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Welcome to Needham! We are a great group of 30 members strong and growing. Men and Women, young and old – we meet for lunch every Tuesday. Our projects focus on giving back to both our community here and beyond.

JOIN US FOR LUNCH!
Tuesdays, 12:00-1:30pm
Needham Sheraton: 100 Cabot Street

With interesting speakers and an energized group
every week, you will come away inspired.

The Needham Channel

Posted on Jul 14, 2020

Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter July 14th, 2020

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and mandatory social distancing, most of our volunteer opportunities and community support activities have been postponed. In response, we've continued to fund local and international charities. We've continued to meet on Tuesdays at noon. But, to maintain social distancing, our meetings have moved on-line.

In Our Community:

On Saturday, July 18th at 9:00: help shovel the soil into the new, raised planting beds at Needham Housing Authority

Speakers from The Needham Channel: 1) Marc Mandel, Executive Director, 2) Ashley Morin, Director of News and Public Affairs, and 3) Mike Levin, Programming Manager

We had a virtual tour of The Needham Channel's (TNC) capabilities by three of their top executives (see photos, names and titles above). The Needham Community Television Development Corporation is a 501(c) 3, not-for-profit corporation that has served Needham since 1985. Because the cable TV companies needed to build out their networks within the town's public right-of-way, they were required to provide free public access TV for the first 15 years. Now, a portion of cable TV revenues raised in Needham is used to subsidize the station. TNC provides public access, educational and governmental programming for cable television subscribers in the town of Needham, Massachusetts. Their administrative offices and studio are located at 257 Chestnut Street. They operate four TV channels:

Needham Community Channel (Comcast 9, RCN 15, Verizon 29) features community access programming, including a live newscast at 7:30pm on Thursdays. TNC runs all their programming, except municipal meetings, on this channel.
Needham Municipal Channel (Comcast 99, RCN 13, Verizon 30) features live municipal meeting coverage for the Select Board, School Committee, Zoning Board and Town Meeting. TNC's website carries an archive of recorded municipal meetings http://www.needhamchannel.org/archives.
Needham Education Channel (Comcast 8, RCN 3, Verizon 31) features programming of an educational nature, including programs about the administration of the schools and about activities at the schools (like high school sports).
Needham TNC HD Channel (Verizon 2129) features a high definition signal. All events, except zoning board meetings, are recorded in HD and carried here at the highest definition.

If you want to participate in an existing production or to get a show started, call Marc to set up an appointment. Volunteers and interns keep TNC running. TNC provides training, expert advice and most of the resources needed to get a show up and running. To get coverage of a news story, email news@needhamchannel.org. To post an announcement on TNC's community bulletin board, send an email (two weeks in advance) to: cbb@needhamchannel.org.

Next Week's Speaker: Louise Condon, founder: Louise Condon Realty

Louise Condon Biography

Posted on Jul 21, 2020

Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter July 21st, 2020

In Our Community:

Last Saturday, we shoveled seven cubic yards of soil into the new, raised planting beds that we built at Needham Housing Authority. Photos of before and after below:

Speaker: Louise Condon (Photo below)

Louise Condon told us how and why she formed her real estate company. Born in Pawtucket, RI, Louise met her future husband, Frank, at the age of 16 at the Voice of Democracy contest (Louise won). Frank's first job with Westinghouse took the family to Mansfield, Ohio, where Louise taught school. Frank's job within Westinghouse moved to New York City, and the family lived in Connecticut. His career change to Finance brought the family to Needham in 1968. Raising seven children in a house on Hazelton Avenue, Louise focused on serving her family. As the kids neared college age, Louise looked to re-enter the labor force to help pay the tuition bills. Schools weren't hiring then, so she took a class at Needham High to train to become a real estate agent. In 1985, she had to create a real estate company to recover her kitchen, which had become a hang-out for her agent friends.

Now, Louise Condon Realty, Inc. has served Needham for 35 years. It has 18 agents working for the only remaining independently owned real estate company in Needham. Among many civic contributions, Louise joined the Rotary Club of Needham soon after women were first admitted in 1987.

Next Week's Speaker (7/28/20): Needham Diversity Initiative

Liz Adler Beacon Law Group

Posted on Jul 07, 2020

Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter July 7th, 2020

Speaker: Liz Adler, Beacon Law Group (Zoom photo below)

Liz spoke with us about employment issues in the era of the COVID-19 quarantine. She is a partner in Beacon Law Group LLC, which specializes in business and employment law. She represents clients in business disputes, wrongful termination and discrimination claims, general counseling and the drafting and negotiation of contracts. Liz co-founded Beacon Law Group after 25 years in private practice in Boston.

She organized her presentation into four parts, commenting on the impact on business from:

Massachusetts' Re-opening Plan,
Congress' Families First Coronavirus Relief Act and
their "CARES Act" (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act), and
Things employers may need to think about on the return to work.

Liz pointed out that the primary source of information on our state's re-opening plan is: http://www.mass.gov/reopening. For each business considering how to reopen there are four sections to help them create a unique reopening plan that considers: Social Distancing, Hygiene Protocols, Staffing and Cleaning/Disinfecting. They have to plan for the safe distancing and hygiene of both clients and employees. They have to plan a response to the discovery that they've got a sick employee.

