Newsletter

President's Report

As an April baby- I always loved spring. My favorite holiday was Easter and my favorite flower was a tulip. Growing up in Florida – our Easter mornings were magical. Not because of the infamous bunny – but because it was the one time our parents could convince all 3 of us to get our tails out of bed before dawn, eat a questionably colored hard boiled egg, throw on our brand new swim suits (from the bunny) and go to the beach to watch the sunrise. Every year, even as a young child, I understood and felt the magnitude of the sun rising. It was a fresh start! Maybe I would actually try and be nice to my brother. Maybe I will finally get to reach my dream of being one of the sisters on Full House. Who knows? The day was full of promise. When we moved to NC, I saw that same awe and beauty in Spring. Every plant that looked ugly and bare and brown was now full of leaves and flowers and with it, the promise of something beautiful - A new start.

As an adult – spring kind of lost its luster. I always loved the season, but now, as someone in the industry- spring was go time. I did not have time to stop and smell the roses – all I could do was hang on for dear life and try to survive the season and pray that my kids would still remember me come July. Everything took a back burner – even the things I loved the most about Spring- plants! Last winter I decided to tackle my two overgrown flower beds in front of my house *thinking* that if I started now, I may actually get something in the ground this spring. During the weeding extravaganza I discovered I had a camelia bush in front of my house. It had never bloomed so I actually didn’t even know it was there. It wasn’t until I ripped out the nandina in front of it that I realized the camelia was literally being strangled and was barely hanging on. I wrote it off and thought about also ripping it out, but it had a few leaves so I thought- maybe I should just see what it does this spring.

While our spring season has been nothing short of a dumpster fire, Spring itself has not held back. How ironic is it that we have had quite literally the perfect season with no late frosts, no crazy heat waves, and not one single bride to share it with? It was like Spring was rubbing it in my face at how perfect it can be while I was struggling to save my business that is built around this beautiful season. I was sitting on my porch trying to motivate myself and there I see that camelia with all its leaves. Surrounding the base were flowers from months before that had bloomed, but at the time, I was still too busy to see. As I sat there pondering how resilient this little plant was, all I could think of was our industry. Right now, we are those plants being strangled, barely having any leaves to show. Or maybe we are just dormant trying to survive the harsh winter. But just like the old adage of April showers bring May flowers, we are showering within our companies. We are trying new things and soaking up all the education we can find. We are giving ourselves the space to grieve, the grace to learn from our mistakes and the strength to get through the next stage of this pandemic. Even though you may not see the beauty, and all you can see are some ugly brown sticks, your business is still thriving. You will see the beauty that is born from this time of showering. You will see your dormant and strangled businesses show off their beautiful blooms with a stronger foundation and roots. And I for one, can not wait to stand in awe of all that beauty.

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What are our Members up to?

Key Signature Entertainment is hosting a Virtual Concert Series!

Key Signature's goal is to spread joy, togetherness, and a sense of normalcy through music in a 4pm virtual concert series on our Facebook live every weekday! We did this throughout the month of April, and have decided to continue it in May as well. 

Here is the link for our Facebook page where the artists go live, and the event page where you can click “interested” to get notifications and lineup updates. 

Market Hall is Hiring!

Market Hall is looking to hire an additional full time Sales & Market Manager who has 3-5 years hospitality sales experience. Please send your resume to Kristen Leen, Director of Sales & Marketing at [email protected] 

The University Club has Mother's Day Brunch Takeout

Fancy This is offering a discounted portrait session

Get $150 off of a 1.5 hour portrait sessions (originally $450). These can be scheduled anytime after stay at home orders are lifted (clients can use them anytime this year). Would be great to gift for mothers!

Need a DJ for Virtual events?

Bunn DJ Company is offering their services for “virtual parties”. 

If you need a DJ and/or MC for your personal or corporate events, we are still the company to call!

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Announcements

NACE is known for its spectacular meals and well designed meetings. It is something we pride ourselves on and what makes us so different from other organizations. While I hope we can get back to that - I also want to be realistic and let you all know that the next few NACE meetings may look a bit different. 

We will abide by state laws in terms of social distancing and group sizes. We will start having in person meetings when the state gives us the thumbs up.

As we start in person meetings- we want to be respectful of our sponsors and members. A lot of us have been hit hard by this financially and we know that for some of you, NACE meetings will be on your own dime. For our sponsors, the time and money to host an event may not be available. 

This means a few things for us as a chapter:

1. For May we are working on another webinar with an accountant to talk about the tax implications of the PPP, EIDL, and unemployment. We are also planning another virtual happy hour 

2. June (if restaurants are open) we are working on doing a dine around where we gather in groups of less than ten and go eat at our NACE Member restaurants. 

3. July, August, and possibly September if we can meet, we will. These meetings will be a little later (around 7pm) to encourage you to eat before you come and we will have drinks and desserts. This will allow us to have cheaper ticket prices and also to not financially stress our sponsors. 

4. We are moving our fundraiser to the end of the year to help everyone get back on their feet. We will announce that once we have decided the date. 

Things can onviously change, but we want to keep you all abreast of what we are thinking and how we are going to operate meetings for the rest of the year. We can not wait to see all of you! 

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CPCE: Did You Know?

Did you know that if more than 4 people commit to taking the CPCE exam- it is $100 off the test? We are getting a group of people together to take the exam this fall.

You can find more information here

If you are interested in joining a study group or if you have questions, please send an e-mail to [email protected] 

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New Members

Welcome to our new members! 

Patrick Cox 

JB Duke Hotel 

Joseph Isaacs

Buzz Pop Cocktails

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Upcoming Event

Be on the lookout for our next virtual happy hour and webinar with an accountant. Updates coming to your inbox soon! 

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