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Executive Board
Chairperson Michelle Cartwright Re/Max River’s Edge Chair-Elect & Ambassadors Bette Walpole Membership Director Treasurer Joe Farmer Farmer & First, CPA’s Past-Chair Cidalia Rodrigues BankNewport, Bristol Business & Community Relations Danielle Deluca Thompson Re/Max River’s Edge Events Mark DeVine DeVine and Associates Government Affairs Steve Primiano Steve Primiano’s Custom Window Treatments Public Relations Beth Carter Beth Carter Enterprises
Board of Directors
Bruce Cox Slepkow, Slepkow, and Associates Christine O’Connor Marketing & Communications Mgr. Dr. Jerry Dauterive RWU—Gabelli School of Business Dr. Mario Andrade Bristol-Warren Regional School District Elizabeth Russell Saint Elizabeth Manor, East Bay Jessica Pflaumer Town of Bristol Joe Hozempa Round Two John Daniels Associate Member Keith Sartini Goldenroad Wealth Management Lou Victorino East Bay Manufacturers Luca Carnevale Hope & Main Michelle Hughes Michelle Hughes CPA Scott Pickering East Bay Newspapers Timothy A. Pray TAP Printing
Administrator
Suzanne Munroe
STANDARD RATE U.S. Postage
PAID Barrington, RI Permit No. 111
16 Cutler St., Ste. 102, Warren, RI 02885 | 401-245-0750 | F 401-245-0110 | www.EastBayChamberRI.org
Sept. 14 | Wednesday
Chamber Social Kick-Off Chamber Office 5:30—7 p.m.
Sept. 28 | Wednesday
Lunch N Learn: Payroll Questions Answered Chamber Office Noon – 1 p.m.
Oct. 5| Wednesday Barrington Political Candidate Forum Barrington Town Hall 5:30 p.m.
Chamber Social Bristol House B &B 5:30—7 p.m.
Sept. 6| Tuesday Bristol Political Candidate Forum Time/Place TBD 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 7 | Wednesday
Warren Political Candidate Forum Warren Town Hall 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 14 | Wednesday
Rhode Island Business Leaders Day Capitol HIll Lunch N Learn: Tax Prep with Michelle Hughes Chamber Office Noon—1 p.m.
Oct. 7 | Friday MFG DAY Tour Various East Bay Manufacturers 9 a.m.—noon
Oct. 12 | Wednesday Lunch N Learn: Joe Hozempa Marketing Part 2 Chamber Office Noon—1 p.m.
Oct. 20 | Thursday
Annual Awards Dinner Ramada Banquet & Conference Center 5:30—8 p.m.
Oct. 26 | Wednesday
Lunch N Learn: FSLA: Breakdown the DOL Final Rule Chamber Office Noon—1 p.m.
Dec. 5| Monday Chamber Holiday Party Hope & Main 5:30—7 p.m.
Visit www.EastBayChamberRI.org/Events to register.
Meets every other Tuesday at the Chamber office, from 9—10 a.m. Next meeting is Sept. 6
WEBOND meets every Tuesday at the Chamber office, from noon—1 p.m. , starting Sept 6.
September 2016
Hope & Main Named Chamber’s 2016 Business of the Year Founders Honored as Citizens of the Year In 2009, Lisa Raiola and Waterman Brown approached the Warren Economic Development Board with the idea for a community-based incubator for food businesses located at the Main Street School (then owned by the Town of Warren). They asked the EDB what hopes they had for the school, and the EDB stated that they wanted a place that spurred new businesses and job growth in Warren, engaged the local community and created a destination to encourage others to visit Warren and the East Bay. Their hard work and dedication are paying huge dividends for Rhode Island. Since opening its doors in October 2014, Hope & Main now houses 59 active businesses, or nearly 40% of all active Rhode Island-based food processing businesses and about 16% of all food processors operating in the state overall. The impacts from these businesses reach beyond food entrepreneurs to food producers, packaging companies, designers, etc. and represents exciting, new economic development for the state.
ANNUAL AWARDS cont’d on pg. 2
Ribbon Cuttings Open for business
Welcome New Members Update your contacts
Making Connections Direct-Marketing Program
Upcoming Events Mark your calendars
Annual Awards Our biggest event of the year
Member Showcase A closer look at...
