Tourism is the number one industry on Cape Cod, the Islands and in the Plymouth area and tourist-related businesses are looking forward to summer more than ever this year.

This month, we check in with Cape and Plymouth chambers, a restaurant industry expert and a few lodging businesses, to learn how the region’s high season could be shaping up. We’ve found optimism, perhaps cautious, from our sources about business recovery.

Knowing so much more a year later has enabled many businesses to find ways to operate amid restrictions. Hopefully, lessons learned are a blueprint for future crisis management plans.

Please continue to patronize your neighborhood dining spot, as the restaurant industry continues to struggle.

Among strategic ways to rethink your marketing plans, is the importance of an email signature. Meredith Flynn writes about how to make your sig sing and grab attention.

Remote working is the new workplace and we also offer tips for productivity and some guidance for managers.

As always, we welcome your press releases and story ideas at news@capeplymouthbusiness.com.

Dale Shadbegian, CEO
Carol K. Dumas, EDITOR

Cape & Plymouth Business Media is a full service marketing firm with a dedication to building a thriving business community.
To contact us about our monthly or custom publications, sign up for our newsletter, connect on social, fund business events, or to be found on our network, please call 508-827-1065 or visit capeplymouthbusiness.com Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the written consent of the publisher. Although every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy of the content of this magazine and advertisements, Cape Business Publishing Group LLC cannot assume responsibility for any errors or omissions including placement of advertisements.

24
COVER STORY
Tourism Outlook
6
BY THE NUMBERS
7
COFFEE BREAK
8
TIDBITS
10
NEWS AND MOVES
13
ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY
14
NONPROFIT NEWS
16
MARKETING
18
SPOTLIGHT ON GIVING:
Cape Cod Children’s Place
19
SPOTLIGHT ON GIVING:
Cape Cod Foundation
20
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
FEATURE
22
PROVEN BEHAVIOR SOLUTIONS
BUSINESS TOOLBOX
28
REMOTE WORKING
30
LAST WORD
I

FEBRUARY IS Black History Month

Known as the “Father of Black History,” Carter G. Woodson was born in Virginia in 1875 and was the son of former slaves. Access to a good education and job opportunities were limited, but he ended up studying at one of the few high schools for black students after saving money from working as a coal miner. Over the years he gained his education, including a PhD in history from Harvard University and, in 1926, he sent out a press release to mark the first Black History Week in the U.S. Throughout his life, Woodson worked tirelessly to promote black history in schools.

Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated February as Black History Month. February was chosen because it coincides with the births of former President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass – who escaped slavery and became a key social activist. Both men played a significant role in helping to end slavery. This would eventually open doors to business ownership and entrepreneurship for the black community.

637,769
Of the 11,710,360 businesses in the United States in April 2020, 637,769 were black-owned.

2.58 MILLION
In 1992, there were 621,912 black-owned businesses in the U.S. By 2012, that number rose to 2.58 million,before decreasing to over 1.08 million in 2020 (prepandemic).

96
Ninety-six percent of black-owned businesses were non-employer firms, compared to 80 percent of all small businesses. Non-employer firms are defined as “businesses that have no paid employees and are subject to federal income tax.”

44
Approximately 44 percent of black business owners rely on cash to fund their business, compared to 37 percent for the average small business owner.

$5.92 BILLION
RLJ Lodging Trust, one of the largest publicly owned black businesses, reported total assets of $5.92 billion in June 2020.

The recruiting firm ZenRidge has announced the relocation of its headquarters to 167 Washington Street, Norwell.

The firm was founded in early 2020 by recruiting industry veteran Greg Walsh, a Pembroke resident who spent the previous eight years prior to the launch in the recruiting industry. ZenRidge first opened its doors in the Jack Conway Building in Hanover, near the intersection of Routes 53 and 139. However, a July fire totally destroyed the building and left all of the businesses in that building without office space.

“It was a challenging first few months,” said Walsh, who said that between COVID-19 restrictions and the fire, the year took some unexpected turns. His firm found a new location in Norwell at the Norwell Executive Center. “This Norwell-Hanover corridor is a great place to locate a business. We are looking forward to a strong close to 2020 and a strong 2021.”

As the pandemic descended on us all here at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, we kept racking our brains to come up with ways we could respond, ways we could help local fishermen stay on the water and stay in business.

We worked with captains and crew one-onone to make sure they were lined up to receive the state and federal support they deserve. We worked with local and state officials to create more opportunities for direct sales off boats and docks. We launched a chowder program to become a strong steady buyer for smaller haddock, supporting jobs on deck as well as in fish processing and manufacturing, at the same time helping food banks across New England fight hunger and support tens of thousands of people facing what they call food insecurity.

Then we hit on another idea: How about trying to get fuel subsidies directly to commercial fishermen?

The more we thought about it, the more we liked it. Fuel companies have records of what they’ve pumped boat by boat, account by
account, so the paperwork is there already. A subsidy by the gallon would offer more support to fishermen most on the water rather than a flat amount to anyone with a commercial permit no matter how much they are working.

No strings attached, just a check in the mail – fishermen can decide how best to use it. Simple. Straightforward. Direct.

We proposed the idea to the team at Catch Together, the same group that helped us get funding for our haddock chowder work. We
wrestled with the numbers, tried to figure out what kind of scale we’re talking about. Catch Together vetted our projections and ran it up their funding flagpole. We suggested a subsidy of 10 cents for every gallon of fuel used by a bona fide commercial fisherman on the Cape (and maybe a few on the islands too). It wasn’t a buck a gallon, but it was more than a token, and might just make the difference given how tight margins had become.

The word came back: You’ve got the funding. Go for it.

We let local fuel companies who supply fishermen know what we wanted to do, and asked for their help getting us hard numbers. Canal, Cape Cod Oil, Harwich Port Boat Yard, Loud, Marcey, Monomoy, Nantucket Boat Basin, Whiteley – they all came through, providing us with the information we needed or verifying data that fishermen sent in.

Now I can report that the first round of checks has gone out. Support has reached about 190 fishermen so far, totaling about $40,000. For some captains the check was a couple hundred dollars or less; for others it was close to $600. We’re working on a second round in the new year and so far we have another 20 or so fishermen lined up, roughly $4500 committed, with more to come. Checks have reached fishermen from the canal all the way to Provincetown.

As you might imagine, the response has been heartening. Some the money just showed up because the fuel companies had provided the
paperwork, so there was plenty of grateful surprise. Many mentioned how “every little bit helps right about now,” which is what we had suspected.

We are going to beat this virus. There have been many tragic casualties, and there will be more. But we will beat it, and we at the Alliance will do our best to lessen its damage. We know our contributions toward that goal are very small in the grand scheme, but we will continue to do them, and we know this fleet will survive.

John Pappalardo is CEO of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

When the Cape Cod Climate Collaborative held its Net Zero conference late last year, the fishing industry was represented as an important partner in creating a more sustainable future.

After all, eating locally-caught fish reduces the enormous carbonfootprint created when people buy fish shipped from overseas; one statistic often mentioned is that seafood in our country typically travels 5,500 miles from boat to plate.

While local nonprofits, politicians and businesses realize the importance of partnering with the commercial fishing industry to fight climate change, the message has been lost on the national level.

