Editor’s Note: November
One of my favorite parts of producing Enterprise, aside from working with my fantastic Valley News colleagues, is having the opportunity to interact with our growing stable of freelance contributors.
These folks, all of whom have day jobs or family obligations or other interests to which they must attend, nevertheless step up every month and provide Enterprise with columns and photographs that have helped us tell some of the stories that constitute the Upper Valley’s many-faceted business community.
They never fail to surprise me with their insights, and the passion they bring to the topics they cover makes editing their work a joy — even if they sometimes need to set me straight about things they understand far better than I do.
I also am fascinated each month by the variety of subjects they choose to tackle, and this edition is no exception.
For example, in the Power Lunch column, Sarwar Kashmeri talks with Ledyard National Bank CEO Kathy Underwood about everything from her role advising the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to her bank’s effort to promote healthier communities to the “glass ceiling” in the banking world.
In the new Leadership Upper Valley column, Michelle Avila describes the efforts of her Hypertherm colleague Anibal Sepulveda, a 2014 graduate of the Vital Communities program, to raise awareness of the Upper Valley’s addiction problem.
In the SCORE Stories column, Arline S. Rotman details the growth and success of a Windsor-based company called CoolSnowGlobes, which makes just what its name says it does: really cool snow globes.
In The HR Pro column, new contributor Beth Rattigan alerts Upper Valley businesses about a significant change to the rules governing overtime — a change that could mean many more workers are eligible for overtime pay, and many more businesses may face a significant increase in labor costs.
On the photography front, this issue begins with Nancy Nutile-McMenemy’s work on our cover story about Red River Computer Co., the Claremont-based information technology outfit that was just named one of New Hampshire’s coolest places to work for young professionals, and it ends with Medora Hebert’s Big Event photographs from the Woodstock Digital Media Festival. (Hebert, a former Valley News photographer, also shot the photographs for the Leadership Upper Valley column.)
The freelance life is no picnic. It requires hustle and flexibility and a knack for understanding what is required to get the job done — whatever that job turns out to be and whenever it turns up. The writers and photographers who contribute to Enterprise demonstrate those qualities every month. I hope you enjoy their work. — Ernie Kohlsaat
