An Electronic Publication of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce
Inside this edition, you’ll discover the latest Chamber initiatives and success stories from across our region. From economic development projects and upcoming networking events to policy updates and workforce training opportunities, we’re keeping you connected to what matters most for your business and North Central Massachusetts.
June 2026
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How to Grow When It’s Slow: What Your Team Needs Right Now
“To really grow quickly,” says business expert Cameron Herold, “You have to be slightly more than a business, slightly less than a religion.”
Cameron explains further that, when you add publicity to a great culture, you attract more of the talented people who will fit your culture as you grow.
“The culture is what was going to allow us to bring those people into the organization quickly,” he adds.
Cameron Herold is a top business consultant, speaker, and author of Vivid Vision. We caught up with him via a recent podcast interview he did for Real Estate Rockstars Radio. He’s the mastermind behind hundreds of companies’ exponential growth and teaches today’s most dynamic business leaders.
Business leaders play a critical role in getting companies through slow growth periods. A crisis is characterized by enormous pressures and challenges that make it necessary for organizations to learn quickly in the fast-moving environment. Inspired by experts like Cameron, we’ve compiled a few suggestions for your business.
Demonstrate true leadership
Employees, customers, and suppliers will be looking to the management for direction when there is a crisis. Business leaders will need to stay connected with reality without focusing too much on the crisis. Instead, the leaders should clearly define the future so that staff can fit into the plan. Difficult and uncertain situations will require leaders who can remain calm, focused, energetic, and confident. A confident leadership will inspire the confidence of the different stakeholders, making it easier to navigate the tough times.
Transparent communication
The natural reaction for many people during a crisis will be fear and anxiety. Business leaders have to understand this and take steps to reassure stakeholders by maintaining transparent communication at all times. Employees will want to know the measures that have been put in place to ensure a secure work environment. Investors and customers will also want their concerns to be addressed proactively. Sometimes explicit communication will mean admitting to stakeholders that you are afraid or do not know something.
Encourage collaboration
When responding to a crisis, you will not have all the answers. You should consider calling on the capabilities of your employees and team members to help overcome the uncertainty. Leaders can bring talents together through task forces, and sub-taskforces with clearly defined roles. Continuous engagement with employees in this manner will reduce rumors and fear-mongering. Your staff will also have confidence in you and rely on your leadership for direction, creating a calm environment in which meaningful progress can be achieved.
Accelerate digital transformation
Businesses are continuously pursuing digital transformation programs to improve the efficiency of their operations. However, a crisis that causes major disruptions across many industries will make this transformation an urgent priority. Business leaders will have to accelerate the process to ensure that they find new ways of working and creating value through technology. Considering that employees will work remotely when it is slow, digital transformation will help address the current and future needs of your business.
Proper financial management
For any business to grow when it is slow, leadership teams will have to make tough decisions to cut costs. In essence, cash is king at a time of crisis, making it essential to focus on the company’s short-term and long-term financial health. It would be important to consult widely and make smart decisions that will place your business on the growth path. Prudent financial management will enable you to conserve the available resources and keep your business running.
Have a clear vision
Leadership teams should learn important lessons from any crisis and make the necessary adjustment to ensure the business is prepared for other crises in the future. These adjustments will also help to develop a clear vision that will be shared with the employees. The vision should describe every aspect of the business, painting a picture of where the leadership wants to take the company in the coming years. As you do this, you should not lose sight of other risks that could pose a threat to your business.
For information about how to become a better business owner or operator, check out the Second In Command Podcast at CameronHerold.com/podcast.
And stay tuned for the next article in the 6-part series How to Grow When It’s Slow on the topic of what not to do right now.
Article Source: The Statehouse News Service
Article Author: Matt Murphy
AUG. 14, 2020…..Apologies to Pink Floyd, but experts agree kids do need some education. The nagging question is how best to provide it.
Learning is supposed to resume in a matter of weeks, but tension abounds between the state, districts, teachers’ unions, and parents about whether it’s safe to return to the classroom and whether remote learning is an acceptable substitute.
The state’s two major unions – the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the American Federation of Teachers – want school buildings to remain shuttered, at least to start the year. But Gov. Charlie Baker said he “can’t imagine” why most kids wouldn’t be returning to school given the current status of the virus in Massachusetts.
After creeping up and ringing some alarm bells, the statewide positive test rate is back down around 1.5 percent, which is the lowest it’s been since widespread testing began.
Baker has preached local control throughout much of the pandemic, and rolled out a new rubric this week for people, including school administrators, to make decisions based on what’s happening in their own communities, not just across the state.
