counsel at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP. He coauthored the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993.

Opinion
Why Springfield Should Vote ‘Yes’

There are a number of good reasons why Springfield residents should vote ‘yes’ when they go to the polls on July 16 to consider the host community agreement forged by city officials and administrators with MGM Resorts International — the next step in the process of deciding the winner of the license for a Western Mass. casino.
Maybe the most compelling is an argument made by a number of business leaders and economic development officials over the past year or so. The specific words expressed vary, but it usually sounds something like this: ‘if someone wants to spend $800 million in your city — you let them!’ (And while generally, exclamation points are not used in business writing, in this case, we’ll make an exception.)
OK, it’s not as simple as all that, but it’s actually very close. We’ll amend this argument slightly. ‘If someone wants to spend $800 million in your city, and there is no better (and in this case, no other) viable option for stimulating economic development and creating thousands of new jobs — you let them!’
We understand that there are a number of risks involved with casinos in general and urban casinos in particular — they simply haven’t worked in a number of regions of this country — but we believe that these are risks well worth taking.
That’s because in Springfield, a city that has been struggling for the better part of a half century now, there really is no ‘plan B’ when it comes to spurring new jobs, creating energy, and possibly resurrecting a neighborhood — in this case, the beleaguered, tornado-ravaged South End.
The proposed MGM Springfield complex has the potential to do all that. Yes, it also has the potential to come up considerably short with each of those assignments, but we don’t believe that it will. Its somewhat unique inside-out design will make this proposed facility part of a neighborhood, not a casino-in-a-box that sucks the life out of one.
But let’s look at this another way. Instead of focusing on the possible ramifications of a ‘yes’ vote, let’s consider what a ‘no’ vote means. Essentially it means that the Western Mass. casino — and yes, there will be one — will be located somewhere else, and there are at least two other landing spots.
If that happens, Springfield will not get the complications that come with construction of such a facility, or the traffic, or some of the problems that might come with a casino on the edge of its central business district.
But it also won’t get the chance to put itself back on the map, or reshape its South End neighborhood and achieve the revitalization that has eluded that area for nearly 50 years, or see the direct benefits in the form of contributions to nonprofits, investments in facilities and infrastructure, and donations that will boost public safety initiatives.
A ‘no’ vote will also result in a depressing return to the drawing board in search of another method of providing the economic spark needed to reverse this city’s fortunes. There has been little to come off that drawing board since Springfield’s manufacturing base started to erode just after World War II, and there is little to suggest that much else will come off it in the years to come.
MGM’s proposal for Springfield may not win the contest for the Western Mass. casino license. Indeed, the Mass. Gaming Commission may decide that another plan is more alluring and better for the Commonwealth. But this proposal can’t win unless Springfield voters provide the opportunity for it to get to the next level ‘And thus, we strongly urge them to do so.
We can state the case for this casino in a number of ways, but the argument we mentioned earlier does it best: ‘if someone wants to spend $800 million in your city — you let them!’
There’s that exclamation point again, and it is certainly needed.

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Aldrich, Lisa M.
156 Pleasant St.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Anthony, Tony
62 Westminster St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Arroyo, Ricardo
Arroyo, Milagros
5 Deveau St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/17/13

AZPCO of Hadley Inc.
Arizona Pizza
AZPCO of Clifton Park Inc.
Montra, Inc.
Trask, Robert W.
Trask, Erin M.
3 Silvermine Lane
West Stockbridge, MA 01266
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Ball, Charles M.
Ball, Dawn Y.
1286 North St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Barton, Kimberle P.
a/k/a Schneewind, Kimberle P.
4 Mount Vernon Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/21/13

Boisvere, Michael S.
31 Sunset Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Boyd, Michael A
Boyd, Tammy L.
82 Strong Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/25/13

Bozyk, Christopher
Bozyk, Francisca
a/k/a Navarro, Francisca
2452 Roosevelt Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/20/13

Brownson, Shannon
434 Stockbridge Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/22/13

Casterella, John
23 Westminister St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/21/13

Conrad, Richard
P.O. Box 811
Goshen, MA 01032
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Cote, Kelsey L.
a/k/a Dixon, Kelsey
100 Pequot Point Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Cote, Raymond W.
a/k/a Dukette, Raymond M.
100 Pequot Point Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Crapps, Ronnie E.
Barber-Crapps, Sarah A.
133 St. James Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/25/13

Czuchra, Kenneth J.
a/k/a Zukes Mac Shack
25 Rita Mary Way
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/19/13

D & D Remodeling
Beach, David J.
121 Boston Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Dallmeyer, Mark E.
Dallmeyer, Marcia M.
75 Shaker Lane
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Davis, Donald V.
263 Grove St.
Apartment 1B
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/21/13

DeCaro, Elvia Giovanna
137 Nonotuck St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

DeChristopher, Donna C.
a/k/a Jorgensen, Donna C.
26 Old Mill Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Dufresne Entertainment
Dufresne, Dusti V.
85 Lincoln St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Echard, Jason B.
Echard, Lisa A.
76 Highland Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Fatima, Bilqis
32 Charbonneau Ter.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/20/13

