Paul Szmal: Good morning 816, it's FLX Morning Thursday. It's our Chamber Thursday and we're Zooming with Amy Fuller with the Cuyahoga County Chamber of Commerce. Good morning.
Amy Fuller: Good morning, Ted. I love hearing about these businesses of the month, members of the month each month, and this one is an old-fashioned family bakery, Cameron's Bakery. I'm on their website, Cameron'sBakery.com, and boy do they have donut flavors.
Paul Szmal: Oh yes, Cameron's, they're one of our favorites. They actually did the desserts at our annual dinner a couple weeks ago, but they're celebrating 45 years in our community. So congratulations to Cameron's as our October member of the month.
So what should I get here? We've got powdered jelly, we've got vanilla Persian with coconut, fruity pebble donuts, custard sticks, cinnamon sugar twist, and under specialty donuts, this is the one I really got to get, is the maple bacon donut. Have you had that one?
Amy Fuller: I have not. My favorite is the apple fritter, and now they have an apple fritter bread, which is just a mistake. Cameron'sBakery.com, I'm going to check and see if they do delivery to the Geneva radio studio here.
Paul Szmal: You've got a workshop coming up on October 30th, that is Wednesday of next week, on cyber threats. And this is, I mean, our radio station, we had a hacking incident several months back that was very inconvenient, and it can happen to anybody. So tell us about this workshop on the 30th.
Amy Fuller: Yes, Cameron McManus, he's a guard iCloud, he's a member of the chamber, and he does these a couple times a year. And if you want to protect your business from cyber threats, he'll explain, you know, how to spot the risks, how to secure your devices, and keep your information safe from hackers. And as you said, it's Wednesday, October 30th, 9 to 10. It's free to chamber members. Register, you know, online or contact the office. And if you register for the event and attend, someone at that event is going to win a $50 Amazon gift card.
Paul Szmal: Wow. So again, that's next Wednesday from 9 to 10 a.m. Keep everything safe and your data, hopefully, behind the firewall.
The Community Guide and Chamber Member Directory is ready to come out soon. There's still a chance to get your ad in there through November 15th. So tell us a little bit about what's in the guide and directory each year.
Amy Fuller: We started, we've been doing this now since 2016. We had a lot of people request. We used, I guess, years back, they did a printed guide, and we brought it back in 2016. And people really like it, especially with the phasing out of phone books. But we distribute it in Seneca County, Hugo County, of course, Onondaga County. And it's a Community Guide and Member Directory. So it has, you know, the school districts, colleges, you know, how you, where you go to vote, all that stuff, you know. And then, of course, it lists our chamber members by category. And it's a great opportunity for our chamber members to advertise. We still do have some full page and half and quarter page room left. Contact myself or Christine Morris, and we will send you over the specs and get you hooked up. But as you said, the deadline's November 15th. We go to print sometime in December and get those ready to distribute in early January. But like I said, people love them. We give them to the real estate offices for people that are new to the community. You know, when people come in to visit, we give it to them. So it's a great way to, you know, get an ad in there, and it's for 12 months. So prices are really reasonable. And like I said, it's a good way to support the chamber, and it's a nice way to keep your name out in front of people.
Paul Szmal: See, I'm old-fashioned like that, too. I mean, you know, I can access something on my phone or my tablet or something, but I like, for example, some of the tourism guides. I just like to throw them in the backseat of the car, and if you're out and about one Saturday, you can flip it open and go, hey, let's check this place out. You know, you're not alone, because we have people walk in all the time.
Amy Fuller: And not only local people, people that are here for weddings or other reasons, and they come in, they're like, you know, I want some brochures, because we're going to be here for about a week and a half, and I want to see, you know, do some different things. And people just like it, because then they, if they go to wherever they get the brochure from, they kind of have a keepsake from it.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Now, if you're like me, and almost 65, you're being inundated with pieces of mail telling you all about Medicare, and it's all confusing, and there's donut holes, and all that kind of stuff, and Part A and Part whatever. So you have your next Lunch and Learn series, Wednesday, November 13th, from 12 to 1. Hills Insurance Service will walk through Medicare 101 for everybody.