But he also made clear where he comes down on the question of remote versus in-person schooling. He’s had less to say about fall athletics, though his administration also warned this week that sports like football and basketball are inherently more risky than tennis.
Gov. Charlie Baker looked up at a television screen displaying the state’s new color-coded COVID-19 infection rate map during a Tuesday news conference. [Sam Doran/SHNS]
The administration deployed another “stoplight” system to track each city and town’s progress in controlling COVID-19. The new color-coded maps of Massachusetts municipalities shade cities and towns “red,” “yellow,” or “green” based on the prevalence and spread of the coronavirus.
The colors correlate to average new daily cases reported over the previous two weeks, with “green” towns reporting fewer than four daily cases per 100,000 people, and “red” towns reporting more than eight new cases a day for every 100,000 people.
A fourth category – white – means a municipality has had fewer than five new cases reported in total over the past two weeks.
“If you’re in a green or a white community, I can’t imagine a good reason not to go back, whether it’s full-time or some sort of a hybrid, because for all intents and purposes you meet all the benchmarks that are being used across the country and across New England to make decisions about whether it’s safe to go back to school,” Baker said.
The governor said that unlike remote learning in the spring, the start of a new school year means students starting new grades with teachers they don’t know, and vice versa. Learning to read, he has said, is not a virtual exercise.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education formalized the governor’s position when it told the 305 green and yellow communities that the state expected them to prioritize in-person learning, though there’s no consequence for disobedience.
For 46 other communities, that is not their situation.
In these higher-risk communities, the state has put together an inter-agency task force to offer assistance with testing, contact tracing and enforcement of public and private gathering size limits.
The state said it will also help, if asked, with public awareness campaigns to remind people to stay focused.
“We’re making progress and have made progress in our fight, but we’re seeing the effects of too many people letting their guard down and simply relaxing, get in the way of some of our continued move forward,” Baker said.
Eleven municipalities have been put in the most at-risk “red” category, including Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Revere, Fall River, Granby, Holyoke, Hull, Lawrence, Saugus and Salem. Those cities and towns, Education Commissioner Jeff Riley said, should begin the year with remote instruction.
Solving the school conundrum is not easy, but there was no controversy over what should happen with the Democratic National Convention next week, which was supposed to take place in Milwaukee before the pandemic.
The DNC will be fully remote. Not even Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, will be there in person.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren scored a Wednesday night speaking role at the virtual DNC, but it was not the time slot many of her supporters may have been hoping to see. Biden this week announced California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, making the daughter of Indian and Jamaican parents the first Black woman to run on a major party presidential ticket. She will give her acceptance speech on Wednesday night.
In picking Harris, Biden passed over Warren who was on the list of women the former vice president vetted for the job. But given the pressure on Biden to pick a woman of color, the outcome was not unexpected.
“I don’t worry about where she ends up or her influence on what happens during a Biden presidency. She’s already proven they work together well, and she’ll be a number one player wherever she is,” said Gus Bickford, chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
Some have Warren ticketed for the Treasury if Biden can topple President Donald Trump in November, while others think she could be more powerful in the Senate, especially if Democrats can regain control of that body.
Regardless, there were probably more than a few eager Democrats who had to put their ambitions on ice, at least for now, as they wait to see whether a Senate seat opens up before 2024.
The competition for the state’s other Senate seat heated up, with U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III squaring off in their second-to-last debate before the Sept. 1 primary.
Polling has shown the race to be tight, and after refusing to sign a pledge to keep outside money out of their race, Markey is now hammering Kennedy over the support he is receiving from a new super PAC that may, or may not, be funded in part by Kennedy’s father, who himself was a congressman.
Markey has also benefited from super PAC spending, which Kennedy’s team is all too willing to point out.
Things may be getting uglier in the Senate race, but not as ugly as they got this week out west where UMass College Democrats accused Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, who is gay, of inappropriately contacting students through social media channels. Morse denies taking advantage of his position as a UMass lecturer to meet men, but says he won’t apologize for using dating apps in his personal life.
Some LGBTQ lawmakers like Sen. Julian Cyr have come to Morse’s defense, suggesting a double standard in the face of unsubstantiated claims. Some reports have even suggested it may have been an orchestrated attempt to hurt Morse’s campaign against U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who has denied any involvement.
The truth may be a bit blurred, but it’s clear it’s crunch time for a lot of campaigns as early voting is underway.
Dave Cavell, the one-time speechwriter in the Obama White House who advised Attorney General Maura Healey before leaving her office to run for Congress, saw his time running out.
Cavell suspended his campaign in the Fourth Congressional District, and endorsed Jesse Mermell. In doing so, Cavell not only talked up Mermell’s progressive credentials, but said he it was a strategic move to avoid further splintering the vote in what’s now an eight-person field in a way that could make it easier for Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss to win.
