On Wednesday, May 18, Medway Business Council (MBC) held its annual meeting and dinner at Restaurant 45 in Medway, which was the last meeting for the 2015-2016 business year.

MBC President Debbie Anderson outlined a number of MBC accomplishments from 2015-2016, including offering a variety of programs – Exelon Generation Expansion Update, Rte 109 Construction, Cyber Security, Social Media Marketing 101 and others; increasing of scholarship awards – Peter J Kenney Memorial Award to $1000 and Medway Business Council Memorial Award to $750; and relaunch of the MBC website.  Henry Cobb and Jake Martin, who graduated from Medway High School and were the MBC 2015 scholarship recipients, addressed the group and outlined their first-year college experiences. They thanked the MBC for the help the scholarships provided them.

At the meeting, the slate of officers for the 2016-2017 year was presented and ratified by members as follows:

• Wayne Texeira, President (Murphy Insurance Agency)
• Paul Rao, Vice President (Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Page Realty)
• John Parrella, Treasurer (Liscombe & Parrella, PC)
• Jennifer Powell, Secretary (Jennifer Powell Art)
• Debbie Anderson, Past President (Charles River Bank)
• Carolyn Chodat, Board Member (Classic Properties Realtors)
• Ed Martin, Board Member (My Town Publishing)
• Gail Rao, Board Member (Rao Design Group, Inc)

Incoming President, Wayne Texeira, shared with attendees that the Board looks forward to continuing to provide informative programs in the coming year.  He asked that members consider volunteering a little time to help as a membership ambassador or participating on a committee. Member involvement is critical to the ongoing success of the MBC and growing the membership base in the coming year.  Please speak with a Board member if you would consider volunteering some time to the MBC.

After dinner, Danielle Donnellan, Health Promotions Specialist with Fallon Community Health Plan, addressed members with a lively presentation on stress management and tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance.  While everyone has certainly read information and heard information on this topic in the past, Ms. Donnellan shared that there is no magic formula and that stress management comes out of developing an awareness of yourself and what your individual triggers are that cause stress. With that knowledge, you work to eliminate or minimize stress.  Although easy to say, it’s admittedly not that simple to do as we all have our habitual ways of reacting to situations.  She suggested that walking away from a stressful situation to give ourselves some space before reacting can make a big difference. “Ask yourself will this matter in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks or 5 years?…you might realize that what’s causing stress really isn’t that important.”  In addition to focusing on managing stress, making time for some form of planned physical activity and making healthy food choices are important to living a healthy life. While the issues of healthy living and stress management are ones heard often, the MBC is glad to have presented this opportunity to reconsider what we can do for self-help and self-improvement to live happier and healthier lives.

The MBC Board wishes its members and everyone in the Medway community a happy, healthy and safe summer.  We look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting in September.  Please keep in mind that our meetings are open to all businesses in the Medway area and that you don’t have to be a member to attend a meeting… although we’d certainly like businesses to become members.  For more information about the MBC, please visit www.medwaybusinesscouncil.org.