JULY 2022
Chamber News THE VOICE OF BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
Class of 2022
Community Leadership Program
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
DEPARTMENTS
Chair of the Board Scott Harvard First Bank
04 | Letter from CEO 04 | New Members
Chair-Elect Charles Daniels Fortessa Tableware Solutions
05 | TVRC News and Events
FEATURES 06 | Community Leadership Program On the Cover:
Robert Claytor, CEO of H.N. Funkhouser presents his five leadership traits to the CLP graduates at Winchester Country Club. They were compassion, integrity, courage, perseverance and humility. Above:
07 | Reflections From CLP Class of 2022 Representative: Ben Savory 10 | ArtScape 13 11 | Fun with Membership
Treasurer Adrian Taylor YHB Immediate Past Chair John Fox GreenSen, LLC At Large Member Patti Solenberger Solenberger’s True Value Hardware
Vanessa McAllister, CLP Alumni and TVRC Director of Programs and Events, gets ready to call graduates of the CLP Class of 2022.
Top of Virginia Regional Chamber Sponsors
Vice Chair Cary Nelson H.N. Funkhouser & Company
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Emily Burner WMC Foundation Andy Gail Literacy Volunteers Winchester Area
Chamber Elite
Jenny Grooms Valley Health Jim Guisewhite SVN Commercial Specialists James Imoh Edward Jones Investments
Chairman’s Level
Kevin McKannan GlenLoch Legal, P.L.C.
President’s Level
Katrina Meade City National Bank Brian Nieves Tri-State Nissan Kristy Powers Navy Federal Credit Union
Media Sponsors
Thomas Stamulis True North Group Debera Taylor NW Works
Letter From Cynthia Schneider CEO, Top of Virginia Regional Chamber
CHAMBER STAFF
Leadership is a way of life that involves serving others by stepping up or stepping out as needed to meet a need or forge a new path. My first memory of leadership comes from the eyes of an eight-year-old. Looking back, I recognize the leadership of community-minded neighbors helped change the course of life for many children. When my brother and his friends' football games outgrew our backyard, my father and a few other dads organized a little league football program. These men saw a need and orchestrated a solution, sacrificing evenings and Saturdays after long days at work for us. Their service provided life-changing opportunities. Through playing together, we broke down racial and economic barriers, provided constructive activities for community youth, and shaped integral disciplines for our future successes. Another memorable leadership development opportunity for me was participating in TVRC's Community Leadership Program (CLP). As a proud alum of the class of 2018, CLP was a epiphany experience that strengthened my leadership abilities. Wow, the heartache I could have avoided in my early careers had I had the insight and skills working with others that I gained. I learned about the inner workings of our community, even after living in the Winchester area for thirty years, gaining an enriched understanding of the magnitude of effort to make our community, businesses, non-profit organizations, and government function. I vowed to never be an armchair quarterback about budgeting and legislative decisions again! This issue of the Voice of Business highlights TVRC's Community Leadership Program. It is our twenty-fifth anniversary of fostering leadership potential in the community to ensure continued growth and development in the Top of Virginia region. CLP is an in-depth nine-month program that provides participants with education and insight to provide the leadership necessary to understand and address complex issues our community faces. Introductions to existing community leaders, local government structures, educational systems, and various businesses and organizations provide participants with broadened perspectives. Collaboration builds camaraderie, offering opportunities for dialogue on current issues. I implore you to participate in this magnificent program.
Welcome
New Members
Cynthia Schneider | CEO Top of Virginia Regional Chamber
Thanks to our new members who joined the Chamber between June 1 and June 30. To learn more about membership benefits, call 540-662-4118.
