Long Beach Business Journal, March 31-April 13

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March 31-April 13, 2015

www.lbbusinessjournal.com

SPECIAL REPORT – THE NONPROFIT SECTOR

FOCUS ON WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Nonprofits Face Challenges In Attracting And Retaining Members, Boardmembers ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer t’s no secret that during ecoIpinching nomic downturns people start their pennies, reducing

Heather Peterson is president and CEO of Long Beach-based Girl Charlee See Story on Pages 16-17

Local Women-Owned Firms Contribute To Economy, Community

Angela Almaguer Salud Juice

Gail Desilets Marriage & Family Therapist

Loise “Mumbi” Kahenya Mumbi’s Designs

Laura Kim KBQ Korean BBQ

aking up 30 percent of all businesses in the United States, women-owned businesses are a M significant contributor to the national economy. According to the results of a recent survey of 289 U.S. metropolitan areas by NerdWallet, an online resource providing financial and consumer research, California stands out among other states for its high concentration of women-owned businesses.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area mirrors national trends for women-owned businesses, with 29.8 percent of all businesses owned by women, according to NerdWallet. Of these businesses, 11.4 percent retain employees. In this region, the unemployment (Please Continue To Page 14)

Net Neutrality: Allowing For Equal Access And Innovation, Or Is It A ‘Radical Step?’ he Federal CommunicaT tions Commission’s (FCC) recent decision on so-called net neutrality was going to be a landmark no matter where it came down, but a seismic event that could have turned Long Beach’s burgeoning colony of e-ntrepre-

of Association Executives, told the Business Journal. Associations are professional, trade-related and member-driven nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit service organizations, such as Rotary International, also rely heavily on maintaining a healthy membership base, both for membership fees and volunteer hours.

Jeffrey Wilcox, founder and CEO of the Third Sector Company, which provides interim executive management and succession planning for nonprofits – and author of the Third Sector Report that has appeared in the Business Journal for the past five years – said nonprofit membership figures have suffered since (Please Continue To Page 18)

APRIL 14 SPECIAL ELECTION

■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer

■ By DAVE WIELENGA Contributing Writer

or even totally halting discretionary spending like making donations to nonprofit organizations.

Similarly, in these times it’s not uncommon for work to take priority over volunteering because, as the old adage goes, “time is money.”

While the recession is now behind us, nonprofit groups are still faced with challenges in attracting and retaining members and boardmembers – challenges nonprofit experts and leaders say is linked to a slow recovery from recession-related issues.

“Associations feel like membership is getting better, but it is getting better slowly rather than more quickly,” Jim Anderson, president and CEO of the California Society

Long Beach Community Foundation A One-Stop Shop For Giving See Story Page 20 Long Beach-based Archstone Foundation Honored See Story Page 22

neurs into an e-ndangered species has instead preserved everyone’s potential in a peaceable kingdom.

Essentially, the February 26 ruling enshrined equal opportunity as the central tenet of online American life. The Internet will henceforth be regulated as a public utility. Broadband has been reclassified as a Title II telecommunications service under the

Long Beach Business Journal 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212 Signal Hill, CA 90755-2139 562/988-1222 • www.lbbusinessjournal.com

1934 Communications Act, meaning it will be governed by the same rules that apply to tele(Please Continue To Page 3)

Despite Supernaw’s Superior Credentials, Many Of City’s Elected Officials Back Chico ■ By GEORGE ECONOMIDES Publisher’s Perspective n case you haven’t been payILonging attention, nearly every Beach elected official – the mayor, seven of eight councilmembers, the state senator and state assemblyman – has endorsed Herlinda Chico in the April 14 special election for the 4th City Council District. So have the

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE

PAID Los Angeles, CA PERMIT NO. 447

Colombian-born Juan Pablo Montoya returned to IndyCar racing in 2014, following six years with Formula One and seven seasons with NASCAR. He first began with IndyCar in 1999, becoming the youngest driver ever at 24 to win the championship. He is profiled in this edition of the Business Journal. (Jack Fleming photo) See Story Pages 24-25

city’s top two unions – police and fire – which usually spend the most on independent expenditures for candidates they support.

Fourth District voters have to ask themselves, “What is going on?” It appears these officials have based their decision on political motives rather than who has given the most to the community.

Chico, after all, cannot stand in Daryl Supernaw’s shadow when it comes to being involved in the 4th District. Supernaw has a lengthy list covering decades of involvement in the district; Chico has done zip, nada, nothing within the district prior to her election run.

For example, read this malarky from former district councilman, now assemblymember, Patrick O’Donnell in his support for Chico: “Fourth District residents need somebody who is willing to stand up and protect us from the threat of unncessary airport expansion and attempted attacks on our noise ordinance.”

There is no threat of airport expansion, and O’Donnell knows it.

There is no attempt to attack the (Please Continue To Page 11)

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2 Long Beach Business Journal

Inside This Issue 3

12 14 18

Newswatch

• Net Neutrality, Continued From Pg 1 • ‘Reliability, Predictability, Stability:’ How The Port Of Long Beach Is Retaining And Attracting Business • Long Beach College Promise Earns $5 Million Award • City’s Medical Cannabis Task Force To Meet April 1 • 4th District City Council Race And Outside Money

Real Estate Industry

• The Olson Company #1 In Customer Service Experience • City To Sell Former Redevelopment Properties

Focus On Women In Business

• Mini Profiles On Four Small Business Women • Girl Charlee On City’s West Side Goes From A Home-Based Operation To Successful Enterprise

Special Report – The Nonprofit Sector • The Long Beach Community Foundation • The Archstone Foundation

March 31-April 13, 2015

24 26 28 30 31

Countdown To 2015 Grand Prix Race

• Juan Pablo Montoya: Still Racy After All These Years

In The News

• Tim Meyer New GM For Local Hyatt Hotels • Greg Guthrie New GM For Doubletree Hilton Carson • Neena Strichart Named District’s Woman Of The Year • Ukleja Centers Honors The Late Louis Zamperini

Perspective

Realty Views By Terry Ross Small Business Dollars & Sense By Ben Alvarado HealthWise By Jocelyn Craig, M.D. Third Sector Report By Jeffrey Wilcox Effective Leadership By Mick Ukleja

Art Matters

Presented By The Arts Council For Long Beach

The Nonprofit Page

Presented By The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership

Free: Long Beach Business Journal Digital Edition, Monday Morning Coffee, NewsFlash Sign up at: www.lbbusinessjournal.com • Follow us on Twitter: @LBBizJourn

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2015

March 31-April 13, 2015

3

Net Neutrality (Continued From Page 1)

phone service – most notably, the rule that promises everybody the same access to the network.

“Open Internet rules say it is against the law to prioritize some traffic over other,” said Gwen Shaffer, an assistant professor of journalism at California State University, Long Beach, who sits on the new Long Beach Technology and Innovation Commission formed by Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia. “The FCC’s decision makes it unlawful for Internet service providers to make fast lanes of distribution available to content providers who are willing and able to pay a higher price.”

And since service providers are increasingly becoming providers of content, too, the FCC ruling likewise prohibits them from giving priority to their own content or throttling content from others.

But this isn’t all about corporate accounting.

“It’s a huge victory for consumers,” Shaffer said. “First of all, any higher costs incurred by the big content providers eventually would have been paid by their customers.

“But although the service providers definitely would have been going for the big guys, such as Netflix and Google, being able to charge content providers to send content would eventually impact anybody with a website – including anybody with a blog.”

The cable operators, wireless providers and phone companies that constitute the (Please Continue To Page 5)

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Net Neutrality (Continued From Page 3)

big service providers have invalidated two previous incarnations of FCC net neutrality rules with successful court challenges.

They were even more opposed to the proposal to apply Title II to broadband, frequently describing it as a “nuclear option” whose fallout was sure to be full of unintended toxic consequences.

But, in the aftermath of the latest FCC decision, their response has been minimal and mostly prepackaged.

When Shaffer organized a forum at CSULB to discuss the consequences of the FCC decision, she intended to create a panel of experts that represented a complete range of viewpoints. She got all but one.

“I tried,” she said. “I probably called 40 telecom industry people. I called the big companies – Time Warner, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon – and I called the little ones.

I tried every lawyer I could find in the L.A. area who had a telecom company as a client. I tried everyone. I couldn’t get any of them to come.”

Mike Murray, Verizon’s director of government and external affairs in the Long Beach area, was pleasant when the Business Journal contacted him for an interview but suggested contacting Jarryd Gonzales in media relations. Gonzales could not be reached for comment, but a couple of days later an e-mail arrived from Rich Young, also in media relations, but in a different Verizon office.

It read: “I work in Verizon’s Washington,

NEWSWATCH

Long Beach Business Journal 5

D.C., policy organization. You reached out to our colleagues regarding a statement on Net Neutrality. There’s a link to our most recent statement below. Beyond that, we’ve had no further comment.”

The link retrieved a Verizon news release that was dated February 26, 1934 – the month and day of the recent FCC decision but the year of the 1934 Communications Act. The headline: Title II Regulations a ‘Net’ Loss for Innovation and Consumers; FCC’s ‘Throwback Thursday’ Move Imposes 1930s Rules on the Internet.

The lead: “WASHINGTON – Today (Feb. 26) the Federal Communications Commission approved an order urged by President Obama that imposes rules on broadband Internet services that were written in the era of the steam locomotive and the telegraph.”

(Please Continue To Page 6)

“Most people fail to realize the significance of net neutrality principles, although they rely on them every time they stream a video, surf the web and download music.”

Gwen Shaffer, Assistant Professor of Journalism California State University, Long Beach, Member, Long Beach Technology and Innovation Commission (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

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6 Long Beach Business Journal

March 31-April 13, 2015

NEWSWATCH

“Certainly if there was an Internet fast lane and an Internet slow lane and you had to pay extra for the higher speed or to use certain services – that would certainly stifle innovation.”

D. W. Ferrell, CEO Localism, Inc., Executive Director Long Beach Tech, Member, Long Beach Technology and Innovation Commission

(Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Net Neutrality (Continued From Page 5)

The remainder of the release was a missive from Michael E. Glover, Verizon’s senior vice president, public policy and government affairs. Glover characterized the FCC decision as a “radical step that presages a time of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors.” He said if it were truly necessary to “change the way the commercial Internet has operated since its creation,” such a change should have resulted from a process of “policy analysis,

full transparency, and by the legislature, which is constitutionally charged with determining policy.” He concluded by pledging “Verizon’s commitment to an open Internet that provides consumers with competitive broadband choices and Internet access when, where, and how they want.”

Together, the silence and the statement seem to translate into another trip to court.

It was Verizon’s legal challenge that convinced the United States Court of Appeals to overturn the FCC’s 2010 Open Internet Rules on January 14, 2014.

But those rules were not very popular

with anybody. Consumer groups, entrepreneurs and members of congress said they were weak for permitting the higher-speed and higher-priced fast lanes and the potential for slowing down or blocking various Internet traffic.

The rules that the FCC just imposed are much more comprehensive.

What’s the takeaway for Long Beach’s dream of becoming a hot zone for digital technology and Internet entrepreneurism?

That it could still happen.

Net neutrality precludes the appearance of any number of obstacles to grassroots in-

novation, said D.W. Ferrell, another member of the Long Beach Technology and Innovation Commission.

“Think about start-up costs,” said Ferrell, whose resume – CEO of a start-up called Localism, Inc., executive director of the non-profit LB Tech and member of the Long Beach Technology and Innovation Commission – suggests he thinks about them a lot. “Certainly if there was an Internet fast lane and an Internet slow lane and you had to pay extra for the higher speed or to use certain services – that would certainly stifle innovation.”

Although there has been no boom or breakthrough in Long Beach-area Internet activities, the drumroll of publicity preceding the FCC decision appears to have raised awareness of elements of online business – philosophies, models, plans, practices, profits and dilemmas both legal and ethical – and revealed a segment of the city’s business community that may be stronger than had been commonly thought.

Among the current components of the Long Beach e-ntrepreneurial scene: • WE Labs (Work Evolution Laboratories), which occupies the entire eighth floor of the Pacific Tower building, offering members work space (private and shared) and the opportunity to network with other members in fields that include graphic design, marketing, mobile app programming, web development, film direction, music production, fashion design and copywriting.

• Schwag, which connects small businesses to customers with advertisements and coupons that are accessed with a mobile phone app.

• The Innovation Fund at Long Beach City College, which funds and mentors entrepreneurs who are leading start-ups that are innovation-led and that have highgrowth potential.

• LB Tech (LBTech.org), a non-profit dedicated to advancing Long Beach as a center for tech innovation.

Oh, and all the rest of us.

“Most people fail to realize the significance of net neutrality principles,” said Shaffer, “although they rely on them every time they stream a video, surf the web and download music.” ■

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March 31-April 13, 2015

NEWSWATCH

Long Beach Business Journal 7

‘Reliability, Predictability, Stability:’ How The Port Of Long Beach Is Retaining And Attracting Business ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer As the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles continue working to clear crowded docks and a backlog of more than two dozen ships at anchor – remnants of months long labor contract negotiations and other supply chain issues – both are experiencing significant losses in cargo traffic. Dr. Noel Hacegaba, chief commercial officer for the Port of Long Beach (POLB), assured the Business Journal that the port is working diligently to retain and attract business as it digs out from under the backlog.

In February, the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) saw a 10.2 percent year-overyear decline in cargo traffic, while the POLB’s decrease was twice that at 20.1 percent. “There is a lot of cargo that was destined to come and because of the backlog that we’re in the middle of clearing out, it continues to back up,” Hacegaba said. While he attributed the main cause of the decrease in cargo traffic to congestion, he acknowledged some cargo has likely been rerouted to other ports. “The fact is that some of the cargo was diverted because of the congestion that we just experienced,” he said.

