After
making the move from North Carolina back to his hometown of Rochester, sales
coach Tom Beal was shocked by the negativity branding the Rochester media and
affecting its residents.
“I
was on the phone with my friend Jeffrey Gitomer — he’s in 90 business
journals across the country, number one bestselling author of The Sales Bible— and he said, ‘Rochester’s great, the problem is everyone around
there just hears negative stuff: Xerox’s laying off, Kodak’s laying off. But
things aren’t bad,'” Beal says.
Gitomer
suggested Beal become the community’s provider of inspirational news, and plans
for a strictly positive website materialized. In June, Beal launched
NYGoodNews.com.
Among
the stories posted on the website is “From Stutterer to Millionaire Motivator,”
the account of Beal’s friend who overcame his impediment to become a
motivational speaker. There’s also a story about Beal’s stepbrother, Seth
Payne, in the “local hero” section. It describes the Victor native’s success as
a lineman for the Houston Texans.
“The
funny part of it is the local newspapers don’t cover him one bit,” Beal says.
“The kid made over $4 million last year, more than most of our CEOs locally,
and he doesn’t get a single line from any of our local newspapers.”
Other
NYGoodNews.com stories include the 20th anniversary of local restaurant
Phillips European, the Kidney Foundation of Upstate New York winning an Extreme
Web Makeover, and a review of the excellent customer service at Nu-Look
Collision auto body shop.
Ads
(including some for Beal’s sales coaching services) line the pages, and while
Beal now writes many of the articles, readers can submit guest articles to be
authorized and posted. Beal hopes that one day the site, which he says has a
nationwide readership, will develop into a newswire for journalists seeking
good news.
“I
consider myself a student of life,” he says, “and one thing I’ve learned is
happiness cannot be based on external circumstances; it’s an internal decision.
I’ve decided, regardless of where I live, to be happy. I happen to be living in
Rochester right now and I’m having a great time.”
—
Rebecca Shore
Go
big or go FLPAC
As
it stands, Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center is virtually obsolete.
With limited seating and stage capabilities, FLPAC needs to grow up in order to
keep up.
“The
business formula doesn’t work anymore,” says RBTL President and CEO Don
Jeffries. “You know, 20 years ago you might’ve paid an artist $25,000. Now,
everything’s over $100,000.”
Richard
Sands, chairman and CEO of Constellation Brands, Inc., formed the
not-for-profit Friends of FLPAC to get the ball rolling.
Beginning
in 2005 FLPAC will undergo a $10 million facelift. Friends of FLPAC will
secure a bond to cover the expansion, and the sale of luxury box seats and
revenue generated through future shows will pay it back.
Sands
also contributed $1 million for naming rights. The new facility will be called
The Constellation Brands — Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center.
The
new expansion calls for doubling the shell’s seating capacity, bringing it to
5,000. The lawn will accommodate an additional 10,000 people.
A
new stage will be included in the renovation.
“The
problem with the stage is it was built for the RPO,” says Jeffries.
Improvements
will include overhauling the stage to accommodate rigging and more elaborate
acts and sets, as well as updating the sound and video.
The
new Performing Arts Center will be completed in spring 2006.
“The
plan is after the last show of 2005,” Jeffries says, “the shovel goes in the
ground.”
New
jazz lineup
When
Traffic Jam, the popular afternoon
jazz show on WGMC 90.1 FM, ended on Friday, November 19, it also marked
the end of Jason Crane’s tenure at the station. Along with hosting the
show for three years, Crane has served as station manager, overseeing a period
of remarkable growth. His primary achievement was raising the funds to purchase
a new tower, boosting the station to 15,000 watts.
“I
feel really good about leaving now,” says Crane, “the station is stable and
growing and it can continue to grow without me. Crane, who has a longstanding
interest in politics and history, says that his concern for the country has
lead him to the decision to pursue a Ph.D. in American History and become a
college professor.
Rob
Linton, who will fill his shoes as the new Station Manager, has extensive radio
experience at WHAM 1180 AM. Linton, 24, is excited about expanding WGMC’s
listener base and taking the station to the next level.
