Day: April 1, 2022
SPRINGFIELD — On Tuesday, April 5 at noon, Bulkley Richardson will present session 3 of the firm’s Business Transitions webinar series. Ron Weiss, partner in the firm’s Business and Finance department, will look at family-business succession planning along with guest speaker Ira Bryck, former executive director of the Pioneer Valley Family Business Center and experienced family-owned business advisor.
Topics to be covered include management-succession issues in a family business, estate-planning issues when not all children will be involved in the business, insurance as an equalizer, ownership of non-operating business assets (such as real estate), use of buy/sell agreements, funding, valuation issues, and tales of successful family-business succession planning.
Session 4 (about preparing for a transition) will take place on Tuesday, May 3 at noon. All seessions take place via Zoom, and registration is required for each session. Visit www.bulkley.com/exit-strategies to register.
HOLYOKE — Homework House announced that its annual Adult Spelling Bee is back in person this year. Teams of three will gather at Open Square in Holyoke on Thursday, April 28 at 5:30 p.m. to demonstrate their spelling aptitude in this entertaining, and often comical, community event.
Former state Rep. Aaron Vega will once again emcee the evening’s activities. “We are all eager to get back out into the world and enjoy live events, and the spelling bee is certainly an event I look forward to every year,” he said. “In addition to the good-spirited competition, this is an opportunity to hear of the significant impact that Homework House is having on the students and families it serves.”
Homework House, a not-for-profit, after-school program, offers free tutoring and mentoring services to children in kindergarten through grade 6. Homework House sites are located in Holyoke’s most economically challenged neighborhoods, and more than 98% of its budget comes from charitable contributions.
Popular radio announcer Monte Belmonte will once again serve as the word reader. Virginia Dillon, executive director of Homework House, announced that this year’s judges will include Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia and City Councilor Tessa Murphy-Romboletti.
“We are so grateful for the support that we receive from the community,” Dillon said, “and we would also like to give a shout-out to our major sponsors, PeoplesBank, Westfield Bank, and Holyoke Gas & Electric.”
Team registrations can be completed online. Tickets to the event cost $25 in advance and $30 at the door and can be purchased online or from any board member or staff member of Homework House. For more information, to register a team, or to purchase tickets, visit www.homeworkhousebee.com.
SPRINGFIELD — On March 25, the Department of Industrial Accidents Reviewing Board issued a major ruling concerning worker safety. In the underlying case, Pellegrini, Seeley, Ryan & Blakesley (PSRB) attorneys Thomas Downey and Ronald Kidd claimed their client suffered severe, disabling injuries as a result of the employer’s serious and willful misconduct.
After a hearing, the judge awarded the injured employee double compensation under Section 28 of the Workers’ Compensation Act on account of the employer’s misconduct. Section 28 claims are rare and often unsuccessful because of the requirement to prove a willful act or failure. The Reviewing Board affirmed the judge’s double-compensation award.
“This was a case in which an employee, in the normal performance of their duties, was badly injured by a machine he was cleaning. The action stems from the fact that the owner of the business did not inform the worker about an emergency shut-off switch which was in place to prevent this exact sort of accident,” Downey said. “The willful disregard for safety by the owner allowed us to recover double compensation for our client. This is an uncommon occurrence and shows the strength of our case, the disregard for worker’s safety, and the ability of our team to work on behalf our injured client.”
Kidd added that “this case was unique among willful and wanton cases in that it lacked the ‘coercive’ element usually present. The department found that the failure of the employer to educate its employees as to the existence of this safety device, and the removal of the key to operate it, were equivalent to forcing the employee to work in a dramatically unsafe environment.”
SPRINGFIELD — Western New England University’s Center for Social Justice (CSJ) will host a virtual expungement and record-sealing event on Wednesday, April 6 from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Those wishing to learn more about expunging and sealing records can watch presentations by activists and experts, ask questions, get a copy of their criminal (CORI) record, and/or speak with free pro bono attorneys in private breakout rooms.
Registration for this free event can be found at mavirtualexpunge.com/expungement-and-sealing.
The event is presented by a coalition of nonprofits, cannabis-industry professionals, and the Center for Social Justice at Western New England University School of Law. To learn more about the Center for Social Justice, visit wne.edu/social-justice.
NORTHAMPTON — The Wealth Transition Collective of Holyoke is partnering with Cooley Dickinson VNA & Hospice for their annual shred day. Anyone who has financial or sensitive documents that need shredding may bring them to the VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson, 168 Industrial Dr., Northampton on Saturday, May 7 from 9 to 11 a.m.
A donation of $5 per paper box will directly benefit the VNA & Hospice. Shredding will be conducted on a first-come, first-served basis until the truck is full or 11 a.m., whichever comes first. Only paper items will be accepted. For more information, visit www.twealthtc.com.