A note from the Chairman I hope that everyone is soaking up these last couple of weeks of summer! As we look forward to autumn, the East
Bay Chamber is gearing up for its biggest celebration of the year: The Annual Awards Dinner, being held at the Ramada Banquet and Conference Center on Oct. 20. We are excited to be honoring some integral community members and businesses. It’s been a busy year for your Chamber. We’ve acquired 42 new members; launched a new direct-marketing program; formed a new partnership with East Bay Events on our Merchant Fair; and coordinated a
Lisa Raiola (pictured) in an industrial kitchen at Hope & Main. Lisa and her husband, Waterman Brown, are the 2016 Citizens of the Year. Photo credit: Taunton Daily Gazette.
county-wide Shop Small Campaign (Holiday Express). We’re also excited to share news about a project that we are working on with Roger Williams University’s Community Partnership Center. We are currently in the exploration phase of establishing a Main Street USA program, which is a program of the National Historic Preservation Society. Its focus is on preservation as a means of restoring main streets to the vibrant economic hubs they once were. The improvement possibilities are endless and up to the residents, business and real estate owners to determine. We hope that this program will avail new resources to businesses looking to improve their storefronts, relocate to the downtown area, and create an atmosphere of community. The Chamber will need YOUR help in making this a success. I am excited about its possibilities, and hope you are, too.
Sincerely, Michelle Cartwright Chairperson East Bay Chamber Board of Directors
ADP - Brian Barrett 300 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick | 1-857-719-7960 www.linkedin.com/in/brian-barrett-9014025b
AT&T – Warren
630 Metacom Ave. Warren | 1-203-214-5734
Automated Business Solution 415 Kilvert St., Warwick | 401-732-3000
Axa Advisor, LLC
2348 Post Road, Warwick | 401-447-9227
Bank of America - Bristol 601 Hope St., Bristol | 401-253-7301 | www.bankofamerica.com
Citizens Bank- Bell Tower Branch
576 Metacom Ave, Bristol | 254-0301 | www.citizensbank.com
Dancing The Dream Productions 63 Attleboro Ave., Portsmouth | 401-230-3420 www.dtdballroom.com
Donna Neville Custom Framing 81 Water St., Warren | 401-289-2209
Flint & Flame
295 Hope St., Bristol | 401-396-9909 | www.flintandflame.com
Global Satellite & Sound, Inc. 176 Child St., Warren | 401-289-0091 | www.gsatsound.com
HOLLISTER Tamales, Inc.
Production at Hope & Main, Warren | 401-266-1832 www.hollistertamales.com
James L. Maher Center
906 Aquidneck Ave., Middletown | 401-253-590 www.mahercenter.org
Kickemuit Klose Condominium Association 511 Child St., Unit 211, Warren
Lff Enhancement - Integrative Medicine Health
PO Box 104, North Scituate, RI 02857 | 401-764-0810
Pathways to Transformation for Women Warwick | 401-261-0110
www.pathwaystotransformationforwomen.com
Primary Residential Mortgage, Inc. 161 Prospect Hill St., Newport | 401-301-9640 www.PrimaryLocal.com
Ramada Banquet & Conference Center
213 Taunton Ave., Seekonk, MA | 508-336-8700 www.providenceramada.com
Ripples
15 Gooding Ave. Bristol | 401-396-8765 | www.ripplesswim.com
Round Two, LLC Warren | 401-241-4254
www.linkedin.com/in/jhozempa
The Mint Gallery 433 Hope St., Bristol | 401-371-6468 | www.themintgallery.com
Town of Warren
514 Main St., Warren | 401-245-7554 www.townofwarren-ri.gov
United Republic Affair, LLC
277 Water St., Warren | 401-999-2899 | www.eightura.com
World Financial Group 25 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 204-A, Braintree, MA 401-699-4185 | https://yulianwang.wfgopportunity.com
PAGE 2
Learn more about our members by subscribing to our Chamber
Connection’s RSS Feed.
A Sweet Temptation By Dena Davis Chamber PR Team When a local restaurant is getting a lot of traction amongst the younger
population, and you start to hear about it as a “favorite hangout” it is time to check it out. Head down Maple Ave in Barrington to experience what could be the most delicious thing you do all summer. Opening in January 2015, Crepelicious is owned and operated by a local husband/wife team who have somehow, found a creative way to fuse their Japanese heritage with their love for travel (to France, in particular) and a skill for baking, and the result is something very special. Read more at www.EastBayChamberRI.org/Chamber-Connections-Blog
The East Bay Chamber recently launched its new direct-marketing program Making Connections, targeting new homeowners in the East Bay. This exclusive opportunity allows Chamber members to get their business information into every new home bought in Bristol, Barrington and Warren. Each month, we will hand-deliver a Making Connections bag to new homeowners filled with members’ promotional items. Here’s the best part: Each participating business receives the list of names and addresses of the homes that we delivered to so that they can continue reaching these homeowners through their own marketing efforts. To help our members succeed in their marketing efforts, we also host a FREE Best Marketing Strategies workshop as part of this program. Want to know more? Email Suzanne Munroe for the details, or to sign up, [email protected].
