Paul Szmal: Welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It is 816 and I'm joined by Amy Fuller from the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce. Good morning, Amy. How are you?
Amy Fuller: Good. How are you on this beautiful day?
Paul Szmal: Fantastic. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it as always. And let's kick things off like we normally do by talking about our member of the month for this month.
Amy Fuller: Yeah, our member of the month for April is AmeriQ Credit Union. They are celebrating 75 years this year. So we acknowledge them with the member of the month for April and Jeff and his team out on Grand Ave. We're very happy to get that. Congratulations to Jeff and company on that.
Paul Szmal: The next item on up on the agenda is going to be the Business After Five event that is coming up on April the 29th.
Amy Fuller: Yes, this will be it's SBDC, which is the small business development people out of OCC. They have an office here at the chamber. And they're hosting a Business After Five on April 29, from five to 630 at the Oak and Vine at the Springside Inn. And it's a great, you know, the Business After Fives are a great way to come and talk to people face to face and check out what's going on. So, you know, they got a lot of things coming up. They have some awards, they're going to be giving away in early May. So, you know, come join us the registrations open, come join us on Tuesday.
Paul Szmal: And then there's a special presentation coming up on May 1.
Amy Fuller: Yes, our Leadership Cayuga classes, you know, the it winds down in May. So on May 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn, they're doing their project presentations. Each year, the class gets broken up into four or five groups. And then they each select something to work on for the length of the class that starts in September and ends in May. And there's four good four good groups this year, they're going to be doing one of the one of the presentations is going to be on history heroes, people and passion keeping local history alive. And then another is Cayuga live it, play it, explore it. And then the next one is understanding the New York State Civil Service System. And lastly, downtown Auburn Retail.
So what they do is, you know, there's four or five people on each team. And they try to, you know, get perspectives on things going on and suggestions on things that might be a good idea to implement. So, you know, it's from nine to 1030. There's going to be some light breakfast stuff and some coffee. So come to the Hilton Garden Inn and check out, you know, what these what these guys and girls have been working on for nine months.
Paul Szmal: And you know, maybe you'll get some ideas to implement some things. That sounds like it's going to be a pretty interesting presentation and a nice bite size elements to the program being only 90 minutes.
Amy Fuller: Yes, and it is it's, you know, I, I vote when I go down and watch those every year, they're different subjects. But you go down and you're like, you know, you get their perspectives. And it's just like, wow, I you know, people got to people got to know about this, you know, so it is it's great. And sometimes these ideas get implemented in situations. So let me check it out. Like I said, they do a, you know, Jessica does a great job with with the class each year coming up with project things, and then in breaking up into groups, and they just go at it, you know, they meet off, they meet out of, you know, on their own, and then they get together once a month with the leadership program. And it's great, it's great.
And if, and you know, once this is over, once May, we'll get into full recruitment. So, you know, if you're new to the area, or you change jobs, or you got promoted, the leadership CUGA program is great, because every month, there's a different thing, they start with government and different things, and they end it with a bus tour from north to south of the county. But it's a great way to get to know your county. And you know, you want information, contact us.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. Amy Fuller from the CUGA County Chamber joining us here on FLX Morning, and that kind of dovetails in nicely to the celebration of Small Business Week. And the CUGA County Chamber is going to be doing some celebrating by offering a special deal.
Amy Fuller: Yes, every year on National Small Business Week, this year, it's May 4 to May 10. If you are not a chamber member, you can join just for that week, a basic membership, normally $335 for $100.
Paul Szmal: Wow, that's a deep discount.
Amy Fuller: Yeah, so if you're a small business, and you, you know, you've been kind of teetering, it's a good way to see if it makes sense for you. So for $100, that'll get you a chamber membership for the rest of 2025. And we invoice annually. And then, you know, for 2026, you'll get invoiced the full rate. But it's a good way to test it out and say, you know, this is really works for me. Or, you know, I get it when sometimes it's it's not for everybody, or it's, you know, they don't really use it or whatever, you know, but it's a great way to try it. And for only $100. And then you can come to the networking events and, and get all the emails. So you know what's going on.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it's a great way to connect to other businesses. And a lot of times that networking, you know, you may have some common problems that you discuss, and maybe they have somebody else has a solution that you haven't thought of.