Ferguson, Sean A.
14 Royal Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Glenowicz, John J.
Glenowicz, Louise M.
405 Ryan Road
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Graham, James F.
63 Harvard St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/22/13

Graves, Ashley W.
a/k/a Reopell, Robin M.
Graves, Robin M.
P.O. Box 297
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/28/13

Gwozdzik, Katherine Ellen
a/k/a Marinello, Katherine Ellen
27 Labrie Lane
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Herr, Traci D.
a/k/a Czelusniak, Traci Donna
955 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/29/13

JLEM Landscaping Co.
Hulland, Robert L.
a/k/a Hulland, Larry
Hulland, Jill M.
12 Kathy Way
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Kelly, Richard F
Kelly, Debra A.
34 Meadowbrook Lane
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/20/13

King, Raymond J.
229 Cadwell Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Kirby, Tara L.
92 Union St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/22/13

Krstyen, Daniel
16 Sargent St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/19/13

Le, Bong
P.O. Box 81412
Springfield, MA 01138
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Ledoux, Verna
5 Ronald Cir.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/29/13

Leone, Ann Marie
85 Euclid Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Lovely, Michael Arnold
Lovely, Allison Marie
854 Main St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/20/13

Lyne, William R
Lyne, Dina M.
a/k/a Peters, Dina M.
54 Kensington St.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Mann, Holly Marie
4B Cummings Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Manning, Susan
9 Grant St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Meeker, Harold A.
119 Acrebrook Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Moreno, Lawrence A.
55 6th St.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/29/13

Muzzy, William
Muzzy, Adrianne
43 Noblehurst Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Orange Blossom
Royal, David W.
Royal, Leanne
85 Lincoln Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Pavlakos, Antonios
Pavlakos, Jacqueline Ann
11B Sunnyside Ave.
Rutland, MA 01543
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Pelletier, Maria S.
149 Fernbank Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/28/13

Poreda, Michael J.
125 Beech St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/28/13

Rand, Jill A.
75 Commercial St.
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/22/13

Rent to Own Autos
Gaynor, Brian David
127 North St.
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Rogers, William I.
P.O. Box 609
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/20/13

Savage, Katherine M.
47 Mountainview Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/22/13

Shamleffer, William Paul
Shamleffer, Noel Alwood
18 Wesson St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Sherokow, Dana G.
Sherokow, Candace L.
a/k/a Thibodeau, Candace L.
101 Regal St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 05/23/13

St. Pierre, Kathrine J.
30 Tom St.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/22/13

Subocz, Jason E.
12 Harvey St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Swanson, Philip L.
303 Fairview Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/21/13

Torres, Janessa M.
98 Brandon Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Vail, Michael Kane
Vail, Jennifer Marie
73 Hall Road
Apt No. 10
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Vescovi, Paul A.
Vescovi, Domenica A.
46 Arthur Ave.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

Vickery, David R.
18 Kent Ave., Apt. 1A
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/23/13

Waters, Kristopher Alan
178 Commonwealth Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/17/13

White, Darnelle
65 Broadway St., Apt. 10
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/30/13

Wolons, Martin D.
23 Mt. Jefferson Road
Hubbardston, MA 01452
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/24/13

Woods, Kelly
77 Laurel St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/21/13

Wright, Bruce G.
38 Jasper St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/28/13

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
Arnold’s & Eddie’s Foods Inc. v. Nora’s Restaurant Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $3,198.32
Filed: 5/2/13

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Pagonis Live Bait, LTD v. Pioneer Valley Wholesale Corp.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $29,275.35
Filed: 5/9/13

Sebastian Gledocki v. Associated Building Wreckers Inc. and Billy Kane
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $25,000+
Filed: 5/2/13

Stephanie Villineuve v. DeRenzy Document Solutions Inc., Mary DeRenzy and John Daigle
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $25,000+
Filed: 5/2/13

Trialco Inc. v. Diecast Connections Company Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $208,723.39
Filed: 4/29/13

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
Matthew Boudreau and Shaylene Greenwood v. Affiliated Construction Services, Craig Orn and Ernie Austin
Allegation: Breach of construction contract: $25,000+
Filed: 3/21/13

Raymond A. Garrigle, executor of the estates of Maurice H. Pease and Nancy C. Pease v. Moors & Cabot Inc. and First Clearing, LLC
Allegation: Failure to remit invested funds on account upon request of duly appointed executor: $350,000
Filed: 4/18/13

Raymond Smith Jr. v. John’s Collision Inc. and John Oichiuzzo
Allegation: Breach of written agreement: $225,000
Filed: 5/31/13

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Adelphia Graphic Systems Inc. v. W.S. Sign Design Corp.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $9,939.56
Filed: 5/8/13

Northern Tree Service Inc. v. Chapman Waterproofing Company
Allegation: Non-payment of tree removal services: $12,000
Filed: 4/25/13

Terracon Consultants Inc. v. Opportunity Development Group Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract: $10,971.22
Filed: 5/8/13

Chamber Corners Departments

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
413-253-0700

• July 15: Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce 10th Annual Golf Tournament, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Hickory Ridge Golf Course, Pomeroy Lane, Amherst. Presented by Hampshire Hospitality Group. Registration and Lunch 10:30 a.m. to noon; shotgun start at 12 noon; reception and dinner at 5 p.m. Cost: $125 per player.

CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• July 11: See the Seminar Series listing above.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• July 26: The 29th Annual Golf Tournament, 9 a.m., Southampton Country Club. Team fee: $400. Tee sponsorships available for $75-$125. Would you like to donate a raffle prize and/or something to the golfer’s gift bag? Contact the chamber to sign up a team, arrange a tee sponsor, or make a raffle prize or gift donation.

MASSACHUSETTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
massachusettschamberofcommerce.com
(413) 525-2506

• July 22: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, Tekoa Country Club, Westfield. Shotgun start: 11 a.m. Cost: $100 per golfer. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, contact the chamber office at (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].

NORTHAMPTON AREA YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY
www.thenayp.com
(413) 584-1900

• July 10: Arrive @ 5, 5-7 p.m., Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce. Arrive when you can, stay as long as you can. A casual mix and mingle with colleagues and friends. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
(413) 426-3880

• Aug. 19: West of the River Chamber of Commerce 10th Annual Golf Tournament, Springfield Country Club, West Springfield. Presenting sponsor: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino of New England. Cost: $125 per golfer. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].

YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD
www.springfieldyps.com

• July 18: July Third Thursday, 5-7 p.m., Sheraton Springfield, 1 Monarch Place, Springfield. Cost: free for members, $10 for non-members.

Departments People on the Move

Steven Mitus

Steven Mitus

Steven Mitus, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Balise Motor Sales Co., was recently honored as the 2013 Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) Richard J. Moriarty Citizen of the Year at the ACCGS annual meeting. The award is given annually to honor the memory of Richard J. Moriarty, a long-time active participant in the ACCGS and individual who gave of his time, talent, and personal and professional resources to the local community. Currently, Mitus serves as a trustee of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and chairs its audit and finance committees; a trustee of Baystate Health and a member of its compensation and audit committees; a trustee of Willie Ross School for the Deaf and member of its executive committee and former Chair of its audit committee; a trustee of the National Conference for Community and Justice; a director of Health New England; and a corporator of PeoplesBank. Formerly, Mitus served as a trustee of the Springfield Technical Community College Foundation and served as its treasurer and chair of the investment committee; a trustee for the Mass.State Automobile Dealers Association; a trustee of Sisters of Providence Health System and a member of its finance committee; a trustee and vice chair of Brightside for Families and Children; and a director of New England Public Radio and Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts. Mitus has served in his present capacity with Balise since 1986 and is a certified public accountant and a chartered global management accountant.
•••••
Lauren Pellegrino

Lauren Pellegrino

Berkshire Community College (BCC) recently named Lauren Pellegrino Director of Recreational Services for the college’s Paterson Field House. She is responsible for overseeing the facilities, including the pool, tennis courts, soccer fields, fitness center, and gymnasium. She also is involved with fitness and wellness programming for students, faculty, and staff. Pellegrino formerly served the Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Great Barrington as Fitness And Wellness Manager and previously served as assistant to the Director of Athletics & Wellness Center at The College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, N.Y. Pellegrino holds a bachelor’s degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., is currently working toward a master’s degree at Bay Path College, and is a member of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
•••••
Mark Teed

Mark Teed

Mark Teed, principal of Teed Capital Management recently joined Raymond James as senior vice president for investments. With more than 30 years of financial services experience, Teed is an investment advisor with more than $225 million in client assets under management and a registered broker in 23 states and territories. He is a regular commentator for local TV news on market and investment trends.
•••••
The Springfield law firm of Weiner & Lange announced the addition of Jennifer Butler as an Associate. She will concentrate her practice in the areas of bankruptcy and commercial litigation.
•••••
Dr. Robert Campbell, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, adult spine surgeon, and orthopedic trauma surgeon, recently joined the medical staff Cooley Dickinson Hospital and sees patients at Hampshire Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Campbell received his medical degree with honors from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and completed his orthopedic surgery at Brown University-Rhode Island Hospital, where he also completed fellowships in spine surgery and orthopedic trauma. Campbell earned board certification from the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and is dual fellowship-trained in spine care and orthopedic trauma. In addition, Campbell served four years as an active duty orthopedic surgeon in U.S. Army and completed a tour in Afghanistan.
•••••
Consolidated Health Plans Inc. (CHP), a Berkshire Hathaway Company, recently announced the appointment of Drew DiGiorgio as President. He will oversee management of sales and marketing, claims operations, customer service, audit, special risk and human resources.  DiGiorgio has been an integral part of Consolidated Health Plans over the past 18 years, and through his involvement in sales, marketing, carrier and client relations, product development, account management, and provider relations, has allowed CHP to grow into one of the most successful businesses in Western Mass. DiGiorgio holds a BA in Business from Framingham State University.
•••••
Diane Kieras-Ciolkos, owner of Escapes For Everyone in Hadley, has been named as one of 96 Travel Impression Ambassadors fro a newly launched program, www.travimp.com/ambassadorprogram, and will act as a brand advocate for Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas through September Kieras-Ciolkos was selected by Travel Impressions and Atlantis based on her booking history, her personal experience and knowledge, and communication skills through social media.

