At first glance, these photos from this morning’s East Falls Business Association kinda look… contentious. Ha, the magic of photo editing — the meeting was anything but!
With such a friendly, supportive vibe, animated conversations sprung up everywhere. Lotsa passionate folks with big gestures and voices.
The renovated Methodist church on Indian Queen Lane’s conference space is indisputably gorgeous (one of “Hidden Philadelphia”‘s top ten church repurposings), but with the holiday garlands and gourds it seemed to set a festive mood as well.
Peicha opened and closed the meeting with season’s greetings, and kept the proceedings concise. Basically, she laid down some general thoughts on structure, as well as ideas for what an organization such as East Falls Business Association should provide for members and non-members:
1. General meetings once or twice per year
2. Local networking mixers (1 or 2 per month, depending on popularity)
3. Seminars and workshops (open to the public)
4. Mastermind groups
5. New business and start-up mentorships
As far as accounting goes, some of these items would be included in dues, but for others there’d be an as-yet-undetermined fee. Peicha cheerfully admitted lack of prior “presidential” experience with community organizations like the EFBA, and welcomed input from more experienced participants as well as members like herself who are still figuring things out.
In that vein, she wanted to fill some openings on the Executive Committee asap. Immediately, Anthony Tyler (Ennis Nehez) stepped in for VP, then after some hemming and hawing around the table, eventually Thomas Caley (East Falls Chiropractic) said he’d take a crack at Secretary. All in favor! Joan McIlvaine (McIlvaine Funeral Home) also stepped up to help with writing the bylaws.
As the meeting wrapped up, Julie Camburn (Fallser) requested clarification about a current online promotion for Mifflin School, independent of Friends of Mifflin (who’d declined to be involved):
Since East Falls Local kinda put the promotion together, we took the opportunity to explain that absolutely NO money is changing hands — we helped the teachers set up Amazon WishLists for every grade, so that people can order items and send directly to the school.
We also set up an AmazonSmile account with East Falls Development Corporation‘s non-profit number, and the EFDC is donating 100% of those proceeds directly to Mifflin. Again, no money is changing hands — certainly not via East Falls Local! We’re just the conduit.
And just like that, again: smiles all around. EFDC’s Gina Snyder brought up how PhilaU’s coach Herb Magee will be winning his 1000th basketball game next month, probably. Would anyone like to get in on the marketing initiative for this? Maybe join an EFDC committee…?
Enthusiastic responses, but mostly about how cool it is for Coach Magee, and how long you have to keep at one job for such an achievement… and where does he live, anyways…? Gina still managed to get some names, but Peicha laughed that she could see everyone just wanted to socialize this close to the holidays.
She wished everyone Happy Holidays and turned us all loose on Tom Leschak (Epicure Cafe)’s pound cake, bagels and coffee.
In January, we’ll work more on structure and event planning. Meanwhile, East Falls Business Association members can keep connected through EFBA’s Facebook page.
See ya’s next year!
For more information about East Falls Business Association, contact Peicha Chang.
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