Far-reaching climate legislation has been drafted and some versions of the bill aim to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, which means fishermen will be shut out of traditional fishing grounds.

The enormous draft has many positives, but the problematic section — which might make it into an executive order from President Biden — would ban “all commercial extractive use” in broad swaths of the ocean, circumventing the country’s sustainable fishery management process.

That doesn’t have to happen. Small-boat fishermen on the Cape and across the nation are more than willing to talk about climate policy to foster sustainable fishing and healthy communities, avoiding draconian no-fish moratoriums.

The context is important too: According to NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program, fishery management councils have already protected 76 percent of the U.S. ocean from bottom trawling, conserving key habitat as well as many species that dwell there.

When the Cape Cod Climate Collaborative held its Net Zero conference late last year, the fishing industry was represented as an important partner in creating a more sustainable future.

After all, eating locally-caught fish reduces the enormous carbonfootprint created when people buy fish shipped from overseas; one statistic often mentioned is that seafood in our country typically travels 5,500 miles from boat to plate.

While local nonprofits, politicians and businesses realize the importance of partnering with the commercial fishing industry to fight climate change, the message has been lost on the national level.

Far-reaching climate legislation has been drafted and some versions of the bill aim to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, which means fishermen will be shut out of traditional fishing grounds.

The enormous draft has many positives, but the problematic section — which might make it into an executive order from President Biden — would ban “all commercial extractive use” in broad swaths of the ocean, circumventing the country’s sustainable fishery management process.

That doesn’t have to happen. Small-boat fishermen on the Cape and across the nation are more than willing to talk about climate policy to foster sustainable fishing and healthy communities, avoiding draconian no-fish moratoriums.

The context is important too: According to NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program, fishery management councils have already protected 76 percent of the U.S. ocean from bottom trawling, conserving key habitat as well as many species that dwell there.

The Cape Cod real estate market completed a remarkable year in 2020, with strong recovery from the initial COVID-19 pandemic beginning in midMay resulting in record-breaking market activity through the end of the year.

“In 2020, the market broke and then re-broke records in nearly every key measurable category, setting new historic highs for median sales price, dollar volume and transaction volume,” said Cape Cod and the Islands Association of Realtors CEO Ryan Castle. “Closed sales ended the year up nearly 20 percent for single family homes, and median sales price ended the year up 17.8 percent. Market activity was unusually brisk through the winter, reflecting continued strong demand for homes on Cape Cod.”

The strong activity will likely continue into the first quarter of 2021, Castle said, as pending sales finished up 21.7 percent, with 1,133 more sales pending at the end of 2020 than at the end of 2019.

Form of Government:
Open Town Meeting
Incorporated in: 1651
Demographics:
Total Population (2010): ……………………… 4,956
Female ……………………………………………… 2,649
Male …………………………………………………. 2,307
White ……………………………………………….95.8%
Black………………………………………………….0.7%
Native American ………………………………….0.2%
Asian………………………………………………….0.6%
Persons reporting two or more races……….1.0%
Hispanic or Latino…………………………………1.5%
Total housing units: ……………………………. 6,153
Family households: ……………………………62.3%
Average household size: …………………………..2.1
Median Earnings:
Median household income: ……………… $66,094
Per capita income: ………………………… $40,594
Mean travel time to work: ………. 26.4 minutes
Educational Attainment (age 25+):
High school graduate: ………………………..93.4%
Bachelor’s degree:……………………………. 35.3%
Graduate degree:……………………………… 16.2%

The U.S. Small Business Administration published an interim final rule effective Jan. 13, allowing 8(a) Program participants to elect a one-year program extension in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program due to the challenges of COVID-19.

Eligible 8(a) firms must meet the following qualifications:

• Any firm that participated in the 8(a) Program between March 13, 2020, and Sept. 9, 2020, has the option to extend its program participation for one year from the end of its program term;
• Firms that were terminated, early graduated, or voluntarily withdrew from the 8(a) Program during this period are not eligible for the extension; and
• Firms admitted to the 8(a) Program on or after Sept. 10, 2020, are not eligible for the extension.

Automatic Extensions:

• Firms participating in the 8(a) Program on Jan. 13, 2021, will receive an automatic one-year program extension unless they decline it in writing.
• If an 8(a) firm previously elected to voluntarily suspend its program participation in connection with the nationwide coronavirus emergency disaster declaration, the length of the suspension will first be added to the firm’s program term, and
  the one-year extension will be added to the end of that extension.
• Firms that elect to extend their participation in the program will not be subject to a higher non-8(a) business activity target (BAT) for the extension period. The same 50 percent BAT that applies to the ninth program year will apply to the extended program term.

Firms that do not wish to receive the automatic program extension are required to submit notice of decline in writing to:

• SBA’s Associate Administrator, Office of Business Development, Small Business Administration, 409 Third St. SW, Washington, DC 20416 or email to 8aQuestions@sba.gov.

Graduated Firms:

• Firms that were participating in the 8(a) Program as of March 13, 2020, but graduated before Jan. 13, 2021, are eligible for program re-admittance
• Firms seeking re-admittance must notify SBA as soon as possible, but no later than March 15, 2021. As a condition of re-admittance, a firm must certify that it continues to meet all applicable program eligibility requirements. If readmitted, the extension date is the firm’s original program exit date. For example, a firm with a program completion date of April 15, 2020
  is readmitted Jan. 25, 2021, their new program end date is April 15, 2021.

Firms must submit re-admittance notification to:

SBA’s Associate Administrator, Office of Business Development, Small Business Administration, 409 Third St. SW, Washington, DC 20416 or email to 8aQuestions@sba.gov

SBA will readmit a firm to the 8(a) Program within five business days of receiving a re-admittance request. The firm’s new program completion date is one year from the date it initially completed the program, not the date the final rule was published..

Firms participating in the 8(a) Business Development can email questions to: 8aQuestions@sba.gov.

Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association member Linda Rinta and the Rinta Family Farm of West Wareham have been selected by the Sand County Foundation as the recipient of the 2020 Leopold Conservation Award® for New England.

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award recognizes those who inspire others with their dedication to
land, water and wildlife resources in their care. Rinta, an esteemed cranberry grower among the Association’s 300-plus membership across the Commonwealth, is the first cranberry grower to be honored.

Peabody Properties’ 840 County in Taunton, formerly known as Taunton Woods, has received a Communities of Excellence Award in the small community category from Massachusetts Apartment Association.

The award recognizes excellence and celebrates the best in property management, based on service to residents, to the community and in financial performance.

840 County was built in 1987 and consists of 120 apartments surrounded by a nature preserve. It features landscaped grounds, a clubhouse, outdoor pool and numerous recreational activities for residents.

840 County recently partnered with the Taunton Public School Department to ensure students receive meals and necessary supplies to support remote learning during the pandemic.

Agway of Cape Cod donated approximately $15,000 of pet food to two local animal shelters, the MSPCA in Centerville and the Animal
Rescue League of Boston in Brewster.

The Agway team hand-delivered four large pallets of dry pet food and treats to the organizations on Dec. 3.

“Agway is committed to helping families keep their pets healthy and happy. We’re proud to have been able to make this contribution to these worthy organizations that do so much for our community,” said Jessica Thomas, co-owner of Agway of Cape Cod.

