Calendar of Events

Wisdom…Experience…Frankness…Honesty -- Come and Get It!

Take a Test Drive. Call Ira Bryck, center director at (413) 545-1537 to get more information, discuss your situation, and commit to an evening that will expand your thinking (and your waistline)!

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November 20 , 2009 • Friday 8:30AM-1:30PM
Mass Ventures Building, Hadley, Mass

First Ever Family Business Center Spouses (in business) Summit

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution? - Groucho Marx

if you work with your spouse, here's a way to find answers, relief, ideas, and a path forward

WHY COME TO THIS, TO BE PART OF A GROUP OF 15-20 COUPLES IN BUSINESS?

• Outstanding chance to have robust discussion with other spouses working together, and compare notes on how they do it.
• Fascinating, solid content about how couples can communicate most effectively, not to mention balance work and family relationships, based on research and real life.
• Ask your burning questions to an intimate group, that is chock full of the wisdom that comes with experience; and get great feedback and a reality check.
• Learn by teaching, and improve yourself by helping others. You're wiser than you realize!
• You may have done some work on your marriage, but couples that work together are a unique breed; come see others of your kind, all gathered together for the common good.
• A great deal at $100 per couple ($130 if you're not members of the UMass Family Business Center); includes a delicious breakfast and lunch catered by the Loose Goose (a spousal business!)

COME AWAY WITH ALL SORTS OF "DELIVERABLES" & ALSO GREAT THEORY

• How best to structure authority, titles, compensation for spouses in business
• How others separate business and family roles
• Strategies others use that could work for you (vacation separately? don't report to each other?)
• What to do if your spouse doesn't have an "official" job, but is still influential, strategic, advisory
• What to do if one of you loves or hates the business more than the other
• What to do if there are also siblings or in-laws in the business
• What if you have conflict about risk, change, growth, systems, hierarchy, authority, bossiness, turning off PDAs, kids at work, retirement, working with your ex, banning spouses, doing what you do badly, etc

Whether you consider yourself happily married or feeling some pain; or whether your company is large or small, new or old, you are welcome!

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays. -Henny Youngman

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December 8, 2009 • TUESDAY, 8AM- 11:30 AM (PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A BREAKFAST FORUM)

Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke, Mass.

Your Website: Hot or Not?

Of course you have a website, but why? What does it accomplish? Does it represent you well, match your company’s look and feel? Does it sell for you? Distinguish you? Help your staff? Does it work on the “back end”? Does it navigate elegantly, not to mention sensibly? Does it say 2009, or 1993? You’ll learn more than you thought you needed to know from three techies with taste:Jason Mark (of Gravity Switch) , Dave Flaherty (of Ashton Services)  and Tina Stevens (of Stevens 470), who will not only explain from Soup.com to Nuts.net, but will take a hard look at SOME of your very own websites, live, on stage, to tactfully critique, also to compellingly suggest what needs changing NOW!

PLUS Our Corporate Partner, HAMPDEN BANK, offers you When the Heck Will We Really Be Done With the Worst Recession Since the Great Depression?presented by Gil Ehmke, Owner, President and Portfolio Manager for Bank Street Investment Advisors, LLC. Gil Ehmke has over 25 years of “hands-on” experience in the banking industry with over 20 years of investment management experience. His diverse career responsibilities have entailed managing virtually all financial functions of a financial institution. These responsibilities included investment management, asset/liability management and reporting, secondary mortgage marketing, investment accounting, corporate accounting, financial reporting and merger and acquisition analysis and integration. During his career, Mr. Ehmke has held various executive level positions with a number of northeastern banks including: Senior Vice President and Treasurer at Northeast Federal Corp, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at SIS Bancorp, Inc. and Senior Vice President and Director of Finance at First International Bank. Mr. Ehmke formed Bank Street Investment Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor, in 2001 to provide comprehensive, professional investment advisory services to small and medium-sized community banks. Mr. Ehmke was also an adjunct finance professor at Central Connecticut State University where he taught an advanced course in security analysis.

