The Team Building Group is Back!

UncommonGoods is re-launching its team building group! This group helps to promote team member engagement through events and subgroups during breaks and after work. This year, the team building group will regroup with a kickoff meeting. Interested in joining the group? Email Anita (acheung@uncommongoods.com).

  

Love reading? Join the Book Club!

Below are a few related details:

Team Building Kickoff

• Friday, March 18th from 12:00-1:00pm
• Conference Room A
• RSVP to Anita (acheung@uncommongoods.com) by March 15th 
• Slack: #team-building-group

Book Club

• Leaders: Louise Geller and Cassie Tweten Delaney
• Slack: #BookClub
• Next Meeting: March 22nd

Running Group

• Leaders: Kenneth Cooke and Erica Pepitone
• Slack: #ugrunners
• Next Meeting: April 12th

Pi(e)...the Perfect March Snack

Did you know that Pi Day is March 14^th? Here at Uncommongoods, we know a thing or two (or seven) about the power of Pi. So we'll be honoring it during our company snack this month with delicious dessert pies. Circle the date on your calendar!

3/17: Company Snack (Pie!)

March Anniversaries

Congratulations to our team members celebrating work anniversaries in March. If each team member had a personal plain pizza from Grimaldi's for every company lunch, together they would have consumed just under 300,000 calories!

Casey McCarthy: 142,800 Calories (14 years!)

Zachary Notes: 51,000 Calories (5 years)

Eugene Shagenov: 40,800 Calories (4 years)

Sharon Hitchcock: 30,600 Calories (3 years)

Morgan Tanner: 30,600 Calories (3 years)

March Birthdays

Happy Birthday to all our team members celebrating in March!

3/2 Jennifer Grim

3/3 Sara Velasquez

3/5 Zachary Notes

3/5 Katherine Guerrero

3/9 Rachel Goldstein

3/9 Solomon Ademuwagun

3/10 Julie Weeber          

3/10 Michael Celestin

3/14 Alberto Tingson

3/15 Maria Calle

3/16 Kenya Wilson

3/18 Mary Williams

3/19 Norma Medina

3/19 Jennifer Coleman

3/22 Yara Guzman

3/22 Micah Telesford

3/25 Sarah Maltby

3/26 Michael Guillette

3/26 Shemell Morgan

3/28 Darshawn Patterson

3/30 Emily Reside

Advocacy For Paid Family Leave

There's only one country in the world outside of the US that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave: Papua New Guinea. It's possible that paid family leave legislation may become law in New York this year, and we’re pushing to make it happen. In September, Dave wrote an Op-Ed (available here) for why New Yorkers need paid family leave, and he continues to advocate for legislation. This month, Lauren and Dave attended a meeting that UncommonGoods co-sponsored at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce to discuss passing paid family leave legislation in New York State (California, New Jersey and Rhode Island are the only three states to offer this benefit). Here are two articles about the issue shared by Dave in our management meeting notes:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/u-s-support-paid-family-leave-one-pay/

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-opinion/article/Paid-leave-benefits-everyone-6832144.php

B With Us: Grounds For Change

Did you know that UncommonGoods is a founding B Corp? B Corps are businesses certified by the nonprofit B Lab, which means they meet high standards in key areas of environment, workers, customers, community, and governance. B with Us is an ongoing series of posts that feature fellow B Corp members. This month, we're featuring Grounds for Change. 

Grounds for Change became a B Corp in order to “join with a larger community of businesses aligned to demonstrate that you can be successful while taking the well-being of workers and the environment into account.”

Grounds for Change is a family owned and operated coffee roasting business located in the Pacific Northwest. They roast their organic coffee in small batches to ensure the freshest beans possible, and have proven to hold high standards for the environment and society as a whole. All of their coffee is Fair Trade Certified by IMO and their Organic Certification meets the stringent Organic Processor Standards enforced by the United States Federal Government and the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The vast majority of the coffee they sell is also Shade Grown Coffee, which ensures a healthy habitat for migratory birds. A number of community-based programs in coffee-growing countries directly benefit from the purchase of their coffee. For example, farmers in Peru and Mexico receive a higher price per pound for their coffee (above and beyond the going rate for certified coffee) to help support local domestic violence intervention programs and small business loans for women.

Dream BIG Scholarship Opportunity

The National Retail Federation is collaborating with University of Phoenix® to offer the Dream BIG Scholarship Program for a fourth year, awarding 20 full-tuition scholarships nationwide to retail workers who want to enhance their careers through pursuing an online degree at the University of Phoenix.

Read about the retail workers who received Dream BIG scholarships in 2015 here.

Dream BIG scholarships are for employees who want to advance their retail career through higher education. This could mean undertaking a retail-related undergraduate program such as business, finance, security, and management, or even a Master’s degree program with University of Phoenix.

If you are interested in learning more about Dream BIG scholarships, please click here, and reach out to Sean Cullen at scullen@uncommongoods.com for further information and guidance.

Applications will be accepted from now – March 31, 2016.

Within 5: My Brooklyn Screening

On March 22^nd, the Housing Committee of our Community Board is hosting a screening of the documentary My Brooklyn followed by a panel discussion on how development patterns reshape a neighborhood. My Brooklyn is a documentary about Director Kelly Anderson’s personal journey as a Brooklyn “gentrifier” to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood along lines of race and class. Watch a trailer of the film here.

March 22, 6:00 PM

Community Board 7
Board Room 

4201 4th Avenue

Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Entrance on 43rd Street