Chamber Members in The News Nancy Dufresne has been promoted to a new role as vice president, small-business relationship manager and commercial lending at BankRI. She has worked at the bank for nearly 15 as a branch manager and market manager. In her new role, she will be responsible for managing relationships for small-business customers while cultivating new business relationships through fulfilling lending needs and banking products and services. Dufresne is a graduate of The Katharine Gibbs School and received a degree in business administration from the Community College of Rhode Island.
John Palumbo was recently re-elected by the members of the Greater Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau to serve a third three-year term as the member-elected representative on the board. Palumbo recently completed a two-year term as chairman of the organization.He will continue to serve on the CVB’s executive committee as immediate past chairperson. Palumbo is owner and publisher of Rhode Island Monthly Communications,Inc., which is most notably known for Rhode Island Monthly magazine.
Nancy E. Forte,RN, BSN, has been promoted to director of growth strategies for Home Care and Hospice of New England, the parent company of Visiting Nurse Home Care and Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island. Most recently, Forte was the business development officer for VNHC. In her new role, Forte will be responsible for integrating the development teams of VNHC and HHCRI to ensure they meet the needs of their health care partners and, in turn, drive volume growth for both organizations.
John P. Sullivan of Barrington has been promoted to senior vice president, technology, at Washington Trust. Sullivan is responsible for managing the corporation’s technology functions and initiatives, including hardware/software management, network services and help desk services. Sullivan joined Washington Trust in January 2012 as vice president, IT risk and security. Prior to joining Washington Trust, Sullivan served as the director of project management for Bank Rhode Island. Sullivan is a graduate of Boston College where he received a bachelor of arts and a master of science.
John Teixeira, CPA, CHBC, has been promoted to the position of senior tax manager at Sansiveri, Kimball and Co., LLP. Teixeira is the leader of the firm’s healthcare team, where he works closely with physicians and their practice groups to ensure that they are maximizing revenues while maintaining control of expenses. He assists clients in the development of compensation arrangements, in the calculation of overhead allocations and in the implementation of buy/sell agreements. Teixeira holds a master’s in taxation and a bachelor’s, cum laude, in accounting from Bryant University.
David M. Wax, who has been serving as acting executive director of the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre since June, took on the position permanently effective Nov. 30. Wax, former board president, has been acting as executive director since former director Yvonne Seggerman started a sabbatical in June. In October, Seggerman submitted her resignation to the Gamm Theatre board, informing them that she would not return as scheduled in January.
Time is running out. We still have seats left!
Don't miss this trip of a lifetime Discover Tuscany 
Discover Tuscany - March 7-16, 2013
Rome - Assisi - Basilica of St. Francis - Montecatini Terme Siena - San Gimignano - Winery Tour - Florence - Tuscan Feast
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Double $2,999*
Single $3,299*
Triple $2,969*
Round Trip Air from Logan Intl Airport, Air Taxes and Fees/Surcharges, hotel transfers are included in price.
*All rates are per person and subject to change
For more information on the trip, please contact Moe Rondeau of Travel Advisors International at 401-725-1234 or Moe@taitrips.com
To see the full itinerary, click here
Retailers Use Technology to Manage the Holiday Rush *By Karen E. Klein on December 11, 2012 A Thanksgiving weekend study (PDF) by small business finance provider Capital Access Network shows a 3.9 percent increase in same-store credit and debit-card sales at Main Street restaurants and merchandisers, compared to the same period in 2011. A recent look at how Etsy sellers are faring this holiday season indicates that sleepless nights lie ahead. How can independent retailers make the most of inexpensive technology to better manage their holiday rush online and off? Here are a handful of suggestions: 1. Prepare for spikes in traffic. Huge increases in Web traffic are good, says Shawn Busteed, vice president of technology at TBA Global, an event-planning agency in New York. “You’re in a bad position for all the right reasons if you’ve had a huge spike in sales,” Busteed says. He recommends that your Web manager run a free load-test tool during off hours to locate where your site’s breaking point, then put in a call to your website’s hosting company to make sure its servers are up to capacity and that it has plans in place to cope with heavy traffic in the next two weeks. Ensuring that your applications are updated and your backups are current will also help keep your website performing at its best.
Website down time—and the resulting sales and data loss—costs companies with under 500 employees more than $55,000 a year, according to a November 2010 survey sponsored by CA Technologies (CA). “Plan for 10 times the traffic you’re expecting, and that way you’ll be able to handle anything,” says Justin Moore, chief executive of Axcient, a Mountain View, Calif., data protection and information management company. Read the whole article... *Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues. * Reprinted with permisson from Business Week. Northern Rhode Island Chamber members can obtain an annual subscription rate of $39.97 a year. That's an 84% savings off the newsstand cost. Members will also receive free access to Business Week Online. To subscribe, go to www.businessweek.com, select "I am an individual signing up as part of as an existing Group Subscription Account" and enter the Chamber's account # BW52621964
Food Drive
The Smithfield/Providence Hampton Inn & Suites Is collecting non-perishable products to benefit the Rhode Island Community Food Bank
Please drop off your donations at the Hotel at 965 Douglas Pike in Smithfield
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