Top 100 firm Blum, Shapiro & Company, P.C. team members have joined national professional services firm CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP) on Jan.1, 2021.

blumshapiro is the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England. blumshapiro’s tax, accounting, audit, and advisory teams use their subject matter and industry experience, built over the past 35 years, to serve private companies, nonprofits, and government organizations.

CLA, named to Accounting Today’s top 10 accounting firms, is an industry-focused wealth advisory, outsourcing, audit, tax, and consulting services firm with experience across a spectrum  of industries.

CLA will now have more than 7,000 people in 130+ locations across 31 states.

The 500+ former blum team members will continue to serve clients locally and nationally from locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Virginia, increasing CLA’s presence in the region to more than 1,150 people.

More than 13 million tons of plastic flows into the oceans every year and the EPA has found that 80 percent of that trash originates from land-based sources. Cape Clasp is working to address and tackle this problem through a new partnership with the National Park Foundation.

The Falmouth-based business has launched a new park-inspired season of Tikós, its line of 100 percent recycled ocean plastic bracelets. Each Tikós cuff is made entirely from plastic that was hauled from the ocean, creating an incentive to clean up waters and limit plastic use.

This partnership will span 16 unique designs,each honoring a different national park or seashore including Acadia National Park in Maine, Cape Cod National Seashore, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona; and Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii.

Cape Clasp gives 15 percent of its profits from jewelry and apparel designs to non-profit organizations that share its passion for the ocean. Learn more at capeclasp.com.

Jonathan Bond has been named president of Bond Printing & Marketing in Hanover, succeeding his father, company founder Jon Bond, who will continue to work in the business.

A Plymouth resident, Jonathan Bond joined the family-owned company in 1995 in a production position and has served as director of sales for the past decade.

Bond Printing & Marketing, located at 104 Plain St., Hanover, has been in business for nearly 26 years and offers printing, graphic design, custom apparel and advertising specialties.

Oral and maxillofacial surgeon Ilya Garibyan, DMD, has joined the staff of ARCH Orthodontics as the 46-year-old practice
expands its oral health offerings. He is seeing patients at the Westwood and Bridgewater offices. ARCH has eight offices between Boston and Cape Cod.

A graduate of Boston University majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Garibyan earned his DDM degree at BU’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He has hospital privileges at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

In 2018 and 2019, Garibyan participated as a volunteer in the Smile Bangladesh International Mission where he performed 26 cleft lip and palate surgeries.

110 Fitness, located in Rockland, has launched a fitness app designed for people with Parkinson’s Disease.

The 110 Fitness app, offers 18 fitness and wellness categories (including live classes!). Classes include boxing, drumming, kickboxing, meditation, cycling, rowing, speedball, strength, SpinPoi, stretching, tabata, tai chi, vocal work, and yoga. Additionally, the app offers programs such as PARTE (Parkinson’s Art of Expression), which utilizes the techniques of theatre to target the motor and non-motor skills affected by Parkinson’s, as well as PWR!Moves, a Parkinson’s Disease specific skill training program to maintain or restore skills that dete riorate and interfere with everyday movements.
The app also offers a guest speaker series.

The 110 Fitness app is available to download from the app store on your Apple or Android device. For more information, email bmiller@110fitness.org or call 781 616 3313.

Daniel Sheehan, M.D., a physician specializing  in non-surgical orthopedic care, pain management, and spine conditions, has joined the medical staff of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Cape Cod. Sheehan is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He currently sees outpatients at the hospital in Sandwich and will also see patients at the Spaulding Orleans Outpatient Center starting in February.

Sheehan’s areas of expertise include neck and back pain, hip and pelvis problems, degenerative disc disease, pinched nerves, hypermobility syndrome, arthritis, endurance sports conditions, running injuries and regenerative medicine.

Elevate Counseling Services has promoted Carrie Stone of Norton to the position of director of clinical operations. In this role, she will work with Elevate Counseling CEO Leigh-Ann Larson to oversee and implement clinical procedures which continue to assure the highest standards of delivery of services to the growing practice’s clients, and to support the needs of the practice’s clinicians. Stone, who also maintains her own client caseload, will continue to work with clients  individually as well.

Stone joined Elevate Counseling Services nearly five years ago, first as a clinician, and was soon promoted to associate director, where she provided clinical supervision to staff, and then assistant director. In her new and expanded role, her responsibilities will include training new staff, and developing training materials. She has been an integral part of converting the practice’s training procedures to a virtual platform.

Prior to joining Elevate she spent a decade at Riverside Community Care in Norwood, and several years at a private practice in Mansfield. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in Iowa City and a master’s degree from Antioch University of New England in Keene, N.H.

The board of directors of Falmouth Road Race Inc. has named Jennifer Edwards as executive director of the organization, effective Jan. 1. She was most recently its general manager.

In her new position, Edwards will work with the board to fulfill the nonprofit organization’s mission to produce a world-class event, support local charities, and promote health and wellness.

She will ensure that financial objectives are met, provide leadership to staff, facilitate community partnerships, and oversee the philanthropic endeavors of Falmouth Road Race Inc.

An active member of the running industry, Edwards is hydration station coordinator for the B.A.A. Boston Marathon and a former director of special projects for DMSE Sports, Inc.

Since 2012, the organization has contributed more than $3.69 million to projects that promote the health and wellness of Falmouth
and the surrounding area. Its Numbers for Nonprofits charity runner program has raised nearly $45 million since 2000.

Blue Rock Golf Course, an 18-hole course in South Yarmouth, has named Thomas Mahoney as assistant superintendent of the award-winning course.

Mahoney, a graduate of Assumption College, arrives at Blue Rock with four years of experience in golf course maintenance at Cape Cod National Golf Club in Brewster.

He is also an accomplished hockey player, competing professionally in 2018 and 2020 in the United States, Sweden and France.

Peak Physical Therapy & Sports Performance has named Alana Falco, as a physical therapist in its Quincy clinic.

A native of Rehoboth, Falco received her bachelor of science degree in Exercise Science from the College of Charleston in 2016 and went on to earn a doctorate in Physical Therapy from the University of St. Augustine for Health Science in 2019. As a graduate from the University of St. Augustine, Falco has a strong orthopedic and manual therapy foundation.

To submit items for News & Moves, email news@capeplymouthbusiness. com. Please submit only Word documents (no PDF files). Photographs must be high-resolution.

Conductor,
Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra Compiled by Ann Luongo
How long have you been a conductor?
I started my first music group in my sophomore year of college on a dare! (The terms of which I can’t divulge.) I didn’t really know what I was doing then so, during the preceding summer, I took an intensive summer school conducting course. That was 1976. I guess I’ve been conducting for nearly 45 years. Yikes! It doesn’t seem like that long ago.

Holy mackerel! This is not an easy question to answer concisely!

It’s easier for me to answer, by comparison, “What is the difference between a conductor and a music director?” I hold both titles with the Plymouth Phil.

A conductor prepares and leads the orchestra in rehearsals and performances.

A music director does everything else you don’t see, including: working with administrative staff on all aspects of artistic administration; working with production staff to make sure everything and everyone work properly at rehearsals and performances; working with the board of directors to develop the artistic vision and strategic planning of the organization; cultivating relationships with patrons, donors and corporations; cultivating relationships with civic leaders, civic groups, government representatives and the community at large;and cultivating relationships with area schools, educator, and media outlets.

