Nate’s Northcoast Notes • MLK Memorial Concert at Bop Stop • Bootsy Collins featured at AARP awards • Edwin’s Brandon Chrostowski offers cooking classes • ‘Sylvie’s Love’ streaming on Amazon

By NATHAN E. PAIGE

Staff and faculty of the Cleveland Music Settlement will perform
during the MLK Jr. Memorial Concert, Sunday, January 17. 

MLK Memorial Concert Livestream at BOP STOP (January 17)

The Cleveland Music School Settlement’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert will take place virtually this year, livestreamed from the BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Avenue [44113], Sunday, January 17  at 3PM and available for viewing on the BOP STOP’s Facebook page and featuring performances by Settlement faculty and students. The concert is curated by Linda Allen and Matthew Jones. Free, but donations encouraged.

Funkateer Bootsy Collins will be honored at AARP Cincinnati’s 3^rd Annual Living the Dream Awards January 15.

AARP’s 3rd Annual Living the Dream Awards featuring Bootsy Collins (January 15)

One of Ohio’s own Funkateers, Bootsy Collins will be honored at AARP Cincinnati’s 3rd Annual Living the Dream Awards during a virtual ceremony Friday, January 15 at 8PM.  This event highlights the work of the Bootsy Collins Foundation, examines the impact of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution to civil society, the power of music, and AARP’s efforts in helping to disrupt disparities and inequities.  During the event, Collins will be interviewed by Cincinnati radio personality Lincoln Ware. This free event is open to the public, but registration is necessary.  

Edwin’s Vivant @ Home Virtual Cooking Classes (Multiple Dates, January)

Why not start off the new year by enhancing your culinary skills?  Chef Brandon Chrostowski, of Edwins and Edwins Too, is hosting virtual cooking classes throughout the month.  Get professional, hands-on advice on braising, roasting and cake decorating, as well as learning about various wines and cocktails.  Classes are an hour long and cost $20.  Advance registration necessary. Take-home kits can be purchased from Edwins Butcher Shop, 13204 Buckeye Road, the day before the selected event.  

The romantic drama “Sylvie’s Love” is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

‘Sylvie’s Love’ via Amazon Prime (Now Streaming)

The latest release from Amazon Studios is the romantic drama “Sylvie’s Love,” starring Tessa Thompson (“Westworld,” “Creed”) and Nnamdi Asomugha (“Crown Heights”).  Set in 1957, “Sylvie’s Love” tells the story of talented saxophonist Robert (Asomugha) who plays in a jazz quartet he feels is going nowhere. Sylvie (Thompson) aspires to have a career in television, but currently works in her father’s record store while her fiance is abroad fighting in the war.  When Robert takes a part-time job at the record store, their lives are forever changed. Written and directed by Eugene Ashe, the film also stars Aja Naomi King, Erica Gimpel, Lance Reddick and Eva Longoria.

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Is there an upcoming event you’d like included in this column? Please send the details, along with a high-resolution photo/graphic, to northcoastnotes@therealdealpress.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

FACE THE COMPETITION • For businesses planning for the new year, hindsight really is 20-20

Now more than ever, a strategic and tactical review can assess the past to improve the future

By Jinida Dorsey & Julius C. Dorsey, Jr.

Whether you’re operating a B2B, B2C or non-profit, the focus at this time of year under normal circumstances is closing out the year in the black and doing bigger and better things next year.

However, the COVID 19 health crisis made sure that 2020 was certainly not normal – for businesses, families, educational institutions and just about everyone and everything else.

While many did not celebrate the New Year at the festive gatherings we’re used to, this time of year may be ideal to take a look back on the bumps and bruises of 2020 to plan for a more productive and profitable 2021.

A valuable way to assess the past and improve the future is something that we at Dorsey & Company call a strategic and tactical review.  The good news is such a review is not dependent upon “normal” circumstances.  Instead, because the review is strategic first, any tactics to follow must be devised to fit the current circumstance. This is especially important as business owners are trying to figure out just how they’re going to move forward from the COVID crisis.

Even in a post-COVID operating cycle, such a review can serve three important functions: 

1.    Identification of areas for immediate adjustment to ensure you meet sales and profit goals with available resources and staff.

2.   Avoidance of preventable missteps or costly pitfalls that will delay success and tarnish your brand image.

3.   Enter the next year better informed and focused on available marketing and sales opportunities.

A strategic and tactical review need not be complicated. What is required, however is objectivity. The business or organizational leadership must be willing to take an objective look back at the fit and effectiveness of the 2020 plan (adjusting, of course, for the abrupt disruption in business) relative to the stated goals, objectives and strategy.

