Six SCORE chapters in the Hudson Valley of New York just above NYC have joined for efficiency and wider reach. Our first target has been delivering webinars. We jointly picked the most needed webinar topics, identified presenters (internal and external to SCORE), and assigned the production and implementation to a chapter.

Now, instead of each chapter running the same webinar in their territory, one chapter conducts the event and the other chapters participate by advertising the event over their mailing lists. We conduct one of these per month and are averaging between 50 and 100+ attendees. 

In January, an SBA representative presented a high-level review of the CARES Act. That session drew 168 attendees. Our other two big attended events were - April - One Page Business Plan - 179 attendees, and May - Demystifying Financial Statements - 101 attendees. The average attendance on the other webinars is between 40 and 50 attendees. These were greater numbers than we would see with each chapter doing their own event. 

The 6 Hudson Valley chapter chairs hold a regularly scheduled Zoom call. This has opened the communication channels so that we now more easily find skilled mentors to match those clients requiring a unique skill set regardless of their physical location. This has become a huge plus for our client mentoring service.

Without a doubt, this method of client training (via Zoom) is effective and efficient for our chapters.

Our Hudson Valley One SCORE team is made up of the following chapters, each named after the county they serve:

• Dutchess
• Orange
• Putnam
• Rockland
• Ulster
• Westchester

Shared by: Bob Janesak

Chair, SCORE Rockland