Suffice it to say, the music director portion of my job keeps me much busier than the conductor portion – especially during this pandemic.

My favorite type of music — or musical selection — or composer is the one I am performing next. It’s because, when I prepare any kind of music for performance, I get totally immersed in it. I study all aspects of it, its sound, and its reason for being. I end up internalizing the music so much that it fills me to the point where I must share it or bust. I realize this sounds sappy – but it’s true! Happens every time

There are so many experiences to consider! High on the list is conducting “The National Anthem” at Fenway Park and conducting the
Boston Pops on the Symphony Hall stage for their Holiday Pops. These opportunities came my way because of my association with the
Pops. Since 2008, I have been an understudy conductor with them. I must tell you — as a native Bostonian, these experiences are thrilling beyond words!’

I love to cook because I love to entertain family and friends. I love to travel, too. It goes without saying this pandemic has really cramped my style!

Since my early days as a conductor, I have also done lots of music writing – first as an arranger for various ensembles, then as a composer of original music. I love writing music and am grateful my music gets performed. I still have a lot of music left in me so I know I’ll keep writing. I usually compose on-demand so who knows what my next music project holds for me? That’s the exciting part. When it becomes safe to do so, high on my list is to get back to performing live music with our cherished orchestra musicians. I’ll then cook up a storm for everyone I know and book flights to points yet-to-be-determined — and I can’t wait! Visit plymouthphil.org and Steven’s personal website OrchestraConductor.com for more information.

Do you have a job that’s a little bit different? Email us at news@capeplymouthbusiness.com to be considered for this monthly feature.

YMCA Cape Cod has received a $5,000 grant from the Martha’s Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation to the Y Founders Fundraising
Drive for Falmouth. This grant will provide partial funding for the site permitting and site due diligence for a new Y facility located near the intersection of Brick Kiln Road and Gifford Street.

The plans for a new Y began 10 years ago when Falmouth residents wanted a facility with a swimming pool in town; it has since expanded to include the entire Upper Cape community. The “Upper Cape Y Without Walls” began shortly after a community needs assessment cited affordable child care as one of the top community needs. The Upper Cape Y Founders Fund has a goal of $120,000 to raise for capital campaign consultants, land acquisition payments, site due diligence and critical on-going scholarships for families who need assistance with summer camp, child care, and child nutrition programs.

For more information, contact Stacie Peugh at speugh@ymcacapecod.org.

Three housing case managers for Father Bill’s & MainSpring’s, a regional leader of services to prevent and end homelessness, have been recognized for their work assisting individuals in need during the COVID-19 crisis.

Case managers Geoff Gagnon of Plymouth, James Lawson of Quincy and Caz McSorley of Weymouth were among 18 direct-care
workers presented with the Ed O’Neil Award by the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, a statewide dvocacy organization that represents nearly 100 community-based member agencies in  the state. The awards were presented during MHSA’s Annual Meeting, held virtually on Thursday, December 10. The Ed O’Neil Award recognizes exceptional work assisting individuals experiencing, or at
risk of, homelessness.

Champ Homes, a non-profit providing transitional housing and support services to Cape Cod residents, recently received $25,000 in
grant funding from the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation.

The organization also received a $5,000 grant award from The Palmer & Jane D. Davenport Foundation in support of its Transitional
Housing Assistance Program.

Champ Homes’ ongoing mission is to provide transitional housing to adults on Cape Cod who are homeless or near homeless in a safe, compassionate, respectful environment, where they instill confidence and hope by providing life skills, mentoring, vocational opportunities, and self-advocacy. In the last 12 months, 83 percent of the Champ Homes clients who moved on from the program have successfully transitioned to long-term sustainable housing.

Of the more than 1,300 federally qualified health centers nationwide, Community Health Center of Cape Cod, located in Mashpee, has been listed in the Top 10 percent for Best Overall Clinical Care by HRSA, the Health Resource Service Administration, for the second consecutive year.

HRSA’s Quality Improvement Awards recognize the highest performing health centers nationwide as well as the health centers that
have made significant quality improvement gains from the previous year.

Suits and cocktail dresses stayed tucked away in closets this year, but Interfaith Social Services’ supporters still came through with an extraordinary showing of support for this year’s Feed the Hungry Gala at Home on Dec. 4.

Due to the unprecedented challenges presented by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the annual gala was presented this year in a virtual format on Zoom. Despite the format change, sponsors and donors came together to contribute an $370,000, which will sustain Interfaith’s  emergency food, mental health counseling and homelessness prevention programs into the next year.

Just a day before the gala event, Interfaith Social Services was bestowed the largest onetime donation they’ve ever received. The Flatley Foundation’s generous $100,000 gala contribution helped bring the event fundraising total to more than $370,000.

Lead sponsors of this year’s event included The Flatley Foundation, Arbella Insurance Foundation, Mayor Thomas P. Koch Quincy
Foundation, Envision Bank, A Healthy Balance, HarborOne Bank, Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation, Quincy Mutual
Group, Signet Electronic Systems, Inc. and MavroCreative.

The Sean M. Gannon Memorial Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation awarded its inaugural Police Academy Scholarship to Stephanie Connolly of Rehoboth.

To prepare for a career in law enforcement, Connolly earned her associate’s degree in criminal justice from Bristol Community College and served as a reserve officer with the Rehoboth Police Department for two years while working as a campus police officer for her alma mater at the same time. She is currently employed as a dispatcher for the Acushnet Police Department and plans to enter the third class of the Cape Cod Municipal Police Academy in January at Joint Base Cape Cod.

The memorial fund was created by Gannon’s family to honor the Yarmouth Police Department K9 officer who was killed in the line of duty on April 12, 2018.

The Hawthorn Medical Associates Charitable Fund of the SouthCoast Community Foundation announced the five recipients for their grants, totaling $25,000.

The 2020 nonprofit awardees are from the Fall River and New Bedford area and include Catholic Social Services, Child & Family
Services, PACE, Inc., The Women’s Center, and YWCA of Southeastern Massachusetts.

The awards will support programs that directly serve women and children and address child abuse prevention and treatment; economic selfsufficiency; and victims of domestic violence.

Each of the five organizations received $5,000.

Since 2011, the Hawthorn Medical Associates Charitable Fund has provided grants totaling more than $235,000 to local non-profit organizations, with a focus on child abuse prevention and treatment; economic self-sufficiency; and victims of domestic violence.

WE CAN (Women’s E m p o w e r m e n t through Cape Area Networking), an organization dedicated to helping Cape Cod
women achieve lasting positive change for themselves and their families, has announced that Beth Bowman of East Sandwich has joined the organization as the assistant director.

In this newly created role, Bowman will lead program development, delivery and evaluation and play an important role in team management and development. She will also manage WE CAN’s collaborative relationships and direct team outreach efforts with strategic nonprofit partners, regional health and human service coalitions and civic and business organizations.

Prior to joining WE CAN, Bowman served as director of community impact at the Cape & Islands United Way. She has a B.A. from Drew University, a master’s degree in Social Services from Bryn Mawr College and is a licensed clinical social worker.