Long Beach College Promise Earns $5 Million Award The Long Beach College Promise program initiated in 2008 is a proven success with statistics to back it up.

That success has now resulted in a $5 million prize announced March 20 as part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Awards for Innovation in Higher Education initiative.

The College Promise – which had the highest score among the 58 applicants for the prize – provides a free semester at Long Beach City Collge (LBCC) for Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) high school graduates, and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) guarantees admission to all Promise students who complete admission requirements.

The numbers show that more than 9,800 students have taken advantage of a free semester at LBCC, and LBUSD grads enrolling at CSULB has increased by 43 percent. Last year, at the urging of Mayor Robert Garcia, the City of Long Beach joined the effort, with a focus on early education and internships. No word yet on how the prize money will be utilized.

In addition to CSULB, seven other campuses in the CSU system are receiving monetary awards, ranging from $2.5 million to $5 million each. Locally, CSU Dominguez Hills is to receive $3 million for its “National Laboratory and Model for Student Academic Success” initiative that has, according to a statement, “engaged in testing, expanding and implementing innovative and proven strategies for improving student retention and graduation rates.” ■ – George Economides

“We have heard cargo owners tell us that they would prefer to send their cargo through Long Beach, but because of the congestion they are looking for alternatives,” Hacegaba said. “But we have also heard that the alternatives are more costly.

We take that to mean that any diversion plans that they implement will be temporary.” Another factor at play in stunted cargo traffic was the Chinese New Year in mid-February, during which time cargo traffic usually decreases, he pointed out.

“If you look at the number of vessels at anchor . . . we see a steady decline in that number, which is a good sign because it means that we’re digging ourselves out of

the backlog,” Hacegaba said. “We anticipate that it will be 90 days before we are back to normal operations.”

A confluence of factors led to the intense congestion, including a shortage of chassis (the equipment truckers use to haul containers) and vessels with massive loads of cargo visiting the port more frequently. Exacerbating the issue was that, as the International Longshore And Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association (the group representing the employers of longshore workers) negotiated a new contract, fewer workers than necessary to perform normal operations were deployed to docks to move cargo.

Port staff has been in frequent contact with beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) – the companies that own the cargo passing through the port – since these issues began. “What I can tell you is we have intensified our outreach to the beneficial cargo owners,” Hacegaba said. “We have always had a good relationship with the BCOs and have cultivated the lines of communication with them over the years, but we have intensified that ever since we started seeing the diversion [of cargo],” he noted.

“The question on everyone’s mind is, ‘How soon before you return to normal (Please Continue To Page 8)

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8 Long Beach Business Journal

NEWSWATCH

March 31-April 13, 2015

Port Of Long Beach (Continued From Page 7)

“We’re working closely with our partners – the terminal operators, the ocean carriers – to improve efficiency, improve productivity and to increase velocity. That’s very important to us: not just to clear the backlog, but also to improve velocity in our gateway over the long haul.”

Noel Hacegaba, Chief Commercial Officer Port of Long Beach

operations?’ . . . We have a lot of shippers who are wanting to know where their cargo is and how soon they can get it,” Hacegaba said. “They are also very interested in the long term, because they are getting ready to make decisions about next year’s shipments, and they need to know that they can have confidence in our gateway,” he explained. “That’s why we have intensified our outreach by communicating to them what we’re doing in the short run and what our plans are . . . to ensure that some of these operational issues that we’ve experienced in recent months don’t occur again.”

Last month, Mayor Robert Garcia joined POLB Chief Executive Jon Slangerup and members of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on a business development trip to Europe.

“We spent a week visiting the world’s top three ocean carriers. We had very productive meetings,” Hacegaba said. “I think that we were successful in conveying our efforts in the short run and for the long run, and instilling confidence in them about our port.”

Hacegaba is the principal liaison between the port and its customers. When asked what he emphasizes to the BCOs and ocean carrier line representatives to keep their business, he summarized: “We’re the shortest distance from Asia.

We have the best rail access. We have the best infrastructure and we’re

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March 31-April 13, 2015

readiness, in terms of resources and in terms of investments,â€? he said. “All of our investments and efforts are focused on providing to the ocean carriers and the shippers what they want: reliability, predictability, and stability.â€? â–

longshore labor contract negotiations, a factor that those trying to take business away from West Coast ports are quick to emphasize. Last month, Florida Governor Rick Scott sent a letter to shipping industry professionals informing them he would be coming to California on April 12 to try to win their business. “According to media reports, a nine-month long labor dispute that ended in late February involving ports along the west coast of the United States has caused major delays and uncertainties in unloading ships and delivering goods which could affect normal operations for up to six months,� Scott wrote. “Florida ports are undoubtedly a solution to this problem.�

But overtures like Scott’s don’t worry Hacegaba. “When you look at the Port of Long Beach and the Florida ports on paper, there is just not even a comparison in terms of scale, in terms of big ship

First Meeting Of City’s Medical Cannabis Task Force Set For April 1 – No Fooling The 17-member City of Long Beach Medical Cannabis Task Force is set to meet for the first time tomorrow, April 1, 6 p.m., at the Long Beach Oil and Gas Department (Spring Street at Junipero Avenue). The first meeting’s agenda includes a review of the Ralph M. Brown

Long Beach Business Journal 9 Act, reommendations to elect a chair and vice chair, and a presentation by city staff on the city’s draft ordinance, legislative history and related items.

Task force members are: • 1st City Council District – Larry Bott and Tony Rivera; • 2nd District – Adam Hjazi and Jack Smith; • 3rd District – Sarah Sangmeister and Denise Mester; • 4th District – Joe Sopo and Jan Ward; • 5th District – Marc Greenberg and Floyd Curry; • 6th District – Nick Morrow and Greg Leflan; • 7th District – Larry King and Aaron Herzberg; 8th District – Marc Rothenberg and Charlyn Bender; and the 9th District – Kasia McDermott. â–

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strengthening that. We’re big ship ready, and we’re the biggest gateway in the country. And we continue our [$4 billion] capital improvement program.�

Hacegaba compared the attractive infrastructure and location of the port to computer hardware. “It would make no sense if we spent $4 billion on the best computer and we were still operating on Windows 95,� he said. By that he means, regardless of whether the port has an attractive infrastructure and location, if its supporting supply chain elements aren’t functioning optimally, the port loses its functionality and, therefore, its appeal. “We’re working closely with our partners – the terminal operators, the ocean carriers – to improve efficiency, improve productivity and to increase velocity.

That’s very important to us: not just to clear the backlog, but also to improve velocity in our gateway over the long haul,�

Hacegaba said.

In the short term, the port has designated space on Pier S to store chassis, empty containers and loaded containers on chassis. The temporary storage yard is open for use for the next six months to help keep cargo flowing on busy docks.

Additionally, the port has capped dockage fees at four days so as not to penalize ships forced to wait for long periods of time to unload and receive cargo.

One of the key ways the port is working to improve velocity in the long term is by addressing the shortage of chassis. “Late last year, when we noticed the surge in congestion, what we identified as a key factor was chassis shortage. Essentially you had three different companies providing chassis, and they were not interoperable. They just created an imbalance and an artificial shortage,� Hacegaba explained. “It was a very inefficient system . . . So both ports came together with the three different chassis companies and we urged them to fix the problem, which they did.� On March 1, the three companies controlling chassis in the San Pedro Bay Ports area launched a new gray chassis fleet model, allowing truckers to drop off and pick up chassis owned by any company at any of their locations. “In order to make that a certainty for our shippers, because we want to regain their confidence, the Port of Long Beach is going to be investing in our own peak relief fleet [of chassis],� Hacegaba said. “The idea is just to augment the gray fleet and provide that additional assurance to our shippers that chassis will no longer be an issue come peak season.�

Through a discussion agreement authorized by the Federal Maritime Commission, executives from the POLB and POLA began meetings in late March to discuss other supply chain issues and develop joint strategies to address them. Already, the commission has identified a need for a shared platform through which all parties in the supply chain would be able to track shipments. “One of the things that we intend to achieve . . . is to bring the supply chain together and develop a common platform where the necessary information is shared,� Hacegaba said. “We’re confident that something like that will not just give confidence to the BCOs about our gateway, but will make our supply chain much more efficient.�

Outside of the port’s realm of control are

NEWSWATCH

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Long Beach Business Journal 11

4th District City Council Race (Continued From Page 1)

noise ordinance, and O’Donnell knows it. The only way the noise ordinance is in jeopardy is if the current city council does something stupid, inviting FAA involvement (if you don’t believe me, ask the city attorney’s office). O’Donnell should be ashamed for using scare tactics.

Interestingly, O’Donnell has a long history of working with Supernaw while serving as councilmember, and, in fact, nominated Supernaw to serve on four city commissions. O’Donnell also awarded Supernaw the district’s “Helping Hands Award” in 2007.

O’Donnell has previously misled 4th District constituents. In the 2012 race, he told the Business Journal in a tape-recorded interview that if he won another term for the city council seat, he would serve the full four-year term. Less than two years later he ran for assembly and won – resulting in this special election and a roughly $175,000 cost to Long Beach taxpayers.

No, this isn’t about O’Donnell, but it’s a trend among local union-backed candidates that they don’t give a hoot about taxpayers.

So why the rush to Chico?

Answer: It all comes down to money. Chico is another automatic vote to raise salaries for police, firefighters and other union members, increases that – whether deserved or not – cannot be sustained by the city budget. Once the pro-union councilmembers vote for higher salaries (and accompanying higher pension costs also passed on to taxpayers), then they have to find a way to pay for them. How is that going to happen?

There are only two ways: shift money that pays for non-public safety services for residents and businesses; or RAISE TAXES on everyone.

Chico is on record with the Business Journal supporting an increase in the city’s utility users tax – already a third higher than the average in the state and the county – and is an automatic vote to place a union-backed measure on the ballot. This group of Chico supporters – especially the unions – will spend whatever dollars are needed to convince (scare) voters into supporting a tax increase, claiming crime will increase and fire stations will close if voters do not vote for higher taxes.

The predominantly pro-union, pro-tax elected officials representing Long Beach recognize little stands in their way of pushing their agenda. Certainly not the business community, which has been weak, leaderless and silent for years. The complete lack of input from the business community is the primary reason unions have a stranglehold on Long Beach.

We hope 4th District voters support Daryl Supernaw – an independent voice who is not and will not be beholden to anyone other than to his constituents. Now think about this . . .

Is Outside Money For Chico Buying This Election?

As of March 27 filings posted by the Long Beach City Clerk’s office, Chico had raised about four times as much in contributions as had Supernaw – roughly $40,000 to $11,000.

However, take a look at the following list of donations made to Chico’s campaign and ask yourself, why is so much money from groups outside Long Beach being given to her?

Date Recieved March 24 March 17 March 12 March 12 March 11 Feb. 28 Feb. 27 Feb. 25 Feb. 22 Feb. 16 Feb. 2 Feb. 2 Feb. 2 Jan. 27 Jan. 27 Jan. 27 Jan. 27 Jan. 27 Jan. 27 Dec. 31 Dec. 31 Dec. 27

From [Ricardo] Lara for Senate 2016, Los Angeles UFCW Local 324 PAC, Buena Park Southern California Pipe Trades DistrictCouncil #16, Los Angeles UA Journeymen & Apprentices Local 250, Gardena International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 11, Pasadena D.R.I.V.E. PAC, Washington, D.C. Marsha Naify, Los Angeles Honor PAC, Santa Monica Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters Political Action Fund, Los Angeles American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees CA District Council 36 PAC, Los Angeles Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 1309 PAC, Lakewood Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 1309 PAC, Lakewood Laborers’ Local 300 Small Contributor Committee, Los Angeles Angel Gonzalez, political consultant, Los Angeles International Longshore Warehouse Union Local 13, San Pedro Olivo & Associates Attorneys, City of Industry District Council of Iron Workers Political Action League, Pinole, CA Calderon Graphics, Inglewood Yvette Silva, Graphic Designer, Bell Gardens Morley Justman, Justman Packaging & Display, City of Commerce Cathy Justman, Homemaker, City of Commerce David C. Newell, Retired, Los Angeles

Amount $2,000 $2,500 $2,500 $2,500 $1,000 $2,500 $1,000 $350 $1,000 $500 $1,000 $1,500 $500 $1,000 $1,000 $500 $2,000 $500 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000

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12 Long Beach Business Journal

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

March 31-April 13, 2015

The Olson Company Achieves #1 Rank In Customer Service Experience Eliant, the largest consumer research company in the country, has ranked The Olson Company #1 among major U.S. builders in homeowner satisfaction. The re-

sults, gleaned from more than 60,000 new homeowner satisfaction surveys, showed that The Olson Company received a score of 98.4 percent for its customer service ex-

perience at 5 months and 10 months after move-in. According to the firm, the average customer satisfaction ratings of the 125-plus homebuilders are typically in the 86 to 88

(Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Presenting Sponsor:

percent range. “We are honored and proud of our team’s collective efforts,” said Scott Laurie, CEO of The Olson Company.

“Achieving the number #1 ranking from Eliant is a reflection of our ongoing commitment to provide industry leading homeowner satisfaction to our homebuyers.”

Eliant CEO Bob Mirman added, “The Olson Company has won continuous awards from the Eliant Homebuyers’ Choice Awards competition for the past 4 years. This consistent dedication to customer satisfaction makes The Olson Company a leader within the national homebuilder community.”

