Letter From the President
Dear Members,
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as the newest Officers on the Roslindale Board of Trade.
My name is Lisa Modecker and it is a pleasure to serve as the newly elected President of the Roslindale Board of Trade and to begin my term along with the new Vice President of the Roslindale Board of Trade, David Gladstone from Citizens Bank. We look forward to bringing our business as well as personal experience to the Roslindale Board of Trade and to continue to support the Roslindale community.
On a personal note I have three children ages 5, 6 &10 , a husband and growing law practice. My firm represents families in crisis many of these families are involved in custody disputes, often involving the Department of Social Services and other state agencies; my practice also includes representing buyers, sellers as well as Lenders in real estate matters. This year I will be expanding my practice by representing families who have children with special needs and are seeking special education services. I also have a second business in Vineyard Haven, a small art gallery called, The Goddess Way, where we feature the creative works by many emerging artists, feel free to visit the website.
I would like to introduce myself, I am David Gladstone and I am the newly elected VP to the Roslindale Board of Trade. I am married and have two children ages 9 and 3. I have been involved in Retail Management and Banking for the last 18 years. I hope to bring more to the meetings in the form of guest speakers that provide both informative and useful topics to the Members and also provide an opportunity to introduce "Tastes of Roslindale." In addition we see the Board of Trade Sponsoring seminars on Business development. I look forward in working with the entire community in accentuating Rossie's distinctive character!
The past year was very productive for the Roslindale Board of Trade and 2005 promises to be even better! In addition to our traditional annual events the board has been involved with for many years, we undertook several new initiatives in 2004/2005. The Roslindale Board of Trade sponsored a "Starting Your Own Business Seminar", which provided those individuals contemplating starting a new business an opportunity to learn from experienced business professionals how to begin a business from how to draft a business plan, financing a business, marketing to networking, employment issues. This event was free to the public and those who attended found it enormously helpful. Based upon the feedback we received the RBOT plans to continue this series.
The Roslindale Board of Trade supported important community events. Some of these include; the Roslindale Parade Committee, the Healthy Roslindale, Rozzie Reps, The Roslindale Food Pantry, and the ABCD Head Start Holiday Celebration. This year the Holiday event was able to help out more families in need during the holidays. And thanks to the tireless efforts and coordination of Mrs. Claus (a.k.a Judie Leon) and her many elves we were able to bring some holiday cheer and gifts to a great many families in our community. This year a special committee has already been formed specifically for the Holidays which will include community decorations and more, please contact Judie Leon for more details. Last year we had a wonderful holiday social at Gusto's Restaurant and Wine Bar hosted by new owners, Rocky and Pat who are celebrating this August the anniversary of their first year in business, Congratulations, it is especially heartening when a new business with two newcomers are able to contribute as much as they have. They helped raise awareness and funds for a battered women's program.
We look forward to continuing the Annual Roslindale Board of Trade Flag Day in June. This event was initiated by previous President Lou Murray and has been growing in popularity and one that has received rave reviews from the community. For the past two years we have provided hundreds of Flags to Roslindale School and honored Old Glory with many wonderful songs and skits. The grand finale is held in Adams Park complete with the West Roxbury Color Guard and many of the Roslindale Board of Trade Members, and Officers, City Officials including Rob Consalvo and the Honorable Mayor Menino.
We will beginning our year with the able assistance of Laura Watts, one of our newest members, Laura works in Roslindale and her business is The Design Asylum and she will be providing the web support. In addition Christie Helms from Rogerson Community who has generously offered to assist in the area press releases and other important public relations matters. We have Kristin Mallery a professional Organizer who has been providing a great service to our members with her great work with the RBOT Trade Winds Newsletter and she has graciously offered to continue do so in 2005/2006 term. Kristin is awesome at keeping "busy lawyers" more organized in their professional and personal lives so that they have time to do other things.
In 2005/2006 we hope to continue to expand upon the many past successes the Roslindale Board of Trade has been involved in by increasing our membership to include members who may have become less active over the years and add more new businesses that have not had the opportunity to join yet. This will be accomplished by more collaboration with Roslindale Main Streets as well as others and by enhancing the Roslindale Board of Trade website with a series of new member services and links making it easier to join and keep apprised of the meetings and activities. We look forward to working with our existing members, this years' Roslindale Parade, Grand Marshals; Steve O'Malley and Brian Hardiman of MJ's Subs & Pizza and catering. And Donna Cabral of Photo Images who has some fabulous marketing and promotion ideas to share, as well as meeting new members including our newest member, Michael Mullen of the Tremont Credit Union. The Roslindale Board of Trade will welcome the 2005/2006 incoming Kindergartners with a special gift bag to receive one please visit business owner Judie Leon, at Travel By Judie located in the Square.
Please join us at the first RBOT Meeting of the 2005/2006 term being held on Tuesday, September 13th at The Sons of Italy Hall at 30 Birch Street at 5:45 p.m. Our featured speaker will be John Foster who will discuss planning and financing higher education and this month we will begin our year by featuring a "Taste of Roslindale" which involve a sampling of some tasty appetizers. We welcome your questions and input.
Sincerely,
Lisa Modecker
President
David Gladstone
Vice President