• 12 Firms to be Honored for Outstanding Community Service
• West Side - Stewart's Building Goal: Occupancy in Summer 2001
• GBC Education Committee Gets Glimpse of Schools' Wireless Future
• GBC-Spawned Minority Development Credit Fund Gets $500,000 Federal Grant
• Grads of The Leadership Volunteer for GBC Recruiting Campaign
• GBC UPDATES:
  • CPHA to Honor Fry for Transportation Advocacy
  • Carloni Named Chair of GBC Business Education Committee
    
• GBC MEMBER NEWS:
  • New Members
  • Alex. Brown's Shattuck Receives Honorary Degree
  • Steele Receives Community Service Award
  • Bill Struever Named BETA Award Winner
  • RTKL Associates Acquires Miami Group
• GBC Website Reports Record Number of Hits Since July
• GBC Elects Comcast's Gehrig to Board of Directors
• Manekin, Glickman to Offer Retention Tips at November 1 Breakfast Briefing
  
  
  

12 Firms to be Honored for Outstanding Community Service

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, the GBC, and the Baltimore Development Corporation will honor 12 businesses for their philanthropic commitment and community service to Baltimore City at the November 6 Mayor's Business Recognition Awards luncheon.

The 11:30 a.m. event will be held at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel. The following businesses will be honored:

• Aarsand and Company (Taco Bell), for its Safety Lights for Seniors program, benefiting 100 residents of Northwest Baltimore;
  
  
• Allen Family Foods, for its efforts in employment recruitment, free bus rides, and on-the-job GED instruction;
  
  
• The Baltimore Ravens, for its sponsorship of Baltimore's Police Athletic League and for its many community outreach initiatives;
  
  
• The Baltimore Times, for its promotion of health services to at-risk African American males;
  
• Colliers Pinkard, for its partnership with City Springs Elementary School;
  
  
• Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, for its commitment of $5.5 million to local charities, Op Sail sponsorship, BMA exhibitions and sponsorship of the Army-Navy game;
  
  
• Fox 45/WB 54, for its campaign to increase the city's police force and for sponsoring "Movies in the Park" family night;
  
  
• Globe ScreenPrint, for sponsoring food drives and providing internships, career counseling, employment training and financial contributions;
  
  
• Hyatt Regency Baltimore, for its strong support of community initiatives including Habitat for Humanity, Career Fair, workforce development, and the "Pathways for Success" program;
  
  
• Kaiser Permanente, for its educational theater, which provides messages about health awareness and maintenance to the community;
  
  
• P. Flanigan & Sons, for its sponsorship of a food pantry, block party, playground restoration and neighborhood cleanup, and
  
  
• Regional Management, for its renovation and landscaping of a police station, for donating equipment to a police station, and for donating apartments to students at area colleges and universities.
  

To register to attend the awards luncheon, contact Sharon Cooper-Kerr at (410) 727-2820, x35.

West Side - Stewart's Building Goal: Occupancy in Summer 2001

Work to convert the former Stewart's Building at Lexington and Howard Street into a combination high-tech office and retail center is on schedule to be completed in the middle of 2001, according to Sharon Grinnell, chief operating officer for the Baltimore Development Corporation.

"Our goal is for tenants to be moving in during summer 2001," Grinnell told members of the GBC President's Advisory Council on September 26. The 70,000 square-foot Weinberg Foundation renovation project will feature retail tenants on the first and second floors, with office space available on the floors above them, she said.

The Stewart's building conversion is an important early phase of "Howard Street USA," a mixed-use development proposed for a four-block district bounded by Howard, Fayette, Liberty and Clay Streets. It is a key element of the more than $300-million West-Side redevelopment, of which the GBC-supported Hippodrome Performing Arts Center is a cultural centerpiece.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Development Corporation is projecting a March 2001 construction start for another critical project - the Bank of America's $54 million redevelopment, Centerpoint, in the block immediately across from the Hippodrome, said Grinnell.

