Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back. I know it's kind of chilly and March can be wacky when it comes to the weather, but the folks at the Quincy Chamber of Commerce are in full gear for spring, summer and fall mode. Helen Scheiner has stopped on by to bring us up to date on what's going on with our neighbors just across the way here in Quincy Center. Good to see you, Helen.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Hi, Jo. How are you doing?
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Great, thanks. Happy spring.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: I'm dressed for it. I'm trying to push it.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: You really have brightened up the studio. I'm trying big time. We appreciate it.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: I'm trying.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: We should not bury the lead, right?
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Not at all.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Let's start out right on top with the biggest story from the Chamber. You're getting a new president this year.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: We are. So we'll have a new executive director as of Monday. Her name is Sharon Driscoll. Most people may know her from the Mass Restaurant Association. For the last eight years, Sharon's been the membership director.
So for us, it was a nice natural fit. Her eight years of experience working with membership, engaging with membership, and that's been the primary focus of the Chamber for the last year, is increased engagement with our membership. Sharon's a natural fit. So she has met our board, she's met the staff. We had a nice lunch up at the loft the other day.
And we will introduce her to the public at our annual business showcase on March 24th.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Right. Okay. And she's a former business owner, right?
[00:01:17] Speaker B: She is, yes. For a number of years, Sharon owned the Ion Furnace. Right. On Hancock Street.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: She's from Milton, lives locally. Lives locally.
A lot of the local restaurants have met Sharon and engaged with her through her role at Mass Restaurant Association.
So we're excited to have her.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: What will the board's charge to her be for the new year?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Well, that's part of what we've been working on for the last couple of months. If you think back to the quarterly breakfast we had in the beginning of the year, we kind of got back to basics. So we brought in three local business owners that have a significant impact on the city. We brought in Jay from Break Rock Brewing. We had George Montelio, and we had Karen from Karen's Corner with Dolly Depeiser as our moderator did is we appealed to the audience with people that they can relate to. Jay's newer to Quincy, newer in the business realm in this area. Karen just celebrated her 38th anniversary. Really?
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: 38 years. Jay's. I mean, George is on third generation.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Yeah.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: So they really appealed to the audience.
So we took that and carried that forward through the year. So we're getting back to basics, essentially.
More member engagement, more programming, more benefits for our members. More. One of the things that we hear is the big draw to the Quincy Chamber is the benefits that we provide to our members. We did a whole host of education for our small businesses last year, all free, no cost. A series of 10 different educational sessions.
We've brought things back to the community. We're going to talk about one of them Wally Beach Wednesdays.
So we are gearing up. We're gearing up for Wally Beach Wednesdays, which will be again this year through July, August and hopefully into September. But it was getting a little dark at the end of the day in September.
So it's an eight week concert series. We do that in conjunction with dcr, Save the Harbor, Save the Bay.
It's a partnership because we also have local businesses that help to sponsor it.
So we're excited about that. That's one of the things that we've heard from not only the business community, but the community at large. They really loved having Wally Beach Wednesdays back.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: It's a natural gathering point. Right. But there's live music. Even if you don't know what's going on, you're migrating to.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: And they pulled over. Whether they knew about it or not, they stopped.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. So every Wednesday evening, every Wednesday even,
[00:03:36] Speaker B: we start off at 6. It usually runs till 8pm which is why September gets a little tough.
So we've got a lineup. We can't really share that yet, but some of the things are still in the works. But we're excited to have it back.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: And then we jumped right into the summer. Let's jump back to the spring a little bit.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: For sure. Yeah.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: So we kick off the farmer's market in June, but we're starting a little bit earlier this year. So the Chamber is going to. Is we actually have one scheduled now. We have a vintage market scheduled for May 23rd.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: I'm excited about this.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Personally, I can't tell you the feedback that we've had on it. I was kind of surprised. And one of our Kilroy Square vendors from the holiday market, he brought it to us and said, you know, what do you think? He said, I know how busy I am and in the different locations. And you see a lot of it in Cambridge and Somerville and some of the cities and towns further north.
