President's Message December 2014

2014 has certainly been a whirlwind kind of year at the Floral Park Chamber of Commerce.  

We started off the year with a mostly new board, a group with a lot of prospects and goals for our chamber. Many meetings, much planning and tons of hard work returned our members many positive events and changes. Internally we have reorganized our committees and developed committee focus with some ambitious end games. We accomplished a lot.  

Once again Cathy Grasman and her team brought us a fantastic Floral Park Belmont Stakes Festival and Street Fair. Stephanie Scolieri and her committee gave away Elementary School Essay Contest Awards, and to a couple High School winners, scholarships. Mike Jakob and the Business Relations Committee have secured Jericho Turnpike Banners which will be proudly displayed this spring; they approved new village signage and worked on the beautiful hanging baskets along our major streets this summer.  

Communications are on a roll with the work of Mildred Tassone and her committee.  Expect much more from MIldred and her team as we move into 2015. Mildred's focus is to drive more valued and direct communication with you our members. I couldn't possibly leave out the fine work of Marjory Giordani and the rest of our Finance Committee. Their efforts are key to our continued philanthropic work and other projects we have in store as we continue to better our community.

A huge thank you goes out to all of those committee folks and their committee chairs.  

Thank you to past president Terry Whalen for her guidance and support all year long. And finally, thank you too to Eileen Dolan, our Business Person of the Year and our event coordinator. Theses meetings just get better and better over time.  

Do plan for yourself, to come to our next meeting on Thursday, January 8th at Nancy's Restaurant on Jericho and bring with you a business idea that you would like to share with your fellow merchants and chamber members. Come and get to know us, find out about the work in progress, meet new friends and become involved. There is no better way to help your community and your business than to be a member of our chamber and to participate in on of our many committees. It's a labor of love that certainly pays dividends.  

Join us, you'll be glad you did.

Happy New Year,

Ron Keats, President

Holiday Gathering | 2014 | Crabtree's Restaurant

Chamber members enjoyed a wonderful holiday party with our friend Dimitri and his team at Crabtree's Restaurant this past Mondayt night. A beautifully sung holiday song by board member and Treasurer Shane Parouse added that perfect warm personal touch to the festivities. We had some fun with our Secret Santa gift exchange. Some extra gifts will be going directly to the Hance Family Toys for Tots collection through Mike Jakob.  

It was really nice for so many of us to be together at this special time of year. Many thanks goes to Steven Wickes and his One Sound Label DJ team who kept us well into the holiday spirit all evening. And of course, a huge thank you to our event coordinator and Business Person of the Year Eileen Dolan. 

From the officers, the board and myself, thank you for your membership and your support. 

We all wish you a Special Holiday Season!

  

   

  

 

   

 

President's Message | November 2014

Hello Fellow Chamber Members:

This month we had one of our most informative general meetings. Our two guest speakers included the Floral Park-Bellerose Schools Superintendent and our own Event Planner, member and our 2014 Business Person of the Year, Eileen Dolan.  Our committees made their reports showing progress on many of our efforts. We were reminded of the Chamber Holiday Party on Monday December 8 at 6pm at Crabtree's Restaurant. We expect a really enjoyable party with our DJ, One Sound Label and other fun activities. Please sign up early and register online.  

The Chamber is collecting for Long Island Cares - The Harry Chapin Food Bank

We ask that you bring a non-perishable item or 2 either to the party, or drop off at anytime in LI Cares Box at The Keats Agency - Nationwide, 299 Jericho Turnpike, as they too collect every year.

The chamber had representation at the Floral Park Memorial Homecoming Parade in support of our schools. Wonderful to see and be part of such a strong school spirit!  I was also called upon to do a short presentation on our behalf at the United Methodist Church on Verbena.  It was fun interacting with the congregation and reminding them of the work we do for our members and the community.  

Meeting Report
Superintendent Opiekun spoke of a program called STEP which offers our members the opportunity to offer their business wisdom to our children.  Nice right, well you probably wonder how does this help my business. Think about it this way, possibly we could do a quick video of you for posting and SEO, a photo for the paper with a short piece about your effort, and an opportunity to speak about it to the chamber at one of our general meetings. Additionally, how nice is it just to do something meaningful for our kids. Contact the Chamber if you have interest in this program by leaving a message on the chamber phone at 516-641-1200.