Founded in 1988 by Steve Olson, the Seal Beach-based company has completed scores of communities and has several others under construction, nearing completion or planned. Pictured at the company’s Plaza Walk project in Cerritos are, from left, Bill Holford, president Olson Communities; Matt Savio, vice president of homeowner satisfaction; and Scott Laurie, CEO of The Olson Company. Plaza Walk, located at 18810 Pioneer Blvd., includes 25 townhomes ranging in size from 1,266 square feet to 1,821 square feet. The units are priced in the mid-$400,000s and offer up to four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The sales office is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m For more information, call 562/370-9501. ■ – George Economides

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March 31-April 13, 2015

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

Long Beach Business Journal 13

City To Sell Former Redevelopment Agency Properties Through Local Real Estate Firms ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer Now that the California Department of Finance has approved the City of Long Beach’s Long Range Property Management Plan, the city is taking steps to sell 31 parcels formerly owned by the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency (RDA). Most of the parcels, many of which are considered blighted, are located in North Long Beach.

Others are concentrated in the central and downtown areas of the city.

After California redevelopment agencies were dissolved in 2012, the city was tasked This 3,875-square-foot property at the southeast corner of 4th Street and Elm Avenue in Downtown Long Beach, which was once home to the store Acres of Books, with submitting a plan for fu- was formerly owned by the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency. Now that the State of California has approved the city’s Long Range Property Management Plan for ture use of its former RDA its former RDA properties, the parcel is going to be listed for sale. City documents indicate local firm Coldwell Banker Commercial BLAIR WESTMAC will handle the properties to the state. Within listing. The site has often been discussed as a possible “connector” between the core downtown area and the East Village Arts District that stretches east to Alamitos that plan, 31 parcels were sug- Avenue. The site is also adjacent to the rail system that connects Long Beach to Downtown Los Angeles. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Kelly) gested to be sold, 61 parcels to “This is an extremely important step be used by the city, 161 properties to be are commercial buildings concentrated entities,” with the city receiving 22 along Atlantic Avenue and Long Beach percent of that money, according to a forward for economic development in retained for development and 10 to be reBoulevard.

Several vacant plots of land city press release.

Long Beach, and I’m grateful to Govtained to fulfill enforceable obligations. and parking lots, plus two public buildOf several companies that responded to ernor Brown, his staff and our repreUntil the plan was approved last ings, are also going to be sold.

“Prothe city’s request for proposals for real essentatives in Sacramento for helping us month, these properties were in limbo, ceeds from their sale will be tate broker services to sell the properties, complete this process,” Mayor Robert unable to be developed or improved distributed as property tax to taxing Long Beach-based firms Coldwell Garcia said in a statement on March upon. Most of the properties to be sold Banker Commercial BLAIR WESTMAC, 12. “This plan will improve neighborLee & Associates and Cushman & Wake- hoods throughout the city, eliminate field were selected, as was Los Angeles- blight, and generate vital revenue for based Cresa Partners. the city.” ■ 5301 Long Beach Boulevard .......11,430 Central Long Beach 5564 Atlantic Avenue 325 Daisy Avenue ..........................3,750 (commercial)...............................4,400 605 W. 4th Street............................1,308 5564 Atlantic Avenue (lot/land) .....4,400 825 E. 7th Street ............................8,750 5641 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 339 Pacific Avenue ........................7,500 5645 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 4th Street & Elm Avenue ...............3,875 5649 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 1934 Atlantic Avenue .....................6,000 5661 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 1900 Atlantic Avenue ...................24,000 5701 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 Downtown Long Beach 5616 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 140 W. 7th Street............................7,500 5640 Atlantic Avenue .....................2,050 650-56 Pacific Avenue ...................3,750 5644 Atlantic Avenue .....................2,050 107, lll and 155 N. 5648 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 Long Beach Boulevard ...............1,800 5708 Atlantic Avenue .....................4,100 243 E. 1st Street/ 306 E. Home Street........................6,750 101 N. Long Beach Boulevard....6,450 635 E. South Street ........................4,400 North Long Beach West Long Beach 5372 Long Beach Boulevard .........2,730 1478 Cota Avenue ..........................3,252 5368 Long Beach Boulevard .........2,730 Source: Successor Agency, City of Long Beach 5365 Long Beach Boulevard .........4,320 County of Los Angeles 5371 Long Beach Boulevard .........5,750 March 24, 2015

List Of Former RDA Properties To Be Sold

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14 Long Beach Business Journal

March 31-April 13, 2015

FOCUS ON WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Women In Business Profiles (Continued From Page 1)

rate for women is 6.7 percent, about one percent below the overall average rate. About a one-third of women in this area have a bachelors degree or higher.

Not only do the women business owners interviewed in this edition of the Long Beach Business Journal contribute to the local economy, they are all also driven by a desire to influence their communities through their work, whether it be by providing fresh and healthy food, supporting diverse cultures or improving individuals’ quality of life. These women are at varying stages in their careers, some running new ventures and others, established businesses. All hope to continue growing their businesses by hiring new employees, taking on more clients or even opening new locations.

Gail Desilets Marriage & Family Therapist 3780 Kilroy Airport Way, Suite 200, Long Beach • 562/477-2530 • www.gaildesilets.com

I

Angela Almaguer Salud Juice 1944 E. 4th St., Suite 6, Long Beach • 562/528-8444 • www.saludjuice.com

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ngela Almaguer’s cold-pressed juice business arose from a desire to promote healthier eating practices within her family after two relatives suffered cardiac problems, one with fatal results.

“My father had just recently gone through open heart surgery. He had a quadruple bypass. When he was recovering, I started making juice for him and kind of revamping our refrigerator . . . and trying to make sure that he was eating as well as possible,” Almaguer recalled. Two weeks before her father had heart surgery, her uncle had passed away from cardiac arrest. “The two most important men in my life having insane heart issues made me start thinking about the way the men in my family eat and how it was affecting their health.”

A recent graduate of a history program, Almaguer used her research skills to look into the process of cold-pressed juice making, and began making juices for her father.

Every time they’d drink one together they would exchange the phrase “salud,” a Spanish sentiment meaning “cheers to your health.” She drew on this experience for the name of her business: Salud Juice.

“Cold pressed juice is a two-step process. The first process is grinding all of the produce into just a fine pulp,” Almaguer explained. After that, the pulp is put into a porous bag and then placed between two hydraulic plates, which presses the juice out of the pulp. The result is raw, unpasteurized juice that must be refrigerated and consumed within a few days of pressing. All Salud Juice products are organic and sourced from locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Almaguer informally started up Salud Juice when former coworkers began asking if she could make them juices like the ones she brought to work for herself. She then began making juices for The Attic, a restaurant on Broadway, and then selling wholesale to coffee shops and other restaurants. But she hit a roadblock when the city health department informed her she couldn’t sell raw, unpasteurized juices wholesale. “It is a liability issue,” she said.

After getting the green light to sell her products straight to consumers, Almaguer opened a storefront location off 4th Street’s Retro Row in March. She has six employees, and is partnered with one of the co-owners of The Attic. “It’s nice having a retail location because it’s a community feel. You get to really know who your neighbors are, who is drinking your juice and how it is affecting them day to day,” she said.

Almaguer’s biggest challenge moving forward will be ensuring that, if she opens more locations, the quality of her product is maintained. “I never ever want to lose the quality of our product and the relationship that we have with our customers,” she said.

“I think my goal besides just making juice is trying to get as many people on board with taking care of themselves,” she reflected. ■

nspired by her father, a physician with his own practice, Gail Desilets always knew she wanted to go into business for herself. After working as a counselor in an adult learning disability program at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) in the 1990s, she found her calling as a therapist.

At the time, Desilets was in CSULB’s graduate program in psychology research, which had put her on a course towards working in academia. “I did counseling with a graduate student, and then I realized I was in the wrong program,” she recalled. “It was back then in the early ’90s that I realized doing this kind of work was something that touched me very deeply.” After working for several years at Whittier College, she obtained a second master’s degree in marriage and family therapy in order to pursue her true calling.

After earning her second degree, Desilets completed her internship hours to qualify for a marriage and family therapist license at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Long Beach, and then at a private counseling practice. “There are 3,000 hours of work to do working with clients before you can sit for the licensing exam,” she explained.

Desilets opened her own practice in the summer of 2010. “I always knew I wanted to work for myself,” she said. “I grew up with a father who was a physician in private practice, so that model always appealed to me more than working at an agency.” As a private practice owner, Desilets is able to be available seven days a week for her clients, at their convenience. “I think of therapy as a sort of spa treatment for the mind, so I created a private practice that offers clients a more luxurious experience as we work on their path to a more peaceful place,” she said.

Desilets specializes in working with adult individuals and couples. She treats clients contending with issues related to separation, divorce, stress, anxiety, depression, loss, selfesteem, communication skills and more. When a client needs services outside of those Desilets offers – psychiatric care and medication, for example – she is able to make quick referrals to colleagues. “I have a whole team of people who I refer to who have the same philosophy of practice that I do,” she said.

“My biggest challenge moving my business forward is getting the word out about my concierge practice,” she reflected. “My challenge is to get to the people who my practice is designed for,” she explained, adding that her clientele focus is on professionals, business owners and executives. To address that challenge, Desilets advertises and attends local meetings of professional and business groups.

Desilets looks forward to continuing to expand her practice and add new clients. ■

Loise “Mumbi” Kahenya Mumbi’s Designs 214 Atlantic Ave., Suite 101, Long Beach • 562/901-0308 • www.mumbisdesigns.com

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Kenyan native, Loise “Mumbi” Kahenya wanted to bring the handcrafted goods of her homeland to Long Beach not only because she saw a market for the products but also because she wanted to help Kenyan artisans. So, in 2006, she opened Mumbi’s Designs – a shop selling African clothing, jewelry and artifacts – in the East Village Arts District.

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March 31-April 13, 2015

Long Beach Business Journal 15

Kahenya stocks her shop with goods she collects during yearly trips to Kenya. “When I go to buy the products in Kenya, I am helping the women and the families there,” she said. “They are creative and talented, but they sometimes don’t have a way of selling the products.” Without a means to sell their goods, some artisans face challenges in paying for their children to attend school or simply surviving, she explained. “That is mainly why I started the business and that is what I continue to do,” she said.

“I was born in Kenya, so I have an understanding of the kinds of products that Kenyans make. They are very well known for beaded jewelry and sandals and things like that, which are very high quality,” Kahenya said. “I just thought that the products were good and well made, and I thought there was a market for that. I was proven right, because people really enjoy wearing the clothes . . . that we import from Africa.”

Clothing sold at Mumbi’s Designs is made from cotton African fabrics. “It’s a breathable material and it is also eco-friendly,” Kahenya said, adding that she hopes to focus more on eco-friendly goods in the future. Mumbi’s Designs also sells African artwork and artifacts, as well as all-natural lotions crafted by Kahenya. In the future, she hopes to sell her line of lotions to larger retailers, such as department stores.

As a small business owner, Kahenya said her biggest challenge moving forward is operating with a tight budget. “Our budget is small. That makes it very hard for us to increase sales, because the little money we make goes towards paying bills and just keeping everything going.

So that would be the challenge I see: to secure more funding so that we can do more,” she said.

Kahenya hopes to expand her operations by hiring permanent staff. “The way we were able to survive the recession was by keeping the business lean and by keeping our overhead low,” she said. Now that business has picked up in the past year or so, she expects to be able to hire a permanent staff member to assist her. “I have seen a little bit of increase in my sales, which makes me think that the future is going to be bright.” ■

Laura Kim KBQ Korean BBQ 1009 E. Artesia Blvd. Long Beach • 562/256-1337 • www.eatkbq.com

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fter experimenting in various food-centered business ventures, including a fish and chips restaurant and a grocery store, Laura Kim found her niche when she opened KBQ Korean BBQ in North Long Beach.

In past years, appreciation for Korean food mostly remained within the boundaries of the Korea Towns of Southern California metropolitan areas. But Kim said in recent years she has noticed the food grow in popularity. “Nowadays Korean food is a bit popular . . . like Japanese or Chinese food,” she said. While there are Korean restaurants in quite a few areas of Long Beach – such as East Long Beach and downtown – Kim noticed a void of Korean restaurants in the northern part of the city.

“Near my area there are many restaurants and fast food [establishments], but no Korean restaurants,” she said, explaining that, while she doesn’t live in Long Beach, she owns property there. She pointed out that Korean immigrants aren’t a significant part of North Long Beach’s demographics, a fact that had some people questioning if there was really a market for Korean food in the area. “They asked me, ‘If there are no Korean people, why are you opening a Korean restaurant over here?’ I wanted to introduce good food to good neighbors,” Kim said.

Although Kim has cooked Korean food all her life, she worked diligently to improve upon her own recipes before opening KBQ Korean BBQ last July. Kim said she “practiced and practiced” in order to find the best formulas for various sauces, galbi (beef short ribs), bulgogi (thin-sliced beef rib eye), spicy pork and chicken. So far, the reaction to her cuisine has been positive. “Some people said they never had good spicy pork before, but people really liked it,” she said. In addition to those dishes, KBQ offers sides including rice, kimchi (a Korean staple made from fermented vegetables), macaroni salad and green salad.

Although the restaurant is quick-serve style, Kim noted that, because food is made fresh upon each order, cooking time is about 15 minutes.

“We are always thinking how can we improve our food more and more for other people,” Kim said. Since opening, she has altered the menu a bit to meet customer demand. “[Originally] we had only regular barbecue chicken but people asked for spicy chicken,” she recalled. So Kim went back to her culinary drawing board and came up with a recipe for spicy chicken. “People really liked it,” she said.

Kim’s biggest challenge moving her business forward is finding ways to spread the word about it so she can grow a larger regular customer base, she said. She intends to continue on her mission to bring tasty, authentic and fresh Korean food to the North Long Beach area she serves. ■

EE mery

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General Dentistry

(562) 421-9361 3840 Woodruff Ave. #208 Long Beach, CA 90808

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Girl Charlee Fabrics: How A Home-Based Business Grew ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER, Senior Writer

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hat started as a hobby for Heather Peterson sewing children’s clothes at home has evolved into a 25,000-square-foot operation in Westside Long Beach called Girl Charlee Fabrics – an online retailer and wholesaler selling uniquely printed fabrics and sewing patterns.

