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Greetings!
We hope you had a great weekend. Here is
your
weekly Small Business Advocacy Council update.
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HAPPY HOUR AT SULLIVAN'S STEAKHOUSE
 Our May 27th Happy Hour is set to be
hosted by Sullivan's Steakhouse. We would like to
thank Sullivan's for their hospitality. I
have been dining at Sullivan's for years. The food and service is
fantastic. Sullivan's is offering a dinner special to SBAC members after
the event. The specifics of the dinner special can be viewed here.
In the event you would like to stay for dinner, please contact Sullivan's directly
at (312) 527-3510.
 We are expecting around a
hundred folks at this month's Happy Hour. We had about 80 small business owners
and other professionals at the Lincolnshire Gourmet for our Happy Hour in April. For pictures of that Happy Hour, please click here.
Sponsors
Rhonda Jensen, of Jensen Reporting,
is a sponsor of this Happy Hour. The court reporters at Jensen Reporting
are extremely professional and efficient. Rhonda has always understood
the challenges facing small business owners. Jensen Reporting
provides excellent service at an affordable price.
Joe Demarco, of DeMarco Sciaccotta, LLP, is a sponsor of this Happy Hour. Demarco Sciaccotta is an accounting
firm with over 35 years of combined experience working with privately held
companies of all sizes. They maintain long-term relationships with their
clients by providing exceptional customer service, flexible billing rates and
superior professional services.
Carter Korey, of Korey Law, LLC, is also a sponsor of this Happy Hour. Mr.
Korey
specializes in providing small businesses with high-quality legal
representation. Mr. Korey practices in state and federal court, can handle complex legal
matters and takes his role as a counselor incredibly serious.
To
RSVP for the May 27th Happy Hour, contact Blanca Campos at Blanca@smallbusinessadvocacycouncil.org.
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MAY 22nd CANDIDATE FORUM
A reminder that our Republican
candidate forum has been scheduled for May 22nd at our Northfield office. We will begin at 12:15pm.
Robert Dold  | Robert Dold, the 10th District
Candidate for Congress, will be addressing the group for 30 minutes. Afterwards, we will be holding a panel discussion with the following Republican
candidates:
- Suzy Schmidt(State Senate 31st District)
- Lauren Turelli(State Representative 58th District)
- Dan Surgrue(State Representative 59th District)
We are excited to report that our
Democratic candidate forum has been scheduled for June 26th. Dan Seals,
the 10th District Candidate for Congress, will address the council for 30
minutes. We will also be holding a panel discussion with several
democratic candidates that afternoon.
This is an opportunity to ask our
candidates their thoughts on loosening credit for small business,
lowering health care costs, campaign finance reform and anything else that
keeps you awake at night. Feel free to submit questions in advance of our
forum. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions at the
event.
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SBAC BLOG
Last week's SBAC Blog highlighted an
article from the Wall Street Journal focusing on community lenders
and how they are making credit available to small businesses and
start-up ventures. In this difficult economic climate, there are
community lenders willing to make credit available to small business
owners. We can provide members with additional information about local
community banks that are lending to small business owners upon request.
We also posted an article written by
SBAC member Jason Trembley which focuses on the pitfalls employers should watch out for when utilizing unpaid interns.
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MEMBERSHIP
Michael Cavanaugh, co-chair of our membership
committee, E-mailed SBAC members a form requesting the
names and numbers of prospects for the council. We have had several
folks return these forms and provide us with quality referrals. We are
looking for additional referrals so please send in your forms. We are closing in on 100
members. If you are receiving this newsletter and are not an SBAC
member,
please visit our website and consider joining. It is our mission to do all in our
power to help our members prosper. Indeed, the stronger each member of
the SBAC becomes, the more we can do to help each other and push forward
the
agenda of small business owners, their employees and our friends. |
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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The SBAC will be holding our first
annual golf tournament this coming July. Kody Hoffman, a very active SBAC
member, will be chairing the committee for this golf outing. The
tournament will be a scramble. Please let us know whether you are
interested in serving on this committee.
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SBAC member Ron Cowgill would like to bring a great contest to everyone's attention. This Father's Day, WCPT wants to give your Dad a
makeover...a Backyard
makeover. Mighty House and Mike Nowak are teaming up to give one lucky
winner
the backyard of their dreams! Just upload a picture of your backyard
at WCPT's
website or send one to the station. They'll pick 3 finalists from all
the
entries and then listeners will vote on which backyard gets the
makeover. One lucky winner will
get a new brick patio, Backyard lighting, Patio furniture, and more
from
other local retailers. The winner will also
get a new patio door, new plants, Landscape design and a firepit, bench and grill. Entries are due June 6th and online
voting runs
from June 7th through June 20th. For
complete rules or
to submit a photo of your backyard, go to chicagosprogressivetalk.com!
- Mellisa
Pizarro, an SBAC member and paralegal, is looking for full-time employment with
a quality law firm in Chicagoland area. Melissa worked for me for several
years. You will not find a better paralegal or more loyal employee.Melissa can be reached by e-mail at mpizarro03@gmail.com, or by phone at (312) 203-4421.
- On
Friday, May 14th at 9:30am, SBAC member Charles Krugel will be presenting a
free labor & employment seminar at Chicago's City Hall, #805. This seminar
was made possible by the City of Chicago's Department of Business Affairs. If
you would like to attend, please contact Alfredo Camarena at 312-744-5344 or alfredo.camarena@cityofchicago.org.
- I will be interviewed by Avy
Meyers from the Northtown News Magazine this coming Wednesday. This
interview will be aired on cable television. We will talk about the
challenges facing small business, our mission and our upcoming events.
We
will also be on the radio. I will also be interviewed on the Mighty House radio show at 10:40am this coming Sunday. You can catch Mighty house on
Sundays
from 10:00am-12:00pm on 92.5, 92.7,
99.9
FM and 820 AM.
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Daniel Cotter, member of
the Small Business Advocacy Council, recently moved to the law firm of
Lindemann LLC, where he is Chair of the Corporate, Transactional and
Regulatory practice group. Dan will utilize his more than
13.5 years of broad inhouse legal experience to provide clients with
cost effective, practical advice and
guidance.
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Advocacy
At our recent policy meeting, the SBAC
members in
attendance (over 25) supported drafting a petition which:
- Stress that the lending crises has caused extreme hardship for small businesses and this must be urgently addressed.
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Aggressively move the government to
make returned TARP money available to small business owners and demand that
financial institutions that receive these funds make reasonable loans to small
business.
The language for this petition will
be presented after our May 22nd candidate forum. We will begin
circulating the petition on-line and by visiting small businesses. |
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Take care,
Elliot Richardson
Small Business Advocacy Council |
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