Happy 4th anniversary to Mr. B and the Chamber.
It’s a marriage that makes CEO Bill Thornton shudder daily.
And Happy Mother’s Day!
(Back at you B! - Miserly Mistress)
Cash in for mom: It’s tough out there and with the economy the way it is and Mr. B not getting a raise again this year, he had to steal back last year’s Mother’s Day card from his mom, cross out recyclable and write re-usable, and hand deliver it again. Hopefully, at her age, she won’t remember. What Newz-E-Letter readers remember most about Mother’s Day is Cash America International. The local corporate stalwart dug into its Fort Knox for the fourth straight year and found a beautiful 14-carat, gold Trillion-shaped diamond pendant, approximately .35 carats in size. Buy it and it is a trillion dollars. Win it and it’s yours to give to Mom.
Flowery praise: If diamond pendants are a girl’s best friend, then flowers have to be the second best, and a great alternative when it’s already mid-week and you still haven’t even bought a card for mom. Martha (Cornbread) White, the floral fauna of fun and frivolity, doesn’t want your mom to go without, so Gordon Boswell Flowers will have a beautiful bouquet of flowers ready for one winner. And you will be able to pick it up at either Boswell Fort Worth location just in time for mom’s special moment.
Sing me a song: In this economy, the Texas Millionaires Chorus has been re-named the Texas $732,000 Chorus. However, the quality quartets are hosting a fundraiser May 16 at Birchman Baptist Church Family Center to get reacquainted with the Mark Cubans of the world. Warbler Rocky Willett sent over two sets of two tickets for the dinner and the hip-hop harmonizing by Sentimental Journey, Killin’ Time, and the William Kratt Chord Company.
| | | |
| PICTURE OF THE WEEK | | | | |  | | | | |
The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce has announced a new Ambassador Executive Committee for 2009/2010. As of April 20, new officers elected by the Action Ambassadors are:
- Chairman
Betty Poage, Ameriprise Financial;
- Vice Chairman
Bethany Tyler, Burnett’s Staffing;
- Membership Chairman
Elizabeth Oliva, Ambit Energy;
- Secretary/Treasurer
David Clay, First National Bank-Mid Cities;
- Immediate Past Chairman
Chris Munizza, AXA Advisors, LLC
Read more in this month's Chamberletter.
| | | Sponsored by | |
|  | | | | | | |
|
Everybody’s a winner!!! The Fort Worth Cats didn’t win the championship last year after three consecutive titles, but they remain No. 1 in our hearts for low-cost, quality baseball entertainment. And if Dodger isn’t the most popular mascot in the area, then he’s second only to Scott Murray. Cats owner Carl Bell knows the toll of tightened belts so he’s ringing in the new season with this announcement: Just enter to win and you’ll receive four general admission tickets to one of the season-opening series of games May 15-17.
Free for everyone: In his daily quest for glazed blueberry cake donuts, Mr. B will B breakfasting next Wednesday from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on the 8.0 patio, where GM Shawn Howell and the Salvation Army will be hosting with food, drink and its Top 40s band. May 10-16 is National Salvation Army Week.
Catering to every whim: Amy Shackelford, Director of Catering and Event Sales for The City Club, is the new president of the Association of Event and Convention Professionals in Texas. Other Fort Worth-connected board members are Heather Huhn with the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau and Teresa Nelson with Teresa’s Treasures.
|  |
Fashionistas: TCU’s final executive speaker series guest last month was Karen Katz, the CEO of Neiman Marcus Retail. Newz-E-Letter’s fashion reporter was unavailable, but Mr. B can attest that Katz was wearing a skirt, one or two tops, shoes and accessories. Here are some fashion tidbits that will win you trivia points at your next Girls Night Out:
- The NM core customer is a 50-year-old woman who buys for herself and for men in her life. However, Katz says men have become more engaged with Neiman Marcus the past three years.
- Because of marketing and the Internet, fashion has become more homogenized across the country the past 10 years.
- Katz has been in the business 20 years and never has seen a more challenging environment. Because of this, Neiman’s has filled in with some price points below its luxury levels.