Fox Meadow Barn (540) 664-2145 foxmeadowbarn.com
F&M Mortgage (540) 686-1267 fmbankva.com
New World Construction (540) 486-8820 newworld5051@gmail.com
Ellie’s Pub (540) 546-2700 ElliesIrishPubWinchester.com
Exhale Behavioral Health (703) 638-5575 exhalebehavioralhealth.com
Saving Grace Farm WV (571) 334-1721 savinggracefarmwv.com
Monument Entertainment (540) 546-2700 TheMonumentVA.com
Cool Techs Heating and Air (540) 631-1242 cool-techs.com
Mission Auto Repair (540) 546-3547 missionauto.repair
Kingspan Insulation kingspan.com/us/en-us/aboutkingspan/kingspan-insulation
Warrior Insurance (540) 546-4646 warriorins.com
Dream Weaver Team LLC powered by Samson Properties (703) 477-2988 oldtownist.com
Cynthia Schneider CEO
cschneider@regionalchamber.biz
Danita Roble Director, Membership Development
droble@regionalchamber.biz
Dan Hitchcock Membership Development Specialist
dhitchcock@regionalchamber.biz
Hannah Stewart Membership Development Specialist
hstewart@regionalchamber.biz
Julie Shaffer Director, Legislative Affairs
jshaffer@regionalchamber.biz
Vanessa McAllister Director, Programs & Events
vmcallister@regionalchamber.biz
Kory Campbell Director, Marketing & Communications
kcampbell@regionalchamber.biz
OUR PURPOSE Connect business and community resources for mutual success. OUR VISION Be the voice of business for Frederick & Clarke Counties and the City of Winchester, Virginia. OUR MISSION Provide programs and services to meet the business and professional needs of our members. 509 Airport Road, Suite 200 Winchester, VA 22602 540-662-4118 regionalchamber.biz
TVRC NEWS & EVENTS Lunch & Learn: Online - Zoom Tuesday, July 26, 2022 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Business After Hours 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm Market Street United Methodist Church Wednesday, July 13, 2022
How Your Business Can Prepare for the Leasing Standard Matthew Smith, CPA, CCIFP
Bank of Clarke County (2 East Main St. Berryville, VA) Wednesday, August 10, 2022
The intended audience is any entity or organization, that has a lease, that also prepares a US GAAP basis financial statement. The focus will be from a lessee’s perspective, not a lessor. This standard is applicable to most leases, with the most common being real estate, auto, machinery and equipment.
Bank of Clarke County (1835 Valley Ave. Winchester, VA) Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Every month, the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber holds an after-hours networking event designed for members to meet and build relationships with business people from small, midASC 842, Leases, is the new lease accounting standard size, and large companies and organizations representing issued by the FASB. The new standards contain guidance a variety of industries. Chamber Members host this event at on the accounting and financial reporting for the agreements their businesses to encourage networking in an informal atmeeting the standard’s definition of a lease. The updated mosphere complemented by food and beverage. Contact the standard applies to most lease and subleases, but some Top of Virginia Regional Chamber to host one of these great exceptions do exist. As the new effective date draws near, join events! Make sure to bring business cards and be ready to us as we go over the high points you will need to know as your network. If you would like to participate, bring a door prize and organization starts to plan for implementation. bring recognition to your business. Please visit regionalchamber.biz to register Please visit regionalchamber.biz to learn more
Class of 2022 Class of 2022 Community Leadership Program Graduates From Left to Right:
Marcus Adhikusuma, Michael Daddario, Sandra Bosley, Tiffany Cadoree, Janet Tully, Ben Savory, Christina Lawson, Seth Thatcher, Rebecca Horton, Jill Edlich, Will Lawrence, Kylie Feiring, Carly Stoliker, Brittni Athey (2021 Graduate), Jasmine Frye, Kelly Menk, Christy Taggart, Oscar Cerrito-Mendoza, Nancy Sawle, Amanda Neff, Rebecca Gibson, and Kevin Sheppard. Not Pictured: Vicki Culbreth, Jonathan Reimer, Sara Sims Valentine 2022 Gold Sponsors: American Woodmark, Grafton Integrated Health Network, Dr. Dave Leadership Corp., Navy Federal Credit Union, Handy Mart, H.N. Funkhouser, Tech Team Solutions 2022 Silver Sponsors: James Imoh Edward Jones Investments, Financial Advisor, TWG-The Winchester Group, and Winchester Printers. Thank you for your support!
This nine-month program runs the third Friday of each month from September through May. The program begins with an orientation August, followed by monthly sessions studying specific topics led by a combination of community leaders, professional facilitators, and specialists in the respective fields. This program is designed to provide insight into the challenges and opportunities that exist in the City of Winchester, Clarke County, and Frederick County, Virginia. Topics may include:
Leadership/Teamwork Non-Profits Community Culture Agriculture Government/Economic Development Education Health Care/Public Safety Community Problem Solving
Apply Now for the
Class of 2023
regionalchamber.biz/community-leadership-program
I want to thank my classmates for nominating me. Whether it was motivated out of mutual respect or motivated as punishment for always having a wise question to ask during a session, thank you anyway. I have seen a lot of speeches over the years. In fact, I see a lot of toasts every weekend. Averaging about three toasts between best man, maid of honor, and father of the bride, I have heard probably about 600. That may be hard to fathom, but because of that, I feel the need to do my best to give a best man toast to CLP ‘22. In my experience, there are a few things that make a good toast. One, write it down. Don’t wing it. We have all seen that. Introduce yourself because not everyone knows you are. Tell a personal story and highlight what you admire about CLP. Make them laugh. If you can’t make them laugh, make them cry. Give advice and get the hell out of there. No one came for you. Lastly, the best toasts have visual aids. So, to kick it off, I am Ben Savory. I run an events company that specializes in wedding DJs and photobooths. People always ask me; Do I get to party for a living? I tell them no. There is a lot of work preparing, planning, and dealing with pressure. You must be professional, but in reality, yeah, I get to party for a living, and I eat a lot of steak or salmon.