Eileen Dolan did a splendid job with her presentation on the Impact of Effective Communication and Relationship Skills - The 4 Basic Personality Types. She certainly has me thinking more about each person I interact with each day, staff and clients.  I will say I had quite a few people say how pleased they were with the presentation.

We ended with the 2014 Business Person of the Year Crystal Plaque awarded to the same, Eileen Dolan. She truly earned the recognition.

There continues to be much going on. Soon the renewals for our 2105 membership will be out. We are currently working on a system to improve upon this very important chamber activity with more efficiency and accuracy. Please do watch for it.

See you at the Holiday Party on the 8th!

Your Prez,

Ron Keats 

America's Got Talent

open auditions this weekend, in Manhattan at Pier 92/94.  It's located near 12th Ave and 54th St.

We feature all types of talent on our show, from singers, musicians, and dancers to comedians, magicians, and more!  Anything that can be done within 90 seconds is welcome, even if it's too big to fit on a stage.  We'll make it happen! 

Anyone interested in auditioning should register ASAP atwww.agtauditions.com.  We also accept video submissions through our website for those who are unable to be there in person.

Let me know if you have any questions! 

Merrie

Casting Producer

America's Got Talent

818-381-4272

Follow me on Twitter for updates! @merriecastsyou 

Grand Opening | Legacy Strength

Grand Opening | Legacy Strength

We celebrated, along with our new friends Mr and Mrs Joey Olivio, their Grand Opening of Legacy Strength right here in Floral Park.  This new fine edition to our Floral Park Community.  

It is a small group training class that focuses on building lean hard bodies through classic weight training exercises. They are full body strength specialists. 

Attending board members, Marie Grant of Donnelly Real Estate, Cathy Grasman, and Chamber President Ron Keats were pleased to meet them all and welcome the Olivio's and their entire team to our fine village and wish them the best in luck. 

Nassau County Council of Chambers | Recognize Eileen Dolan | Floral Park Chamber Business Person of the Year

Nassau County Council of Chambers

On October 17th, we joined with the Nassau County Council of Chambers to celebrate all of Nassau County's 2014 Business Person of the Year Nominees. Your chamber was proud of our 2014 well deserving winner, Eileen Dolan, as she proudly received citation after citation (not parking tickets, but some really nice proclamations) from our political leaders and an award from the Nassau County Council of Chambers. 

Eileen has been a member of the Floral Park Chamber of Commerce as active as one could dedicate and has been for so many years. She has held positions for many years in committees, the board and as an officer.  

Eileen is a proud and successful Sales Director with Mary Kay and has many professional accomplishments notched on her career belt. Her greatest pride is her children and husband Steve. It was great to see many of them at the celebration breakfast.

Our Chamber thanks Eileen for above and beyond the call dedication and looks forward to many more years working together.

October General Meeting Wrap-Up

October Meeting At Valley National Bank

Our October general meeting was held at Valley National Bank. Our host Marjory Giordani, manager of the branch put out a terrific spread of food and drink.  

The place was packed and many new relationships were formed. 

It was good night and our gratitude goes out to Marjory and Valley National Bank. 

Sperry Federal Credit Union Test Drive Event

Get Behind the wheel on a great deal.

Special Two-Day Test Drive Event | October 17th & 18th

Call 516.873.7171 For More Information

Breakfast At Anna House

Visit Our Little Pumpkins!

Join us for breakfast at Anna House 

Business Person Of The Year

Eileen Dolan, Business Person of the Year

While working in her full time career as a Registered Nurse in ICU, Eileen Dolan was offered the opportunity to have a home based business with Mary Kay, Inc.  It made sense to start this business due to her love of the products and her entrepreneurial spirit. She started off as an Independent Skin Care Consultant and three years later advanced to the position of Independent Sales Director, representing the top 2% of the Company.

During her years as a MK Sales Director she has earned the use of 15 career cars translating into 28 years of driving for free. She has led her sales unit of part time consultants to over $300,000 in sales for the year.

In 1986 she moved to the Village of Floral Park and joined the Chamber of Commerce. She immediately got involved and participated on the original “Merchant’s Day” committee (now known as the Belmont Stakes Festival and Street Fair). Eileen has been active on many committees since then. The Scholarship Committee was one of her favorites, as it showcases ideas for the future of our Village through the essays written by the children of our local schools.  