GBC Education Committee Gets Glimpse of Schools' Wireless Future

Ninth grade students in a River Hill High School English class in Clarksville, MD are learning how to use hand-held computers for daily classroom activities. Each student in the class has been given a Palm Pilot V, donated by MindSurf.net.

David B. Long, vice president of MindSurf.net, outlined the program to members of the GBC Education Committee on October 11. The devices are part of a pilot program to explore the instructional and administrative application of handheld computers and wireless technology in schools.
.

GBC-Spawned Minority Development Credit Fund Gets $500,000 Federal Grant

The Development Credit Fund (DCF), a minority-business financing program spawned by the Greater Baltimore Committee in 1983, was among more than 300 recipients of a combined $123 million in federal grants issued October 4 to be used for small business loans.

The Development Credit Fund received a $500,000 award from the federal Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Located in Baltimore, the Development Credit Fund provides growth capital to minority-owned and women-owned small businesses that have been trading for at least 18 months. Its services include immediate and long-term loans for working capital, equipment, machinery and business acquisitions. It also serves as a source for technical assistance and guidance necessary to help small businesses.

More than $30 million in loans have been granted by the Development Credit Fund since its creation in 1983 by the Greater Baltimore Committee as the first public-private financing entity of its kind in Maryland.

Recognizing the need of fledgling minority businesses for financing, the GBC launched the DCF, capitalizing it through $7.5 million in loans from the state's six largest commercial banks and loan guarantees from the state of Maryland. Since then, the fund has made more than 290 loans, in Baltimore City and elsewhere in Maryland. It has maintained a default rate of only 7 percent.

Grads of The Leadership Volunteer for GBC Recruiting Campaign

Thirty graduates and current class members of The Leadership program have volunteered for a "GBC Ambassadors" campaign to recruit new GBC members.

Volunteers were recruited for the campaign by Jan Houbolt, executive director of The Leadership. They attended sales training sessions in September at the GBC offices and identified key membership prospects to call on.

Volunteers for the "Ambassadors" recruiting campaign include executives from the following GBC member companies:

A&R Development,
Allfirst Financial,
Baltimore Life Insurance Company,
The Baltimore Sun,
Bank of America,
Black and Decker Corporation,
The Chapman Company,
Columbia Consulting Group,
Deloitte & Touche LLP,
Federal Reserve Bank;
Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander LLC;
IBM Corporation,
Johns Hopkins Health System,
KPMG LLP,
Legg Mason;
Marsh USA, Inc.;
Maryland General Hospital,
Maryland Health Information Network EDS,
Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Company;
Miller Corporate Real Estate Services, LLC;
Provident Bank,
The Rouse Company;
Saul, Ewing, Weinberg & Green;
Sierra Military Health Services, Inc.;
SunTrust Bank;
Trahan, Burden & Charles, Inc.; and
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston.

GBC UPDATES:

• CPHA to Honor Fry for Transportation Advocacy
  
  GBC Executive Vice President Donald C. Fry will be presented with an Award for Excellence in Public Service on November 16 by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) and its Transit Riders League of Metropolitan Baltimore. Fry is being honored for his civic leadership and work in furthering the expansion and improvement of public transit in the Baltimore region.
  
  Fry was also named recently to the Advisory Committee of the National Transportation Center (NTC) at Morgan State University. The committee serves as advisor to the NTC and the university on its research agenda, educational initiatives and technology transfer activities.
  

• Carloni Named Chair of GBC Business Education Committee
  
  Lou Carloni, president of SMBC Incorporated, has been named chairman of the GBC Business Education Committee. Carloni succeeds David Kirby, president of DKI Public Relations, who had chaired the committee since 1993. Kirby remains an active member of the group.
  
  The Business Education Committee plans the GBC's professional development events.
  

GBC MEMBER NEWS:

• New Members
  • ALD Enterprises, LLC; Baltimore, MD; David Mosley, president
    
  • Byrnes & Associates, Inc.; Baltimore, MD; Kemp Byrnes, president
    
  • Funk & Bolton, P.A.; Baltimore, MD; David M. Funk, Esq.
    
  • The Staubach Co.; Bethesda, MD; Karen Marchetti.