Thirty-Eighth Avenue Photography, a commercial and fine art photography studio in Plymouth, recently established a nonprofit
division.

A 20 percent discount will be offered to 501(c) (3) certified nonprofit organizations.

“For nonprofit organizations in need of professional photography services and a professional portfolio, we’re providing this discount with an eye towards helping them minimize costs,” said Debi Cramer, founder and principal photographer at Thirty-Eighth Avenue Photography. More information at www.38thavenue-photography.com.

By Meredith Flynn 
Each time you email someone, old or new, you have the opportunity to stand out and leave a lasting impression with a polished email
signature. If you’re starting from scratch, here are some suggestions on what you could include

Less is more, so only include what you view as most important, including:

• Name and title
• Small logo
• Phone number
• Mission statement
• Link out to your company initiative
• Social media
• Website

Pick a company initiative and link out to it from your email signature! Even one lead, such as calendar booking or connection is worth it! Also, don’t be afraid to switch it up. Change out your link as often as you deem appropriate. Here is some suggested verbiage to quickly engage your audience:

Social media initiative? Ask your audience! “Click here to help us reach 1,000 Followers on Facebook!”
“Let’s connect on LinkedIn!” “Check out our newly launched TikTok account!”

Online scheduling initiative? Do you have an online calendar and want more people to use it? Try this: “Book a virtual meeting with me!”

Newsletter initiative?
“Join our weekly newsletter with FREE resources!” Be sure to include your email frequency; it’s best to be up front with the amount of emails they can expect to receive.

Charity or fund-raising initiative?
“Click here to remember xyz as your AmazonSmile charity!” “Don’t miss our virtual wine tasting event supporting xyz charity!”

Promote a newly launched project or website?
“Visit our NEWLY LAUNCHED website!: www.xyz.com”

Incorporate Standard Closing Remarks
I was sick of re-typing “All the best, Meredith” over and over! I incorporated it into my signature, and it’s so much more efficient!

When I emailed professional speaker Matt Ward and saw his email signature with a headshot, I admired how professional it looked.

I redesigned mine the next day! When you include a photo of yourself in your signature, you personalize the email. My hopes
were that folks might be nicer over email when they are reminded they are emailing a person and not just typing on a computer.

People love free stuff, discounts and secrets.
Check out these examples for how to incorporate a “giveaway” in your email signature:
“FREE 10-Minute Website Consultation – No strings attached”
“Click HERE for 10% off if you sign up for our newsletter!”
“Download our 3 secrets to financial freedom here!”

Perhaps you can make your signature fun! Like Locario’s Tennis Center in Harwich:

Make your signature a simple, one-column vertical format. Multiple column signatures can be buggy across different email programs and you want to be able to be easily edit your signature down the road.

I hope you have leveraged a few ideas from this article! Thanks for reading.

Meredith Flynn is COO of Cape & Plymouth Business Media.

10 Ballwic Road · P.O. Box 1935
North Eastham, MA 02651
www.capecodchildrensplace.com
chorgan@capecodchildrensplace.com

Total number of employees: 32
Annual revenues: $1,532,135
Year established: 1995

Our mission is to increase the number of children on the Cape & Islands growing up in safe, healthy, nurturing environments by providing local families with programs and services which increase their resiliency, resources for stability, connections to support, and positive parenting skills.

Cape Cod & the Islands

Liz Stapleton ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/HEAD OF SCHOOL; Kathy Fee DIRECTOR OF FINANCE; Christina Russell MA DPH FIRST STEPS  TOGETHER PROGRAM DIRECTOR; Carol Biondi and Marly Pereda CHILDREN’S TRUST SAFE CHILD LEADERSHIP TEAM; Sarah Nitsch MARKETING AND EVENTS COORDINATOR; Patty Watson DIRECTOR OF GRANTS AND DEVELOPMENT

32% Federal Grants
23% State Grants
21% Individual Donations/Fundraisers
17% Early Education and Care Tuition
7% Foundation and Corporate Grant

261 Whites Path, Unit 2, South Yarmouth, MA 02664
P: 508.790.3040 | F: 508.790.4069
info@capecodfoundation.org
capecodfoundation.org

Total number of employees: 9 (3 FT, 6 PT)
Annual Revenues: $5,981,484 (2019)
Year Established: 1989
Total $ Distributed Since Inception: Nearly $80 million

To make Cape Cod the best place to live. We help donors build charitable funds and invest the earnings back into the community. We also use our own resources to positively impact the community through civic leadership initiatives and grants.

Primarily Barnstable County (Cape Cod)

These figures represent funding sources for our organizational operating budget, which is a portion of the expenses represented on our Form 990. Our Form 990 expenses include grant distributions.

80% Administrative Fees on Fund Management
17% Individual Donations (Annual Appeal)
3% Sponsorship, Grants, Endowment Draw

Acella Construction Corporation recently completed a new building for SRC Medical in Hanover.
The 45,000-square-foot ground-up project encompasses a single-story warehouse with a two-story mezzanine which houses private
offices and lunch and conference rooms. Acella cleared the existing site and provided a complete site work package that included a
retention pond as part of a stormwater prevention plan.
Other characteristics of the project include a new 2000 AMP electrical service and transformer, a ThyssenKrupp Hydraulic Elevator, a
curtain wall exterior for the lobby, energy-efficient lighting and occupancy sensors throughout the warehouse, and a three-bay loading dock with hydraulic dock levelers. This hybrid construction also used a metal building provided by Metallic Building Systems for the
warehouse and storage area while tying in the office areas with conventional framing.
SRC Medical is a family-owned business that since 1972 has provided custom molding and assembly services for the medical device
industry.
Acella partnered on this project with the site planning and civil engineering firm Merrill Corporation of Plymouth and Hanover and the
architectural firm Lloyd Architects of Plymouth.

The Kingston Collection, owned and managed by Pyramid Management Group, will soon welcome a 282-unit residential complex being constructed by Trammell Crow Residential, which recently broke ground on the project. Site-clearing work for the Alexan Kingston development began this month with the demolition of the former Sears store box (and future location of development) at 1 Kingston Collection Way.

Trammell Crow Residential, who acquired the site from Pyramid Management Group, will own and operate the complex.

The new development advances Pyramid Management Group’s long-term vision to bring innovative (and diversified) offerings such as residential housing within the orbit of its many mixed-use properties.

“Kingston Collection is arguably one of the South Shore’s most vibrant retail and experiential destinations, drawing both local and regional visitors. The arrival of residential units near the Kingston Collection will undoubtedly be a game-changer for the evolution of the center as more people embrace live/work/play, mixed-use destinations,” said David Gilmore, general manager of the Kingston Collection.

When completed in 2023, the new apartment complex will bring market-rate and affordable rental housing units to the area. Future residents will have easy access to Boston’s South Station via Kingston’s nearby MBTA Commuter Rail Station which is located only one mile away from the Kingston Collection.

Construction will be completed in three phases over the next 18 to 22 months.

Phase One is expected to be completed by summer 2022 when the first residents can move into the complex.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Commonwealth Real Estate has announced a formal brokerage relationship with First Colony Development Group and Lobisser & Ferreira Construction Corp. in developing and marketing Lake Point Village, a waterfront community in Lakeville.