And I said, let's give it a try. We had 52 vendors apply. Day one.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: We can only accept 30.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: All right.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Good. Problem to that.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: But the feedback when we started posting about it on social media was tremendous. So we're very excited to have our first vintage market.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: And then we're hoping in early June Sharon will be in place and working on that. We're looking at an artist and artisans market. So strictly artists and artisans.
And we'd love to hear more feedback from the public. What else do you want to see at Kilroy? Something that's a little bit different. In conjunction with the farmers market, the beer garden, the Kilroy Square holiday market, we really want to make Kilroy Square more of a destination and especially to the people that are located in Quincy Center. We've got, you know, a captive audience right there.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: There is now a community within Quincy Square that hasn't been there in a very long time.
You've got the west of Chestnut complex. You've got the Galvin development just across the way. You've got the new one going up just across from west of Chestnut. They're working on it right now.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: And then the one in the back on Revere Road as you come.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: So it's a great community, but we also pull a lot of people from all over the city, especially for the farmer's market and we're excited. I had quickly mentioned the beer garden. So Jay from Break Rock Brewery is going to be our beer garden vendor this year. He's got some really exciting things planned.
I'll let him announce some of those things. He's got a couple of big draws to bring people into the beer garden. It's going to be fantastic.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: So we're excited. There's a lot going on.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Check out your website for.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Absolutely, everything's on the website.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. But before we get into any of that.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: This month is your annual business expo.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: We skipped right over that. We talked about everything.
We have been so wrapped up with the annual meeting in the business showcase. We are thrilled to continue our theme of kind of getting back to the basics.
So we have. The business showcase is the first part of the evening that starts at 4:30 and runs till about 6:45. We have 50 local businesses and organizations that are there that our membership welcomes. We engage with them, our board members get a chance to meet them and also a large portion of the public comes in and gets to be familiar with some of these. These businesses that are there.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: The second portion of the event is from 7 to 8pm this is Talk about back to basics.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: So we have the hall of Fame induction.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: This year we have two local businesses that have been chosen to be inducted into the Chamber hall of Fame. The first is Ed Keohane and Keohane Funeral Homes. We're thrilled to have Ed. Ed is. I think they're on the third generation of Keohane Fun.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: That sounds right.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
Tremendous community partner. Both. I can say the same thing about both organizations. They're beyond generous to the community.
They have a really strong background and history of supporting organizations in the city, but also exemplary role models for smaller businesses.
So Ed is going to be welcomed by his family in the Chamber into the hall of Fame. We're very excited for that.
And our second inductee is Karen Smith of Karen's Corner. And I said something a couple of minutes ago that surprised you. Karen Smith just celebrated her 38th year in business in Quincy.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: That really is.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: It's a tremendous accomplishment.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Karen's a solopreneur.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: She has a little bit of help with people filling in hours in the shop, but that's a huge landmark. It's really important. And again, as I mentioned a couple of minutes ago, both of these organizations are role models to the small businesses in Quincy. Everybody kind of hits their peaks and valleys during their business ownership and entrepreneurship. These guys have stuck it out.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: And you mentioned they're successful small business owners, but they're also very actively involved in the community.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Heavily involved as well.
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: You know, when you hear the list of things that Karen Smith has been involved in, I mean, she did 15 years of coaching softball for developmentally delayed people.
She's been. She's going to do it again, too. I don't know why, but she's been the President and President of Elect of Rotary a number of times. Very much. She is the president elect now and the incoming president.
She was awarded the Abigail Adams Award.
When we do the, you know, Celebrate the Women.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Oh, she works with Leslie Bridson over at Quincy High School with the unhoused students and provides all kinds of donations to them.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: She's on their Christmas tree fundraiser over the holidays.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Oh, that was a blast. We had a lot of fun with that. But she's also on the Friends of the Kennedy Center Board, and she's been doing that for a number of years. And I don't mean to make light of what Ed's done.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: No, no.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: I just got on a roll with Karen.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Ed was involved with the Quincy partnership years ago.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Ed's one of the founders of the Quincy Chamber.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Right. So, you know, there you go. Yeah. So in addition to. I mean, it's 24 hours, you know, operation, basically, when you're a small business owner. But they even find more time to get back to these social organizations.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Which is great. Yeah.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: One of the reasons why we chose them, I mean, aside from them being just exemplary role models, if you look at the business population in Quincy, 68% of the total businesses in Quincy are what are considered micro businesses. Micro businesses are nine or less employees.
