Business People

RILEY ATTENDS CONFERENCEColleen Riley, executive director of the Howard County Tourism Council, attended the National Tour Association's 1991 Annual Convention from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1 in Cleveland, Ohio.Riley met with more than500 group tour operators, who bring escorted tour business to Maryland.SIX DESIGNATED AS CRPSSix associates in the office of RE/MAX Columbia have earned CRP designations as a result of passing the Certified Relocation Professional exam in September.They include Norma Jean Marsho, Donna Campagna, BetsyCallas, Joan Brunett, Valerie Smith and Frona Dubin.

The Sun editorial board never fails to agree with every tax and fee our governor thrusts upon the citizens of Maryland ("The rain tax sham," April 18). The governor has created 37 new taxes and fees during his seven years in office, and though he claims to have made cuts in the state budget, the facts show the budget has increased substantially. Rather than ask questions, The Sun prefers to take a few cheap shots at a report done on Fox News, which actually researched the story.

WESTMINSTER - Businesses from Carroll soon could follow in the footsteps of McDonald's, Pepsi Cola and Pizza Hut and get in on the ground floor of commerce and capitalism in the Soviet Union.Members of the Chamber of Commerce here received a request last month from the U.S.S.R. Association of Foreign Economic Cooperation for Medium and Small Business, inviting them to participate in a first-of-its-kind business conference this spring.Two county businessmen already have asked to be part of the U.S.delegation to the U.S./U.

Many successful people of today are absolutely convinced that the "virtuousness" of successful entrepreneurs and business people doing what they do creates opportunities for the benefit of all in our society. I truly don't doubt that. That is exactly how Rockefeller and Roosevelt and Kennedy and Buffett and on and on felt. These people were as capitalistic as they come. What those people had and what is missing from many today who champion this "virtuousness" is two other principles.

You could learn a thing or two riding a bus through Ann Arundel County.Take Len Adler, for instance.The president of Adler Development took the Anne Arundel Trade Council's second annual executive bus tour yesterday to scout potential retail sites, and discovered his own store.His company owns Total Crafts in Annapolis, but it also runs a store on East Ordnance Road in Glen Burnie."I didn't realize Glen Burnie was part of Anne Arundel until today," the bemused chief executive officer said after the bus of out-of-town CEOs, chamber and county officials and representatives of county businesses rolled from City Dock in Annapolis to Baltimore-Washington International Airport to the Piney Orchard development in Odenton.

Pledging that Anne Arundel countians will not be left as "orphans," two of four Congress members-elect talked tax reform, health care and the deficit Tuesday with county business people.Since redistricting parceled the county out to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th congressional districts, county residents have worried they'd be forgotten on Capitol Hill.Arundel, which has elected its own member of Congress for two decades, has no majority advantage in any of those districts."For the first time, Anne Arundel County is part of four different congressional districts and without a resident member of Congress," said Bertrand A. Mason, president of the Anne Arundel Trade Council.

North County civic leaders are going to be taken for a ride tomorrow, one the business community hopes will translate into a push to extend the light rail line from Baltimore.The North Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce has arranged a sneak preview of the new southern portion of the state's Central Light Rail line at noon tomorrow, starting at the North Linthicum station on Camp Meade Road.About 75 business people and members of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association are expected to gather for a half-hour train ride toward Oriole Park at Camden Yards, an on-board lunch and a few words from O. James Lighthizer, state secretary of transportation.

It was a typical business breakfast networking meeting, like any of the dozen or so that are held in Howard County on a weekly or monthly basis. Business leaders and owners met to discuss issues they face and to exchange ideas. They also seek prayer requests. It may be this feature that makes Praise Partners International different from other business networking groups. The group, which meets monthly at Bob Evans in the Columbia restaurant park, is composed of business people who are striving to incorporate Bible-based principles into their daily business practices.

The ladies wore gloves and hats, the tables were set with the good china and the white lilies filled the front hall with the scents of spring. Nannette K. Mitchell, the hostess, had misplaced the silverware she uses for entertaining, so she reluctantly rented stainless steel flatware and served creamed chicken in pastry shells, rice, string beans, peas, baked chicken, molded ice cream and iced tea with lemon slices. Someone recited a poem, another woman played "Climb Every Mountain" on the grand piano and everyone listened attentively to a speech about justice, murmuring politely at the most rousing parts.

