A Spring Cleaning

The onset of spring is a reminder to start our annual spring overhauls. This can include decluttering, organizing and cleaning.

“Spring is when life shakes out of winter hibernation and things start to bloom. The energy you invest in a garden is most often reflected in the way that it flourishes.” (The Inspired Home) Same goes for the things in our lives. While spring cleaning has the obvious benefits of an organized closet, more open spaces, and/or an organized office, more importantly it is associated with improved mood, decreased stress and heightened creativity.

Here at your Montrose~Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce, we have begun our spring cleaning including decluttering old, broken and unrecognizable items that we will sift through and archive or pass along. We’ll be updating internal systems from paper and folders to online and computer files. We have moved away from “snail mail” invoicing to email invoicing and all around streamlining the ways in which we work.

You may have also noticed a renewal of the staff. If not, I would like to introduce those of us in the chamber office who work for you:

Membership Services: Shonna Lumsden. Shonna will work directly with new businesses, organizations and resident members, advising the benefits of membership, along with the new programs being created. She will walk you through the process, set you up on the website directory, schedule your official ribbon cutting ceremony, determine which open house business showcase you will be best suited in, and discuss any new ideas in which to collaborate. Shonna is a Montrose resident, an alumna of CVHS and has children who are products of this wonderful community. Her investment is home grown.

Project Support Coordinator Diane Pirkl (Lombard). Diane takes your membership to engagement by working with the businesses, organizations and even the residents to identify how to interact and engage in events, classes, workshops, and showcases that you offer or participate in. Diane, too, is a CVHS alumna and has roots in several other organizations and her own entrepreneur business. Her understanding of the position of the business owner brings value to this support role.

Senior Ambassadors Mike and Emma Ynequez. They are the support team. These two enthusiastic volunteers of the Chamber devote their time to help build member commitment and raise community awareness of the Chamber. You may have seen them lately hand delivering the 2018 City Guides. You will also see them welcoming you at the events, taking photos and answering questions. This married team has lived in Montrose for 40-plus years. They raised their children here, and now have adult age grandchildren who have benefitted from the strength of this community.

Your new Executive Director Victoria da Salla (Malone). I am responsible to the Chamber’s board of directors and for the day-to-day management of all Chamber functions, as well as carrying out policies and duties established by the board through an annual program of action. I am also your representative and advocate for you, the business owners and employers, in our community.

One of my focuses: I work to promote and strengthen our community by building prosperity through a healthy economy and a strong business sector. That includes working with and alongside the MSPA, the surrounding area Chambers of Commerce, City of Glendale and all organizations that pull together to enhance this community. I am also an alumna of CVHS, I have raised my children here, owned and operated a boutique on Foothill Boulevard for over a decade and, most recently, am a life and entrepreneur coach. I understand the need for support and interaction with your business/organization. I understand that we grow stronger, more vital, and better when we pull together and collaborate.

Through this “spring cleaning” we are doing at the Chamber, we look to bring a renewal of positive energy, a focus on truly being a resource for you and to interact in ways that seem to have been forgotten. You will find us walking into your business, ordering and eating at your restaurants. You can see us taking dance, yoga, Pilates or spin class from you. We are sending referrals for your services. And we will be asking you to participate in a collaborative business showcase or teach a class or workshop for those who need your expertise.

No matter which way we connect, you will hear, see or engage with any one or all of us as we continue to commit to the ideals and values that were set here originally. And we will do so in current and relevant ways. As stated at the beginning of this article, we know that “The energy you invest in a garden is most often reflected in the way that it flourishes.”

We look to the flourishing of our communal garden.

  Victoria Marie Malone