Auchincloss has become the crowded field’s favorite punching bag after the Boston Globe’s editorial board endorsed his campaign, despite some controversial comments he’s made in the past on social media.
For instance, his rivals view his free-speech comparison between the Confederate Flag and Black Lives Matter banners as disqualifying. He has since called those comments a mistake.
Cavell, however, was only the tip of the iceberg, because after he exited the race his former, and much better known, boss Healey also endorsed Mermell.
The attention on the campaign trail this week is what August is usually like in an even-numbered year, even though this is no usual year and the Legislature extended its session beyond the traditional July 31 recess date.
Legislative leaders suggested they would call lawmakers back into session this month if and when any of the conference committees negotiating policing, climate change, telehealth, economic development and transportation spending bills reached a deal.
So far, that hasn’t happened.
Also this past week:
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Vacationland voters should not be able to decide the fate of a transmission line needed to bring Canadian hydropower from Quebec to Massachusetts.
Rep. Shawn Dooley, a Norfolk Republican, used Facebook as a platform to rail against “King Charles” and what he sees as the governor’s trampling of the Constitution through executive orders aimed at controlling COVID-19, namely the conditions placed on travelers visiting from places like Rhode Island.
Supreme Judicial Court Justice Barbara Lenk decided to postpone her planned retirement from August to December when she actually bumps up against the mandatory retirement age of 70, giving Baker more time to seek out qualified, and diverse, applicants for his sixth nomination to the top court.
STORY OF THE WEEK: To Zoom or not to Zoom, that is the superintendent’s question.
SONG OF THE WEEK: No matter how students return this fall, they can always be true to their school
Article Source: The Statehouse News Service
Article Author: Chris Lisinski
AUG. 7, 2020…..American employers added nearly 1.8 million jobs in July while the unemployment rate declined to 10.2 percent, restoring another chunk of the jobs lost during the pandemic but at a slower pace than in recent months.
The 1.76 million positions added are more than three times the gains as any pre-pandemic month since 2000, but the boost also lags behind the 2.7 million jobs added in May and the 4.8 million added in June, according to federal datapublished Friday.
Altogether, the three continuous months of rising employment have clawed back less than half of the historic 21.3 million jobs cut in April, when many businesses were ordered to close physical operations to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“The economy fell off a cliff at the end of the first quarter of 2020 and we have been slowly climbing back ever since, thanks in large part to government support,” Citizens Bank Head of Global Markets Tony Bedikian said in a statement. “We have seen a very troubling increase in COVID-19 cases in many states that had reopened for business, but we continue to be cautiously optimistic that the overall U.S. economy has turned a corner, and that the solid job gains announced today will be sustained.”
Job gains came in most industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with leisure and hospitality and food services and drinking places — two of the categories most sharply affected by mandatory shutdowns — together accounting for nearly 1.1 million of the new positions.
Retail trade added another 258,000 jobs in July, while health care employment increased 126,000.
Total jobs in the public sector rose by 301,000 in July, federal officials said, countering a traditional trend of declining in July before seasonal adjustment is applied.
“Employment declines occurred earlier than usual this year due to the pandemic, resulting in unusually large July increases in local government education (+215,000) and state government education (+30,000) after seasonal adjustment,” BLS wrote in its report. “A July job gain in federal government (+27,000) reflected the hiring of temporary workers for the 2020 Census.”
Economists have warned that major cuts to government services could be on the horizon if Congress and President Donald Trump do not agree on an aid package that will help close massive state and local budget gaps opened by the pandemic. Negotiations in Washington are ongoing, with no compromise appearing imminent Friday morning.
Officials also announced that the national unemployment rate — determined through a different survey than total employment — declined to 10.2 percent in July, a 0.9 percentage point drop from June.
That, too, reflects the volatility of the current economic reality. Dropping almost a full percentage point from the unemployment rate — particularly after hitting a high of 14.7 percent in April — is itself an almost unprecedented improvement, but the pace is again slower than in May or June.
Even after declining, the July national unemployment rate was still at a level not observed since April 1983.
BLS said in its release that the share of responses that had been misclassified was significantly lower in June and July than earlier months during the pandemic, when the surveys were hampered by the pandemic’s impact.
“For March through June, BLS published an estimate of what the unemployment rate would have been had misclassified workers been included,” the bureau wrote. “Repeating this same approach, the overall July unemployment rate would have been about 1 percentage point higher than reported. However, this represents the upper bound of our estimate of misclassification and probably overstates the size of the misclassification error.”
