Dr. Millman will cure your mycological cabin fever by leading a winter mushroom foray. Possible sightings might include over-wintering polypores, small cup fungi, pretzel slime molds, and maybe even a few overlooked rarities. Don't expect to find edibles (unless you're a squirrel)! Please call 229-6206 for more info and to register

The entire HDAC gallery space will be used to present the powerful new media, performance and installation work of the internationally recognized artist Wafaa Bilal. Bilal, an Assistant Arts Professor in Photography and Imaging at NYU is renowned for his cutting edge use of media as a way of examining the human condition. This exhibition will question our ever increasing dissolution of reality we are exchanging for virtual landscapes.

T he current business cycle has likely impacted many aspects your business. Retirement, succession planning, exit strategies that all made sense a few years ago do not seem to fit as well as they did when you envisioned the future. Discussing the soft (emotional) issues and the hard (business) issues, this forum will offer guidance in evaluating the health of our businesses. Learning to identify the issues early allows you to be proactive and address them on our own terms, before they escalate and become more serious. Companies fall into one of three categories; healthy, distressed and somewhere in the middle. This forum will help attendees understand where they are on this spectrum and how to better understand what (objectively) a healthy or distressed company looks like. Much like physi­cal well being, the key is helping the healthy realize and maintain their good habits and helping the ill identify their symptoms and understand the underlying causes. e will discuss this spectrum of health and what steps a company can do to improve their situa­tion as well as when and how planning needs to be adjusted due to changing conditions. Key take-aways: What steps should a business leader take to address many of the issues but needs help with the really hard ones, such as: a.        As CEO, are you willing to address problems with key family members? b.       As CEO, when cash is tight, are you willing to negotiate hard with the vendors/creditors who have supported you for all these years? c.        As CEO, are you willing to fairly measure the depth of changes that may be required? d.       Do you have believable numbers/metrics to base your decisions on? e.       Are you measuring trends or static numbers? Are you on a slippery slope heading for trouble? 2.     What are the issues that are the most challeng­ing based both emotional and business related scenarios. A self-diagnosis the health of your own business. This consists of 85 questions designed to highlight areas of current/potential problems that will enable the members to use real data to begin to set a path of good health and sustainability going forward.   About the presenter - Dave Sands of Dorset Partners ( www.dorsetpartners.com/ ) Dave has more than 35 years of hands-on experience in senior management.  He gained Turnaround experience as an operational/productivity consultant in such diverse areas as hospital restructuring/consolidation, retail, service industries and small to medium sized manufacturing.  Dave’s entrepreneurial background includes the startup of multiple companies, one of which was a domestic manufacturing business with over 250 employees selling nationwide. Currently Dave and his wife Jill run a national design studio and with his son Jeff run Dorset Partners, a professional Turnaround/Restructuring firm. Previously as CEO/Founder of a $25,000,000 company; Dave’s wife, son, daughter and son-in-law all worked for the company.  He successfully negotiated multi-year credit lines, domestic and international vendor terms and was responsible for all banking relationships.  Having fallen victim to Hurricane Katrina he also unfortunately experienced first hand the turnaround, bank workout and bankruptcy process; all from the client’s point-of-view. Dave graduated from Syracuse Univ. with a major in Advertising/Marketing.  He also completed graduate studies in Finance, M&A and Business Administration from Syracuse, Case Western Reserve and Hofstra.  He has served on numerous private company Boards, community Boards and the Board of the Tulane Family Business Forum.