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MARCH 9, 2010 • TUESDAY 5:00-8:30 PM

Summit View Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke, Mass.

Setting Goals Are Easy; Reaching Them Is Hard (How To Get Where You Want To Be)

You gotta be in it to win it, but how many of us want to grab the golden ring, without any plan to get on the carousel? Do you know where you want to be in 5 years, but don’t think about what you need to do today to get there? Or vaguely sense life, business, love, et al, would be much better if only everything would change, but you don’t do anything different? This session will feature several business owners discussing where they want to be at in a few years, and how they're actually making their way there. Or how they’ve already arrived; describing the long, strange, but productive trip it’s been. You will learn about the essential tools to make change happen; the roadblocks you must navigate around, the attitudes, perspectives and habits that help real, live people like you. Speaking of you, there will be an opportunity for you to commit to significant changes you want to make, and get some feedback from our learning community on how to plan it and do it.

UMass Professor Robert Hopley of the Isenberg School of Management will moderate this panel. Aside from following his passion, as coach of the Amherst College Rugby, he was head of worldwide printer manufacturing at Digital Equipment, when printers were $2.1B of $13.2B total sales, received a major USAID grant to work with Pskov Technical College in Russia, and a UNIDO grant to work with small food processor businesses in Jamaica; He has consulted to over 150 business plans in the last five years; and supervised over 50 major Masters student consulting projects with Greek businesses over last five years (the average project equaled 2000 person hours) He is also a visiting professor in entrepreneurship and field/consulting project director for the Athens Laboratory of Business Management. Robert is past Director of the UMass chapter of the Small Business Institute.

TO ACCEPT GOOD ADVICE IS BUT TO INCREASE ONE'S OWN ABILITY (Goethe) The good advice tonight is from FBC Corporate Partners Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP and Hampden Bank. Be a fly on the wall, watching the negotiation between a law firm, contracted to negotiate with a bank, on behalf of the family business they represent. Sparks might fly, ideas may be exchanged, credit may be extended, and you will be educated.

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MARCH 11, 2010 • THURSDAY 7:00-9:00PM @ BAYPATH COLLEGE, LONGMEADOW, MASS.

MARCH 18, 2010 • THURSDAY 7:00-9:00PM @ AMHERST CINEMA, AMHERST, MASS.

THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD (film and discussion)

On either of these two evenings, you’re invited to come and enjoy a humorous and touching film, plus panel and audience discussion, as part of the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film and Arts Festival. This new Israeli made film explores a family owned insurance business, run by two brothers and a friend, that is more than lacking in much it needs to succeed, but full of other stuff that keeps it going. This documentary is made by the owner’s son, who simultaneously tries to cure what ails them. Their dilemma presents a lot of meat for an excellent discussion; facilitated by Ira Bryck of the UMass Family Business Center. (More at http://www.ruthfilms.com/films/docs/israeli-mosaic/the-worst-company-in-the-world.html). Open to the public, for more info, see http://pvjff.org/

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MARCH 12, 2010 • FRIDAY 8:30-11:30 AM

Mass Ventures Building, Hadley, Mass.

TOOLS, RULES & JEWELS YOU CAN’T GET IN SCHOOLS

This is the first of our new quarterly think tank with action steps galore! Each event will include two topics; each topic will begin with a 15-minute talk by a selected expert, then a 60-minute discussion, moderated by that expert, helping you customize the info for your company. Topics will be selected by the group, and might include how to mentor, assess prospects, have difficult conversations, negotiate better, change course, govern better, and much, much, more. Cost: $250 per person for all for 4 sessions per calendar year (non FBC members= $350)

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APRIL 14, 2010 • WEDNESDAY 5:00-8:30 PM

Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke, Mass.

The Topic and Speaker for this Event Will Be Great, But Can Not Reveal It At This Juncture

TO ACCEPT GOOD ADVICE IS BUT TO INCREASE ONE'S OWN ABILITY (Goethe) The good advice tonight is from FBC Corporate Partner Epstein Financial Services.

