Lights… Camera… Action!

We have a video! Brandie had a brilliant idea and connected the Go Green group with Craig Andrews at Beholder Productions to produce a video to help our cause. The video looks great and we are ready to show it off this Tuesday at Commencement. Take a peek below and please share the link with friends and other bloggers.

Special thanks to:
Main Line Chamber of Commerce
Jeanne Taylor-McClennan
Kevin Nolan of Nolan Painting
Wharton Esherick Museum
Bob Gross of Vanguard
Charlie Szoradi of greenandsave.com

Extra special thanks to Beholder Productions who helped make this video possible. We couldn’t have done it without them… literally!

Leadership Mainline Drive – Motivation – Commitment

In an effort to develop future community leaders in the region, the Chamber established the Leadership Main Line program in 2002.

Leadership Main Line provides an intensive six-month curriculum that involves the participants in learning experiences designed to enhance the infrastructure of the Main Line. Graduates benefit personally and professionally, but the big winner is the community as more qualified leaders are developed. 

Dear Readers,

The following was a recount of the adventures of my classmates and mine in 2008’s Leadership Main Line class of the Main Line Chamber.  When I signed up for the program, I had no idea what it entailed.  While I did some research prior to beginning to make sure I was well-suited to the program and it was well-suited to me, I had no idea the amount of information, insight, and contacts that has improved my life not only as a Main Line business owner, a member of the Chamber, but as a person.

I wrote generally about the program to document (paperless) the journey we went through to come up with the idea of Going Green for the Chamber and the processes and different paths we went down in order to develop a cohesive, easy-to-implement, and environmentally-friendly plan for not only the Chamber, but also other businesses as well.

We hope sincerely that this inspires you, the reader, to bring about small changes that can make a huge impact on our community as a whole, not just for businesses, but for the residents as well.  

For us – this project made us stretch beyond ourselves – and through the Leadership Main Line Program – we learned to step up and become amazing leaders to help bring this amazing project to fruition.

Together we can make a difference.

Dr. Brandie Nemchenko

Classmate in the 2008 Leadership Main Line Class of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce

 

 

Quick! Wrap it up!

Hi guys,

 

I know that we will be missing some people this evening so I wanted to get this info to you all.

 

Your presentation to the Board is scheduled for 8:30 am on Tuesday June 2. Please be at the Chamber no later than 8:15 in case you called in earlier. Each group has a maximum of 8 minutes to present.

Feel free to handout any “goodies” you have i.e. Eldernet brochures, Go Green outlines, etc.

 

If there is anything you need please contact me or Meredith so we can help you with this. Go Green group – do you need a monitor or computer set up for the video is you are showing that?

 

This has been a unique experience for us all. Thanks for you individual and collective efforts!

 

See some tonight, some next Tuesday and all next Wednesday – phew, almost done.

 

One more thing-next Wednesday you will have your pictures taken for the commencement – bring your best smiles!

Jeanne

I was at work when I got this email – followed by an email from Karen that simply said,

“I almost choked when I read this. Will the video be complete by then?”

I laughed out loud reading it – but she was right!  We were officially under the gun!

Everyone was in motion.  Who had what?  Did we need a TV/projector?  Was the video going to be done by then?  The emails were flying back and forth.

Two weeks prior, Alison and I had met at my office to put all the suggestions from Jim, Karen, Jenny, and Dave’s meeting with Cheryl Kuhn.  Using Alison’s amazing gift for organization, despite my MacBook losing the document once, we constructed a table timeline of what the Chamber could do in increments that were easy.

The group also decided to print up lapel stickers to show a cohesive front (no pun intended) with our brand spankin’ new logo that Kenyon made….man, is that guy talented!  Not only did he design the Eldernet group’s brochure, he also made us a logo, too!  We also had a new slogan, “It’s just good business!”  I love it!

Dave met with Craig, from Beholder Productions, when they went out to shoot the video using different size Main Line Chamber businesses.  Vanguard, Nolan Painting, and the Wharton Eshrick Museum, where Paul works to show what steps each business is doing to decrease their use of our environment.  Beholder had been working hard – and sent each one of us a script for the video.  Beholder had knocked the socks off everyone – they do such amazing work!

As I read the script, I was amazed how just a little idea of Karen’s had exploded into such a great project.  I thought of one of my favorite quotes by Margaret Mead,

“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed citizens to change the world. Indeed, it has never been done otherwise.” 

One last thing to do – an Executive Summary.   Alison pulled up a “How-To” online.  Here’s to writing an Executive Summary!  You learn something new everyday!

session #5 – communication is easy

 Wednesday, May 14, 2008

If I must say one thing about the program, not only have we had amazing speakers, amazing classmates, but also – amazing locations, and amazing food.  :)  This location today was probably my favorite.  

 

On my drive from King of Prussia, map in hand, I envisioned a business park.  The Willows.   Imagine my surprise when I pulled along a winding tree-lined driveway that surrounded a lake, that led to the top of a magnificent hill to a mansion.  

 

The trees just became flowered and the air was so fragrant.  We entered into a bright garden room that overlooked the park.  After grabbing some coffee, we were told that in leadership, sometimes it is evident, when things go wrong.

Jeanne told us then that our speaker, Doug Jeffrys, who was to speak on “The Art of Public Speaking” was hung up on a trip and could not make it.  He did send a copy for each of us of his DVD.  Jeanne said that we would be watching that for the morning.

 

I thought the tape was great.  It was not the normal “This is how you give a speech,” but instead, silly things we do that can ruin the impact of our talk.  As one who LOVES to talk, the biggest thing I took away was “When you stop talking, that is when people start to listen…”  Deep thoughts, Jack Handy!  I had never thought of that!  

After that, we went back into the garden room, and I got to introduce Craig Andrews, of Beholder Productions.  Craig and his wife Emilia run a full-service outsourced marketing company.  My company hired them to relaunch us, and their material blew us away.  They have an amazing ability to get to the heart of a matter and convey it in a simple way.

I had the idea to involve them on the way to George’s and the Go Green group unanimously agreed how incredibly fabulous it would be to have a video for the Chamber.

Craig met with our group and was immediately impressed about how we, as a small group, could agree on most everything.  It was almost kismet.  I attribute our uniformity to the beginning.  Our Go Green group fought for our project to come to fruition and it was such a mission, that we realized how incredibly important it was to get it done and to do a GREAT job.

 

Before lunch, Dave and Kenyon were presented with gifts from the class to celebrate their new additions. Each carried adorable baby bottle balloons around.  Our class has such a genuine friendship, that it was nice that people came together to do that!

 

After lunch, we met Ed Wallace, formerly of Vertex, and now of The Relationship Capital Group.  Ed told us many stories, not about who you know, but the quality of the relationships that you cultivate honestly.  Ed told us the story of Max, a cab driver, that inspired him to leave his job, and to provide exemplary service.  We all left with copies of Ed’s book, Fares to Friends.

 

The day was over – we met in the parking lot prior to leaving to just chat together.  Some of us were going to go to a “Green” house that is in Wayne.  Jim had gotten us an invitation and we were excited to go.