“We are excited to manage the sales and marketing of the Lake Point Village community,” said Patrick Fortin, a managing partner with Commonwealth Real Estate. “We have put together a strong digital marketing plan with 3D property tours and myriad tools that allow potential purchasers to explore the community right from their own homes.”

Lobisser & Ferreira have already completed the site excavation and property footings for the planned 66-unit development, which offers single-floor plan designs and views of Pocksha Pond and adjacent cranberry bogs. Construction is currently underway, with completed units available beginning in May 2021, with a targeted completion of the twophase project in May 2022.

Encompassing approximately 8.65 acres off Long Point Road in Lakeville, Lake Point Village property offerings will begin at $449,900 and floor plans will range from 1,285 to 1,375 square feet.

More information at OurLakePointVillage.com.

D.H. Smith & Sons, which provides wood waste cycling, land clearing, mulch manufacturing, power equipment and retail landscape supplies, has expanded its operations with the relocation of its headquarters to 887 Plain Street, Route 139, Marshfield.

Dan Smith Jr., who founded the company in 1997, said that the Marshfield location, the site of the former Copeland Lumber Company on Route 139, seemed the perfect solution for their needs when it became clear that they had outgrown the space at their Pembroke location. They first used the site for several years to manufacture mulch and then made the decision to build their new company headquarters here as well.

Smith and his team oversaw the design and construction of two buildings totaling 25,000 square feet, on a 16-acre parcel.

While the initial focus of D.H. Smith & Sons was the wholesale market, the company has added a retail component to their business with its power equipment sales and service division. The company is a full-service Husqvarna Power and Construction Equipment
Dealer and Service Center. Additionally, D.H. Smith & Sons sells firewood and landscape supplies to the public.

“We continue to look for additional ways to serve the public,” said Smith. “We have always done a brisk business with our wood waste recycling, and it’s great to see these products repurposed to their highest and best uses. As we have expanded our work
with contractors and wholesale customers, we have also seen the benefit of offering the products and services to the public. We are pleased to add this retail component to the services and products that we offer.”

He said the company hopes to host an open house later this year.

By Ann Luongo

When asked their reason for starting their company, Proven Behavior Solutions, in 2015, husband and wife Scott and Lindsey Snider agree that Scott’s niece, Taitum, who has autism, was a major inspiration from the start, and continues to inspire everything they do.

“I can’t help but see my sister in every family we come in contact with and her daughter in every child we serve,” Scott said. “The result is that all of our performance metrics, from clinical quality to staff training, are benchmarked against whether or not I would want our staff in my sister’s home and whether our team is good enough to help my niece.”

Headquartered in Norwell, Proven Behavior Solutions is primarily an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and speech therapy outpatient healthcare provider that works with children with autism. It’s comprised of highly trained board-certified behavior analysts, registered behavior technicians, speech-language pathologists, and clinically-trained special education advocates, and serves Southeastern Massachusetts, including the entire South Shore and Upper Cape Cod regions.

In 2020, Proven Behavior Solutions was named to Inc. magazine’s prestigious ‘Inc. 5000’ list of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.

“The center-based program serves children ages 18 months to 6 years, and we also work with clients in the home from ages 18 months to 15 years,” Scott said. “We recently launched our Young Adult Program, which works with individuals with autism ages 16 to 26, both in the community and in their homes. Coming in 2021 will be two new clinical centers in Stoughton and West Bridgewater. The new centers will not only allow us to work with clients from Stoughton, West Bridgewater, and surrounding towns within the center, it will also allow us to expand our services in the home to those regions.”

A drive to raise the bar, and to ensure other companies are pushed to meet those high stan dards as well, is what keeps the couple going. The pair has made it their first priority to operate with the core values of integrity, dignity and humility.

“I saw firsthand how quality therapy could significantly improve the quality of life for the client as well as their family,” said Lindsey. “I also saw how many providers were choosing to cut corners and/or just not delivering the therapy as it was intended (e.g., not providing the amount of therapy recommended in all the research, not training their clinicians adequately, and not vetting their employees) and how the outcomes for those children were far worse. I wanted to be part of the solution and we wanted the kids in our community to have the ability to access the quality care that I’d seen provided elsewhere, but that seemed to be lacking in the South Shore.”

Proven Behavior Solutions offers clients Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), speech therapy and special education advocacy. In addition, they offer social skills groups for clients and training programs to staff and the local community. Their speech and language program is both offered to ABA clients as well as children without autism who are in need of speech services.

“Our Norwell center is our first clinical center, which opened in 2017,” Scott said. “We are excited to be opening two additional clinical centers this year (sometime in March/April) in Stoughton and West Bridgewater. For the past four years, we have had to turn away desperate families from west of Route 24 because we couldn’t ensure effective case support. Some of these families were coming from bad experiences with other providers; many had simply heard about the high quality of our programs at Proven and wanted their child to benefit from them.

“Now, thanks to these two new clinical centers, we finally have the ability to serve those families with the clinical quality and support their children deserve. Not only is this a win for our company, it’s a win for all the families in those neighboring communities that have been hoping for better access to care and high quality alternatives. We hope to open more facilities in
Plymouth and on the Cape in the near future.”

Any child with an autism diagnosis is eligible to receive ABA therapy through commercial health insurance or MassHealth. Unfortunately, ABA therapy isn’t a covered benefit for diagnoses other than autism under most insurance plans. Speech therapy is commonly covered without a doctor referral, and Proven also serves privatepay clients on a limited basis.

“Proven’s ABA model is highly intensive,” Scott said. “Clients typically receive between 20 and 40 hours of therapy per week, because that is

what we know is proven to work. Our goal is for our clients to make gains quickly, and to experience positive outcomes that make an impact on their lives and their families.”

Helping children in such a way always leaves its mark, the Sniders said. There are good days and bad days and, sometimes, there are amazing days that stick with you. One case in particular comes to Scott’s mind.

“He started working with us when he was 3 years old. He was one of the most severely affected children Lindsey had ever come across
in her career,” he recalled. “All the specialists the child was seeing at that time believed he was so disabled that he would never have any functional means to communicate. The school district speech therapist wouldn’t work with him because there didn’t appear to be any benefit.

“Three years later, after working with our team for up to 40 hours per week, he started talking. He wasn’t able to talk at the level you would typically see in a 6 year old, but he could look at his mother and say, ‘I love you.’ This was a win. We can’t advertise that we can help all nonverbal children with autism learn to talk, but we can teach them to communicate. And sometimes a breakthrough happens. The first time I heard that he was talking at our Norwell Center, he was asking for chips. We gave that little boy as many chips as he wanted.”

Another success story, he added, is how they handled the pandemic. “We started crisis management planning in February and, when the surge hit, we were ready. Throughout the entire year, when our peers were significantly scaling back their operations or shutting down, we continued to safely provide in-person clinical services. By the end of 2020, we had accomplished over 17,000 service appointments with zero instances of COVID-19 transmission within the company to staff or clients, and we didn’t involuntarily furlough a single employee.

“We made a commitment to our client families and our staff at the start of the pandemic that we would continue to support them as long as we possibly could,” he went on to say. “Thanks to careful planning and luck, I can say that we fully honored that ommitment. I’m incredibly proud of what our team was able to accomplish over the past year. As terrible as the pandemic has been, Proven’s response to it is one of the highlights of my professional career.”