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JUNE 11 , 2010 • FRIDAY 8:30-11:30 AM

Mass Ventures Building, Hadley, Mass.

TOOLS, RULES & JEWELS YOU CAN’T GET IN SCHOOLS

Second in a series of our new quarterly think tank with action steps galore! Each event will include two topics; each topic will begin with a 15-minute talk by a selected expert, then a 60-minute discussion, moderated by that expert, helping you customize the info for your company. Topics will be selected by the group, and might include how to mentor, assess prospects, have difficult conversations, negotiate better, change course, govern better, and much, much, more. Cost: $250 per person for all for 4 sessions per calendar year (non FBC members= $350)

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JUNE 15 , 2010 • TUESDAY 8:00 - 11:00 AM

Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, Northampton, Mass.

My Marketing's Not Working – WHY?

Some companies hire expensive consultants to analyze and prophesize why they aren’t getting value from their marketing spend. Others simply cut marketing and then wonder why the sales team is spending so much time building a pipeline. Both rescue attempts are costly and usually not corrective. This session will provide a concrete checklist to diagnose and correct the marketing problems at your company. You will leave with answers to why things are not working, how to fix them, and most importantly, how to keep them on track forever. More than a tune up, this session aims to overhaul your marketing approach and breathe a whole new life into your company’s ability to generate quality leads and close sales quickly and profitably. Bring the whole fam damily, plus your marketing people, so you can: Learn why and what is strategic marketing and how it makes all the difference in every business decision you make; Find out the 30 key questions you need to answer BEFORE you invest time or money on anything! ; Get a simple process for developing a quick and useful marketing plan for your

business; Gain the ability to evaluate marketing people and proposed programs; Learn how to keep yourself, your marketing and your business fresh and relevant; Discuss how to validate pricing to ensure that companies are making the most money while remaining competitive ; Uncover specific ways to acquire qualified leads (push) and foster them into closed sales (pull) ; Explain how to productively track and retain leads; Define effective positioning, messaging, PR and integrate into a solid marketing plan ; and Provide a process for ensuring that marketing plans get executed and stay on track

Tonight you will unlearn what is not working for you, and have Alyssa Dver learn ya. Known as “Ms. Marketing” by her clients and fellow employees, Alyssa has worked as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) within or as a consultant to numerous companies, ranging from large multinationals to small startups based all over the world. Now, as the Chief Executive for Mint Green Marketing, Dver’s areas of expertise include: corporate social responsibility, PR, and product management. She has in-depth industry experience in high tech, banking and child safety. Dver’s previous book, Software Product Management Essentials is a standard with both new and experienced product managers and marketers. She continues to teach product management through seminars and webinars, and through an ongoing column in Software Magazine. Dver writes frequent articles which have been published in Forbes, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Promo Magazine, MarketingProfs, Pragmatic Marketer, and dozens more. A highly rated speaker, Dver has presented to organizations including: The World Diversity Leadership Summit at the United Nations, The Women’s Congress, The American Marketing Association, American Banking Association, and the American Strategic Management Institute, to name just a few. A serial entrepreneur, Dver founded The Center to Prevent Lost Children and Wander Wear. She is also the executive producer and host of Mom Matters WebTV. For her professional and personal accomplishments, she has been interviewed by NPR, Voice of America, The Boston Globe, Ladies Who Launch, MassWIT, Moms on the Move, and more. In 2007, BusinessWeek recognized her as one of eight female entrepreneurs to watch. Ms. Dver is a graduate of The Wharton School and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of East London.

TO ACCEPT GOOD ADVICE IS BUT TO INCREASE ONE'S OWN ABILITY (Goethe) The good advice tonight is from FBC Corporate Partner Epstein Financial Services.

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SEPTEMBER 10 , 2010 • FRIDAY 8:30-11:30 AM

Mass Ventures Building, Hadley, Mass.