Many states in recent months have eased the initial restrictions they placed on business and public activity earlier in the pandemic, though surging case numbers have prompted several governors to pump the brakes on their reopening plans, which could create an uneven recovery process.
Officials will publish July employment numbers and unemployment rates for all 50 states on Aug. 21. In June, Massachusetts had the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 17.4 percent, even though the state’s businesses added a record 83,700 jobs.
Fore Then Pore: Golf Clinic, 9 Hole Play & End of Summer Bash
August 21, 2026
Golf Clinic, 9 Hole Play & End of Summer Bash
August 21, 2026
The Woods of Westminster
Event Start at 1:00pm View
Event
Sponsors Reception: Old Mill
August 26, 2026
Thank you to all our sponsors who help sponsor this past 2025-2026 program year! We are truly honored by your continued support and efforts to continue to make our community thrive! View
Event
OXFORD, Massachusetts: Matthew S. Sosik, President and CEO of bankHometown, announced that its 2018 Neighbors Helping Neighbors Campaign has resulted in total donations of $25,000. This is the 15th year that bankHometown has invited local residents and businesses to help support local food pantries as a way for the bank and its customers to reduce food insecurity in their communities.
Customers of the bank and community members were invited to be a “Hometown Hero” for a $1 donation or a “Hometown Superhero” for a $5 donation. In addition to the in-branch fund drive, bankHometown also invited business customers to support the campaign. bankHometown matched all of the donations dollar for dollar and split the funds among food pantries that serve the areas surrounding each of its thirteen offices in central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut.
“Over the past 15 years, this campaign has evolved into a successful and collaborative effort from customers, community members and our employees, to support local food pantries that need help with inventory during the holidays. We are proud to be an example of Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” said Sosik.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors donations benefit (in MA) the Auburn Youth and Family Services, Inc. Food Pantry (Auburn), CARE Food Pantry (Clinton), Food Share (Southbridge, Charlton & Sturbridge), Ginny’s Helping Hand, Inc. (Leominster), Oxford Ecumenical Food Shelf (Oxford), Salvation Army (Athol), St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry (Webster); (in CT) Daily Bread(Putnam), Friends of Assisi (Killingly), and Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group (TEEG) (Thompson).
To date, more than $167,500 has been distributed through this program.
bankHometown is a member of the Hometown Financial Group. Founded in 1889 as Hometown Bank, bankHometown is headquartered in Oxford, Massachusetts, bankHometown has 13 branches located throughout central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. For more information, please visit www.hometowncoop.com.
Hometown Financial Group, a $2.1 billion mutual holding company headquartered in Easthampton, Massachusetts, is the parent company of bankESB and bankHometown. Both banking franchises offer a complete line of commercial, business, and consumer banking and lending products and services to customers through its 24 branches located throughout western and central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. For more information on Hometown Financial Group please visit www.bankhfg.com.
OXFORD, MA:bankHometown kicked off their 16th annual pajama drive on November 26th with a challenge to residents to help support local children in need of new pajamas or slippers.
From now until December 15th, all 13 bankHometown branches will be accepting pajama donations for children sizes 4T and up, as well as small and medium sizes in men and women. Pajamas must be in complete sets (top and bottom) or an appropriate nightgown. The pajamas and slippers will go to local shelters throughout central Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.
“We believe in giving back to our community all year round, but especially for children during the winter and holiday season,” said Matthew Sosik, President and CEO of bankHometown. “This initiative is to give children in our communities the warmth and comfort they may need during the cold winter nights.”
The pajamas and slippers are sent to local schools in central Massachusetts and northern Connecticut, as well as the TEEG (Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group) in Thompson, Connecticut.
bankHometown was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in Oxford, Massachusetts, bankHometown has 13 branches located throughout central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. For more information, please visit www.hometowncoop.com.
Hometown Financial Group (HFG), a $2.1 billion mutual holding company headquartered in Easthampton, Massachusetts, is the parent company of bankESB and bankHometown. Both banking franchises offer a complete line of commercial, business, and consumer products to customers throughout its 24 branches located throughout western and central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. For more information on Hometown Financial Group, please visit www.bankhfg.com.
Member Spotlight
Custom Cleaning Service of Peabody
When the workday ends and the lights go down, Custom Cleaning Service of Peabody, Inc. gets to work. “We operate as our clients’ silent partner after business hours,” says Adam Paicos, of Templeton, who now serves as Director of Operations and oversees the company’s expansion into North Central MA. “We are not often seen, but we ensure facilities are clean, secure, and ready for business each day while serving as the eyes and ears for our clients when they are not on site.”
Discover local business stories through our Inside North Central Massachusetts Podcast series. Listen as Chamber members share their journeys, insights, and contributions to our thriving regional business community.
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