Working through the pandemic did, however, bring its challenges. When the surge hit in March of 2020, Proven lost 50 percent of its clients and over 30 percent of its staff in a matter of days. People were rightfully afraid and so little was known about COVID-19 at that time.

“The biggest challenge we faced was how to provide essential in-person services safely,” said Scott. “The first step was to limit the number of people our staff and clients came in contact with, so we overhauled our staffing model and dispersed all of our center-based clients to exclusively in-home care. We also shifted the majority of our senior clinician services to telehealth.”

Even with all of the challenges it has faced, Proven has continuously embraced the importance of giving back to the community, including supporting the Youth Advocacy Foundation’s “2020 Celebration” and their primary initiative, the EdLaw Project. The YAF’s mission, per their website, is “to end the school-to-prison pipeline in Massachusetts by ensuring our state’s most vulnerable children receive a quality education through expert legal advocacy.”

Community involvement has also included donations to local schools, purchasing new classroom equipment for hybrid learning; purchasing much-needed materials for an ASD classroom trying to come up with creative ways to teach during COVID-19; purchasing
supplemental materials for an English teacher who works with both general Ed and Special Ed students; and purchasing flexible seating equipment to help a teacher prepare her classroom hybrid learning. Proven is also a regular supporter of the South Shore Community Action Council in Plymouth and the Greater Boston Food Bank.

“We believe that Proven provides the highest quality ABA and speech therapy in the region. This is made possible by our relentless focus on employee training and professional development,” Scott said. “We recognize that a child’s future relies on the expertise of the clinician working with him/her, so we can’t afford to do anything less.”

Strengthening the impact of that focus is the supportive and collaborative environment the organization has created for its staff. In addition to being named to Inc. magazine’s list, Proven Behavior Solutions was chosen as one of the Best Places to Work in 2018 and 2019 by the Boston Business Journal, and a Top Place to Work in 2020 by The Boston Globe – the only ABA and speech therapy company in Massachusetts to make either list.

“Our people want to work here and give their best to our clients every day,” he said. “This has helped fuel our rapid growth.”

The year 2020 was supposed to be a very special year for the Cape and Plymouth area.

The planning of events and celebrations for the 400th commemoration of the Pilgrims’ landings had been in the works for years across the region, including a majestic fall sailing of the Mayflower II into Provincetown Harbor.

Instead of the Year of the Pilgrim, however, it was the Year of the Pandemic, a global health crisis that killed millions worldwide, shuttered businesses, canceled events and created economic havoc and unemployment not seen in generations.

“2020 was going to be a special year for the Town of Plymouth with the Commemoration and this was a tougher hit to our community than some others in the Commonwealth,” agreed Amy Naples, Executive Director of Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce.

While the pandemic is still affecting our lives in early 2021, optimism is high in the tour ism industry, growing like a crocus poking up through the snow and frozen earth. Even the struggling restaurant industry, beset with more closings and capacity restrictions than most businesses, is showing signs of recovery.

“People are starting to feel the cabin fever and I see a lot of planning for once people get the vaccine,” said Vincent A. J. Errichetti, an expert in social media and marketing strategy who specializes in New England food and hospitality industries. “My newsletter for Valentine’s Day spots had over 50 percent open rate, normally around 33 percent. Since my list is about 40,000 of the most active foodies, this is a hopeful sign for a bounce back.”

Errichetti said takeout and delivery has started to increase from even restaurants thought of as dine-in only. “DIY pizza kits and the like have exploded in popularity,” he added. “Local and regional travel destinations have been actively promoting how they are great options because they can control social distancing. And just like restaurants, they are always cleaning and are
experts at it between hotel rooms and dining areas. This gives consumers a better knowledge of being in a safe environment.”

While the American Hotel and Lodging Association predicts a successful 2021 season as dependent on the availability of a COVID-19
vaccine, the pent-up demand after months of on and off stay-at-home orders and restrictions on travel is already resulting in brisk bookings and interest for summer vacations especially on Cape Cod.

Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce reports its web traffic increased 150 percent as of late January (year over year), an indication that could turn into high demand and bookings, said Wendy Northcross, the chamber’s executive director.

“Some members have reported very strong bookings for 2021, even to the point of bookings in 2022 beginning,” Northcross said. “That is very different from pre-COVID times when the more local visitor would wait until the last minute to book.”

The chamber’s marketing strategy “presents the value proposition to COVID-19 weary residents of respite and outdoor activities that support health and well-being; fresh sea air, beautiful beaches and wide, open spaces.”

The biggest questions heard in the chamber’s visitor services phone lines is what is open and when.

“Visitors are definitely ready to travel again, when the time is right!” Northcross said. “We have a bigger challenge with group business which is a significant portion of the hospitality business in our region, but have been virtually shut down due to gathering limits for safety. Brides and wedding planners top the list for carefully watching what will be allowed when, and hoping they can keep their spring and early summer weddings.”

Chatham Bars Inn was coming off two record years on the books when the pandemic hit last spring. The year-round luxury resort, also a popular wedding and conference destination, employs more than 600 people. Due to state order, the inn was closed from March 22 to
June 8. Weddings (typically 60-100 a summer), and conferences were either canceled or postponed to 2021.

CBI spent that long closure to devising health and safety policies for employees and guests, reconfiguring dining areas to comply with social distancing and instituting sanitization measures.

The inn adheres to state and CDC guidelines to ensure safety of guests, who are given upon arrival a Well Being Kit containing a face mask, hand sanitizer and a card explaining CBI’s policy and safety measures. Guests have the option for curbside check in instead of checking in at the reception desk.

“Obviously the pandemic has definitely affected the travel and hospitality industry but 2020 turned out better than expected,” said Gary Thurlander, managing director, who also sits on the Cape Cod Chamber board and is active in regional and national hospitality associations. “When we were able to open, we had 160 guests the first day and it never stopped.” He chalked that up to pent-up demand from vacationers who were forced to stay home for months. December room revenue was up by $150,000. Room service became another dining “outlet” rather than a dining option, he noted.

Improvements made this year focus on the outdoors. The half-mile long beach in front of the resort has been replenished with new sand; new furniture and pool and beach cabanas have been added.

“There’s limited places where people can travel and stay, due to restrictions imposed by states, and the Cape being within driving distance of Boston, Worcester, Providence and even New York, is a plus for us,” said Thurlander. “We feel 2021 could be an extraordinary year for the leisure industry.”

Orleans Chamber of Commerce also reports a surge in summer bookings.

“Our businesses pivoted their practices quickly to respond to the governor’s requirements in the summer of 2020 and using lessons from last year, many are already projecting and deciding what they will do for the summer of 2021,” said Noelle Pina, executive director of Orleans Chamber of Commerce. “Most of our lodging is provided by vacation rentals which are already busy for the 2021 season. Our inn properties were mostly able to rebound in 2020 and are poised to continue providing world class service in 2021.”

On the Mid-Cape, 2020 ended up being a strong summer for The Davenport Companies, which owns five Red Jacket resorts in the town
of Yarmouth as well as a golf course. Lodging options include rooms in inns and cottages with private beaches on Lewis Bay and Nantucket Sound.