Reflections From CLP Class of 2022 Representative:
Ben Savory
I fell into this work accidentally, but now it seems inevitable. My dad owned a record store on Boscawen for a little while before I was born, and was a big, big music guy. When I was ten, my cousin would pick me up at 6 a.m. and have me run a soundboard and recording tape deck for church services. I went to college for theater and during the summers I would run soundboards and lights for summer camps. Then I found myself out of college, working in youth ministry. I had a couple of speakers and a microphone and a lot of friends getting married, including myself. Next thing you know, I move back home and DJing more and more. I hated telling people, no, I was booked and so I asked if someone could come to do it with me. And next thing you know, I’ve got a business, two kids, and I really care about this place we call home. I wanted to get more connected. I wanted to find more ways to help and so I join this thing called CLP and found myself to be the dumbest person in the room. I thought “I could learn from these people.” I do not know what I’m doing, but I filled out this form and Doctor Dave can now tell me exactly what I am doing, why I am doing it, and everything that I am terrible at.
several times for her events. John even went with me to look at wood slabs from a woodland Santa that was carrying a Glock. I grew close with a lot of you. When I saw others in this class struggle, or be hurt, or had people in the community coming after you, I got defensive. When people on Facebook blamed Seth for the county going to hell and pretty much the end of the world, I wanted to bang some heads together. If you knew him, you’d know better. Or, when folks were going to violently protest the schools over masks and budgets, I wanted to roll in We started flying through this program and I realize it’s hard to sum it up. I tried with Daddario like a personal bodyguard, though he obviously doesn’t need it. Or with a graph. when Jasmine was upset about parties being thrown on the site her ancestors The first thing is a blue line that’s going were owned, beaten, and traumatized, I straight out at a 45-degree angle and that’s growing personally and profession- wept. I was embarrassed for days beally. That line was hard to draw because cause that reality had never occurred to me. So that’s what I learned that there is Will Lawrence brought the average so so much of the community, about other high, that I had to remove him. He’s not people, and the corporate world that in there. He’s just already in the top tier. just never occurred to me. I bring such Then green where it kind of zigs up, comes down, zigs up, comes down, and a small perspective to the table, so here levels off. That’s the names of my class- is what some of my classmates learned. Tiffany said, “Not to judge a book by its mates I remember. The first day, I don’t think I knew anybody, and then I realized cover. The more success that we have in life, never forget to be humble and I didn’t remember anyone, and then give back to others who are in the same by the end, I gave up. The red is the amount of fun we were having. It started or different path.” Oscar said, “First, I out fun. It got really great. Then we went learned a lot about myself that helped me gain confidence in my personal and a toured a prison, so a small drop and professional life.” then it went up again. Then the drop is SimSoc. Then CPR was pretty good. The yellow which takes a steep dive and I learned a lot about the community, levels out is “Yeah, 8 a.m. is totally a fine which I’ve been a part of since I was ten years old. There are so many challenges time to start.” The orange is people who in our community we need to overcome, got new jobs during the program. And but at the same time, we have a lot of lastly, the purple line is the number of caring individuals that are helping tackle evaluations that got filled out. all of these. It takes different kinds of individuals and their views to make a Throughout the year, many of my classmates showed up in my life, which really community grow. I’m very optimistic that mattered to me. Tiffany and Oscar came our class includes a lot of those individuto another event that I was doing in Ster- als. Jasmine wrote, “From CLP, I learned how intentional and thoughtful people ling. Carly has booked my company
