CultureCorner

​​​​This year we used Elfster.com, an online Secret Santa Generator, for some hybrid holiday cheer. Elfster is a free, simple way to set up an online gift exchange for your friends, family, or coworkers.   Less work: As the person setting up the exchange, I didn’t want to do any work, so this was for me! I was able to set a spending max, send a link via email, teams, or social media to anyone that wants to participate and set a date to RSVP by.   Hybrid teams: Our office has a mix of in-person and remote team members that opted to participate in the gift exchange and…

​Written by: Sue Keegan, Director of Education​The Samaritan Center​, a nonprofit organization that works to fight hunger in the greater Syracuse community by providing nutritious hot meals to anyone in need 7 days a week, needs more than 35 volunteers a day to help meet their guests’ needs.Lisa Lounsbury and I were two of those volunteers Monday morning.  We worked with a team of amazing volunteers and staff who each had a task or responsibility assigned to them.  Michael Martini, the kitchen coordinator, gave Lisa and I (in my opinion) the primo task... serving food to the people the mission serves.What I learned from watching and interacting…

​Teamwork makes the dream work!  We made an investment this week.Written by: Lisa Lounsbury, CEO & President of Big I New York​We made a big investment this week.  An investment that will pay dividends to help the success of our members in New York and Connecticut and strengthened our team.  Big I New York and Connecticut staff came together in person this week at the DeWitt, New York (world!) headquarters.  We learned, laughed, produced content (lot's of content!!), had fun and strengthened our team.  And we ate.  A lot!!  It was a really tiring, invigorating and fast paced week that required an investment of time,…