A look back as part of a strategic and tactical review should help you reconsider the marketing initiatives, their components, associated processes and the reasons for the results they delivered, in order to:

• Keep – those parts of the plan that – despite COVID – effectively implemented your strategy and accomplished your goals and should therefore be continued this year.

• Adjust – those parts of the plan that worked but could still be improved this year. (And, unfortunately, many will find MUCH to be improved in 2021.)

• Eliminate – those parts of the plan that do not implement strategy or help you reach goals, and cannot be improved to do so this year.

• Add – those elements that the COVID crisis revealed to be missing from your plan in 2020.  

While some businesses or organizations require more complex strategies to achieve the results they seek, many others could grow by leaps and bounds if they simply had the right (objective) perspective on which questions to ask, which problems/opportunities to prioritize, and how to move forward to achieve goals. A strategic and tactical review is a good place to start to set 2021 on a better, more hopeful path.

Here's to brighter days ahead for all!

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Founded in 1987, Dorsey & Company Strategic Consultants to Management is a carefully assembled group of more than 50 associates who offer a wide range of marketing expertise to thoughtfully approach every engagement according to its unique competitive and marketing challenges and requirements. The Dorsey & Company approach has consistently yielded favorable results for leading clients in automotive, energy, utility, branded and consumer goods, retail, higher education, telecommunication, government and nonprofit, financial and professional services, health and pharmaceutical, and other industries. Visit here to learn more about Dorsey & Company.

Indigent burial program may see more action amid opioid epidemic, COVID-19 pandemic

Medical staff tend to a COVID-19 patient. Courtesy of University Hospitals

By Susan Tebben 

A state program to help those who can’t afford to bury their loved ones might see more action than usual and cause the need for re-education for townships that have to pay for these burials.

The Indigent Burial and Cremation program works with townships and municipalities to reimburse some of the costs of funeral disposition. When a resident is found to fall below the federal poverty line, Ohio law requires that a local government pay for the burial or cremation.

But local government officials have said the program wasn’t used often in its last version, nearly two decades ago.

More recently, however, several townships have called the state’s Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to get information about the program, and there are currently 450 applications being processed, according to Cheryl Grossman, the board’s executive director.

“We look for that number to grow dramatically,” Grossman said.

While a death certificate isn’t required with the application for funding reimbursement, Grossman and others have said the ongoing opioid epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic could cause the program to have increased use.

“The opioid crisis is not going away and in some places it’s only being exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Heidi Fought, executive director of the Ohio Township Association.

The program was a part of the budget more than a decade ago, but budget cuts led to the elimination of it until the last budget bill, passed in July of 2019.

The new budget line item moved the program from the state Department of Job and Family Services to the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and allowed the reimbursement of a total of $2 million.

Under the new version of the program, a township can get reimbursed for up to $1,000 in burial or cremation expenses for an adult, and up to $750 for a child. Those numbers are a slight increase from the previous program, where reimbursements were set at $750 for an adult and $500 for a child.

The Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors seems to be the only state agency with information on the program. Representatives from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Department of Health, the Office of Budget and Management and the Auditor of State all referred questions about the use and payment of the program to the board.

“While the local governments in the Southeast Region receive some funding, it is usually sporadic and nominal,” said Denise A. Blair, assistant chief auditor in the Southeast Region for the Auditor of State. “It would not rise to the level of materiality that would be included in our scope.”

The OTA specifically lobbied to bring back the funding for the indigent burial program in the last budget, despite the rarity of a cut program returning to the state budget.

“The fact that it did come back does show that the need is there,” Fought said.

The need to re-educate townships on the existence of the program and how to be reimbursed for it is also there, because of the turnover over of local officials in the period between the program’s existence, according to Fought.

Only local government representatives can apply for the reimbursement, so individuals have to go through those government officials to get help with their funeral disposition.

The Ohio Township Association says the push to increase the program’s funding will continue, especially considering local governments are required to pay for indigent burials whether or not there is money in the program’s coffers to reimburse them.

“A local government entity must carry out this duty even if funds are no longer available through the program,” according to the embalming and funeral directors board page on the program.

The program is needed as a state program because poverty does not focus on one particular county, nor does the need for burials or cremations.

“Indigency knows no boundaries,” said Fought. “They’re in central Ohio or Cleveland or Cincinnati, they’re everywhere.”

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… This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.