Business After Hours

The United Regional Chamber of Commerce held a "Business After Hours" networking event at Dean College Thursday evening.

Dean College was a gracious host, with good food and refreshments in their newly renovated Library and Learning Center on the Dean campus. President Paula Rooney was amongst the several Dean representatives present.

Jack Lank, President of the United Regional Chamber, welcomed everyone. Jay Leiendecker, Vice President at Dean gave some brief remarks as did Jeff Nutting, Franklin Town Administrator.

A number of business people from outside Franklin came to the event to meet business folks from Franklin and help share what they do to spread the word and expand their business.

With as many people as were at the event, I could not get to talk with all. Those whom I did get to talk with were interesting. Some highlights were:

Did you know that Digital Credit Union is developing an application to take a picture of a check with your smartphone to create a deposit into your account without having to actually bring the check to the teller or ATM machine? I will talk further with Thomaz Demoura, Branch Manager of the DCU office on RT 140 to understand how this will work.

Did you know that if you'd like to hold an outdoor wedding in the area that Country Gardens, a bed and breakfast with a special events facility would be a good place to consider? Located approximately two miles from LaSalette Shrine, I will be talking with Ralph Arguin to find out more about their services.

You may recall a conversation with Linda Waters, President, Back to Business, that I reported here from the Harvest Festival last September. The Confidence Beads that were in development are now ready and available. I will be finding out more to bring back and share here.

This is just a sample of the conversations available at Business After Hours. Consider finding out more about the United Regional Chamber of Commerce and their operations by visiting their website, calling one of their offices, or contacting me. You don't have to be a member to attend their Business After Hours, you can attend as a guest.

Why do I spend time at such events? You may have heard me say/write that something like a split tax is not a solution to our budget problems. A split tax rate creates two classes of taxpayers and attempts to shift the burden from the residential to the commercial/industrial base. That simply makes it harder to do business in Franklin. What we really need to do is not split the pie but make the pie larger! Increasing business opportunity in Franklin is one way to help our overall budget issues. The opportunity to meet and talk with the business folks is priceless!

Creating opportunities for business to operate successfully in Franklin is what matters.


This was originally posted to Franklin Matters.