When Peterson’s daughter was born in 2004, she had trouble finding good quality children’s clothing with the vintage modern aesthetic she preferred. “I just had a lot of frustration because I couldn’t find it out there, and I knew that there was a need for it,” she recalled. So she taught herself how to sew and began making her own children’s clothes – a hobby that quickly turned into a home-based business.

Peterson took a brief hiatus from Girl Charlee after her son was born in 2007. In 2010, after having moved to Long Beach with her family a couple years earlier, she started the business back up, this time as a knit fabric supplier rather than a clothing line. “When we [originally] launched, we would try to source fabrics from designers and [buy] overstock fabrics . . . but we really found a need for more volume of those types of prints,” she said, referring to the vintage modern aesthetic she loved. “So then we started printing our own line.” It was this concept that ultimately caused the company to take off.

(Photographs by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Girl Charlee began printing knit fabrics with original designs in 2012. “That’s when we really started to hit our stride, and really started getting . . . a lot of the market share and making a name for ourselves with our own prints,” Peterson said.

Peterson designs patterns with assistance from her marketing designer and general manager. Prints range from colorful florals to classic chevrons and more whimsical designs like foxes, pineapples and wiener dogs. After a design is finalized, it is sent to a Los Angeles-based operation for printing. “Everything is printed and knitted here in L.A. We like to support that whole Made in L.A. and Made in the USA [movement] as much as we can,” Peterson said. “It has just always been really important for me to support the local economy here.” Girl Charlee fabrics are sold for about $6 to $7 per yard, which is considered economical for knit fabrics, Peterson said.

Peterson is determined to keep all aspects of her business based in the U.S. rather than outsourcing to somewhere like China, even though that would save her money in the long run. “It’s a personal preference for me . . . I have also seen the downfalls of going overseas, where you get an order in that you’ve been waiting 30 days for and it’s completely messed up. And for how our model works, I can’t really promise my customer something and then be like, ‘Oops, sorry – it got here and it’s totally destroyed and there is nothing we can do about it.’ I don’t think my business would last very long like that.”

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s Grew Into A Successful Enterprise In West Long Beach Girl Charlee Fabrics also supports entrepreneurs and businesses by selling downloadable PDF sewing patterns from local independent designers. “We work with them and sell their patterns on our website . . . And then we also work and kind of collaborate with them to give them exposure as well.”

When Peterson first moved the business out of her home and into a 1,000-square-foot space, she had just one part-time employee. “Sometimes she would just cut two orders and go home. And then if we had six orders, we were like, ‘Yeah it’s a good day,’” Peterson said. The business later moved to a 4,000-square-foot facility, and then to its current 25,000-square-foot industrial building in the California State University, Long Beach Technology Park in February 2014. “Now we generally do over 100 orders a day and thousands of orders a month. So we have definitely grown,” Peterson said. Girl Charlee Fabrics now employs 16 people; most of them are from Long Beach, including Peterson and her husband, who manages finances and payroll.

As the company grew, Peterson added a wider variety of textiles to her stock. “We started with a very small number of fabrics, but now we offer a much wider selection of knits,” she said. Girl Charlee continues to add new fabrics based on customer demand. “We really try to listen to what our customers are looking for and provide that.” Recently added items include stretch denim and vegan leather, which are customer favorites.

One of Girl Charlee’s latest ventures is a monthly offer called Knit Fix, in which customers receive a tote bag stuffed with six different knit fabrics measuring two yards each – and what’s inside is a surprise for customers. “It started off a little slow, but I think this last month we sold more than we had ever made before in three hours. We were completely sold out,” Peterson said.

About 70 percent of Girl Charlee’s business is retail, with the remaining goods sold wholesale to businesses and designers. “Our customer is the home sewer up to small-scale designers,” she noted. The popularity of Etsy, a website where artisans are able to sell goods without starting up a full-blown enterprise, has lent itself to Girl Charlee’s growth, and vice versa. “It [Girl Charlee] has enabled so many people to start their own businesses and keep their businesses running. So it’s really exciting,” she said.

The majority of Girl Charlee’s customers are based in the U.S., although the company does sell its products worldwide. Most international sales are to Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. International shipping costs are quite prohibitive; sometimes, the cost to ship fabric to another country might be as much as the product itself, Peterson said. To help meet overseas demand at a lower cost, Peterson is working to open a Girl Charlee location in the United Kingdom. “That has been a lot of work, but we’re pretty excited about getting that off the ground,” she said, adding that the tentative open date is in May.

“My goals for the future are to continue to grow Girl Charlee. I want to keep it in Long Beach; that’s very important to me. I want to make sure we are hiring within the Long Beach employment area so we hire people who live and work here.”

Heather Peterson President &CEO Girl Charlee www.girlcharlee.com

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18 Long Beach Business Journal

SPECIAL REPORT – THE NONPROFIT SECTOR

Nonprofit Membership And Board Issues (Continued From Page 1)

the recession. “One of the first things that had to go in that economic decline was memberships,” he said. “Over the last seven to eight years, many associations have not been able to recover the number of members that they lost as a result of some economic decisions that had to be made rather quickly.”

Many nonprofit organizations face challenges in trying to grow membership because of the time commitment they require of their members. “You see a double whammy where it is harder to compete for people’s time and attention,” Anderson said.

For example, while the Assistance League of Long Beach (ALLB) has the largest membership base out of all 122 national Assistance Leagues, with about 926 members, the organization still faces some challenges in attracting new members who have busy schedules.

“From my perspective, over the past several years, because of the recession, more and more people have gone back into the workforce,” Annette Kashiwabara, ALLB director of development, told the Business Journal. It is also more of a challenge to attract younger members who have growing families, she noted. For these reasons, most of the league’s members tend to be retired or working part-time.

According to Linda Alexander, executive director of the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership (LBNP), membership requirements – such as fitting a certain demographic and

Robert Probst is the executive director of the Long Beach Rescue Mission, which was founded in 1972. The mission provides the homeless with shelter, food, rehabilitation programs, counseling, and educational and jobs skills classes. According to Probst, while the organization has been around for quite some time, it can still be challenging to find new boardmembers. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

being able to attend specific meeting times – are sometimes a deterrent. LBNP is an organization providing training, networking, consulting and other services to local nonprofits.

ALLB requires all voting members to work one day per month in the league’s thrift shop in Long Beach’s Retro Row. The organization has four auxiliary groups and provides numerous volunteer-driven services to the community. “Assistance League is a volunteer organization where we have

several philanthropic programs that are actually run and managed by the volunteers.

So it’s a big commitment when somebody takes on that responsibility,” Kashiwabara reflected. “I think sometimes the requirements make it a little bit tough for people and so they have to figure out some other way to go about it.”

While time and monetary commitments seem to be the main challenges to membership growth for nonprofits, other factors are at play as well. According to Wilcox, indus-

March 31-April 13, 2015 try-specific associations have more difficulty gaining and retaining members than in years past because more people are now entering multiple career fields in their lifetime. As a result, “you don’t see the loyalty to [specific] industries like you used to,” he said.

Another challenge for growing and retaining association membership is that it’s becoming more difficult to provide the networking opportunities members seek, due to cost, Wilcox said. “People are looking for more networking opportunities and ways to build business, and it’s very difficult for associations sometimes to meet their business development needs,” he said.

Anderson pointed out that, while nonprofit organizations and associations face certain challenges in attracting new members, overall, membership rates are increasing – a trend reflected by ALLB, which gains about 30 members a year, according to Linda Drummond, president. “I think our membership growth has been pretty consistent,” she said.

When it comes to recruiting and attracting boardmembers, nonprofits also face challenges – some of which are similar to the challenges of growing a membership base. According to a study released in January by BoardSource (which provides nonprofits with research, consulting and governance resources related to boards), the average size of nonprofit boards has been steadily decreasing for about a decade. Since 1994, the average board size has declined from 19 members to about 15 members.

As with attracting new members, a chal(Please Continue To Page 20)

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2015

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20 Long Beach Business Journal

Nonprofit Membership And Board Issues (Continued From Page 18)

lenge in recruiting boardmembers is that many potential boardmembers are busy professionals who already have significant time commitments. “I’m working with a researcher who has gone back hundreds of years studying associations, and time pressures have always been there for people serving in a larger capacity [on boards],” Anderson said.

Robert Probst, executive director of the

SPECIAL REPORT – THE NONPROFIT SECTOR Long Beach Rescue Mission, also pointed out that busy schedules often make it more difficult for nonprofit organizations to find boardmembers. “People these days are really busy, especially somebody who . . . brings a lot to the table,” he said. “There have been a few people I have met in the community and I would love for them to be on our board, but of course most of the time when you meet somebody like that, they’re already committed.”

In Alexander’s view, growing and maintaining nonprofit boards has been “an ongoing challenge” for decades. While in some

cases pursuing a boardmember for that person’s name or stance in the community might be beneficial, in the long run, ensuring that boardmembers’ goals match up with those of the organization’s mission statement is more important, Alexander said. The idea behind that theory is, if a person’s heart is in it, he or she is probably more likely to stick around and make some significant contributions to the organization.

Wilcox said that most potential boardmembers lose interest in staying involved if they are not being directly engaged in their organization’s work in some way. “A

March 31-April 13, 2015 lot of people want to serve on boards today to really make a contribution. They don’t want to sit in a closed room and just talk,” he observed. This represents a shift in thinking from what boardmembers of past decades wanted, he noted.

“The key thing is, when somebody is involved [on a board], that they feel their involvement is contributing and is meaningful,” Anderson said. “If you can provide that, you don’t have challenges recruiting people. But if it is like a rubber stamp board . . . then it’s probably harder to recruit,” he explained. ■

The Long Beach Community Foundation: A One-Stop Shop For Charitable Giving ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer Since it was founded in 1996, the Long Beach Community Foundation (LBCF) has served as a key community resource for charitable giving, benefiting nearly 60 local nonprofit organizations in just under 20 years. Last year alone, the organization distributed $1.9 million in charitable grants. As Marcelle Epley, president and CEO of LBCF, put it: “The foundation is a one-stop shop for all charitable giving in Long Beach.”

As explained on the foundation’s website, a community foundation “is a tax-exempt charitable organization comprised of a group of funds established by individuals, organizations and businesses, and managed as an endowed pool of assets.

Earnings on these assets are distributed in the form of grants to nonprofits in the local community.”

As of February 2015, LBCF’s assets totaled about $26 million. “We are growing rapidly, and it is an exciting time for the community foundation,” Epley said.

LBCF is primarily known in the Long Beach community as an outlet for creating donor advised funds, in which an individual gives a sum of money to LBCF and directs the foundation on how to disperse that money. “For the donor, it’s an immediate tax benefit,” Epley said. Essentially, this option serves as a simple alternative to creating a private foundation, she noted.

If a donor doesn’t have a specific organization in mind, funds may also be established to benefit a field of interest – for instance, a fund could be set up to benefit charities focused on a specific cause, such as sexual assault prevention. Which organizations benefit from such a fund would be at the foundation’s discretion.

According to Epley, part of LBCF’s role in these instances is to constantly stay on top of what organizations are doing within the community so that the foundation can make educated decisions about allocating money from these funds.

LBCF is quite flexible in the types of charitable giving it is able to facilitate.

“That’s something we do struggle with a little bit as we continue to grow, is to get the word out about how flexible we can be and what the options are that can suit almost every need and lifestyle that’s out there,” Epley said. “Basically, we have programs that make giving easy. And it’s whatever: if you want to set up a scholarship fund, if you are a nonprofit and you want to set up a fund that benefits you, or if you are an individual and you don’t want to go through the headache of setting

The Long Beach Community Foundation’s (LBCF) mission is to “initiate positive change for Long Beach through charitable giving, stewardship and strategic grant-making.” One of the ways the foundation supports the local nonprofit community is by providing organizations with reduced-rent offices at its Nonprofit Center in Bixby Knolls. While currently fully occupied, the center also rents a meeting room, equipped with projectors and audio-visual equipment, for a $50 flat rate to local nonprofit groups. Pictured in front of the Nonprofit Center at 3515 Linden Ave., are, from left: Tara Sievers, LBCF office coordinator; Marcelle Epley, president and CEO; and Colleen Bragalone, vice president. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

up your own private foundation and you want something easy.”

An example of a scholarship fund through LBCF is one set up by Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe to benefit children who were safely abandoned at regional fire stations through the county’s Safe Surrender program. “We have a scholarship fund set up so that in a few years, those kids are going to have scholarships made available through Long Beach Community Foundation,” Epley noted.

LBCF is even able to set up funds to support rewards related to solving crimes.

“Another way the community foundation can be utilized is to get the bad guys,” Epley said. “So let’s say there is a murder and the police have a warrant for someone’s arrest. What we could do is have people give to a fund that is set up specifically for that, and people could donate and then that reward could be given to whoever helps the police,” she explained.

“Not a lot of people know about that.”

There are also options through LBCF for those who wish to continue making an impact or contributing to a cause after they die. According to Colleen Bragalone, LBCF vice president, it’s as simple as denoting that you would like to contribute to a specific fund or endowment through LBCF in your will or trust. LBCF keeps corresponding documentation outlining any specific directions.

Endowments, which are assets invested over a long period of time to create income for a charity or cause, are also facilitated by LBCF. For example, “You could set up an endowment where you have a chunk of money and you want a 5 percent payout to be taken off the top and go to Ronald McDonald House every year for the rest of time. We can do that,” Bragalone explained.

Nonprofit organizations, such as the Arts Council for Long Beach, are also able to create endowments through LBCF to diversify their assets. “The only restriction is that it has to be a 501-c3, govern-

ment or education institution,” Epley noted. These endowments, known as agency funds, may be used for anything ranging from charitable services to paying staff salaries. “They are granting back to themselves and it is creating a revenue stream for them,” she said. LBCF currently manages 22 of these funds.