The Families First Coronavirus Relief Act created a paid sick leave program funded by the federal government for previously uncovered employees of businesses with less than 500 employees. The first two weeks are at full pay for workers who were quarantined or for working parents who were forced to miss work to care for children whose schools were closed for the quarantine. Weeks three through ten are at 2/3rds pay for caregivers. The CARES Act established loans from the federal government to small businesses that can change to grants, if certain rules are followed that were intended to help retain employees on the payroll despite the quarantine. The CARES Act also expanded federally funded unemployment compensation to 39 weeks with a $600/week supplement and expanded coverage to self-employed and gig workers. Needless to say, there are an extended list of rules and requirements for all of these governmental support programs. A handy summary of these laws is included in the "News" tab on Beacon Law Group's website: http://www.beaconlawgroup.com/news.

Beacon Law Group can help guide employers to comply with the new laws and the impact on their business from decisions on staff reductions, furloughs vs terminations, pay vs hours reductions, and the procedures to be followed to protect against lawsuits. To contact Liz: eadler@beaconlawgroup.com.

Next Week's Speaker: A Tour of The Needham Channel

Lynn Holmlund, IDG

Posted on Jun 30, 2020

Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter June 30th, 2020

In Our Local and Global Communities:

At our last zoom meeting, Needham Rotarian Sylvia Kiggundu (originally from Uganda) told us about the challenging times her home village of Bujuuko is experiencing. They normally have food security / hunger issues and COVID has made things worse. She is collecting money to help feed people in her village. For $10 you can feed a person for a week. It would be awesome if you would consider making a donation through her gofundme page. Any sized donation is welcome. The link is: https://gf.me/u/x3xvy4.

Speaker: Lynn Holmlund (photo below), Marketing Director, IDG Inc.

We welcome IDG, Inc. to Needham. IDG Inc. is relocating this coming January from three buildings in Framingham to 140 Kendrick Street in Needham, the space by Cutler Park formerly occupied by PTC, Inc. IDG is the world's leading technology, media, data and marketing services company. Through the publication of expert reviews of new technology, they connect buyers of tech with sellers of tech. Founded in 1967, IDG has 300 employees in over 100 offices worldwide, with 600 employees working at company headquarters in Framingham. IDG is an acronym for International Data Group. This private company is organized into two business segments: IDC generates media content and consumer technology market intelligence with 1000 analysts offering global, regional and local expertise on technology and industry trends in over 100 countries. The second segment distributes the content: IDG Communications is a trusted source of technical insights and product reviews that connect tech vendors with informed buyers. Brands include: "CIO", "Computer World", "PC World", "Mac World", "Info World", and "Tech Hive". The basic business model is: tech buyers pay subscriptions for the content and tech sellers pay for advertisements to reach the buyers. But, there are other business segments that offer digital distribution, data and lead analysis and a segment that organized over 325 tech events and conferences for over 20,000 delegates in 2019.

IDG looked at space in Boston and Cambridge before deciding on Needham. The company originally wanted to gather all headquarters employees under one roof. The difficulty of commuting into the city and the connectivity of Needham to the T and route 128 were factors in locational decision making. The need for social distancing due to the coronavirus added to the suburban impulse in that many employees are going to be more comfortable working from home until there's a vaccine or herd immunity. The amenity of the site by Cutler Park also helped: employees anticipate using the recreation trails and nearby restaurants.

Welcome IDG!

Next Week's Speaker: Liz Adler, Esq., Beacon Law Group, on employment law, including the issues employers face in reopening after quarantine.

Dan Tibma Lobsterman

Posted on Jun 23, 2020

Rotary Club of Needham Newsletter June 23rd, 2020

In Our Community:

We held our socially distant, pandemic compliant Summer Picnic on Tuesday June 16th (photos below).

A plaque was erected (see photo below) at the Tynan School in South Boston acknowledging the outstanding contributions from the Rotary Clubs of Needham and Neponsit Valley, our own Libby Pero and her employer, Capron Lighting and Sound Company, and Perfect Piece to the creation of the Ambassador Raymond Flynn Sensory Room.

Speaker:

Dan Tibma, Lobsterman

Our President, Dan Tibma (predator photo on the left above; prey on the right), made a Zoom presentation to the club on his pursuit of savory summer dinners. He and Sharon have a Recreational Lobstering License that allows them to place up to 10 traps. The need to service the traps a couple of times per week gives them an excuse to go out on the briny water at the mouth of the South River in Marshfield in their motorboat. The season started strong, they've caught 31 lobsters this year, but an infestation of large, Lions Mane jellyfish has coincided with a reduced haul lately. Dan intends to outfox the jellies by dropping traps in the deeper waters out past where the mouth of the river enters Massachusetts Bay. To deter theft, each licensed boat carries a uniquely painted buoy that matches the buoys marking the location of its traps. The license number is stenciled on the trap. Dan and Sharon also have a Clamming License, but that is a story for another day.

Next Week's Speaker:

Lynn Holmlund, Marketing Director of International Data Group, Inc. on the relocation of IDG's headquarters and 600 jobs to Needham by the shores of Cutler Pond.