Legal Counsel Panel – Emcee Gus S. Kramer, Contra Costa County Assessor

“Must Know” information and resources on legal issues facing homeowners, home buyers, tenants, landlords, and more. You will get in-depth information on legal issues related to real estate and property – including home purchase transactions, foreclosure, short sales, taxes and much more. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn and participate in the April Legal Counsel Forum!

Featuring:

Joan M. Grimes, Bankruptcy Attorney

Grimes Law
2950 Buskirk Avenue, #101
Walnut Creek, CA 94597
(925) 323-7772
Joan Grimes earned her BA from U.C. Berkeley and J.D. from California Western University. Ms. Grimes has been a bankruptcy attorney for over 20 years and has served as President of the Northern California Bankruptcy Forum and Chair of the Contra Costa Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section. Law Office of Joan Grimes has allowed Ms. Grimes to fully realize her passion for helping people at all levels of litigation and protection.

Barbara Frantz, Real Estate Attorney

ALVIS FRANTZ AND ASSOCIATES
9030 Brentwood Blvd., Suite B
Brentwood, CA 94513
(925) 516-1617
barbara@alvisfrantzlaw.com
I am a “rent a general counsel” shared among small businesses who do not have the need for a full-time general counsel. I assist in strategic planning, operations, contract review, litigation oversight, employee issues, purchase and sale of businesses and subsidiaries, privately held corporate compliance and real estate matters.

Ronald R. Reagan, EA

60 Eagle Rock Ave, Suite C
Brentwood, CA 94513
(925) 240-1242
ron@rmsea.com
Ron is enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service and holds a Series 6 Securities License. He is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents, California Society of Enrolled Agents, National Society of Public Accountants and the National Association of Tax Consultants.

Congratulations Donna, thanks for all your contributions to our Chapter!

The panel consists of Barbara Mason, Kathi Reed and Marissa LaMagna. Read their bio’s below.

Barbara Mason has been in the economic development field for the past two decades. She has served as State Director of the California Main Street Program under the Davis administration, been intimately involved in the revitalization of three historic downtowns — Jamestown, Sonora and Livermore — and has just finished a five year stint as the Director of Redevelopment and Economic Development for the City of Oakley.

Barbara recently opened her own economic development consulting firm in the middle of the economic recession and has several clients including the City of Brentwood, City of Oakley, iPark Solar and others. In addition, Barbara has successfully operated an eBay store for the past five years, has been married for twelve years and has two sons ages 7 and 8.

Kathi Reed, 2008 President of the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce, has been self-employed for over twenty years. After “paying her dues” in the corporate world as a paralegal with Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Kathi formed Pacific Hydro Consulting Group with three other former PG&E employees. When that company was sold, Kathi realized she missed being her own boss and started her next career in direct sales … initially with Weekenders Fashions and currently with WineShop at Home.

Kathi lives in Brentwood with her husband of 42 years, Bob, and they have two daughters, two sons-in-law and four “absolutely amazing” grandsons. In addition to her passion for wine, Kathi loves to travel and is an avid San Francisco Giants fan.

Marissa LaMagna founded East Bay Green Tours in Fall 2008 and is thrilled to be showcasing the local green businesses developing in her East Bay backyard known as The Green Corridor. She has worked as a community organizer most of her life and helped to start a teen center in New York that is now a Boys & Girls Club. She has taught high school, elementary school, vegetarian cooking and yoga. She has also been a film editor and was associate producer for “The Sounds of Science”, (now Pulse of the Planet) an internationally syndicated radio show.

In 2004, Marissa founded Studio Rasa, a green certified community arts and wellness center in Berkeley with a mission of fostering environmental awareness. She has been passionate about the environment ever since the fourth grade, when growing up in New York City, she often worried about where the garbage would go. She came up with an eco-friendly disposal system comprised of arteries underground that would whisk away garbage from apartments and sidewalks to be incinerated naturally in the center of the earth. She is still working out the kinks for this invention.

Marissa is on the Board of Directors of The Sustainable Business Alliance, a member of BNI, The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and Buy Local Berkeley. She has recently moved her office into  the new Leed Certified David Brower Center as part of the Dominican University Green Business Cluster in Berkeley.

Thanks for all your hard work, Maria!

According to Carty, your Outlook or Yahoo email account is no longer the best way to keep in touch with your list or database, except for one on one emails or very small distribution lists. Your email account may be blocked if you use ’spammy’ tactics.

Here are a few nuggets to take with you.

1. Be sure you are using ‘permission marketing’. That is, your list of email recipients actually wants to receive your emails. Otherwise you are just spamming them.
2. Be consistent about your email campaigns. Send your email newsletter at least once a month, and up to once a week. Send your message at the same time and on the same day each time so your audience expects your email.
3. Check your tracking and reporting statistics. Know how many people are getting and opening your emails. Know what your click through rate is, in other words, how many people are clicking on the links in your email taking them to your website, blog or landing page.

Constant Contact offers a free trial for their service. Sign up and give it a go. They have free webinars to train you and plenty of free white papers with valuable information on Best Practices for email marketing.

We here at the WCR Delta use Constant Contact for announcing our events and sending out our Newsletter, although we don’t officially endorse them.

There are other companies out there like Aweber that have similar services.

No matter which service you use, it’s time to add email marketing to your bag of tricks.

Submitted by Steve O’Sullivan

So here it is, and here is your chance to share you expertise with our members and the world at large. Every member is invited to sign up as an author and post as often as you like. Simply register for this blog, then send an email to me requesting to be an author. Once you are approved, you are ready to go.

Just a few ground rules, this is not a place to advertise your listings, loans or products. It is a place to establish yourself as an expert in your field. It also is not a place to express your political or spiritual views, causes or charities. Of course, you can write about WCR in general and Chapter events and BRM’s. I encourage the Board to write about their experiences at State and National events and pass on what they have learned to the rest of the members.

The good news is, every time you post, you get a link to your own website or blog, and feel free to add your contact information. We want to be able to get a hold of you and get more information about what you’ve posted.

If you have questions about how to blog, what to blog about or any technical information regarding this blog, you can email me at steve.osullivan@gmail.com or give me a call at 925-998-8518.

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Steve O’Sullivan
2009 Website and Technology Chair