Amy Fuller: Right? That's why, like I said, those the business after fives in our in person events, you know, are still very popular, because you don't get much chance to do face to face contact with people, you know, we give everybody name tags with their business affiliation. So it makes it easy to start up those conversations and introduce yourself to people.
Paul Szmal: And I know we've been counting down to the first event for the month of May. And this is a big one. It's the 2025 Chamber Awards on May the eighth.
Amy Fuller: Yes, this is my this is my I have to say one of my favorite events because people nominate businesses and individuals. And then once my member services chooses them, I get the pleasure of contacting them, letting them know that they've, they've been chosen this year. And we have a great group this year. I'm just going to run through it very quickly.
Paul Szmal: Sure.
Amy Fuller: Our new, our new small business under five years at long last, our small business over five years, RICO Enterprises, our business leader is East Hill Medical Center, Nonprofit of the Year, Friends of Emerson Park, our Terry Bryden Becker Young Professional Award goes to Dominic Gambonini. He works at Auburn Public Theater. And Phyllis Goldman is a goes to a female owned business that is Laura Hahn. She is owner of Little Yard Farm and the good neighbor down in the southern part of the county. And our Community Leadership Award, which the leadership Huga team chooses is Amy Mahunik from the class of 2016.
So we have a luncheon coming up on May 8, at the Springside Inn where we celebrate all these people and give them a very nice award. We still have a few sponsor opportunities for that, but registration is open. And if you're interested in coming and celebrating one or all of these people, you know, register to come to that event.
Paul Szmal: It's always it's so much fun because people you get to hear about how they got to where they are.
Amy Fuller: Right. And it's wonderful. It's wonderful.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. And congratulations to all the 2025 Chamber Award winners that will pick up their hardware on May 8th at the Springside where we're talking about the business after five and how that can really be an effective tool for a business. The next one is coming up in May on the 21st. This will be after the one on the 29th. And that, again, is the SBDC. That'll be the Oak and Vine at Springside. But flashing ahead for May, this one sounds like it's going to be pretty interesting because of where it's going to be.
Amy Fuller: Yes, it's at Smiley's Town and Country, which is on Owasco Road. You know, Jackie Scanlon, she still has her flower shop. And you walk in there and her flower shop site is nice. It's beautiful. And she's done some different things on the other side of of the business there. So and upstairs. So I don't want to give it away. So, you know, come and check it out. Once again, the registration will open for that after our event next week. And, you know, Basic members, it's five dollars. Anybody above Basic, it's free. So come and support our local businesses and check out what's going on with Smiley's.
Paul Szmal: And to wrap things up here, we got to make mention once again, because I know this thing fills up pretty fast. You want to jump on this while the opportunity is there. Registration is open for the annual golf tournament at Dutch Hollow.
Amy Fuller: Yes. And we've had quite a few teams already register. So that's June 13th at Dutch Hollow. It's a, you know, four person best ball and it's a very popular event. Again, we have sponsor opportunities for that and registrations open. So if you want to get a team together, go online and register or give us a call. We'll get you we'll get you registered for that.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. And if people want to jump in on that or maybe check out some other opportunities that the Cuyahoga County Chamber has to offer, how do they do that, Amy?
Amy Fuller: You can go on CuyahogaCountyChamber.com. There's a lot of information on our homepage, our member of the month and some upcoming events. And then there is an events tab also where you can go on and get to that event and register from there. But yeah, it's it's starting to get busy, but we love it.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Summer is summer and spring are definitely the busy times for any chamber, but especially the Cuyahoga Chamber with the awards going on and all the other activities.
Amy Fuller: That's right. So small business weeks coming up. If you're not a member, sign up.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. All right, Amy, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Amy Fuller: Thank you. Have a great rest of your day.
Paul Szmal: All right. It is 825 on FLX morning.