“It’s
a completely different environment from WHAM,” says Linton. “You’re dealing
with listeners who love the station and support it.” Although jazz is not his
priority when it comes to music, Linton plans to catch up on it before making
his on-air debut.
“His
job is not to be the jazz guru,” says Crane. “We have plenty of people working
here who know jazz. His job is to make sure there’s a station to work at and to
make it grow.”
Crane,
who has held many different jobs in the past, says he never really expected to
become station manager at WGMC in the first place.
“This
was a fluke, but it’s probably the best fluke I’ll ever experience.”
The
‘R’ word
With
this fall’s elections safely behind them, New York legislators can now safely
return to Albany for two more years of gridlock.
That’s
the attitude a coalition of “good government” groups hope to combat as they
drive to reform Albany. “It’s so
easy for urgent policy directives to no longer be urgent,” notes Center for
Governmental Research President and CEO Patricia Malgieri. “This has to be at
the top of the pile for New York State legislators and the governor.”
Under
the auspices of the Brennan Center,
groups as diverse as the Interfaith Alliance of Rochester and the Regional
Innovators Participation Network sent a joint letter to leaders of both
legislative bodies as a stern reminder to keep reform at the top of their
agendas. They also held press conferences in Rochester and five other cities around
the state to denounce a form of government that they view as a “triocracy.”
The
letter — addressed to two legs of that triocracy, Senate Majority Leader Joe
Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — urges the adoption of rules
changes proposed by a Brennan Center report. The report released this summer
found Albany to be the nation’s most dysfunctional legislature. Its proposed
changes are aimed at empowering rank and file legislators.
“The
only thing astounding about the proposed changes to the rules as recommended by
the Brennan Center is that the legislature has actually operated under the
existing rules for so many years,” says Interfaith Alliance President Neil
Jaschik. “The rules stifle discussion, avoid accountability, allow too much
power to be concentrated in the hands of a few, and keep the public in the
dark. It is time for a change, and we insist that both the senate and assembly
enact real reform when they have the opportunity to do so this January.”
Jaschik’s
words also carried the not-so-veiled threat that organizers hope will keep
lawmakers focused on reform. “And if they fail to do so,” he says, “we pledge
ourselves to work harder to see that there are future legislators who will not
avoid this responsibility.”
In
response to the press conference, Assemblymember Susan John’s office released a
November 1 letter she wrote to the Brennan Center questioning the effectiveness
of the proposed rules changes.
“The
assembly is only one institution in state government,” she writes. “The
executive too bears responsibility for lawmaking. This omission of the
executive, I think, compromises the center’s procedural recommendations.”
The
assembly, says John, already has many rules that go further than the center’s
recommendations in protecting the rights of individual legislators. For
example, any member can demand a recorded vote: one where assembly members are
physically present when bills are voted on.
“We
can do better,” she acknowledges, but she shies away from committing to the
center’s proposals.
The
proponents of reform say they welcome such dialogue with lawmakers, they but
say they’ll accept nothing short meaningful change: “Unless real reform is
forthcoming, we’ll fight for it until it is,” says Bob Volpe of Citizens for
Legislative Reform.
Lake
defect
The
province of Ontario put the brakes on a plan to regulate water withdrawals
from the Great Lakes last week. The reason? The agreements don’t go far
enough to protect the basin’s waters.
The
Great Lakes Charter Annex tightly regulates diversions both within the
basin and outside of it, but Ontario law currently prohibits them altogether.
Among those celebrating the decision is the Sierra Club of Canada. Executive
Director Elizabeth May explained the group’s objections in a City interview.
“We’re
concerned that the current approach is creating a regulatory system for
diversions as a way of stopping diversions,” she said. “We would much rather
say that the straightforward — and certainly under Canadian law and under
NAFTA, the stronger — position is to say we just don’t allow diversions.
Anything else becomes a slippery slope.”
US
environmental groups, who generally favored the agreement, could not be reached
for comment.
For
now, the ball is back in the court of the Great Lakes Council of Governors,
which will convene again in January.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2004.