Eileen served as an Officer on the Chamber Board in the capacity of Recording Secretary for several years. She has tirelessly worked behind the scenes in more ways than we could possibly mention.  Eileen has been a reliable and essential active member for her entire tenure with the chamber. She has offered many new ideas to support the chamber and continues to be dedicated to making the village a better place to work and live.

Eileen has been married to Stephen for 36 years and has two children, Jack and Julie Dolan.  She enjoys volunteering as a Nurse in St. Anne’s Respite Program.

October Networking Reception | October 2nd

Please Join Us For Our Free Networking Reception | Register 

Include invitees, the Covert Ave Chamber of Commerce, Rotary of Floral Park/Bellerose, the Lions Club of Floral Park and the New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce. The event is from 5:30 PM -7:00 PM and is free of charge thanks to our host.

September Meeting Notes | 2014

Floral Park Chamber of Commerce 

General Meeting

Jack Duggans Pub|145 Tulip Ave, Floral Park

The Floral Park Chamber of Commerce held its first meeting of the new school year at Jack Duggans Pub in their beautiful party room on the second floor. Our host Kathleen treated us to a delicious buffet after passing an impressive and tasty display of appetizers. She capped it all off with a mouth-watering desert selection.  It was a wonderful experience for our members and guests.

Those guests included our Village Mayor Tom Tweedy, Village Administrator Jerry Bambrick, Superintendent of Public Works Steve Siwinski, Village Clerk Susan Walsh, Police Commissioner Steve McAllister and Assistant Fire Chief Longobardi.  Each shared their respective messages regarding the goings on in our village.  

The mayor advised that the 7 Eleven slated for Jericho and Irving has their permits and are ready to begin construction, and Centennial Hall is being reviewed for much needed work.  Additionally, Rotary Park on Tulip at Verbena is slated for reconstruction.  Plans are currently being made.  It was notably impressive to hear from Superintendent Siwinski the extent of the work going on in his department, the volume of things they are responsible for, and the enormous amount of work they are doing removing and trimming back trees for the safety of our community.  We are all grateful for his and his vast team’s work.  We were also advised that the banners that we have worked so long and hard to design and plan for will be put up by his team within the next two weeks.  We all look forward to that.  

We appreciate the words of the police commissioner specifically regarding our low crime rate and their program for prescription drug disposal.  And thank you to our assistant fire chief for his update and their work to train fire, and police on NARCAN. He also reminded us business owners that their inspections of our buildings is for our benefit. They are not visiting to give out tickets but instead to advise and offer helpful recommendations.  This is in addition to giving them a good understanding of our locations in case they did need to come for a fire or other casualty.  And finally, it was nice to welcome our new Librarian –in-charge Patricia Erin.

    

Our president, Ron Keats reviewed much of what is being worked on at the chamber.  

This included:

• The extensive work going on in our finance Committee with Marjory Giordani of Valley National Bank at the helm; 
• Completion of the new print directory thanks to the efforts of Vice President Mike Calandra of Seishinkan Martial Arts, which is expected to be in the mail to all members along with our new chamber window clings within the next 3 weeks; 
• Communications Committee under the leadership of Mildred M. Tassone of Keller Williams Realty Gold Coast, is working real hard on many aspects of communications in an effort to enhance the value we give our members through our many forms of outreach including our website, Facebook, emails and other social media; 
• Business Relations which includes Beautification led by Michael Jakob of Carriage Trade Insurance is now working on a project to help with the cleanliness of storefront areas around the village and more; 
• Membership committee with chairperson Marie Grant of Donnelly Real Estate, is adding committee members and getting an early start for our 2015 campaign. Marie did a great job increasing our membership for 2014 and expects even more growth for 2015. She reminds us that our membership is the key driver of revenue for the chamber and it allows us to do all of the good that we do for our local schools, charities, foundations and for our beautification efforts.

Our Next Meeting | October 2nd | Valley National Bank

The next meeting of the chamber is October 2 at Valley National Bank with host Marjory Giordani. It is a networking event which will include invitees, the Covert Ave Chamber of Commerce, Rotary of Floral Park/Bellerose, the Lions Club of Floral Park and the New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce. The event is from 5:30 PM -7:00 PM and is free of charge thanks to our host.