Agenda Departments

‘Second Chances’ Exhibit
Through July 25: Springfield Pulse Artspace presents a unique exhibition featuring innovative and colorful local artist Whitney Wood Rahm. “Second Chances: Balancing Passion, Purpose, and Obligation” features an eclectic range of original works by Rahm, including her whimsical and popular “Friendly Monsters,” made from barn board, scrap lumber, and found parts. Also on exhibit are Rahm’s highly inventive rescued and revived furniture, contemporary paintings, and unique photography. In addition, the exhibition will include a participatory art experience, where viewers will have a part in providing input for an upcoming piece to be created by Rahm. The exhibit is on display at 11 Pearl Street, Suite 235, Springfield, weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment.

Wistariahurst Exhibition
Through August: Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke has unveiled its Summer Gallery Exhibition, “Behind the Scenery: Sketches to Cityscapes.” Local artist Caleb Colon gives an intimate look at the artist’s process of selection, direction, and creation, featuring displays of the works as paintings begin, progress, and finally reach completion. Works shown in the exhibition are inspired by local scenes and sites along the Connecticut River. Studies, sketches, and photos are also on view, showing another layer of the process. Works are on view through August. Gallery admission is $3.

Yidstock 2013
July 18-21: Yidstock 2013: The Festival of New Yiddish Music will bring the top names in klezmer to the stage at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. The Klezmer Conservatory Band will kick off Yidstock on July 18, and the festival will continue with Klezperanto and Margot Leverett & the Klezmer Mountain Boys; Brass Khazones: Steven Bernstein and Frank London; the Wholesale Klezmer Band; Golem; and the Yidstock All-Stars. The weekend will conclude with a massive jam, featuring a Yidstock All-Stars band with players from the weekend’s bands, under the musical directorship of Frank London. Among those all-stars are two of the greatest clarinetists in klezmer, Ilene Stahl of Klezperanto and Margot Leverett of the Klezmer Mountain Boys. A series of workshops and talks is also on the schedule, including a Yiddish folk-dance workshop led by internationally renowned Steve Weintraub; a lecture by Hankus Netsky, a founder of the Klezmer Conservatory Band; an instrumental klezmer workshop; and a talk by author and music critic Seth Rogovoy. Back by popular demand, Yosi’s Kosher Falafel Tent will once again be serving an assortment of great food. For more information and to purchase tickets and festival passes (a limited number of passes are available and sell out quickly), visit yiddishbookcenter.org/yidstock or call (413) 256-4900.

Golf Tournament
July 22: The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts will hold its Annual Golf Classic at Crestview Country Club in Agawam. Registration opens at 10:30 a.m. with a noon shotgun start for an 18-hole scramble. The cost is $140 per person, which includes golf and cart, lunch and tournament banquet, and team and skill prize eligibility. New this year is the Tee & Tan Golf Option, a nine-hole golf scramble followed by relaxation on a chaise at Crestview’s scenic pool area. The cost for the banquet only is $30. For registration and details, visit www.womensfund.net.

Western Mass. Business Expo 2013
Nov. 6: Planning is underway for the Western Mass. Business Expo 2013, a day-long business-to-business event to take place at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. This fall’s show, the third edition of the Expo, which is again being produced by BusinessWest, will feature more than 150 exhibitors, seminars on timely issues of the day, special Show Floor Theater presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and the wrap-up Expo social, which has become a not-to-be-missed networking event. Details of the specific programming will be printed in upcoming editions of BusinessWest and can also be seen online at www.wmbexpo.com or www.businesswest.com. For more information on the event or to reserve booth space, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

Company Notebook Departments

VizConnect Opens Headquarters in Springfield
SPRINGFIELD —  Mobile marketing technology and communications firm VizConnect Inc. recently announced the opening of its headquarters in Springfield, and the official launch of its North American operations. Recently named one of the five top technology start-ups to watch by the Boston Business Journal (June 4, 2013), VizConnect was founded in 2011 by a team of partners, including 20-year media veteran and Associated Press and Emmy award winning on-air personality Edward Carroll. VizConnect is a video-management service that will allow businesses of all sizes to easily incorporate high-definition video into print advertising and their existing social media. Businesses of all size can use VizConnect’s platform to easily leverage the power of video and a call-to-action screen to market their products and services while also interacting and engaging their target customers. “We’re thrilled to call Springfield our home,” said Carroll of the decision to keep the business in Western Mass. “We could have launched this effort from Cambridge or even Los Angeles, but it’s important to us to be part of building this community that has been so instrumental in our development.” The team of founding partners includes Paul Cooleen, president of VizConnect, a former bond trader with deep ties to Wall Street; Jim Henderson, chief information officer, chief counsel and Boston-based attorney; and Brian Dee, director of Business Development. With subscribers located around the country, VizConnect currently serves a diverse group of businesses in a wide variety of industries, including real estate, restaurants, automobile sales, sports franchises and general contracting vendors. VizConnect also counts several non-profit organizations as customers. VizConnect’s online tools are sold through a network marketing structure, further offering immense opportunities to business people interested in building their own companies. The company offers its distributors — independent business associates — an opportunity to sell and distribute this web-based program as the foundation for their own independent businesses.

