May 21, 2007
The RBA’s popular Small Business Council is making a format change that will help bring small business owner’s concerns to the fore.
The council, formed in 2005, had always been a place where small business owners could talk amongst themselves and learn about topics relevant to them. Now the new format will focus more time on discussion and brainstorming, with the help of new co-chairs Lena Bodin, Principal of People Resource Strategies and Paul Rafanello, CPA. Bodin and Rafanello had previously been active in the RBA’s Consultant’s Council, which folded into the Small Business Council last year. Some ideas from the Consultant’s Council will be incorporated into the new Small Business Council.
“We really want to get the members involved, we will be bringing in two concepts from the Consultant’s Council. One is called ‘spotlights,’ where members will stand up in front of the group and will have five minutes to ‘spotlight’ themselves. In return the audience will give a friendly critique on the presentation. Did the person market his idea? Did he convince us to purchase his product? Could he have done anything different?” Rafanello said. The new council will also feature “breakout” sessions, which were a hallmark of the Consultant’s Council - and would still have feature speakers on specific topics as has always been.
“In a breakout session; me or Lena or one of the members will come up and throw a subject out to the audience. We will break the audience into four groups and write responses on a bulletin board so we can see where are our common ideas,” Rafanello said.
“We want to shake it up every month,” Bodin said.
“We want to grow the Small Business Council to be there to help owners when they don’t have the resources to hire people for professional advice. We will be asking people what they would like us to do for them. We want them to have a voice in the content from the meetings going forward,” Bodin said.
The first installation of the new council next week will be an information gathering session; asking people to come and offer what they want to see. The first full session planned in June.
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