“The demand is very high for 2021,” said Matt Pitta, communications director. “There’s a tremendous amount of bookings and interest already. People are especially interested in multi-unit types of properties to bring the whole family together and we have plenty of options. One of the big things we heard from guests last year is they were able to enjoy the beach, with plenty of room to spare.”

The Davenport Companies also took advantage of the spring shutdown last year to institute cleaning and sanitization measures and install new equipment to insure health and safety for guests.

As on Cape Cod, tourism is the top industry in Plymouth, but despite investing in additional training for employees, hiring additional staff and increasing inventory in preparation for the influx of visitors last summer, the hospitality industry didn’t see the boom in business that Cape Cod did.

“I am not surprised Cape Cod had a great season. It was a great escape for many people in the urban areas,” said Lea Filson, executive director of See Plymouth and the Plymouth County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Here in Plymouth, we had mostly day-trippers but still a depressed season. We expect the pent-up demand crowd in the 2022 season. The data and metrics we watch tell us business in 2021 will start late and continue to be down as much as 45 percent until around August, then will begin to skew upward.”

Plymouth Area Chamber’s Naples characterised the summer as just “OK, certainly not their typical year or the year we had hoped for and restaurants were dealt with so many challenges and had to make large investments for outdoor seating, plexiglass and PPE before they could even start ringing the register. The obvious restrictions mandated were tough on the restaurants, the lack of alcohol sales certainly hit their bottom line, but they adapted, got very creative and are hanging on. As of recent, the occupancy guidelines absolutely killed their business the past few weeks. However, they are the most resilient, hard-working people I have ever met and are determined to make it work.”

Plymouth saw very few closures, Naples said: three restaurants, one bakery and one retailer and many others temporarily closed their doors or have adjusted scheduling and/or shifted their focus to take out with curbside pickup, etc. Plymouth’s tourist season ended last year on Nov. 31 and hotels and tours were down between 60 percent and 80 percent.

As to lodging this year, hotels still open (most are seasonal) are averaging 60 percent to 70 of normal business.

“In spite of the pandemic, we are very optimistic about our tourism future in Plymouth County,” said Filson. “There were many
infrastructure improvements to the town of Plymouth in anticipation of 2020, all improvements that will benefit us for years to come. We offer all the things important for COVID recovery – outdoor walking, dining, open space, beautiful scenery, and great food and attractions. They will only improve as we work our way through this.”

Cape Cod (2018)
$1.32 BILLION
Direct spending by visitors

12,000
Jobs created

10,844
Jobs supported

$357.7 MILLION
Wages

$133 MILLION
State and local taxes

$200
Average spent by day trip guests

$800
Average spent by overnight guests

SOURCE: CAPE COD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Plymouth County
(2019)
$762,668,573
Tourism spending

4780
Jobs supported

$169.3 MILLION
Tourism payroll

$39 MILLION
State tax collections

$35.3 MILLION
Local tax collection

SOURCE: PLYMOUTH COUNTY CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of people all over the world to work from home. While this adjustment is difficult for anyone, it can be especially challenging for teams accustomed to traditional office methods and processes. An office environment is designed to eliminate distractions and boost productivity and working from home can mean being subjected to interruptions and other roadblocks. As a remote project manager, I’ve been in the virtual trenches for some time now and picked up a few tips.

1. Communication
Communication becomes increasingly more difficult when team members are working remotely. Working from home deprives many workers of the social interaction that they may be used to. Keeping an open line of clear and consistent communication is crucial when managing projects. Regular face-to-face meetings through video chat serves as an efficient and productive way to communicate as well as an opportunity to interact with team members.

There is a variety of different project management tools available, so don’t rely on one method of communication to keep team members engaged. My team uses GoToMeeting to have face-to-face meetings, Slack for day-to-day communication and Monday to track project timelines and deliverables.

2. Align Goals
As a project manager, the most important part of the job is to ensure that all team members are on the same page about project goals. Naturally, switching to remote work will break routine and can cause team members to lose sight of the end goal, so it’s important to have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and deadlines. When team members understand their role in the projects end goal, they are confident and efficient. Working from home comes with a lot of flexibility, so trusting your team and setting them up for success is essential.

How you celebrate doesn’t matter—a little thanks goes a long way!

3. Organize And Prioritize
The role of a project manager is to be a jack of all trades and one of the major responsibilities is to manage the workflow by prioritizing tasks and staying organized. I like to say that I thrive in organized chaos and love a good to-do list. A tool I like to use to keep myself organized is ToDoist, an online “todo” list that allows you to organize, plan and collaborate on tasks.

4. Celebrate Successes
Whether you’re new to working remotely or not, there’s one thing all project managers need to do: build and maintain meaningful connections with their team members. A large part of building an engaged and productive team is celebrating their successes. Recognition is just as important when working remotely. Whether it’s a team or individual success, it’s important to call attention to achievements. How you celebrate doesn’t matter—a little thanks goes a long way!

Managing a remote project team is not easy, especially for those who never imagined they would be working from home. While it may feel overwhelming at first, it’s important to remember that your team members are likely feeling the same way. Set your team up for success with the right tools and processes in place and watch them thrive in an environment that promotes productivity, flexibility, and trust.

Hannah Whitbeck is a project manager at 118Group.

With all that’s happened with the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work is becoming more the norm and the workplace is likely never to return completely back to being in a full office for many organizations. Leading remote workers is very different from managing staff and leading staff within a work environment. I’ve come up with five tips to help you lead your remote team.

1. Unlock the potential of your remote workers through employee engagement. Employees are truly engaged when they go above and beyond to get the job done and to help the organization and to ensure that you have fully engaged remote workers. That means you need to reach out and touch base with them. Thank them for the work that they’ve done, recognize them for the work that they do. Check in with them frequently and not just about work but check in with them about how they are; are they having any challenges at home, particularly since the lines between home life and work are far ore blurred for remote workers.

Show them that you care; be empathetic, be flexible around their situation, whatever that might be. Make sure that they have the tools and resources they need to be able to do the work and look for reasons to celebrate like birthdays, a successful project, anything at all.

In addition, it’s very important to make sure that you provide opportunities to learn new skills, known as upskilling, as well as opportunities for career development and growth.

Providing these programs and supporting remote workers in that way has proven to be very successful, it can really make a difference on the bottom line.

2. When you bring on remote workers, make sure you have a very good onboarding program that includes how to navigate technology that’s going to be used for working purposes.

In addition, make sure that your mission, your values as an organization and your business goals are clearly part of your culture.

3. Establish work expectations. This means setting clear goals, deadlines and holding people accountable for achieving them, just like you would within an office. But it also means that you need to regularly check in on progress and whether there are any obstacles that you need to help the remote worker overcome. It’s also important to provide consistent and regular feedback to support that worker in achieving goals and deadlines.

4. Address technology and home office challenges to the best extent possible. Think about the security of your confidential information, ergonomic issues, office equipment. Technology that supports collaboration and communication is really key, such as Zoom and other ways of communicating. Look at your progress on your project, such as hours worked, time off and how you are going to manage all that and the expectations around that.

5. Upskill your management skills. Managing people who are working remotely is different than managing and leading people working in an office setting, so you want to educate yourself on the potential benefits of remote working.

You also want to devolve job optometry by checking in rather than checking up. Lead and manage by results.
I hope you find these five tips helpful.