Big Y Debuts Solar Array
SPRINGFIELD — Big Y Foods Inc. recently announced the completion of its new solar array at 151 Cottage St. at its Store Support Center in Springfield. This new array spreads across three acres and includes 2,178 solar panels with a 643kw DC array. Annual electrical production yield is expected to be 750,000 kilowatt hours, which will offset the company’s electrical consumption by 15% or 1 ½ months at Big Y’s corporate offices and distribution center. Real Goods Solar Energy, Western Mass Electric Company, and local contractors such as Cotton Tree Service and L&D Construction, installed the panels over the past five months. Employees and visitors can view the array’s electrical generation via a monitor in the company’s café. It is Big Y’s third solar installation in Massachusetts; at the Big Y World Class Markets in Lee and Franklin, rooftop solar arrays have been helping to offset electrical consumption since June 2012. An opening event was staged June 27 at Big Y’s headquarters, at which state and local representatives helped inaugurate the new panels. State Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, Center for Eco-Technology executive director John Majercak and their Green Business Services director Lorenzo Macaluso shared the podium in recognition of Big Y. The company has long been recognized as a leader in innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. In collaboration with the Center for EcoTechnology (CET), a non-profit environmental organization that helps businesses improve environmental performance, Big Y began diverting food waste from landfills across the state. It began diverting food waste from disposal in the mid 1990s and today, all 61 stores recycle cardboard, paper and film plastics. More than 80% of its Massachusetts markets utilize active composting programs. In 2011, Big Y diverted more than 16,000 tons of materials from landfills. Last year, Big Y was recognized by the state for its significant accomplishments. In addition, it passed the 80% certification rate statewide to earn regulatory relief from the MassDEP Waste Ban Enforcement and earned Supermarket Recycling Program Certification. Big Y is also an inaugural participant in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge. Other renewable-energy solutions implemented by Big Y include full building- management systems in each store to control lighting, refrigeration, and other HVAC units to insure optimal performance. This system also reduces lighting and temperatures at nighttime when the stores are closed. Other initiatives include the installation of glass doors in all dairy and frozen food cases along with electronically commutated motors to lower energy consumption. Variable speed drives on rooftop air handling units and cooking exhaust hoods, advanced refrigeration systems with reduced refrigerant charges, rooftop dehumidification units, and highly energy efficient case motors all contribute to reducing Big Y’s energy footprint. Additionally, LED lighting with occupancy sensors, pull down covers for open multideck cases and efficient lighting design continue to help the chain save over 800,000 kwh per year in energy consumption. Before the installation of their new solar array, these savings are equivalent to 1283 barrels of oil, 61,844 gallons of gasoline or 108 cars being taken off of the road. Big Y is also one of the first retailers to install electric-car-charging stations, which are currently active at four of their Massachusetts  locations — Northampton, Lee, Franklin, and Walpole.  Customers can conveniently use the chargers for free while they shop. Since installation, 482 cars have charged more than 461 hours saving more than 1,879 (kg) of greenhouse  gases and 223 gallons of gasoline. According to Gary Kuchyt, Big Y’s manager of energy and sustainability, “Saving resources is important to us as a company — not only is it good business, but it’s simply the right thing to do. I am proud to say that Big Y has been committed to conserving energy and reducing waste for over 40 years.”

ESB to Receive ‘Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve’ Award
EASTHAMPTON —  Easthampton Savings Bank announced that on July 9, it will receive the ‘Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve” award. The presentation will take place at the bank’s main office at 36 Main St. in Easthampton. The nomination was made by Darci Furr, assistant manager at the bank’s Westfield Office. Furr is a master sergeant in the Mass. Air National Guard, and has been deployed to Saudi Arabia from 2001 to 2002, and to Qatar in 2005 and 2010. Furr, whose current unit of assignment is the Force Support Squadron, 104th Fighter Wing, Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, has served for 15 years. In her nomination Furr called Easthampton Savings Bank a “pillar of the Pioneer Valley business community, that is fully deserving of recognition due to exceptional support of military service members.” She talked about the Veteran’s Day drives that the bank has done for the past six years to collect items from employees to send to a military unit who has a member with a direct relationship to the bank. Furr also talked about her personal experience with the bank’s support of military service members. She commented that during the entire 15 years as an employee of ESB and as a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard her managers have been very accommodating to her military duty needs; including last-minute scheduling changes, extended temporary duty periods, and monthly drill weekends.  In addition, the bank voluntarily provides a pay differential for service members whose military salaries are less than that of their bank income. Furr also commented that her direct supervisor also took the time to keep in touch with Furr’s husband, who remained state side. She also added that the bank’s culture is a direct reflection of the leadership and caring guidance of Bill Hogan, the long-time president and CEO of ESB; a former Guardsman himself. Furr concluded her nomination by saying “ESB is a model employer in many ways, not the least of which is its exceptional support of military service members. Selection for the Above and Beyond Award would recognize ESB publicly for something I have known for my 15 years of employment there.”