- There still are many, many wealthy people out there.
- E-commerce is extremely profitable, and Internet and catalogue sales work together well.
- Neiman’s has six developed CUSP stores with lower prices for younger, more contemporary shoppers.
- The crossover shopping between full-line stores and the Last Call Outlets is just 10 percent.
Six degrees of …: Son NoBGood graduates from college next weekend. What does that say about “higher” education? Also a warning to get out of the city next week: Daughter MisBehavin’, among California’s worst five percent of drivers, will be in the D/FW area for the graduation.
The dollar trail: Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial officials again are donating $10 to Streams and Valleys for golf tourney attendees that use the Trinity Trails to get to the tournament, May 30-31. There will be bike racks at the corner of Rogers Road and Colonial Parkway and $10 is paid for each fan that uses the Trinity Trails and checks in at the Streams and Valleys tent.
|
 |
Makes cents: A reader and recent Dallas Mavericks band-wagoneer wants to know if he can buy a one-year membership to MFFL—Mavs Fan For Life.
Will work for money: Eighty-two percent of the 386 respondents to an April Chamber survey said D/FW was insulated or somewhat insulated from the global economic woes. Even better was the employment picture: When asked if they had laid off any personnel, 70 percent said none. Eighteen percent said they had laid off one-to-five employees. Only five percent had cut more than 20 employees. In fact, 24 percent said hiring continues at their company.
Work your money: You have less than two weeks to sign up for the Chamber’s second annual Money Works series of five executive dialogues for small business owners and C-level managers. For $50, participating execs decide the discussion topics, then share ideas on strategies and successes during the once-a-month, mid-morning meetings. Word is the facilitator is a real comedian, too, so it’s never boring like YOUR staff meetings. There’s free breakfast from the Residence Inn Marriott in the Cultural District and giveaways, too.
Walk on by: Because hiring is a little slow, Krista Ashbrook of Ashbrook Executive Search is doing a little more walking. So much so, she’s planning to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, 60-mile walk in November.
|  |
I wanna be a star: Mr. B is all a-Twitter about the Chamber’s online marketing seminar May 27.
Thank you sponsor: HealthMarkets has bought a Platinum sponsorship of Money Works, Minding Your Business, Lunch and Learn and breakfast seminars. The old sponsorship-seller woman liked Mr. B and Newz-E-Letter better than this new sponsorship-seller woman and used to sell out Newz-E-Letter sponsorships first.
Newspapers alive & kicking: The Star-Telegram ranked No. 10 in Editor & Publisher’s listing of top daily newspapers that had the biggest gain in audience when taking print (seven days) and online readership (30 days) into account. S-T’s “audience” was 1,236,205; unfortunately, advertising for the million or so online is very small in comparison to print. On the college level, Texas newspaper folks voted University of Texas at Arlington’s Shorthorn best collegiate newspaper in Texas. TCU’s Skiff finished second.
Pig soooeeey: Interesting that Arkansas has not had a reported case of swine flu. (Swine Flew photo by Jon Uzzel.)
Idea with vision: The Chamber’s young professional group – VisionFW – will partner with the Chamber’s Board of Directors to form mentoring partnerships. Yes, the YPs will teach the old dogs new tricks about Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, $9 movies, $12 martinis and more. Oh, wait. Got that backward. The board will be mentoring the YPs about leadership for the next generation.
|  |
Ducats for dummies: Here’s a novel idea for those of you looking for Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial tickets at the last minute. Sign up for the Chamber's Colonial Preview Luncheon May 19th, and you’ll get lunch, fun quips from Colonial TV producer Lance Barrow, who will interview pros Carl Pettersson and Lucas Glover, AND …drum roll…a free daily ticket good for Friday, Saturday or Sunday of tournament week. The face value of the ticket is more than the cost of lunch, so buy two or more luncheon spots.
The Little Train That Could: During a recent speech after having received the Mayor’s Small Business Advocate of the Year Award, Matt Rose, THE conductor for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, said: “If our stock price keeps going down, I might be back next year AS a small business."
|