The foundation itself directly works to assist local nonprofits not only through its own discretionary grants to local organizations, but also by providing reduced cost services. LBCF provides affordable facilities and meeting space to local nonprofits at its Nonprofit Center, an office building located in Bixby Knolls. Local nonprofits rent office space there for below-market lease rates. Organizations seeking a temporary meeting space are able to rent out a room equipped with projectors, screens and audio-visual equipment for a $50 flat rate.

Epley reflected, “If there is one takeaway, it is that we make charitable giving very easy, accessible and cost effective.” ■

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2015

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22 Long Beach Business Journal

SPECIAL REPORT – THE NONPROFIT SECTOR

March 31-April 13, 2015

Archstone Foundation Recognized For Its Support

By Alzheimer’s Family Service Center ■ By DAVE WIELENGA Contributing Writer

“People haven’t historically lived this

long. Most existing foundations are The Archstone Foundation, created in 1985 to satisfy the legal much older than Archstone and [had] and bookkeeping requirements of a Long Beach-based HMO that established their specific areas of was transforming from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit interest before aging became an corporation, has become a leading light for a national commitissue. But these [aging] issues are ment to meet the needs of going to continue to come to the America’s aging population.

During 30 years as CEO, Joseph forefront based on the fact that F. Prevratil has defined Archstone’s mission to seniors through more we are all living longer.” than 900 individual grants totaling more than $90 million.

Joseph F. Prevratil, CEO “We’ve kinda found our niche,” Archstone Foundation Prevratil said with light, happy understatement during a recent interview with the Long Beach Business people with memory loss because it oxyJournal. “We are a comparatively small genates the brain – to support groups, foundation, not equipped to tackle the big memory exercises, and social services. It is problems of general health. But there aren’t very well rounded.” very many foundations that put their entire The program has received two grants – focus on the issues of aging. It’s since we one to start it, another to expand it – and, committed ourselves there that we’ve had as with most of Archstone’s philanthropy, our greatest success.” both have been delivered with little fanfare.

Prevratil’s point may be epitomized by “Archstone is a private foundation, so Archstone’s relationship with Alzheimer’s it’s not in the press very much,” observed Family Service Center (AFSC), a non- Ryan Kadowaki, who handles public reprofit located in Huntington Beach. Since lations for AFSC. “Mr. Prevratil kinda 1999, Archstone has made 11 grants to- flies under the radar, but the things he taling more than $450,000 to AFSC, does, the things that organization is doing funding an array of programs intended to for these seniors, are unparalleled.” improve the lives of people with Flying under the radar may be a first for Alzheimer’s disease.

Prevratil, whose 77 years of life have been The impact has been so significant that characterized by over-the-rainbow experiArchstone is being celebrated as the 2015 ences. Among the entries on his resume: Distinguished Friend Honoree at AFSC’s executive director of the Port of Long annual fundraising gala May 2 at the Wa- Beach; president and CEO of the Queen terfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach. Mary; project manager for the Convention “Archstone’s philanthropy is notable for and Entertainment Center’s $100 million a couple of reasons,” said Lucy Takahashi, expansion; president of Wrather Port Propdirector of fund development for the or- erties, Ltd., which owned the Queen ganization. “First, it is focused on causes Mary/Spruce Goose; vice president with that impact older adults, the age group for Six Flags, Inc.; and president of his own which it is hardest to raise charitable con- consulting firm. tributions. Second, the programs that Notwithstanding all those titles, Prevratil Archstone has funded and the amounts is clearly touched by his impending desigthey’ve given have allowed us to test new, nation as 2015 Distinguished Friend at innovative approaches.”

AFSC’s “Gathering of Friends” gala, alMonica Ponce, director of programs at though his reaction is measured.

AFSC, cited the organization’s New “We are always pleased to be honored, Connections Club, an intervention pro- but the fact of the matter is we don’t do gram aimed at people in the earliest this kind of work to be honored,” Prevratil stages of Alzheimer’s or with very mild said. “Obviously, it is good work. We enjoy doing good work. And to be percognitive impairment.

“Research shows that early intervention fectly frank, we are always pleased when can really delay the progression of the dis- our grantees are happy with what we give ease,” Ponce said. “The components of our them – that’s not always the case. So we program range from exercise – walking a feel very gratified by the fact they appremile, independently, which is crucial for ciate Archstone’s efforts.”

(Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

The fact is, said Prevratil, that Archstone is pretty impressed with the efforts of the Alzheimer’s Family Services Center, too.

“This is such an outstanding group,” he said with evident admiration. “It has a great board, a great staff. We are very, very, satisfied with the grantee.”

Prevratil acknowledged that 16 years is an unusually long time for Archstone to be involved with an organization.

“It is,” he said. “We don’t normally give grants more than three years on the same subject. But if the subject matter changes . . .”

Change has become a constant with AFSC, and the continuing innovation of its programs has accounted for the continuing support from Archstone.

“We’ve worked with them on a number of programs,” Prevratil said, and he cited some examples. “We’ve worked with them as a caregiver-education collaborative – we’re always very interested in the caregiving these patients require. We’ve worked with them regarding dementia education.

They’ve worked with us in preventing falls among the elderly. We’ve worked together on the subject of depression, both among patients, as well as screening for it and providing counseling for their families. And they have provided a lot of the information that has helped us form a new initiative that will be coming out very shortly – something I’m not quite ready to talk about yet.”

Archstone’s granting process begins with the establishment of so-called initiatives, followed by the selection of programs that apply to those categories.

In the early 2000s, Archstone’s initiatives were the areas of elder abuse and neglect, fall prevention and end-of-life care. In 2012, after undertaking a reassessment of California’s older population, Archstone

determined that people’s needs had changed and that the foundation would have to steer its philanthropy toward new areas to remain relevant.

Archstone’s new initiatives: • Enabling older adults to remain in their homes and communities.

• Improving the quality of life for older adults suffering from depression.

• Developing innovative responses to the family caregiving needs of elders.

• Expanding the workforce needed to care for and serve the rapidly growing aging population.

Ironically, the difficulty in attracting attention and donations to these areas is that old age is a new issue.

“People haven’t historically lived this long,” Prevratil said. “Most existing foundations are much older than Archstone and [had] established their specific areas of interest before aging became an issue. But these [aging] issues are going to continue to come to the forefront based on the fact that we are all living longer.”

Prevratil finds his work with Archstone provides some relevant perspective to his own life.

“When I was young it was very exciting to do the things I did with the Queen Mary, with the Port of Long Beach, the convention center expansion . . .” he said. “I’ve been blessed with many honors from the city and other organizations.

“But in kind of the twilight of my career, I think being lucky enough to be working n an organization like this and be its CEO and direct where we’re going is very gratifying for me, personally. And I’m lucky enough that I’ve had some pretty exciting projects to work on in each part of my life.

Look at it this way: I’m 77 years old, and I really believe in aging in place.” ■

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2015

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Juan Pablo Montoya: Still Racy After All These Years â– By MICHAEL GOUGIS Contributing Writer

March

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March 31-April 13, 2015

COUNTDOWN TO THE 41ST GRAND PRIX

Long Beach Business Journal 25

Y

ou’ve got to figure that it would take a lot to keep Juan Pablo Montoya excited about racing. Since he burst onto the international racing scene in 1997, he has won the Indy 500, the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix, Formula 3000 and Champ Car titles, and the Daytona 24 Hours. He’s driven for the top teams in the sport: Penske, Ganassi, Williams, McLaren. It’s hard to imagine what could still drive him.

But the 39-year-old Colombian-born driver is still fit, ready to race, and excited about the changes and new opportunities for the upcoming 2015 Verizon IndyCar series, which roars into town on April 19 as the headlining race for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

In particular, Montoya is excited about the introduction of new “aero kits” for the car bodies that mean, for the first time in several seasons, that the cars powered by Chevrolet engines will look and perform dramatically differently than the ones powered by Honda engines. Each car can be tailored with a variety of pieces from the kit, allowing each team to configure the car for individual courses and even drivers.

“I think it’s exciting. I think it’s a big question mark. It’s the first time for a lot of years that you have two different cars. Yes, you have the same chassis, same gearbox, same suspension – that I think is good because it keeps it close. But I think it’s exciting because it brings the manufacturers more into the sport. And before, there were different engines, but the fans really couldn’t tell. Now you can look at the cars and see that they’re different. I think that’s a plus,” Montoya said at a recent Los Angeles media availability session in advance of the Grand Prix.

“If you’re really good on the short ovals, it means you probably don’t have enough downforce for the streets or road courses. So I think it will balance out. The weekend the Hondas are better, there will be a lot of Hondas up front, not just a couple of teams. The weekends you are down, I think it’s going to suck. The weekends you are up, I think you’re going to love it.”

The aero kits will make the cars quicker but, because so much of the downforce is generated by the front wing, drivers will be cautious about damaging it through contact with a wall or with another car. At a place like Long Beach, damage to the incredibly complex front wing can wind up costing you dearly for the rest of the race, Montoya said.

“I think you’re going to have to be a lot smarter, because right now we don’t know what the penalty will be for damaging the wing,” he said.

Montoya’s long career has taken him from his home in Colombia to Europe to the United States, back to Europe and back to North America, first in NASCAR and then back in IndyCar. He’s had the chance to race and win in Formula One on some of the most famous, classic tracks in racing history – Monza, Monaco, Silverstone. But he doesn’t see the courses through the looking glass of nostalgia, nor does he view Formula One that way, either.

“It has changed in that a lot of the people are paying for their drives instead of being hired.

And the electronics have changed things a lot. I think to drive the cars is very similar, but to engineer them is very difficult,” Montoya said.

“In America, there’s COTA (Circuit of The Americas in Texas) that drivers think is one of the best tracks in the world right now. And I’ll tell you, NOLA [Raceway Park, near New Orleans], for fun, is – I haven’t had that much fun driving a car in a long time. It’s amazing. The ‘wow’ factor comes out. It’s really, really fast, and it takes a lot of commitment.”

Real race drivers like speed, and Montoya said he likes tracks with high-speed corners that test the driver’s skill and courage. But he said the tracks that generate the best racing have a particular layout.

“Long straights make for better racing, because you can use the draft,” Montoya said. “That’s why Road America was so good, because the straights were so long. You go halfway down the straight, three or four car-lengths behind and, by the end of the straight, you were right there.

And [you need] corners that aren’t hairpins leading on to them so you can follow them closely.”

Montoya’s raw speed has always impressed. The first time he saw Indy, he walked away from the field after making some of the best drivers in the world look slow. And, at this point in his career, he has added patience and strategy to his arsenal. They are indeed strengths – speed, patience and strategy have earned Montoya three wins in the most famous endurance race in the United States, the 24 Hours of Daytona – but they can be liabilities as well.

“They are more strengths than weaknesses. The only downside – and I think I do a good job of managing this – is that you learn how far you can go. But sometimes knowing how far you can go, you go 90 percent or 95 percent instead of 100 percent or 105 percent, know what I mean?

It’s a really fine balance,” Montoya said. “The day you think you’re going quick enough, they start going quicker than you.”

“When you’re young, you’re just desperate for success. Because I was a Formula One test driver, I was a little more mature. There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity. You have to be able to balance that. The other thing is that there’s a difference between going over that line on a road course or a street course, where you’re going to go out, and doing it on an oval, where you’re going to get hurt."

Montoya’s son, Sebastian, is following in his father’s footsteps, racing – and winning – in the incredibly competitive world of karting. Being a racing dad, and a coach for kids other than his son, has been an interesting experience for Montoya, as well as sometimes being utterly surreal.

“If they (the kids) are not paying attention, I’m going to be kind of hard on them – and I kind of ask the parents for permission to be hard on them,” Montoya said. “For a mom, you want to defend your kid. Even my wife gets mad at me when I’m hard on [my son] – ‘Oh, but he’s not going to enjoy it,’ she’ll say. I tell her, ‘I guarantee you, [if] he’s winning, he’ll be happier.’

“Sometimes I’ll get a mom telling me what I need to be telling her kid, and I’m thinking, is this really happening? I want to ask her, what do you do for a living?” ■

“When you’re young, you’re just desperate for success.

Because I was a Formula One test driver, I was a little more mature. There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity. You have to be able to balance that.”

Juan Pablo Montoya Pictured above with Jim Michaelian President/CEO, Grand Prix Association of Long Beach

Photographs by Doug Gifford

For Tickets And Information About The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach visit: www.gplb.com

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26 Long Beach Business Journal

Tatum Appointed Long Beach Planning Bureau Manager Linda F. Tatum was recently appointed as the city’s planning bureau manager by Long Beach Development Services Director Amy Bodek. “As the newly appointed planning bureau manager, I am honored and excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the growth and development of

March 31-April 13, 2015

IN THE NEWS Long Beach,” Tatum said in a city-released statement. Tatum formerly served as the City of Inglewood’s acting director of economic and community development department. In that role, she oversaw the city’s safety, building, planning and code enforcement divisions. Prior to her work for Inglewood, she served as planning manager for Culver City and as senior planner for the City of Santa Ana. “Linda has a

proven leadership record in municipal planning and decision making, and will be highly valuable to the department and to the city,” Bodek said in a statement. “Her wealth of knowledge and over 20 years of experience will help move forward longrange planning efforts, including the update to the Land Use Element, preparation for specific plans and historic preservation,” Bodek stated.