Making Connections: At Their Doorstep
PAGE 3
Ribbon Cuttings Follow the Big Scissors on our blog, The Chamber Connection!
Ribbon cuttings are a free benefit for new members and members celebrating a milestone, a grand opening, or remodeled/rebranded businesses. Email Membership Director Bette Walpole for more information, [email protected].
Moving Forward is a quarterly publication of the East Bay Chamber of Commerce. Email Suzanne for inclusion, [email protected].
Our next publication date is Nov. 14, 2016.
Deadline for advertisement flyers: Friday, Nov. 4, 2016
Bliss More, Stress Less Blissmorestressless.com
OPT Physical Therapy & Sports Therapy 652 Wood Street Bristol Opt-ri.com
The Mint Gallery 433 Hope Street, Bristol Themintgallery.com
Bristol Toyota Scion 2283 Grand Army of Republic Highway Swansea, Mass BristolToyota.com
FSLA: The Final Rule Breakdown By Brian Barrett, Local ADP Agent Does Dec. 1, 2016 mean anything to you? The Department of Labor (DOL) has made monumental changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that
will affect over 4 million workers in the United States. Here is a brief overview of the changes and how they will affect your business. The Final Rule focuses primarily on updating the salary and compensation levels needed for workers to be exempt. Specifically, the Final Rule:
Sets the standard salary level at the 40th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region, cur-rently the South, which is $913 per week or $47,476 annually for a full-year worker.
Sets the total annual compensation requirement for highly com-pensated employees (HCE) subject to a minimal duties test to the annual equivalent of the 90th percentile of full-time salaried work-ers nationally, which is $134,004.
Establishes a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels every three years to maintain the levels at the above percentiles and to ensure that they continue to provide useful and effective tests for exemption.
Amends the salary basis test to allow employers to use nondiscre-tionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) to satisfy up to 10 percent of the new standard salary level. The Final Rule makes no changes to the duties tests.
As a business owner you will have to navigate through an increas-ingly complex regulatory environment and take appropriate action for your business. It’s important to take a proactive approach to mitigating risk and limit exposure for your company. I am currently meeting with business owners in the state to review their strategy to handle the upcoming changes. I look forward to answering your questions and keeping you informed. *information based off the Department of Labor, www.dol.gov
ANNUAL AWARDS cont’d from Front
Beth Carter, owner of Beth Carter Enterprises, was named the 2016 Chamber Member of the Year. Since joining the Chamber in 2014, Beth has joined the Board of Directors and also chairs the Public Relations Committee. With her extensive marketing background and a “members first” motto, Beth oversees the member spotlight stories and the chairman’s message, as well as being a standout leader in our women’s group, WEBOND.
The Annual Awards Dinner also serves as our installation of new board members, and the election of new officers. Bette Walpole, Chamber Membership Director, will serve as the new board chairperson for a two-year term; and Lou Victorino, owner of East Bay Manufacturing, will serve as chair-elect. Other new board members include Joe Hozempa of Round Two; Luca Carnevale of Hope & Main; and Jessica Pflaumer, Economic Development Coordinator for the Town of Bristol. Mark DeVine of DeVine and Associates, will assume the role of secretary/treasurer, relieving Joe Farmer. All Chamber members are encouraged to celebrate our honorees at the Annual Awards Dinner, to be held on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Ramada Banquet and Conference Center, 213 Taunton Ave., in Seekonk. The event starts at 5:30 p.m., with dinner served promptly at 6:30. Tickets are $50 per person. As this is a seated dinner, reservations are required, and can be made by calling the office, 401-245-0750; or emailing Suzanne Munroe, [email protected]. Deadline for reservations is Oct. 7. The Chamber is also accepting sponsorships for this event. For details and to take advantage of this highly publicized dinner, email Suzanne Munroe.
Beth Carter
Bette Walpole