Polish National Credit Union pledges $50,000 for new Chicopee Senior Center
CHICOPEE — In a check presentation ceremony recently at The Polish National Credit Union’s Main Street, Chicopee headquarters, PNCU pledged the second of two $25,000 donations to support the construction of the new Chicopee Senior Center on Main Street. PNCU previously donated $25,000 in 2012 for the Senior Center. PNCU President and CEO James P. Kelly made the presentation to Richard J. Kos and Ernest N. Laflamme, Jr., co-chairs of the senior center fund raising committee, and Marie Laflamme, a member of the capital campaign. “This is an effort that goes right to the heart of what the Polish National Credit Union is all about,” said Kelly. “These are our members, and this is our community, and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

Nejaime’s Wine Cellar Unveils Renovated Stores in Lenox, Stockbridge
LENOX/ STOCKBRIDGE — Nejaime’s Wine Cellars recently completed extensive expansion-and-remodeling projects at its Lenox and Stockbridge locations. Owner Joe Nejaime said ongoing grand reopenings are an opportunity for patrons to see and taste new selections the stores can now offer. “Our goal in both stores was to create a brighter and more spacious shopping experience,” he said. “The Lenox store has expanded by approximately 1,900 square feet, nearly doubling its size, and the Stockbridge store has been remodeled and rearranged to make better use of the space.” Both stores received new deli cases, freezers, and flooring, and the Lenox location will also benefit from a rehabbed parking lot. Nejaime noted that the stores’ selection of picnic items and accessories — popular among Tanglewood attendees — have been expanded as a result, as have their beer selection, high-end wines, fine whiskey, prepared foods, and specialty groceries including cheese, crackers, gluten-free items, gourmet chocolates, cookies, and other snacks, as well as gifts and accessories.

Briefcase Departments

Eastman Chemical to Convert Indian Orchard Site to Natural Gas
SPRINGFIELD — Eastman Chemical Company intends to convert the coal-fired boiler at its Indian Orchard site, which it acquired as part of its acquisition of Solutia in 2012, to natural gas combustion by January 2016. (Solutia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastman.) “Several factors have led to this announcement,” said David Lahr, plant manager for the Indian Orchard site, “including compliance with new regulatiory requirements, Eastman’s commitment to protecting local air quality, as well as the abundance of domestic natural gas at prices increasingly competitive with coal.” The Indian orchard site currently operates three boilers — two natural gas units and a coal fired unit. The conversion to natural gas will allow the Indian Orchard site to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recent industrial boiler regulations, said Lahr. Several years before EPA finalized these regulations, Solutia discussed with the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection that the site was strongly considering a switch to natural gas combustion to meet its steam and electricity needs in order to comply with these regulations once they became final. Currently, the deadline by which Eastman must comply with these boiler regulations is Jan. 31, 2016.

STCC, WNE Sign Articulation Agreement for Online Business Program
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) and Western New England University (WNE) recently signed an articulation agreement to provide a coordinated online business degree completion program. The two colleges have been working together informally over the past few years to provide this opportunity to STCC and WNE students. However, the formal signing of this articulation agreement creates an opportunity for STCC students to transfer to Western New England University as a junior, but also allows these students to take classes online — providing them with more flexibility in how they earn their bachelor’s degree. STCC Dean of the School of Business and Information Technologies Leona Ittleman said she credits both STCC and WNE faculty for the work they have done to make this agreement between the campuses a reality. “Many of our best and brightest students transfer to Western New England University and receive the benefits of both colleges’ experience and dedication to student learning,” said Ittleman. “And having an online program is not only convenient for our students, but it also provides them with unlimited access to the resources of both campuses.”