So again, these are the perfect example to 68% of our business community.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Absolutely. And that's supporting an entire work staff as well.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: Within that as well. So they'll get their awards, but there's also money being given out at the showcase.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: There is. I can't give you as much information about that.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Too bad. All right.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: So every year we are fortunate to give away two grants. The first is the Phyllis Godwin Grant. Phyllis has been generous with her donations and supporting this. In fact, she's going on her. Her final field trip to make the decision on her grant award award winner.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: I'm not surprised. She's hands on.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: She's very hands on. She'll be accompanied by her granddaughter Sally. They're making their final decisions.
And then also the Bruce Wood grant. So the Phyllis Grant had 21 applications, and then the Bruce Wood Grant had 16 applications.
Both tremendous people within our city. You know, they left. They. Bruce left a tremendous legacy, and Phyllis continues to. At 99 years old.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: I wish I had her energy.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah, right, Exactly.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: But they are phenomenal people to our small businesses, newer businesses, and to help people kind of get a leg up on their journey.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. How much are the grants for Helen?
[00:11:01] Speaker B: The Bruce wood Grant is $5,000, and the Phyllis Godwin is $7,000.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Okay. And this is to help small businesses either start up or expand.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: They tell us what they need.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Oh, I see.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: They tell us what they would like to do. One of the businesses that applied wants to create a website. Another one wants to automate some of their services. Another one wants to increase their marketing efforts. Another one wants to do some renovations and upgrades in their store.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: I see.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Okay. So it's everything.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Sure. Is the application process done now?
[00:11:31] Speaker B: It's done. It's been done for a little bit.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: The winners have been chosen? Well, yes, except for the one Phyllis needs to pay.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Phyllis needs to make her final visit. But the Bruce Wood Grant recipient has been chosen.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Phyllis is down to two.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: So we'll know on Monday who the winner is.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Oh, all right. Okay.
And then it'll be announced at the. At the showcase.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: We may hit social media just before it.
But we can't. Obviously, we can't disclose it yet. We have to talk to them first. We have to talk to the winners.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Totally understand. Yes. For folks who don't know, Phyllis Godwin, founder of Granite City Electric, and Bruce Wood, very successful contracting business.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Again, both of those people, highly involved in the community, gave a tremendous amount of time, effort, energy, were mentors to a number of people.
Consistent. You see this consistency in these people that are the leaders of our business community.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And I know Bruce's family is still heavily involved.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Mike and Bruce's wife Kathy.
Mike actually runs Wood Contracting now.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Yep. Okay.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: I've known the family for a number of years, and they've continued the tradition of being involved in the community pretty heavily. How could you? I mean, if Bruce was your role model, you don't have a choice. That's right.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: You were born into it. Absolutely. Literally have it in your blood. Have it in your blood. Exactly. Yeah.
Okay, so we've hit spring, we've hit summer. How about the fall?
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Fall is really going to be the Beer Garden.
There's a number of events that are happening at Kilroy, both in conjunction with the city and with the Chamber.
I believe you're going to hear a little bit about maybe some watch parties going on down at Kilroy Square later in the season.
Not mine to share.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Okay. But perhaps for the World Cup.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Not up to me. Not up to me, but you might be on the right track.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: So as we get into the fall, it'll be the Beer Garden, and we're going to continue these unique markets that we offer, too. People like to get out in the fall. They like, actually throughout the entire season, once the weather's warm, they don't want to be stuck in the house. They were stuck in the house all winter. So we're trying to give them a reason to get out, get down to Quincy Centre, you know, visit Kilroy Square. I can't believe how many people still don't know where Kilroy Square is. But also to visit our restaurants in the immediate area, you know, that's important as well. There's a fair amount of construction going on up in Quincy Centre, so it's important to support those restaurants in that area as well.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So does Kilroy Square need better marketing, better exposure?
[00:13:56] Speaker B: It's us. The Chamber actually manages Kilroy Square for the city.