• Alex. Brown's Shattuck Receives Honorary Degree
  
  Mayo A. Shattuck, chief executive officer of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, received an honorary doctor of Public Service in September from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
  
  Alex. Brown recently donated $1 million for UMBC's Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Center for Technology and Science Entrepreneurship. The new center is aimed at allowing students to gain the "knowledge, mindset and skills" necessary to capitalize on entrepreneurial activities.
  

• Steele Receives Community Service Award
  
  The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. named GBC board member Robert L. Steele, III a recipient of its 2000 Community Service Award at the sorority's 43rd Annual Ebony Fashion Fair on October 8.
  
  As the general manager of the Hyatt Hotel Baltimore, one of Steele's goals is to increase the presence of African Americans in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry.
  
  Steele has created various opportunities for students, such as expanding an internship program to Southwestern High School, that guarantees employment in the travel, tourism and hospitality field to junior and senior year students. He also mentors students in reading at Federal Hill Elementary School.
  

• Bill Struever Named BETA Award Winner
  
  Carl William "Bill" Struever, founding partner and president of Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, Inc., and one of the primary forces in shaping Greater Baltimore's Digital Harbor, has been named the recipient of the Greater Baltimore Technology Council's fifth annual BETA Award.
  
  The BETA Award recognizes Baltimore's Extraordinary Technology Advocate, and will be presented to Struever on October 24 at TechNite, the annual celebration of Greater Baltimore's rapidly growing and diverse technology community.
  
  

• RTKL Associates Acquires Miami Group
  
  RTKL Associates Inc., the Baltimore region's largest architecture and design firm, has acquired Miami-based Howard Snoweiss Design Group. The acquisition is part of a strategy to expand into Latin American and Caribbean markets.
  
  The Miami firm employs 50 design professionals. RTKL employs 250 in Baltimore and a total of 900 in offices around the world.
  

GBC Website Reports Record Number of Hits Since July

The GBC website, www.gbc.org, the Greater Baltimore Committee's primary resource for the latest GBC news and information, has recorded 231,000 hits so far this year. More than half of those hits have come in the past three months, partly due to the online publication of the report to Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, "Managing for Success," which has been featured in full text on the website since July.

Through June of this year, the number of hits to the site per month was 18,290. Since the mayor's report was published on the GBC site, however, that number has more than doubled to an average of 40,328 hits to the site per month.

The GBC regularly adds new features to the site to satisfy the visitors' need for valuable information. Recent additions include details of the Baltimore City Public School System's "Remedy Plan," the online publication of the GBC newsletter, The Leader, and a Business Community Calendar to promote selected events of GBC members.

Information regarding GBC news, events, membership, and topics of interest to GBC members is always an important part of the website. A frequently updated Calendar of Events remains one of the site's most popular features. Online registration for GBC events is in the works and will soon be available to site users.

For more information about the GBC website, contact Gene Bracken at geneb@gbc.org.

GBC Elects Comcast's Gehrig to Board of Directors

Barbara A. Gehrig, vice president and CEO for Comcast Cable Communications' Maryland and Delaware region, has been elected to the GBC Board of Directors. At Comcast, Gehrig oversees all operations and strategic planning, which encompasses more than 600,000 cable customers. A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, Gehrig is a 20-year veteran of the cable television industry. She has worked in top financial positions at Comcast in both its Philadelphia and Harford County divisions, and has served on the boards of many different trade organizations.

Gehrig is also an active participant in numerous business, civic and professional groups. Baltimore Magazine has named her one of its "Top 50 Business Women in Baltimore." She has also received many industry awards, including the Champion Award.

Manekin, Glickman to Offer Retention Tips at November 1 Breakfast Briefing

Donald Manekin, interim chief operating officer of Baltimore City Public Schools, and Gena Glickman, assistant provost for the University of Baltimore, will offer tips on "Defensive Recruiting: How to Keep Your Employees," at the next GBC Breakfast Briefing seminar on November 1.

The seminar, to be held in the GBC Board Room, costs $20 for GBC members. Contact Sharon Cooper-Kerr, (410) 727-2820, X35 to register.