Mass. BHE OKs Policy Change on Dorms at Community Colleges
BEDFORD — The Mass. Board of Higher Education (BHE) recently approved a policy change to allow consideration of campus proposals to build residence halls at any of the state’s 15 community colleges. The measure was approved on a unanimous vote at the Board’s last scheduled meeting of the year. BHE policy in effect since 1980 precluded consideration of residence halls at community colleges. The vote to change the policy establishes Massachusetts as the 40th state to permit the construction of student housing on community college campuses. Nationwide, 22% of community colleges offer student housing, mostly at medium-sized institutions located in rural areas. The concept is neither new nor novel; other states have more than 20 years’ experience in offering and managing student housing at two-year institutions. The overall percentage of community college students housed in residence halls, however, remains relatively small. “I want to stress that this is not a decision to initiate a program of student housing construction at community colleges,” said Richard M. Freeland, Commissioner of Higher Education. “Rather, this is a vote to be prepared to consider proposals in cases where they may enhance the educational experience of our students.” The department’s research indicates that residential life at community colleges has a positive impact on academic outcomes such as graduation rates. Students who live on campus are more fully integrated into college life, resulting in overall higher levels of academic achievement. A similar, positive association between dorms and academic achievement has long been substantiated at four-year colleges and universities. “Among all community colleges across the nation, we see a statistically significant association between the existence of student housing and increased graduation rates,” said Carlos Santiago, senior deputy commissioner for Academic Affairs at the Department of Higher Education. To date, only one Massachusetts community college has expressed public interest in a student housing proposal. Mount Wachusett Community College, located in Gardner, has indicated that it would investigate the feasibility of establishing a residential life program and facility.

Departments Incorporations

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

BELCHERTOWN

Quabbin Soccer Academy Inc., 9 Heritage Dr., Belchertown, MA 01007. Matthew Schiffer, same. Provide youth soccer clinics to players of all abilities.

Quality Payroll Services Inc., 24 Pheasant Run, Belchertown, MA 01007. Payroll services.

BRIMFIELD

Webrising Data Services Inc., 291 Sturbridge Road, Brimfield, MA 01010. Kevin Matthew Hebert, same. Providing consulting and technical services.

CHICOPEE

William Sung DMD PC., 2220 Pendleton Ave., Chicopee, MA 01022. William Sung, same. Dentistry.

EAST LONGMEADOW

Wild Olive Inc., 10 Lynwood Road, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Carmine Manzi, same. Pizzeria restaurant selling food, beer and wine.

EASTHAMPTON

T & Y Enterprises Inc., 25K Franklin St., Easthampton, MA 01027, Tamer Mahdy, same. Retail and real estate operations.

Zato Inc., 20 Reservation Road, Easthampton, MA 01027. John Holbrook, same. Software and consulting.

FEEDING HILLS

Positive Reflections Inc., 22 Oriole Dr., Feeding Hills, MA 01030. Raymond Nadeau, same. Salon and day spa.

HADLEY

Pegasus Investment Corp., 8 Pine Hill Road, Hadley, MA 01035. Savida Justine Sachar, 18 Grand Oak Farm Road, Hadley, MA 01035. Equipment Rental.

Pioneer Valley Realty Group Inc., 2 Bay Road, Hadley, MA 01035. Mark Osborn, same. Real Estate Brokerage Company.

HOLYOKE

Santiago Professional Cleaning Services Corp., 582 South Summer St., Suite #1323, Holyoke, MA 01040. Commercial cleaning services.

LONGMEADOW

River Dogs Baseball Club Inc., 73 Stirling St., Longmeadow, MA 01106. John Valencia, same. Baseball club.

The Greater Springfield Amateur Athletic Organization Inc., 67 Woodside Dr., Longmeadow, MA 01106. Kevin Wright, same.

LEE

Onyx Exports Inc., 40 Willow St., South Lee, MA 01260. Christopher Matthews, same. Export.

NORTHAMPTON

The Massachusetts Recreational Trails Advisory Board Inc., 136 Damon Road, Northampton, MA 01060. Richard O’Brien, 576 Merriam Ave., Leominster, MA 01453. To review and rank applications submitted to Mass. Department of Conservation.

SOUTH DEERFIELD

The Creative Journalism Group Inc., 5A Graves St., South Deerfield, MA 01373. Andrew Adamek, same. Research, report, produce and distribute, factual stories about the impact of deindustrialization.

SOUTHWICK

Osowski and Osowski Dental PC., 821 College Highway, Southwick, MA 01077. Anne Osowski, same. Dental services.

SPRINGFIELD

Paraiba Cleaning Corp., 45 East Bay Path Terrace, Springfield, MA 01109. Everaldo Pontes, same. Cleaning company.

Punta Cana Restaurant & Bar Inc., 137 Chestnut St., Springfield, MA. Dionisio Antonio Moya, 100 Melha Ave., Springfield, MA 01104. Food services.

Shree Sai Petroleum Corp., 419 Allen St., Springfield, MA 01108. Riddhi Vyas, 188 Sumner Ave., Springfield, MA 01108. To operate convenience store and gas station.

Veterans With Vision Inc., 1697 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103. Patrick Gore, 421 North Main St., New Haven, CT 01053. To provide programs and services in effort to combat and end veterans homelessness.

Virtual Tech Inc., 856 Central St., Springfield, MA 01105. Jeremy Branco, same. Provide free and low cast training for computer technology within the commonwealth.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Perfect Union Inc., 292 Belmont Ave., West Springfield, Ma 01089. Robert Wheten, 902 Florence Road, Florence, MA 01062. Provide education tutoring programs to students who are struggling in grades k-12.

Ranjha Brothers Inc. 24 Myron St., Apt. 18, West Springfield, MA 01089. Hassan Ranjna, same. Retail grocery store.