TOOLS, RULES & JEWELS YOU CAN’T GET IN SCHOOLS

Third in a series of our new quarterly think tank with action steps galore! Each event will include two topics; each topic will begin with a 15-minute talk by a selected expert, then a 60-minute discussion, moderated by that expert, helping you customize the info for your company. Topics will be selected by the group, and might include how to mentor, assess prospects, have difficult conversations, negotiate better, change course, govern better, and much, much, more. Cost: $250 per person for all for 4 sessions per calendar year (non FBC members= $350)

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2010 •SUNDAY BRUNCH 10:00AM-2PM

Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke, Mass

SUNDAY BRUNCH WITH DR. JOY BROWNE, RADIO PSYCHOLOGIST, WHO WILL ANSWER ANY FAMILY BUSINESS QUESTION OR PROBLEM WE THROW AT HER!!

We've had many outstanding presenters since our 1994 inception, but few that have Ira Bryck, FBC director, more excited than today’s: Dr. Joy Browne, radio psychologist, who has entertained and enlightened him, as well as national audiences, for years. As Dr. Joy has a weekday radio show to produce, we are having our first ever family business Sunday brunch. You think you have problems? None so big that Dr. Joy’s common sense, humor, wisdom and perspective cannot lend a giant hand.

Dr. Joy’s nationally syndicated daily radio show can be heard on the WOR Radio Network weekdays from 12-3pm Eastern time, and is the longest running program of its kind. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Joy is beloved by her listeners for providing advice that is compassionate, practical and substantive. With a quick wit and an ability to cut to the heart of the issue, Dr. Joy guides her millions of loyal fans through the trials and travails of their daily lives, always asking them, "What’s the question?" She dishes out advice on everything from marriage and workplace issues to Broadway’s hits and misses, and weekend movies worth seeing. Dr. Joy has won numerous awards for her work including the American Psychological Associations President’s Award and the Talkers Magazine award for Best Female Talk Show Host (two years in a row). She was also listed as #10 on the list of the 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time, and has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Talk Show Hosts nine times. Dr. Joy has also been nominated for News/Talk National Personality of the Year as well as Syndicated Talk Show of the Year by Radio and Records Magazine, and can frequently be seen on television as a guest on shows such as CBS’ The Early Show, Oprah Winfrey and Larry King Live. Dr. Joy is also an accomplished author. Her books include: It’s A Jungle Out There Jane, Dating for Dummies, The Nine Fantasies That Will Ruin Your Life, Dating Disasters and, Getting Unstuck. In addition to her professional pursuits, Dr. Joy is an active volunteer. She was on the board of directors of the Herbert G. Birch Summer Project, helping to run a camp for children and families living with HIV and AIDS, and also worked extensively with the Salvation Army to provide counseling after the World Trade Center disaster. She is on the Advisory Council of the Mayor’s Commission Against Domestic Violence, and is President of the Dr. Joy to the World Foundation, which is currently involved in researching male sexual abuse. Before finding her way to the airwaves, Dr. Joy was a teacher, private practice therapist and social service director for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, in addition to her work as an engineer on the space program and her time as an archeologist in the south of France. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Northeastern University as well as a B.A. from Rice University, and also did Post Doctoral work at Tufts Medical School. Joy is the mother of one daughter, and keeps herself inspired by dancing and practicing yoga and Pilates (when she is not hot air ballooning, that is). You will hear a lot of reality and truth at this session, and will be asked to pledge “what is discussed in the Edna Williams Grand Ballroom stays in the Edna Williams Grand Ballroom.”

TO ACCEPT GOOD ADVICE IS BUT TO INCREASE ONE'S OWN ABILITY (Goethe) The good advice tonight is from FBC Corporate Partner Giombetti Associates.

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OCTOBER 27 , 2010 •WEDNESDAY, 8:00- 11:00 AM

Courtyard by Marriot, Hadley, Mass.