So we've kind of grown into how Much we're going to do down there. And we've expanded our offerings this year and we'll continue to do that going forward. But we also have to be cognizant. We're in Mass250, so the city's going to have a number of events going on as well. So we don't want to conflict with those. Certainly, you know, if you think about it, the community calendar, as we call it, between all of our nonprofits, all of our organizations, there's so many events that occur from March right through October. We all try to be considerate of each other and not kind of step on each other's toes. So it's a lot to balance.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: It is indeed. Yeah. You mentioned the concerts on Wednesday night. That's just one of them. The Ruth Gordon Amphor Theatre will be ramping up again.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: This year as well. At 2:50 there'll be some concerts at the stadium. I think that's what we heard.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: So there's lots.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Some events on Hancock, Adams Common as well for that.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: Yes.
Look out for that.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Lots going on.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Marina Bay as well.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: The whole Maryland.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: They have their own business association out there now, right?
[00:14:56] Speaker B: They do have their own business association, but they're also part of the Chamber.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And we work very closely with the Marina Bay businesses.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Do you how many members now in The Quincy Chamber?
[00:15:05] Speaker B: 738.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. So that has grown.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: It has grown.
This year alone, we brought in, I think, the final. It's not final yet, but 86 new members. Just this year.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Just this year.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Just this year.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: It's only March.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: I know. Well, remember, we work on a fiscal year.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Since last July.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Last July through now. So still, though, significant amount.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: And that has to do with our increased programming and networking. I mean, we are. We're out in the city at our local businesses far more than we ever have been in the past.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah. I remember a couple years ago under Tim Cahill, there was kind of an education or incubation area at the Chamber
[00:15:43] Speaker B: where folks, the Innovation center, when they were down on in behind Central.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: We have a smaller version of that upstairs on the 10th floor in our building.
Not as popular as it was when it was down off of Old Colony, but we still, we have a couple of tenants up there and we actually bring those businesses into the educational series that we run through the Chamber.
So in the future, we're looking to expand that.
Normally we do the full educational series at the beginning of the year.
We've had our Hands full. So it will be in the fall this year.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: So we'll, you know, we'll be working on that as we get into the fall.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Do you think there'll be new positions opening up at the Chamber, Helen, under. Under Sharon's leadership?
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Well, we don't know that.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: You know, we're a small team. We run pretty lean. Joe. It's, you know, there's. There's three staff members and the executive director.
So it's an all hands on deck.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: But we put any money or membership money that comes in, goes right back into our businesses and that's how we're able to do a lot of this programming, a lot of this, you know, the concert series, the additions down at Kilroy Square. So we run pretty well.
And Sharon will be able to have a look at that. I've had the opportunity over the last seven or eight months to as the interim president to see how the operations go, and we've got a solid staff.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Good to know. Has AI come into the picture at all in small business worlds yet?
[00:17:13] Speaker B: It has.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Has it really?
[00:17:15] Speaker B: It really has. And part of that was actually one of the classes that we held earlier this year. We worked in conjunction with NeighborWorks, their small business division. And Patricia White came in and did a couple of classes. And we introduced AI in a friendly way to our local businesses, helped show them how to use it so it's effective and efficient for them, can save them some time, but without losing their personal voice. It's very important.
So we taught, we had them go in and do a whole AI deep dive on their own businesses. So they went into ChatGPT and said, Tell me about Karen Scorn. And then the next step was, tell me about Karen's social media presence. Tell me about this. And then we dug even further to say, who's her target demographic for customers? How does she get in front of them? Give us some examples of low cost, no cost. So we showed those business owners how to use AI to their advantage, but less on their social media so that they don't lose their.
Their voice, their vibe, their whatever, the uniqueness about them as a small business. Yeah, it's a tool because we've seen failures. We've seen a number of businesses where they have hired outside companies to come in and take over their social media or revamp their websites. And it lost any type of personality. It lost anything that was unique to them and made them special.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. It's a good lesson to learn. It is so great to talk to you, Helen. Thank you so much.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Thank you, Joe. I appreciate being here.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: It's our pleasure. Please come back.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. Anytime.