The Enterprise Center for International Education and Business is seeking business people to participate in a delegation to West Sussex, England this spring. The trip, scheduled for May 16-24, is part of an exchange that will follow a delegation of business people from the United Kingdom attending a conference in Annapolis in April.The trip's cost is about $2,000 per person.Co-sponsors include Anne Arundel Community College, the Maryland International Division, the World Trade Center Institute, the Anne Arundel Trade Council and the Anne Arundel County Office of Economic Development.

If experienced business people instead of lawyers were running the Maryland General Assembly, it would be a no-brainer that you don't over-saturate a limited market that depends on discretionary spending from family funds. Of course, this seems to be too difficult for the lawyers in the legislature to grasp. F. Cordell

When Heather Ziehl lost her job in sales and marketing operations two years ago due to the failing economy, she became a “true housewife.” And what started as an inside joke about the “Housewives of Bel Air” amongst friends, quickly developed into a full-fledged nonprofit organization helping people build professional and personal connections. “Our mission is basically to bring people together and create awareness about nonprofits and charities. We want to give back to the community,” says Ziehl, 34, of Bel Air. “I'm a very positive person, and I start each day with a positive quote.

In a New Yorker cartoon from thirty years ago, a man turns to another in a bar and asks belligerently, " Hopefullywise ? Did I understand you to say hopefullywise ?" There you have the hopefully brouhaha encapsulated. The Wrong People, the sloppy, trendy vulgarians who tacked -wise indiscriminately onto adjectives were the same sort who would use hopefully as a sentence adverb. It's easy to identify the Wrong People: They belong to some group we like to look down on (advertising, say, or business people in general)

Finally, Mitt Romney admitted publicly what too many Republican politicians - and plenty of Democrats, too - really think about we, the people. "Corporations are people," the former Massachusetts governor pronounced. And there you have it: Our inalienable rights, as Americans, or more broadly as humans, turn out to be neither special nor exclusive. The unavoidable implication of Mr. Romney's statement is that corporations should have the same rights as citizens. Corporations and people are similar in some ways, of course.

In some high schools in Maryland, students who are Latino and thinking about going to college often feel isolated and insecure, always separate from the culture around them. Jesus Zelaya, 16, is the only Latino in his advanced-level classes at Richard Montgomery High School in Silver Spring. Melba Garcia, 14, is one of about 10 Latinos in her class of 300 students at school in Olney. To help students like them, the Hispanic College Fund is holding weeklong seminars around the nation, including one at Towson University this week, to help propel students to college.

A smart financier once remarked that investing was a matter of gambling with the odds tilted in your favor. Smart investors scrutinize and study; they learn from their mistakes, discover what works and doesn't work and gravitate to the winning strategies. What's so infuriating about the latest audit of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development is that it appears such scrutiny was severely lacking when appointed officials chose to gamble on marketing strategies on behalf of the state.

The Enterprise Center for International Education and Business is seeking business people to participate in a delegation to West Sussex, England this spring. The trip, scheduled for May 16-24, is part of an exchange that will follow a delegation of business people from the United Kingdom attending a conference in Annapolis in April.The trip's cost is about $2,000 per person.Co-sponsors include Anne Arundel Community College, the Maryland International Division, the World Trade Center Institute, the Anne Arundel Trade Council and the Anne Arundel County Office of Economic Development.

The Sun soon will launch Working, a weekly section detailing careers and offering tips on finding a job. One feature will include recently promoted business people. Readers are encouraged to submit items. Please send the name of the person promoted, the job title, the company's name, location and telephone number. Submissions can be made to Business People; on the Web at www.baltimoresun. com/working; by e-mail at working@baltsun.com; by fax: 410-783-2517; or by mail: The Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278.

The seeds for a green revolution in Annapolis are being planted in a city coffee shop. Linnea Boagades runs Raising Pickles, a company that can pick up recycled waste from businesses, a service the city doesn't provide. Stephanie Duncan of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau is launching an initiative to get its member hotels and businesses to conserve more water and energy.

By now we all have a story about a job outsourced beyond our reach in the global economy. My favorite is about the California publisher who hired two reporters in India to cover the Pasadena, Calif., city government. Really. There are times as well when the offshoring of jobs takes on a quite literal meaning. When the labor we are talking about is, well, labor. In the last few months we've had a full nursery of international stories about surrogate mothers. Hundreds of couples are crossing borders in search of lower-cost ways to fill the family business.