Local Architects Join U.S.S. Kitty Hawk Board

Guthrie Named GM For Doubletree Hilton Carson After spending the past four years as hotel manager at the Hotel Maya – a Doubletree by Hilton along the Queensway Bay of Long Beach, Greg Guthrie is the new general manager at the Doubletree by Hilton Carson, located adjacent to the 405 freeway within the Carson Civic Center, and just five miles from the Long Beach Airport and 12 miles for Los Angeles International Airport. Both properties are owned by Ensemble Hotel Partners, a division of Ensemble Real Estate. Prior to joining the Hotel Maya, Guthrie served as director of food and beverage at the Kyoto Grand Hotel in Los Angeles and at the Sheraton Cerritos in th City of Cerritos. He’s held other hospitality positions in cities such as Chicago, Columbus, San Diego and San Francisco. The 225-room Hilton Carson offers 5,600 square feet of meeting and event space, and is adjacent to the Carson Community Center, which provides 20 meeting rooms and 40,000 square feet of meeting space. The hotel features The Refinery and Scoreboard restaurant and lounge, an outdoor pool and whirlpool, and a business center. For more information about the hotel, call 310/830-9200. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Two Long Beach architects have been named to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk Board of Directors “in preparation for the aircraft carrier being put on donation hold by Navsea” sometime during the next year.

Alan Burks, president and director of architecture at Environ Inc. of Long Beach, and Michael Shanahan, senior design manager healthcare at LWI Consulting, will work with the Kitty Hawk Veterans Association and others in an effort to establish the carrier as a museum and “economic powerhouse in the Port of Long Beach,” according to a statement. The Kitty Hawk, which is being maintained in Bremerton, Washington, is currently in what is known as reserve status until the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford is put into service.

Laserfiche Founder Wacker Honored Posthumously The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) has posthumously elected Nien-Ling Wacker, founder of Long Beach-based Laserfiche, to its Company of Fellows. The AIIM Company of Fellows honors individuals who “merit recognition and distinction for their outstanding contributions to the enterprise

Women of Distinction Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, representing the 70th Assembly District, recognized women who “go above and beyond for their community” who were nominated by their colleagues in one of five categories: arts, business, community service, education and health services. “Those being honored as one of my 2015 Women of Distinction exemplify leadership and have shown a dedicated commitment to helping others,” said Assemblymember O’Donnell. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to recognize each woman with this honor.”

Women of Distinction are:

Neena Strichart Named 70th Assembly District’s Woman Of The Year Neena Strichart, publisher of the weekly Signal Hill Tribune, has been named by Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell as the 70th District’s “Woman of the Year.” for her “tireless dedication to community service.” She was honored in early March on the Assembly Floor. In addition to being the publisher of the Signal Tribune, she is a “dedicated volunteer working with organizations such as the Friends of Long Beach Animals, the Long Beach/Bellflower Elks Club, the Susan B. Anthony chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, and Fast Friends,” according to a statement from the assemblymember’s office. In a statement, Strichart said, “I am both extraordinarily happy and humbled to be named Woman of the Year. As my 95 year-old mother Marjorie Gromme likes to say, ‘There is a big difference between being in your community and being of your community.’ I am proud to be of my community.

I want to thank Assemblymember O’Donnell for this recognition.” (Photograph provided by 70th Assembly District office)

Tracy Ames Paula Barrow Mary Alice Braly Terry Braunstein Rose Mary Callahan Inge Cristiano Rita Dever Michele Dobson Amy Eriksen Cindy Goodfellow Marquita Grenot-Scheyer Phyllis Hayes-Reams Chan Hopson Jan Hower Kathy Hughes Lois Irving Christina Kreachbaum Elizabeth Lambe

Denise Likar Kristy Mandigo Kinkor Mausami Momaya Lisa Pavlovich Sara Pol-Lim Rose Richard Jane Roeder Terry Rogers Lori Ross Debbie Rouser Phyllis Schmidt Shannon Shoenberg Corinne Sierzant Mary Sophiea Virgia Wade Jan Ward Crystal West Mary Zendejas Kris Zentgraf

content management (ECM) industry.”

John Mancini, president of AIIM International, said, “Nien-Ling was truly a pioneer in the ECM industry. She focused on excellence and thrived on making software that people love to use. Thanks to her tremendous dedication, Laserfiche has grown into a powerhouse with thousands of customers and millions of users around the world.”

Wacker becomes the 208th individual inducted to the AIIM Company of Fellows since it was established in 1963. During a March 19 ceremony in San Diego, her husband, Laserfiche CEO Chris Wacker, and son, Peter Wayman, Laserfiche vice president of asset management, accepted the award on her behalf. The company has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Toronto, Mexico, London, Washington, D.C., and Ft. Lauderdale.

Testa Named Rookie Of Year Andrea Testa recently received the “Rookie of the Year” award at Keller Williams Pacific Estates. The award honors the agent with the most closed volume during the first 12 months of receiving their real estate license. “Andrea is truly an amazing agent,” said Stacy Morel, chief financial officer at Keller Williams Pacific Estates. “She goes above and beyond for her clients and her peers. Even when her business hits a few bumps she still has a smile on her face and keeps the wheels turning.”

Councilman Uranga Named To State Coastal Commission Long Beach City Councilman Roberto Uranga, who represents the 7th District, has been appointed by the State Senate Rules Committee as a voting member of the California Coastal Commission. The mission of the commission is “to protect, conserve, restore, and enhance environmental and human-based resources of the California coast and ocean for environmentally sustainable and prudent use by current and future generations.” In a statement issued by the city, Uranga said: “I cannot express the full extent of gratitude to my colleagues for having placed their trust and confidence in me,” Uranga remarked. “Long Beach is extremely fortunate to have such great leadership at all levels of government and I am honored to complement the work of all those looking to improve the Great State of California for all its residents.”

Michael Jensen To Keynote YMCA’s Prayer Breakfast Michael C. Jensen, the sole survivor of a 2011 plane crash at Long Beach Airport, will share his story at the 47th Annual Good Friday Breakfast, April 3, presented by the YMCA of Greater Long Beach. The event is at the Long Beach Convention Center’s Grand Ballroom, beginning at 7 a.m. For more information or to register, visit www.lbymca.org or call 562/279-1700.

Community Hospital Earns Gold Seal Of Appoval Community Hospital of Long Beach, part of the MemorialCare Health System, recently earned The Joint Commissions’ Gold Seal of Approval® for Hospital Accreditation “by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performace standards,” according to a hospital statement. The Gold Seal of Approval is a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to providing safe and effective patient care.

March

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2015

March 31-April 13, 2015

IN THE NEWS

Long Beach Business Journal 27

Tim Meyer Is The New General Manager For The Two Long Beach Hyatts Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau President/CEO Steve Goodling, right, welcomes Tim Meyer as the new general manager of the Hyatt Long Beach and the Hyatt at the Pike. Meyer, a 17-year veteran of Hyatt Hotels, began his new position on March 19. His most recent assignment was as general manager of the Hyatt Regency Cleveland, serving there for more than three years. The New Orleans native began his career with Hyatt as director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt San Antonio and held a similar post for three years at the nearby Hyatt Hill Country. He was then promoted to regional vice president of sales, working from the corporate office. Meyer – an avid sports fan who enjoys cooking, biking and running – and his wife, Molly, have two grown daughters. The Hyatt Long Beach, at 200 S. Pine Ave., is the city’s largest hotel with 528 recently renovated guestrooms all with water views, and the Hyatt at the Pike, 285 Bay St., has 138 rooms and suites.

Diana Hendel Steps Down As CEO Of MemorialCare’s Three Long Beach Hospitals As previously reported by the Business Journal in a March 5 Newsflash, Diana Hendel, who had served as chief executive officer of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC), Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach and Community Hospital Long Beach since January 2009, resigned due to unspecified health reasons. Hendel had been on medical leave since late last year. The hospitals are part of the MemorialCare Health System based in Orange County.

“Over the past four months, since she informed us of her decision to go on leave, the health system has been in discussions with Diana Hendel about her future plans,” according to a statement sent to the Business Journal by Richele Steele, vice president of marketing and public relations for the three Long Beach hospitals.

“Diana, sadly, has chosen not to return to MemorialCare, and to focus on her health and family for the immediate future.” The statement also said that, “Diana has expressed how difficult it is to need to leave a job that was her calling and an organization, team and community that she loves. She will be greatly missed by her MemorialCare family.”

MemorialCare President and CEO Barry Arbuckle announced that he and Tammie McMann Brailsford, who serves as executive vice president (EVP) and chief operating officer for the six-hospital system, two medical groups and a health plan, will begin succession planning for LBMMC. “In the meantime, Tammie will continue to work directly with the Long Beach Operating Group, to ensure our quality, growth and operational strategies advance with the same sense of purpose

that Diana expected during her years as CEO of the Long Beach campuses,” the statement read.

According to the hospital website, “Hendel began her career at Long Beach Memorial as a clinical pharmacy resident, where

she stayed for 10 years before undertaking leadership roles throughout the MemorialCare Health System, including vice president of Anaheim Memorial, executive director for MemorialCare and the Physician Society, and administrator for the San

Clemente campus of Saddleback Memorial.” In 2006, she was promoted to chief operating officer of Long Beach Memorial.

Hendel earned her bachelors in biology from UC Irvine and her doctorate in pharmacy from UC San Franciscos.

Ukleja Center Honors Leadership Legacy Of Louis Zamperini The 2015 Nell and John Wooden Ethics in Leadership Award was presented to the son of the late Louis Zamperini, whose story has become known worldwide through the recent release of the movie, Unbroken. Inaugurated in 2009, the annual award is presented by The Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership at California State University, Long Beach. It celebrates the leadership of the Woodens who, according to a statement, “embody the Ukleja Center’s core values of integrity, excellence, empowerment and servant leadership. It is designed to honor a person or organization whose contribution is built on ethical behavior and visionary leadership.” Dean Solt, director of the Ukleja Center and dean of the CSULB’s College of Business Administration, said, “Louie’s story, as eloquently told by his son Luke, is about perseverance, redemption and forgiveness. Luke spoke from the heart about his father and everyone in the room was spellbound.

This was truly a memorable event.” Louis Zamperini’s story is one of a young trouble maker who went on to be the youngest distance runner on the 1936 USA Olympic team to a captured WWII pilot who was tortured for two years. He came home a hero who could not shake the memories of captivity. According to a Ukleja Center statement: “Heading in a downward spiral, he turned his life around after hearing a talk by Billy Graham. From then until his passing at the age of 97 in 2014, Louie inspired millions by sharing his story about transformational power of forgiveness.” Pictured at the Nell and John Wooden Ethics in Leadership Award seminar are, from left: Greg Wooden, Luke Zamperini, Louise Ukleja, Michael Solt and Lindora CEO Cynthia Graff. (Photograph by Carlos Delgado)

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28 Long Beach Business Journal

March 31-April 13, 2015

PERSPECTIVES

HealthWise

Small Business Dollars & Sense

When your normal isn’t normal

leadership lessons From Women entrepreneurs

W

omen of all ages can suffer from pelvic floor conditions that affect bowel and bladder function, female reproductive organs and the muscles of the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor can be weakened by a combination of factors, such as childbirth, heavy lifting, the effects of menopause and aging, and other chronic medical and neurologic conditions. For some women, a family history of pelvic floor issues inBy jocelyn creases the risk of developing a future pelvic floor condition. crAig, M.d.

Although problems are more common with advancing age, even young women can be affected. Pelvic floor disorders significantly compromise the quality of women’s lives, which may result in depression, social isolation and avoidance of physical and sexual activity due to discomfort and embarrassment. Women often suffer in silence because they are unaware that many of these conditions can be treated.

The following are common pelvic floor conditions, and can affect women at any age.

Urinary Incontinence is the loss of bladder control. Common symptoms include a loss of urine with coughing, sneezing, laughing or with physical activity. Women also may lose urine with a strong urge to urinate while trying to reach the restroom. Some women experience occasional leakage while others wet their clothing on a daily basis. If bladder control affects your daily life, call your doctor to see how you can re-gain control.

Fecal Incontinence is losing control of bowel movements. The severity can range from leakage when passing gas or complete loss of control.

Some adults can experience this occasionally, but others experience daily loss of stool.

If you can’t control bowel movements or cannot make it to the restroom in time, it is important to share this information with your doctor help determine a treatment plan.

Pelvic Organ Prolapse is when the connective tissue supporting the walls of the vagina and the pelvic organs weakens. This weakening can cause the pelvic organs to “drop” out of place. Common symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse include a feeling of pressure in the vaginal opening as if something is “falling out” of your vagina.

Some women may not feel any symptoms. Other women feel a lot of discomfort and need to seek medical attention.

Overactive Bladder is the frequent need to urinate along with a feeling that the urge to urinate cannot be delayed. Women with overactive bladder may be waking up at night multiple times to urinate. Overactive bladder can lead to urinary incontinence.

Even though overactive bladder is common in older adults, it is not part of the aging process. If your symptoms put a strain on your everyday life, reach out to your doctor to see what treatment options are available.

Pelvic Health Conditions are Treatable Any woman challenged with a pelvic health condition knows that these issues can easily affect quality of life. What many women may not know is that these issues are treatable. New therapies, medications and minimally invasive procedures offer hope to women currently coping with their pelvic health issues alone.

Schedule an appointment with your physician if you wish to re-gain control of your pelvic health condition.

(Jocelyn Craig, M.D. is a urogynecologist at the Center for Women’s Pelvic Health at Long Beach Memorial.)

Effective Leadership The Workforce And Workplace Are changing

T

he Millennial generation (19832001), is entering organizations at an amazing rate, while at the same time Baby Boomers (1946-1964), are retiring.

In our research we identified nine perceived orientations that drive the behaviors of Millennials. For one, they put a

By Mick high value on being autonomous. One of UklejA the complaints was “they seem to disregard tradition and ignore the way things have always been done.”

One of the unintended consequences of this is a shift in the corporate mindset which consisted of: A a 9 to 5 job; sitting at a cubicle; in a particular building; using devices provided by the employer.