Amy Fuller: Yes, and we do this, again, a couple times a year with not only Hills Insurance, but also Excellus and a couple other partners. But it is very confusing. So they want to try to simplify things. And you know, you'll have a chance to talk to the representative, Sean Daly's the one doing this workshop, and you'll be able to talk to him, and maybe, you know, personalize what you need with him so that you can understand what you need to do. But it's on November 13th, 12 to 1. Lunch will be provided. You need to register for the event. And again, it's a free thing to chamber members. So if you are a relative or a friend, you know, want to come in and just get an understanding, even if you're not 65 yet, but want to kind of get your ducks in a row, this would be a great opportunity to do that.
Paul Szmal: Now, are there any particular topics that you'd like to do that you're looking for somebody with some expertise? You mean for different workshops?
Amy Fuller: Yeah, for future workshops.
We're open to anything. You know, people call us and say, you know, I want to do a workshop on this. I've had a lot of people inquire about it. And, you know, we'll see if it works out. You know, Jessica Rentz, our Education Coordinator and myself, we try to pepper different things out there. Because, you know, if people have, if they're asking questions of other people, there's a number of people that also want information on certain topics. So we try to change it up a little bit. But the two that we have coming up, the cyber threat and the Medicare 101, a lot of people are asking. We have an insurance navigator here on site that she can't help with Medicare. So she loves that she can direct people to workshops like this so that they can have a better understanding of what they need to do.
Paul Szmal: Now, after you go to Medicare 101 at lunchtime that same day, business after 5 is also November 13th. That'll be from 5 to 630 at the Equal Rights Heritage Center.
Amy Fuller: Yes, and that's a wonderful place to have a business after 5. They did a great job last year. They have a really nice market. And it's a good way to kind of kick off the holiday season. So registration opens next week. It's 5 to 630. And, you know, we had one last night, I need to give a shout out to, at long last, we combined with the Skinny Atlas Chamber, we had almost 90 people last night. It was great. I mean, the food there is incredible. Robin Long and Ella do a great job. And, you know, these are very popular events. We mentioned at our annual dinner a couple weeks ago that the attendance for these has exploded because people just love going in and seeing all these different things happening.
Paul Szmal: The planning is underway. The Chamber Holiday Party is Wednesday, December 4th from 5 to 7. Chance to unwind a little bit, maybe talk a little bit of business, but not too much. From 5 to 7 p.m., what details do you have available so far?
Amy Fuller: We're going to be announcing all the details next week. But as our Chamber members know, we do this every year early in December. We also partner with the Rescue Mission. We give them an opportunity to give us some information so that people can bring in donations that evening to help the Rescue Mission so people can enjoy their holidays. And, you know, it's free to Chamber members, and it's just a great way to kick off the Christmas season. And like I said, we'll have details on everything, and registration will open for that also next week. But mark your calendars, December 4th, 5 to 7.
Paul Szmal: Once you get into December, the calendar fills up very, very quickly. Now, of course, this is meant to be more social, but during the year you do business after 5, business at noon, you have all the membership breakfasts and everything. So just talk about the networking opportunities that come with Chamber membership. You never know when you're going to run into somebody who's right in your line of business and can be a vendor or a customer.
Amy Fuller: Oh, absolutely. And to kind of piggyback off that, last night we had a couple that was from a construction company. They were from Mexico, New York, and they drove down because he has a relative in this area, and he heard about the networking event. And we said, you know, come on in, come on in and check it out. They loved it, you know. So it is a great time to, you know, go in. We encourage people to bring their business cards. You know, we call it kind of everybody together and let the host, whoever hosts the event, to talk about their business or organization. And then it's just a great way to talk to other people. And we give everybody name tags with their business affiliation, so it makes that connecting very easy.
Paul Szmal: So look for that information and a whole bunch more at KiyukaCountyChamber.com. You can also sign up for the newsletter and keep up to date day-to-day what's going on. Amy, thanks as always. Great events coming up and I hope you have a really fun holiday party in December.
Amy Fuller: Yes, and we'll talk to you soon. Everybody have a great rest of your day.
