February 2020 Morning Meeting Highlights
Good day members. Thank you to all who attended our meeting. It was a great conversation with a lot of useful information. Here are the February 2020 morning meeting highlights.
After conducting our pledge of allegiance and thanking those who donated the coffee (Sweet Southern Comfort) and the food (the FMA Board) we launched into discussions.
Nanci Watkins, FMA Treasurer, updated everyone on our current and growing member count. We appreciate all new members and ask current membership to spread the word.
Nanci followed up with an explanation of how members can pay and about automatic reminders. New members can pay or renew online with their profile. If a member would rather pay with a check, they can contact Nanci and she can arrange to receive the check. Also, when renewal is coming up, our system will automatically notify all members about their renewal. If you have a credit or debit card saved with our system, it will automatically renew. If you do not, please arrange to have a check to Nanci before the renewal date.
She continued on with asking the membership for a host for our March FMA Evening Social. It will be on March 5th, 2020 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Being a host gives a member a unique opportunity to spotlight their business and get to know other and potential members. If you would like to host, please contact us.
After that, Chase Barfield, VP of the FMA, reminded everyone about the Social Media Workshop that the FMA is sponsoring and that is being led by Rick Gonzalez, founder of the FreeportInsider.com. This is a monthly workshop held on the 4th Monday of each month, for FMA members only. The second one is at 6:30 pm on February 24th and will last about an hour. It will be at the Hammock Bay Lake Club – Theater Room. Rick will continue his teachings to FMA Members about how to effectively use social media for marketing their businesses. If you attended the last one, remember to have your pillar content ready.
Next Chase spoke about potential causes that the FMA could get behind. The general consensus was for it to be “business oriented.” And the final determination was to get behind a Main Street initiative. So, we will be communicating with Freeport Planning and Zoning as well as The City Council and Freeport Mayor in this regard. If you have experience in the Main Street Program and would like to participate/help, please contact us.
Then Chase introduced the speaker, which was Chase Barfield. That was a quick, self-introduction. For those who are not aware, in addition to being the FMA VP, he also owns/manages NorthStar Global Inc., the local IT Services (computers, networking, etc) company.
Chase discussed a topic that most find boring until ignoring it causes panic…data backup.
Many business owners go about their daily lives believing their computers will just continue to operate as it did the day before. Technology is great when it works. But, when it does not, it can be a serious disruption to our businesses. It is imperative to have a data backup process in place, use it and test it to make sure the backups are good.
Chase explained that having a data backup process in place will save time, save money and increase business continuity.
It will save time because if data loss occurs, being able to easily restore from a good known backup allows for minutes instead of hours or days of downtime. It saves money because you do not have to pay for an expensive data recovery service to retrieve your lost data. And money is saved because it minimizes any loss of business because of focusing on retrieving/restoring lost data. And, with a solid data backup process in place, it dramatically increases business continuity (meaning, minimizes disruptions) so that we can continue to focus on building and managing our businesses.
There are many data backup options. But most can be narrowed down to a USB hard drive, a Network Attached Storage or a cloud based backup. These can be used individually or in conjunction with each other, depending on the data and workflow of your business. Chase offered to speak with any FMA member about their current business processes and recommend a suitable data backup routine for them. NorthStar Global can be reached at 850.678.9191 and at 15950 US331 Business, Freeport, FL 32439.
That concluded the February Morning Meeting. It was a great and lively meeting. We look forward to seeing you all at the March Evening Social and our next morning meeting.
If you are not a member and wish to join to gain the benefits of membership, feel free to visit our membership page to sign up.
FMA – Uniting The Businesses of Freeport