Getting Reconnected
Jeremy Goldsher (left) and Jeff Sauser say the Business Breakdown is just one of many new ways Greenspace CoWork is forging connections within the business community.
While the past two years haven’t exactly been kind to co-working spaces, Jeff Sauser said, the long-term view is much rosier.
“COVID has really accelerated the trend toward remote work,” he explained, noting that the business world was already taking steps in that direction, but at a much more gradual pace. “One silver lining from COVID is that co-working spaces and other shared spaces are seeing a golden age moving forward.”
Jeremy Goldsher, who opened Greenspace CoWork with Sauser in downtown Greenfield several years ago, agreed. “We’ve managed to keep everything afloat during the last few years. Its definitely been a challenge, but Jeff and I have both developed a lot of creative avenues through the co-work model that we might never have considered.”
Specifically, the pair wanted to do more to connect the Greenfield business community, and one way is through a new monthly series of networking events called Business Breakdown.
The idea came out of internal conversations about how to bring people back together and give them a chance to reconnect, Goldsher said.
“I know I’ve spent the better part of two years isolated, and I was excited to find a good reason to be in person with my peers and understanding all the challenges everyone else is going through.”
In addition, he noted, “a lot of new businesses have opened up during COVID, and there hasn’t been much opportunity for anyone to present themselves. We wanted to give a platform for new businesses to come down Main Street and meet fellow business owners and market themselves and speak to the community.”
“Our model is to be more of a resource to our community, rather than just our membership.”
Each Business Breakdown session, which takes place at Greenspace, on the third floor of the Hawks & Reed building on Main Street, begins with an informal presentation from a new local business. The sessions also explore topics like transparency, resource sharing, and recovery in a disruptive climate; the challenges business people face both professionally and personally amid the pandemic; and inventive ways they can overcome those challenges.
The sessions meet the first Wednesday of every month. The April 6 event will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
“Our model is to be more of a resource to our community, rather than just our membership,” Goldsher said. “It’s something we’ve thought about a lot over the past couple years, as the world changed.”
With Greenspace membership back to pre-pandemic levels, Sauser said, “events like these are symbolic for us — people are opening their doors back up, and we’re seeing a lot of good interactions from the business community. They’re anxious to get back together. It’s been tough psychologically for business owners.”
The guest speakers for the inaugural Business Breakdown last month were the head brewer and taproom manager at Four Phantoms Brewery. “They spoke at length about how local flora and fauna have really influenced their ingredients, and how they use local artists for their cans,” Goldsher noted. “It was spectacular.”
Future sessions will collaborate with Cocina Lupida, a restaurant on the first floor of the Hawks & Reed building, which houses Greenspace CoWork. That includes April’s session, which will feature the partners from Madhouse Multi-Arts, which offers collaborative, accessible art spaces on Main Street and helps aspiring artists and musicians access resources and skills they need to reach their creative and professional goals.
“We’re very excited to have them. It’s a new business started by two young Hampshire College grads. They’re very much in the vein of our co-work space, but focused more on the arts,” Goldsher said. “We’ve watched as they took a historical building on Main Street that had been dormant for many years and brought it back to life.”
He added that the event series is “definitely evolving,” and that participation and feedback will help determine what future events will look like. But for now, he and Sauser are encouraged — and excited to hear what Madhouse brings to the table.
“How do you take arts and crafts and turn it into a business? How do you make a living doing those things? We have so many creative people around here — how do you take art and turn it into your livelihood?” Sauser asked. “We want to get a good variety of different business perspectives, not all of which are bricks-and-mortar companies.”
“It’s amazing to shift the process away from being a tradititional co-working operator to take a more in-depth approach to supporting local businesses and business leaders.”
Greenspace is also working with Greenfield Community College and the Franklin County Community Development Corp. on a pilot series they hope to launch this spring, Sauser said, a handful of workshops on topics like how to start a business, how to write a business plan, getting financials in order, obtaining a bank loan, and more.
“We’re not reinventing resources that don’t exist, but providing an additional outlet to do them,” he explained. “We’ll gather data while we’re doing it and, moving forward, may evolve that into something more substantive and cohort-based, with classes you can go through, a program like LaunchSpace in Orange. We’re looking at opportunities to grow something similar here. We’re thinking about Franklin County holistically.”
And the region’s business owners could benefit from that kind of collaborative approach to growth, Goldsher added.
“A lot of people are just not communicating openly with each other — it’s almost like people forgot how to be honest, and they’re a little bit unsure about how much they’re willing to discuss about their trials and tribulations. But it’s amazing to shift the process away from being a tradititional co-working operator to take a more in-depth approach to supporting local businesses and business leaders.”
Sauser agreed. “This was something we always wanted to do, and if not for COVID, it might look a little different. I’m excited — it feels like we’re emerging from this situation and responding to what the community needs. We want to have an impact on Greenfield’s revitalization, so we’re looking at it through that lens. And we believe it can be a model for other communities.”
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