Turek Mechanical Design Inc., 109 Green Meadow Lane, West Springfield, MA 01089. Paul Turek, same. Contract mechanical design, machine design, tooling, equipment installation, create mechanical design.

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of and June 2013.

AGAWAM

AHP Plumbing
533 South West St.
Kenneth Perry

KMJ Videography
49 Morningside Circle
Frank Disco

Valley Painting
77 Autumn St.
Ken Zeltner

Wicked in Pink Run
53 Fairview St.
Robert Alves

AMHERST

Amherst Coffee
28 Amity St.
Mukunda Feldman

Custom Events
330 Pine St.
Karen Berrio

Dunn, Etal
989 South East St.
David Dunn

Homespun Event Design
71 North Pleasant St.
Amanda Robertson

CHICOPEE

BMG Home Services, LLC
149 Beauchamp Ter.
Marek Gusciora

Jerards Home Improvement and Commercial Services
16 Dale St.
Jorge Raul Rivera

Olus Painting
269 Chicopee St.
Elmira Usmonova

Profiles Hair and Nails
12 Sheridan St.
Lisa Ann Lefebvre

Signature Hair
1189 Memorial Dr.
Hang Bui

The Hair Force
358 Britton St.
Pamela Doyle

HADLEY

Horton Tank Graphics
47 East St.
Arthur Larson

Sobasko Cordwood & Logging
28 Lawrence Plain Road
Anthony Sobasko

The Work Horse Group Inc.
43 West St.
Susan R. Woods

Valley Dentists
138 Russell St.
Connecticut River Valley Dentist

HOLYOKE

C-Mart
1500 Northampton St.
Syed R. Mobeen

Hidden Hollow Floral Designs
244 Rock Valley Road
Marcia Cassidy

Kennedy Fried Chicken
333 High St.
Yasser Hussain

La Copa Inc.
447 Main St.
Aida DeJesus

Providence Behavioral Health Hospital
1233 Main St.
Daniel P. Moen

NORTHAMPTON

Beets and Barley Catering
184 North St.
Leslie L. Lucio

CD Laborers
80 Damon Road
Christopher Ducey

Minute Clinic Diagnostic of MA
366 King St.
Kimberly DeSousa

Northampton Country Club
135 Main St.
James Casagrande

Uptown Paws
123 Hawley St.
Robin Mulligan

PALMER

Eddy’s
21 Wilbraham St.
Ed Francis

Fusions Mods
18 Barker St.
Todd Nulph

TLD Assets
1118 Park St.
Darnel Ali

Wedgewood Motel
1430 Park St.
Stanley R. Lamb

SPRINGFIELD

Lindsay Entertainment
45 Crabtree St.
Maurice Lindsay

Mara’s Hands of Light
11 Eton St.
Mara M. Veronesi

Network Technology Academy
1655 Main St.
Ronald L. Cook

New Divas
1153 Main St.
Ramon DeJesus

Nunez Tax Services
196 Dickinson St.
Sonia N. Torres

Panda House
1673 Main St.
Yong H. Chen

Perez Family Restaurant
57 Taylor St.
Jorge Perez Jr.

Recovery Express
119 Wilbraham Ave.
Calvin V. Wilson

Richard Electric
71 Mayfair Ave.
Richard Lantigua

Rico Peru Latin Flava
176 ½ Main St.
Juliano J. Callirgos

Signature Turf Services
75 Woodlawn St.
David C. McAlary

Six Corner Barber Shop
296 Hancock St.
John Miller

South End Package Store
32 Fort Pleasant Ave.
Faiza Atif

Spring Valley Mart
612 Carew St.
Masood Ghani

Sudsy Bubbles Inc.
555 State St.
Kelly M. Healey

The E-Store
98 William Road
Kencin Junior

The Paintball King, LLC
1655 Boston Road
Baldomero Martinez

UR Discount Tobacco
1207 Parker St.
Fazal U. Rehman

VIP Cuts
445 Main St.
Andres Ortiz

William Home Improvement
71 Greene St.
William Aponte

Woman of Confidence Coach
20 Orlando St.
Dawn Leaks

XXX Security & Protection
446 Franklin St.
Damaris Rodriguez

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Delta Affordable Construction
33 Birnie Ave.
Vladimir Gargun

Eci Biotech Recruiters
569 Elm St.
William Beattie

Exportacion/Importacion
33 Allen St.
Armando Ramirez

Healing Temple Outreach
9 Willow Ave.
Barbara A. Washington

Ladder 8
139 South Blvd.
Alanna Burwell

Minute Clinic Diagnostic
928 Riverdale St.
Kimberly DeSousa

Northern Granite, LLC
380 Union St.
Vyacheslav Katko

Toomey-O’Brien Funeral Home
1043 Westfield St.
Francis X. O’Brien

Wedding Inspirations
31 Field St.
Jessica M. Dziewit

West Side Tire & Auto Services
930 Memorial Ave.
Holyoke Tire & Auto