SOME BUSINESS FAMILIES THAT ACTUALLY USE ALL THAT RECOMMENDED GOVERNANCE TO STAY PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNICATIVE

You’ve heard it over and over: family businesses that have family business meetings, councils, retreats, compensation policies, charters, are more communicative and professional. You don’t do it, because there’s no time, you’re too small, that’s too formal. But when you hear from this panel of real live business families, just like you, about how they’ve made difficult decisions, interesting transitions, instituted good practices based on good theories, you’ll be out of excuses, as well as inspired to try it at home.

TO ACCEPT GOOD ADVICE IS BUT TO INCREASE ONE'S OWN ABILITY (Goethe) The good advice tonight is from FBC Corporate Partners Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas LLP; and Hampden Bank.

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DECEMBER 10, 2010 • FRIDAY 8:30-11:30 AM

Mass Ventures Building, Hadley, Mass.

TOOLS, RULES & JEWELS YOU CAN’T GET IN SCHOOLS

Fourth in a series of our new quarterly think tank with action steps galore! Each event will include two topics; each topic will begin with a 15-minute talk by a selected expert, then a 60-minute discussion, moderated by that expert, helping you customize the info for your company. Topics will be selected by the group, and might include how to mentor, assess prospects, have difficult conversations, negotiate better, change course, govern better, and much, much, more. Cost: $250 per person for all for 4 sessions per calendar year (non FBC members= $350)

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DECEMBER 15 , 2010 •TUESDAY, 5:00-8:30PM

LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED

WHEN JOE ASTRACHAN WAS OUR SPEAKER IN JUNE 2009, SO MANY PEOPLE COMMENTED "I COULD HAVE LISTENED TO HIM ALL DAY LONG" THAT WE'RE BRINGING HIM BACK FOR PART TWO OF:WHAT FAMILY BUSINESS RESEARCH REVEALS ARE THE BEST ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS, AND WHAT SIMPLE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO BE MORE LIKE THOSE MOST HEALTHY FAMILY COMPANIES

What does family business research have to offer you in a very practical way? Studies of the best performing and most communicative family companies have important relevance to you in figuring out the best way for your particular company to govern itself and address your particular issues. This talk will decipher the work of academia to help you figure out: Who should have a voice? What are rights and responsibilities of shareholders? How to organize family participation in the business? How to transfer ownership to next generation? How do structures such as family councils and board of directors interact? Do families who engage in family meetings or councils really have higher rate of success in transitions between generations, What are ways to increase our luck and skill in promoting family values and beliefs, family leadership, planning process, boards of directors, shareholder assemblies, shareholder agreements, succession planning? Presented by Joseph Astrachan, Wachovia Eminent Scholar Chair of Family Business and executive director of the Family Business program at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA; as well as Editor of Family Business Review, a scholarly publication of the Family Firm Institute.(.) His research presentations, consultations and publications concentrate on family businesses, succession, and strategy. He is author and co-author of several books, including: Family Business Sourcebook II (1997); Making Sibling Teams Work (1997); Building Family Business Policies (1998); Conflict and Communication in Family Business (2003) and Mechanisms to Assure Family Business Cohesion: Guidelines for Family Business Leaders and Their Families (2008). Astrachan is also editor of the Family Business Casebook Annual. As a sought after speaker and authority, he has been quoted extensively in nearly all major print media and in U.S. Congressional reports. Astrachan is the recipient of several awards for his research and contributions to the family business field. Raised in a family where uncles, great uncles and grandparents of shipping to pharmaceuticals, Astrachan earned his B.A., M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. degrees at Yale University.

TO ACCEPT GOOD ADVICE IS BUT TO INCREASE ONE'S OWN ABILITY (Goethe) The good advice tonight is from FBC Corporate Partner Meyers Brothers Kalicka, PC.

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Archive of past UMass Amherst Family Business Center dinner forum

TRY IT- YOU'LL LIKE IT !!

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or come as the guest of a member company or corporate partner
For more information, or to register, call Ira Bryck at (413) 545-1537 or email Ira Bryck