The shift in corporate culture just happens to be in parallel with the shift in the workforce.

Some are uncomfortable with this new generation of workers, in part because of their desire for a more flexible workplace. Yet upon further investigation, a focus on what

O

ne of the themes this March is women, who represent one of the fastest growing segments of entrepreneurs in this country and are integral to the future of small business. In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, about 30 percent of small businesses in the U.S. are owned by women. These leaders, who have blazed the trail for future women business owners, offer great lessons on what it takes run a successful enterprise.

By Ben In our business, we have the opportunity to work with and serve exAlvArAdo traordinary women business owners across the country on a daily basis.

To help the next generation of business owners, here’s what we have learned from three of our customers about their journey in becoming leaders of thriving businesses: • Build relationships: Spend time networking with other women and other entrepreneurs, developing and marketing your business properly. By attending conferences and events that pertain to your business, volunteering for speaking engagements related to your industry, marketing your firm’s expertise and creating thought-leadership material you are establishing a broad network and building relationships that can help your business grow.

• Maintain your values: To attain business success you need to always strive to excel in your industry – be the best at what you do – and consistently maintain high quality work. Stick with your core values.

• Change can be good: Don’t be afraid to change your business model, or reinvent yourself to adjust to shifts in the marketplace.

• Act on your dreams: Keep at it no matter the challenges. Keep believing in yourself and what you are capable of achieving. Dream big. If you have an idea, just do it and go for it!

• Never exclude an opportunity: Don’t rule out your options just because they might not be what you originally envisioned.

• Surround yourself with experts: The ability to leverage and build on expertise can only elevate you and your business, making it much easier to grow and take things to the next level. Keep seeking out the assistance and insight of people who bring new skills and knowledge to your business.

• See the bigger picture: Being a good leader means you need to take all perspectives into account before making decisions that will ultimately impact the entire organization.

It also means going out of your way to forge strong relationships within your community, as well as your industry.

Often times, one idea can open a door to something else that you may not have imagined, especially in business. Today there’s a growing list of government, non-profit and private organizations, including the U.S. Small Business Administration and the National Association of Women Business Owners, that provide resources for women in business.

Take advantage of these resources as well as other local peer groups that can offer advice and support, and help you build your business network. By learning from women who have attained their business goals, you can put yourself in the best position to turn your business dreams into reality.

(Ben Alvarado, a 23-year veteran of Wells Fargo, is the president of the bank’s Southern California Region, which stretches from Long Beach to Orange, Imperial and San Diego counties.)

gets done rather than how and where it gets done is turning out to be a good thing.

There are also studies showing that in some professions working from home increases, not only a sense of wellbeing, but also personal productivity.

One study involved 13,000 employees of a large Chinese multinational – China’s largest travel agency. Those working from home (randomly picked) were compared to their office-working counterparts. The homeworkers had a 13% increase in performance. The top executives of the company were surprised because they assumed there would be a negative impact on performance.

These executives were also concerned about the 50% annual turnover of their workers. Through this experiment the company’s attrition rate was cut in half, which resulted in reducing new employee training costs. Office costs were also reduced in the areas of leased space and energy consumption.

In the past, working 9 to 5 at a dedicated location with dedicated equipment was a way of assuring people would get their work done. It provided accountability, especially with the lack of technology available. Just think of the increased agility of an organization when people can do their very best work when, where, and how they want!

It’s no coincidence that work locations are increasing at the same time workspace costs are decreasing. According to a survey of 1900 companies, allowing people to work at more optimal times and locations is having a positive impact both in cost-savings and personal productivity. By the

year 2020 there will be: 20% decrease in dedicated workspace; 7 desks for every 10 office employees worldwide (6 desks for every 10 workers in the U.S); 3 out of 10 who will work remotely; access to corporate IT networks from an average of 6 different devices The office spaces of the future will foster creativity and encourage collaboration. This includes the ability to work from anywhere – the corporate workplace, the customer’s workplace, the employee’s home, on the go, and with no particular eight-hour time frame.

Leaders and managers need to look at their organization’s needs while at the same time playing to the strengths of this new workforce. They are comfortable working from coffee shops, hotels, airports, home, and of course, the office. This will increase employee productivity and reduce the organization’s costs – including their carbon footprint.

This will also leverage a company’s ability to recruit, train, and retain their top employees, no matter what their age and regardless of where they live.

Promoting mutual understanding between generations in the workplace is, and will continue to be, a game-changer.

Work is rapidly becoming something people do, and not just a place people go.

(Mick Ukleja keynotes across the country on topics related to leadership. He is president of LeadershipTraq and author of several books, including co-author of Managing the Millennials. His clients have included Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations. Check his weekly blog at www.leadershiptraq.com.)

March

1_LBBJ_MARCH31_2015_PortAnniversary 3/28/15 6:20 PM Page 29

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March 31-April 13, 2015

PERSPECTIVES PERSPECTIVES

Realty Views retirees Predicted To spur Housing Market

T

he popular theory in today’s youth-centric economy is that the millennial generation – those born after 1980 and ranging into the 2000s – is the driver of economic growth today, and is the barometer when it comes to real estate in particular.

Not only is this the popular sweet spot for most

By Terry advertisers today, but much has been made of this ross age group when it comes to discussing the growth of the housing market in the post-Great Recession era.

But in a new study recently conducted by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in partnership with Age Wave, it appears that the real engine for housing in the coming years is actually the older baby boomer generation of retirees or near-retirees.

According to the report, “Home in Retirement: More Freedom, New Choices,” during the next decade, the number of age 65+ households in the U.S. will increase by nearly 11 million, while growth in the number of households across all other age groups will be less than 2 million. It also found that 64 percent of retirees are likely to move at least once during retirement, with 37 percent having already moved and 27 percent anticipating doing so. The so-called silent generation – those 69 or older – are also predicted to account for more growth in housing than all other generations combined.

“How and where our nation’s aging population chooses to live will have widespread implications on the way homes are designed, the resources people will need, and how communities and businesses nationwide should prepare,” said Andy Sieg, head of Global Wealth and Retirement Solutions for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. “For most retirees, their home is more than just a financial consideration – it’s a place where family and community come together, and can represent treasured memories or independence.”

The survey was based on a nationally representative poll of more than 3,600 respondents and discovered many other interest-

ing trends about this forgotten generation. It noted that, as people enter their late 50s and 60s, they approach and begin to cross what this study reveals as the “Freedom Threshold,” with retirement representing a gateway to unprecedented freedom to choose where to live. By age 61, the majority of people feel free to choose where they most want to live and retirees are more than twice as likely to say they are free to choose where they want to live when compared to pre-retirees (67 percent vs. 30 percent). Four out of five (81 percent) Americans age 65+ are homeowners and, among them, 72 percent have fully paid off their mortgage.

With new freedom to decide where they want to live, many retirees move to a different home, community or part of the country – with an estimated 4.2 million retirees moving into new homes last year alone. Retirees’ top motivations for moving include being closer to family (29 percent), reducing home expenses (26 percent) and changes in health (17 percent) or marital status (12 percent).

Many people assume they’ll downsize once retired. However, the study found that half (49 percent) of retirees didn’t downsize in their last move – and, in fact, 30 percent moved into larger homes.

Retirees’ top reasons for upsizing were to have a home large and comfortable enough for family members to visit (33 percent) or even live with them (20 percent). According to this study, one out of six retirees (16 percent) has a “boomerang” child who has moved back in with them. Retirees who did downsize (51 percent) cite greater freedom from the financial (64 percent) and maintenance (44 percent) burdens of a larger home among their top reasons.

Among retirees who have not and do not plan to move during retirement, the top reasons include their deep emotional connection with their home (54 percent), close proximity to family (48 percent) and friends (31 percent), wanting to remain independent (44 percent), or because they simply can’t afford to move (28 percent). Prior to age 55, more homeowners say the financial value of their home outweighs its emotional value.

Given this information, it might well be time for real estate developers, marketers and anyone else looking to tap into where the economic engine is going to be over the next few years to look no further than this group that has been a robust part of the economy for many decades already.

(Terry Ross, the broker-owner of TR Properties, will answer any questions about today’s real estate market. E-mail questions to Realty Views at terryross1@cs.com or call 949/457-4922.)

Third Sector Report Thinking of An encore . . . it’s A Winning Proposition For nonprofits

T

here’s one word that can stir the hearts and minds of leaders no matter whether their interests are private enterprise, public entities or nonprofit organizations. The word is By jeFFrey “capital.”

Wilcox For most nonprofit organizations, grants form the largest and most recognizable form of working capital to grow programs, bridge strategies from the past to the future, or seed a new idea that has all the potential for changing the world. Many nonprofits, however, are sobered by the reality that the capital dollars are a short-term funding source and must be compensated for through earned income or charitable contributions.

The most important source of capital is the one most often overlooked: Human Capital. Virtually every great nonprofit was started by a group of people who

said, “Yes We Can” long before a presidential candidate made those three words into a trademarked slogan. People came together leveraging their time, talents and, in most cases, meager means to see that something that adds quality of life to a community gets done.

As 75 million baby boomers have been contemplating their futures, it’s clear that the idea of an “encore performance” has become an attractive, personally fulfilling and potentially lucrative proposition.

For the last10 years, an estimated nine million Boomers have chosen alternatives to traditional retirement through an encore professional experience aimed at offering their expertise developed over a lifetime and using it to change the world through service to the nonprofit and social enterprise sectors.

According to Marci Alboher, author of The Encore Career Handbook, another 31 million are interested in taking the leap.

And, today, there is what is called “the encore movement.” A movement that, according to Forbes, has redefined retirement and financial planning.

Unfortunately, the nonprofit sector has been slow to seize forms of capital that experienced leadership, technical expertise, and political savvy in complicated organizations can offer. A bank of dollars and a

bank of other resources are hard to reconcile when payroll is in jeopardy.

In our community, there are at least two sources of encore talent ripe for the harvesting and each offers very unique skills and talents to nonprofit organizations if the nonprofit’s leadership is ready to demonstrate the power of leveraging monetary and human resources to build their cause.

The first is Social Venture Partners and their Encore Fellows Program. An Encore Fellow can be placed in a nonprofit organization for a stipend of $25,000 to perform 1,000 hours of a defined scope of work either full-time over a six-month period or part-time for an entire year. Any nonprofit would find it difficult to find expert consultation coupled with a hands-on deck presence at that price.

This year, the board chair of Social Venture Partners Los Angeles is Stephen Groner, founder and president of Long Beach-based S. Groner and Associates, a national Who’s Who among social marketing firms that designs issues-oriented communication strategies.

The second is Executive Service Corps of Southern California which provides training and support to encore professionals seeking a volunteer opportunity as consultants, trainers and coaches to nonprofit organizations. Last year alone, encore volunteers provided 13,000 hours of professional services to 141 nonprofit organizations in 155 capacity-building

Long Beach Business Journal 29

Vol. XXVIII No. 6 March 31-April 13, 2015

EDITOR & PUBLISHER George Economides SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Heather Dann OFFICE ASSISTANT Larry Duncan EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT SENIOR WRITER Samantha Mehlinger STAFF WRITER Sean Belk CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Michael Gougis, Dave Wielenga PHOTOJOURNALIST Evan Kelly COPY EDITOR Pat Flynn The Long Beach Business Journal is a publication of South Coast Publishing, Inc., incorporated in the State of California in July 1985. It is published every other Tuesday (except between Christmas and mid-January) – 25 copies annually. The Business Journal premiered March 1987 as the Long Beach Airport Business Journal. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited unless otherwise stated. Opinions expressed by perspective writers and guest columnists are their views and not necessarily those of the Business Journal. Press releases should be sent to the address shown below.

Office South Coast Publishing, Inc. 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212 Signal Hill, CA 90755 Ph: 562/988-1222 • Fx: 562/988-1239 www:LBBusinessJournal.com Advertising and Editorial Deadlines Wednesday prior to publication date. Note: Press releases should be faxed or mailed. No follow up calls, please. For a copy of the 2015 advertising and editorial calendar, please fax request to 562/988-1239. Include your name, company and address and a copy will be sent to you. Distribution: Minimum 22,000.

Regular Office Hours Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Business Journal Subscriptions Standard Bulk Rate: $28.00 1st Class: $70.00 (25 issues–1 year)

projects under the well-established and award-winning ESC brand.

Additionally, ESC provides its trained volunteer consultants as personal coaches to participants in ESC’s highly-acclaimed Developing Development Program and Executive Directors Leadership Institute.

In order for these rich sources of human capital to work their magic, however, a shift must take place in conventional thinking towards retirement and retirees. It’s no longer our father’s definition. The encore movement is rightfully forcing nonprofit leaders to get with it to eliminate the roadblocks that stand in the way of unleashing generational diversity to advance their organizations.

If capital is what’s needed to further ground a nonprofit in its service to others, reframing what that means might reframe the perception of just how much is readily available.

For additional information about how these two organizations can benefit your nonprofit or expand your own encores options, Social Venture Partners can be reached at 310/305-1761 or www.socialventurepartners.org/los-angeles; and Executive Service Corps of Southern California can be found at www.escsc.org or 213/613-9103.

(Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE, is president and chief executive officer of The Third Sector Company, Inc. Join in on the conversation about this article at the Long Beach Business Journal website, www.lbbusinessjournal.com)

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ART MATTERS

Brought To You By The Arts Council For Long Beach

Collaboration Matters ■ By VICTORIA BRYAN Executive Director

F

rom the world’s longest running musical, Les Misérables, at Musical Theatre West to Jessica Rath’s multisensory exploration of bumblebees’ experience at the University Arts Museum to the powerful drama Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, plus many other innovative and intriguing arts events, Long Beach audiences have a lot of choices during April and May. These great options come with added rewards of expanded dining experiences for attendees of two or more participating events, thanks to the ARTS+ Card.