of my community are. With this same intent for work, may we apply it to diversity and inclusion.” Marcus said, “Leadership comes in so many different forms to the people we met, the different industries we come from. You can carry together and learn from each other and all of us and make an impact together. To me, the Community Leadership Program allowed me to see different parts of our city and the needs, but mostly, it allowed me to make lifelong relationships with new people.” So what do I say to a group of people? What advice do I give to the smartest in the room? I can only share what’s been on my mind a lot this year as a business owner, and that’s that I have been lied to, a lot, or at a minimum, mislead. I was told my whole life, that if I wanted it bad enough and I worked hard enough, I could be the best in the world. The best what? Well, that didn’t matter apparently. I just had to pick something. You could be the best something. The trick was, you had to figure it out. In reality, there is only one best of anything. The best soccer player, the best business, the best person. The best DJ. We make caveats. The best in America, the best in Virginia, the best in Winchester, the best at the corner of Cork and Cameron. I realize I am never going to be the best. I’m just not. I’m not even going to be the best friend, the best husband, or the best father. There are guys out there crushing it day in and day out. Here is why I don’t want to be the best business or DJ in the world anymore. I think when the mission is to be the best, a lot of compromises can be made to justify that endeavor. I think when the goal is to be the best business in the world, we are willing to cut corners, cut people, give up time with family, make sacrifices, victimize, be greedy, take
advantage, even lie, cheat, and steal. That is what it takes to be the best. You can justify taking out and demoralizing the competition and I just don’t want that. So I want to change the mindset. I want to be the best business for the world. It is not a caveat to me that I want to be the best DJ for this community. I believe if my focus is on being the best for my town and my neighbors, it changes when I say yes to and what I say no to. I may not charge someone as much as possible. I might give a little more away. I might help over there. I might hire that person that is a little rough. I might support, cheer, and even aid my competition. There’s enough to go around and I’m telling you, your clients and your employees want this. I know for me in my circle, we’re no longer choosing the cheapest or most convenient options. We’re paying attention to how companies impact the world. How are CEOs treating employees, conducting themselves, and spending their wealth? I don’t want to give my money to someone or something that isn’t striving to make an actual positive impact. I’m willing to spend more to buy local or even buy less quality if that means part of what’s going to others in need. This buy one, give one, or partial profit or social-driven business model is resonating for this reason. So my advice is to think about being the best for whatever you do for the community and how might that change a lot of other decisions you make. With that, let me get the hell out of the way. Let’s raise a glass to you, CLP ‘22. May the road always rise to meet you. May the sun shine warmly upon your face and may you never ever have to do SimSoc again.
ArtScape 13 Eight of the 56 artists participating in ArtScape 13 are young students, one first grader (Asher McDonald), three middle school students (Allison Day, Mia Schloemer and Mariska Sharma), and four in high school (Lilly Black, Mackenzie Bullock, Madison Faath and Aubrey Grove). Four of the students were juried in from the ShenArts K-8 Youth Art Month and Teen Art Club exhibits in March. The other four students submitted their art through the regular entry process and were selected by a jury along with the participating adults. The three youth in the photo, on the front row are Mia Schloemer, Mariska Sharma and Lilly Black.
Featured Artists Robert Ballard – Lilly Black – Debra Bourget – Lauri Bridgeforth – Mackenzie Bullock – Nina Burke – Kay Caldwell – Kelsey Camacho Zabala – Joyce Carrier – Sheilla Coyne – Tim Crisman – Allison Day – Christy Dunkle – Daniel Dunmire – Madison Faath – Larry Lee Fickau – Constance Fisher – Bonnie Flax – Aubrey Grove – Kathy Guzman – John Hudson – Alice Irvan – Nancy Kautz – Ashley Kincaid – Daniel Kratofil – Bernie Lewis – John P Lewis – Kris Loya – Marion Majher – Hana Malone – Mary Paula Malucci – Abby McDonald – Asher McDonald – Carole Miernik – Dawn Moore – Sally Myers – Elise Nicely – Jamie Pein – Victoria Pendragon – Deborah Phillips – Nancy Rabe – Susan Repic – Laura Robertson – Jeffrey Ryan – Scott Santmier – Mia Schloemer – Mariska Sharma – Patience Shirk – Billy Smelser – Kelly Stallard – Neil Stewart – Josie Tilton – Donna Varn – Krista Veit – Heather Williams – Ellen Zimmerman
Fun with Membership
Let's Cut the Ribbon!!!
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June was a wonderful month to celebrate big accomplishments and welcome new members. 1. Shenandoah Elevator hosts an open house for customer appreciation. 2. Froggy's Closet opens a new location. 3. Newtown Print & Mail opens and joins. 4. Aids Response Efforts (ARE) expands their footprint and services. 5. Fade Father Hair Studio opens in style. 7 6. F&M Bank welcomes a new location. 7. Runners' Retreat celebrates 20 years. 8. Community Foundation of the Northern Shenandoah Valley shines brightly at their 20th Anniversary as Jeff Taylor of the Winchester Star snaps a photo. 9. BrightView Health brings their addiction treatment services to the region.
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