ARTS+ encourages patrons to explore arts organizations beyond those that they already know well. Carpenter Performing Arts Center, International City Theatre, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach Opera, Long Beach Playhouse, Long Beach Symphony, Museum of Latin American Art, Musical Theatre West, and University Art Museum are all participating in this first collaborative marketing venture, coordinated by the Arts Council for Long Beach.

“The idea that so many venerated arts institutions are willing and enthusiastic about collaborative efforts is not only invigorating, but hopeful. It is hopeful for our future arts landscape and hopeful for the arts enthusiast,” remarked Andrew Vondersmitt, Executive and Producing Artistic Director, Long Beach Playhouse. “If even one person uses the ARTS+ Card to visit a

new-to-them arts establishment, we all win in every sense of the word.”

As research shows in the recent Americans for the Arts Report (Arts and Economic Prosperity IV), attendance at arts events generates income for local businesses - restaurants, parking garages, hotels, and retail stores.

An average arts attendee spends $24.60 per event, not including the cost of admission. Studies such as these increase the incentive for business and arts to collaborate; the ARTS+ card would not be possible without business partners’ support, including restaurants: Utopia, Thai District, La Strada, and Berlin Bistro/Portfolio Coffee House, as well as the Queen Mary and The Aquarium of the Pacific.

“Dinner and a show go hand-inhand,” said Kamran Assadi, one of the owners of Utopia, situated in Long Beach’s East Village. “We’re delighted to explore the possibilities and benefits of working together with Long Beach’s major arts organizations. The more synergy we can create between arts and business, the better it is for everyone - especially the customer.”

Information for ARTS+ is available using the free app Aurasma, found using the QR code. Download the app, search for the “Arts Council for Long Beach” channel, hit “Follow.” Next, snap the ARTS+ logo for links to all event details. ■

Gallery Corner What do augmented reality and the Long Beach Museum of Art have in common?

Quite a lot these days due to LBMA’s integration of the Aurasma app throughout the museum’s galleries. Aurasma, a marketing tool that allows users to access additional content like videos, photo opportunities, and behind the scenes information, comes to life after a user focuses their smart device on a predetermined image. LBMA, the first museum in the country to use this technology, has integrated Aurasma as part of the museum experience to enhance visitors’ interaction with the exhibitions. Once a visitor downloads the free application and focuses their smart device onto set pieces of artwork, the Aurasma appears on the screen and offers a behind-the-scenes tour with insight from the curator. Jason Stabile, Technology and Education Coordinator at LBMA, describes the surprise and enjoyment that museum visitors experience when seeing pieces of work transform into an interactive tour for the first time. After the successful inclusion of the Aurasma technology into previous exhibits, LBMA is a true early adapter of this technology in the museum world and is in contact with the Aurasma team to find additional ways to augment and enrich museum experiences. To check out the Aurasma experience, visit the Long Beach Museum of Art Thursday through Sunday and ask one of the Museum Experience Facilitators for help downloading the free application.

Hours and admission information for the museum can be Visitors use the Aurasma app to enhance the viewing found at www.lbma.org. experience for LBMA’s current exhibition.

Long Beach Business Journal 30 March 31-April 13, 2015

Women Arts Leaders

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Wh

■ By SARAH BENNETT Arts Council for Long Beach Contributor

T

he lively performances and whimsical exhibitions presented by Long Beach's many arts organizations might feel light years away from the pencil-pushing ” There are many industries in which woman struggle for representation, but thankfully for Long Beach, the arts are not one of them. Many of our city's top visual, performing and community arts organizations are run by women, a tradition that can be traced back decades, when Long Beach's reputation as an early-adopting, open-minded arts community attracted national female talent.

In the '90s, the Long Beach Symphony was one of the first regional orchestras to have women as both its executive director and music directors, the latter being internationally renowned East Coast conductor JoAnn Falletta, who started with the Symphony in 1990.

For the last two years, executive director Kelly Ruggirello has followed in those footsteps, leading the 80-year-old orchestra and re-invigorating its various classical, pops and educational programs.

“Symphony leadership stems from a long, hierarchical, primarily male-dominated tradition,” Ruggirello says. “However California and more specifically, Long Beach, has been at the forefront of diversity in leadership.”

Though Ruggirello moved to Long Beach 27 years ago, the Symphony is her first position within the city. Previously, she held top jobs in Orange County – both at the Pacific Chorale and the Orange County High School of the Arts – all the while organizing concert series at her church and volunteering as executive director of the Long Beach Mozart Festival.

“When the position of executive director became available [at the Long Beach Symphony], I knew it was time to come home and apply Kelly Ruggirello all that I have learned for the Long Beach Symphony,” she says. “To me, it’s a calling.”

Long Beach's resident professional theatre company is also a female-led organization. caryn desai (who prefers the all-lowercase spelling of her name) has been with the International City Theatre since its founding in 1985, working as general manager until 2011 when the board appointed her as the new artistic director and producer.

“It is good for every industry in every country to encourage leadership from many segments of society -- otherwise we have a limited view of things,” desai says, noting that most major cities today are not lacking in female arts leaders. “Everyone who studies, prepares, is capable, and works hard deserves an opportunity.”

Desai is originally from New Jersey, but has an MFA in directing caryn desai from the University of California, Irvine and has been professionally directing stage plays for the last 25 years. With awards from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the NAACP, L.A. Weekly and more, desai produces ICT's five main stage productions, which this year includes Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Abigail/1702 and the L.A. premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim.

“We have a very adventurous intelligent audience. We support new works and new writers who speak to the issues and concerns of our society,” desai says.

Across town, at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, executive director Michele Roberge runs a multi-faceted organization that serves not only the residents of Long Beach, but also the students at Cal State Long Beach, on whose campus the Carpenter is located.

Since 2008, Roberge has balanced the various needs of her patrons by creating engaging programs, like the two-year-old Arts for Life initiative, which goes outside the traditional theatre space to connect performing arts to the community, the classroom and the CSULB campus through free performances and activities.

“As I often say to our staff, what we do here is a luxury: no one needs to attend a jazz concert or a dance performance, or to see Michele Roberge a film,” Roberge says. “We don’t fulfill physical needs, but we do enrich lives. I’m honored that we get to do that each day through our performances and educational activities.”

It's not hard to find many other women leading top organizations and furthering the arts in Long Beach. Kimberly Hocking co-founded and directs Greenly Art Space in Signal Hill. Niko Galvez is the CEO of ArtExchange, or ArtX, in downtown. Karen Reside helped establish the Cultural Alliance of Long Beach, a group that helps area artists and operates a community art center on Pine Avenue. Krista Leaders and Tokotah Ashcraft work with the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association to organize the neighborhood's famous First Fridays art walk.

And Arts and Services for the Disabled founder and CEO Helen Dolas turned her passion for music therapy into a one-of-a-kind nonprofit that brings creative arts therapies to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“I don’t think it’s about male vs. female,” says the Carpenter's Roberge. “I think it’s more about open-mindedness and eagerness to think outside the box, to embrace and try new ways of doing things, reaching new audiences without sacrificing traditional audiences.” ■

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THE NONPROFIT PAGE

Long Beach Business Journal 31 March 31-April 13, 2015

Curated By The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership

What We Hope and Dream – Building Organizational Capacity Every organization is undergoing change all the time. Even if we don’t recognize it, we are impacted positively or negatively. GREAT organizations know how to initiate and react to change Wendy Chang, effectively. What’s Director the framework?

Dwight Stuart It’s a high level of Youth Fund awareness and commitment to ongoing capacity building activities.

Capacity building is a process designed to improve the management/business practices of an organization. Capacity does not necessarily equate to bigger, it means better. It gives strength, purpose, integrity, and optimism to all the stakeholders championing for the longevity and health of each organization that is an integral part of our vibrant communities.

Capacity building has been supported by funders (government, foundations, corporations, individuals) for many years and interest in this area is growing. However, many of the fundamental challenges remain the same.

Most nonprofits still do not pay enough attention to management/infrastructure concerns. Many funders still believe that funding core organizational infrastructure diverts money from those who directly benefit from program services. In addition, a funderdriven capacity building activity may not be what the organization wants nor needs at this point in time (importance of understanding different stages). Capacity building also takes time, so it is important to support and honor the correct “dosage” of activity so that groups are not negatively impacted.

Where we have matured is from mostly remedial-based interventions

to systems change approaches, skills transference, and continuous learning. This has led to better self-designed, self-paced capacity building experiences. Importantly, a core of the work became more people-centered and relationship oriented. Often times due to the eagerness to impact communities, organizations do not focus internally. It is not enough to be committed to a mission – processes, systems and people matter.

Within its overall mission of supporting organizations serving underserved children and youth the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund (a private family foundation) has elected to support a set of activities aimed at strengthening youth-serving nonprofits in Los Angeles County. The Fund’s Capacity-

Capacity does not necessarily equate to bigger, it means better.

Building Initiative is intended (1) to enable the Fund to have a more direct and measurable impact, and (2) to help its grantees respond to the increasingly intense cycles of change facing nonprofits.

In addition, to supporting direct capacity building activities identified by each individual grantee, The Dwight Stuart Youth Fund partners with capacity-building providers (such as the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership, Cause Communications, Taproot), participates in several funders collaboratives (LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investments, Arts for All, Alchemy Plus), and invests in placebased initiatives (South LA Child Welfare Initiative and Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership). Fundamentally, we believe the best outcomes are arrived when peer learning, one-on-one coaching, and partnerships are part of the endeavor.

While there can be power dynamics

Capacity Corner: Upcoming Calendar of Events From the Nonprofit Partnership ABC’s of High Functioning Boards, April 15, 2015, 2-5 PM Successful nonprofits have boards that share a commitment to the organization's mission and know how to fulfill their roles and responsibilities. This program will deepen your organization’s understanding of the role of board members in your organization’s success and to provide a toolkit for you to use in developing a committed, mission driven board of directors.

at play for funder supported capacity building efforts, supporting improved capacities/operations is the flexibility needed and the very purpose for which many foundations were created. “Walk the Talk” by providing resources, referrals, and joining in funding partnerships to respond to emerging needs and changing environments.

All change is ultimately a human enterprise thus individual development, flexibility, and support (when mistakes and setbacks eventually happen) are strategies that make a difference. What we hope and dream for our communities are manifested by the opportunities and the innovative practices created.

Capacity Building in Action Moving Toward Sustainability (MTS), piloted by the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund and implemented by the LBNP, is a specially designed sustainability program that allows nonprofit leaders to engage in a facilitated, customized, step-by-step course of organizational assessment and the development of a strategy for achieving greater financial strength and sustainability. MTS allows nonprofit organizations the opportunity to participate in a robust sustainability planning process which engages board of directors and key staff to allow for a greater likelihood of success.

To ensure that these carefully thought out plans aren’t forgotten, the implementation phase takes the plan “off the shelf” and moves the organizations from planning into action. With the funder offering matching support to implement a portion of the plan, organizations were able to begin to work towards sustainability immediately.

Over the course of nine months, MTS helps organizations focus and take action in seven key areas of sustainability: Leadership, Fund Development, Financial Management, Programs and Services, Strategic Planning and Evaluation, Constituency Development, and Marketing and Communications. It also provides the opportunity to work with colleagues from other organizations in a peer learning environment which fosters collaboration, more expansive thinking, and strengthens collaborative relationships.

What Grantmakers are Funding in the Area of Capacity Building Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) defines capacity building as funding and technical assistance to help nonprofits increase specific capacities to deliver stronger programs, take risks, build connections, innovate and iterate.

All foundations have areas which they philosophically & financially support.

They are passionate about an issue that they want their dollars to address.

Some foundations support organizations working in the arts, others support the eradication of deadly diseases in third world countries while others address violence against women. The foundations which offer resources for capacity building are looking to leverage their dollars to ensure that the organizations they support are strong partners in creating change.

A 2014 survey from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations found the following: • 77% of staffed US foundations provide capacity building support to grantees • 91% of these foundations support governance or leadership development • 81% support developing financial capacity & infrastructure • 77% support the use of evaluation for organizational learning and improvement “We recognize that the only way we can achieve our mission and vision is if we have strong grantee partners. Because the work we are collectively doing may take many years, and our grantees need to be resilient and effective over time, long-term capacity investments are a key part of our outcome map.”

– Paul Beaudet, Associate Director, Wilburforce Foundation

Grantwriting Certificate Program, April 15, 22, & 29, 2015, 9:30-4 PM This three-day certificate program will expand your knowledge and develop the skills needed to prepare a winning grant proposal. Filled with “how-to” instruction, proposal samples, and exercises, you can improve your skills at all levels. It is offered at the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.

Introduction to Program Evaluation, April 21, 2015, 9 AM-4 PM This program is designed to demystify evaluation, answer those burning questions, and provide tips and tools to help your organization get started on evaluation including: understanding the concept of evaluation, preparing for evaluation, and conducting a quality evaluation.

For all LBNP workshops visit: lbnp.org.

From our Partners

How to Start a Nonprofit in California, April 2, 2015, Noon, webinar Thinking about starting a nonprofit? California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits) offers a jam-packed, fast paced webinar designed to help you with step-by-step legal instructions and answer frequently asked questions. For more info, visit: calnonprofits.org.

How to Empower Staff to be the Voice of the Org through Social Media April 15, 2015, 11 AM, webinar You will learn to use the blurring lines between personal and professional brands to market your nonprofit, and how to train staff through social media guidelines and internal communications tools. For more info, visit: nten.org.

The area’s regional capacity builder, serving local organizations to strengthen and grow through leadership, education and collaboration. Offering: Professional Development & Training Networking & Collaboration Custom Training & Consulting Services Information Resources To learn more, visit us at www.lbnp.org.

4900 East Conant St., Building O-2, Suite 225, Long Beach, CA 90808 562.888-6530

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