A categorical soccer shop in a Better Modell’s store.

The Modell family of Modell’s Sporting Goods has learned one thing is for certain in their 120 year history: always listen to the customers.  This is especially true in tough economics times, when you’re not only battling your competition, but also your customers’ disposal income (or lack of it).

So in March 2010, the sporting goods chain officially launched their new “BETTER” initiative, an effort to improve the in-store shopping experience by listening to — and responding to – customer feedback.

“Less Clutter.” “Wider aisles.” “Better selection!” “More sporting goods.” “Make it  easier to find what we’re looking for.” “We need GREAT prices.”

These were the comments the store took to heart.

By the end of February, Modell’s had – as they put it – “BETTERED” 112 of their 145 stores with the goal of having every store completed by August 15.

To kick off the campaign, on March 6, 7, and 8th they hosted a Modell’s “Community Weekend,” called, BetterTogether.  During the weekend, customers received 10% off of their total purchase.  In addition, Modell’s donated an additional 10% to the customer’s choice of a local youth sports program.  When all was said and done, Modell’s beat their goal of raising half a million dollars for the communities they serve — by the time the 3-day weekend was over they raised over $610,000!

“Modell’s has been in business for over 120 years,” said Mitchell Modell, CEO of Modell’s Sporting Goods and the great grandson of the company’s founder, Morris Modell.  “We’ve learned that, above anything else, we must listen to what our customers are telling us.  We heard from our customers that things needed to be fixed, ranging from a reduction of clutter and easier navigation throughout the store to an improvement in merchandise offerings, including more sporting goods.  That’s what we are doing.”

“We used Community Weekend as the first platform to tell our communities exactly what we have been working on for them and we decided to share that excitement and buzz with the local youth sports programs.  We were absolutely amazed at the turnout and the warm feeling that came with it to see members of the community rallying around a common cause and supporting local youth sports.”

Watch one store getting completely BETTER’d in one minute at Modell’s BETTER microsite.

GETTING TANKED: Andy Rosenwach’s 115-year-old firm builds and installs the water tanks that top NYC buildings. Photo credit: Christian Johnston

When the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage undertook its New York City Project some years ago, work was a prominent item on the agenda. As part of the mission to document urban culture in the five boroughs, interviewers sought out people engaged in iconic city trades, from lox smoking to graffiti artistry, and asked them about their jobs.

Now that research has yielded a book, Lox, Stocks, and Backstage Broadway: Iconic Trades of New York City by Nancy Groce. With chapters on Broadway’s backstage artisans, Wall Street traders, subway workers and others, the book celebrates those whose jobs “create, maintain and nurture the very heart of Gotham.”

Our longtime member, Rosenwach Tank, was profiled in the book.

The city’s top tankers

The Rosenwach family has been making water tanks in New York since 1896, when Harris Rosenwach, an immigrant carpenter from Poland, bought the firm for $55. Today it’s run by his great-grandson Andy, 58, who started working in the business when was 22.

New York’s water towers: Once someone points them out to you, you can’t believe how many of them there are. Thousands upon thousands of huge wooden barrels are perched like alien spaceships on rooftops throughout the city. And more than half of them were manufactured by the Rosenwach Co. of Long Island City, Queens, and Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Water towers began to appear in New York in the 19th century, when laws mandated that every building over six stories tall must have two sources of water or 3,500 gallons of water on the premises to assist firefighters. Building wooden tanks on rooftops seemed like an excellent solution.

When an old tank needs to be replaced, the entire process must be completed within 10 hours because the residents are dependent on water from the tank for drinking, plumbing and fire protection. The Rosenwach crew starts dismantling the old tank at about 6:30 in the morning. The old tank is drained, a hole is chopped near the bottom to let out any residual water, and then it is completely dismantled and taken off the structure by about 10 a.m. Meanwhile, workers start laying out the wood for the new tank, as well as the necessary pipe fittings and hoops. Once the new tank parts have been brought up in the elevator and the old tank has been brought down, it usually takes about three hours to install a new tank.

Most of Rosenwach’s workers have been with the firm for many years; a few followed their fathers into the trade.

“The company will go through a lot of people to get people who will stay around,” shop foreman Kenny Lewis remarked. “A lot of guys will show up on the roof, and that’s their last day. If they see what kind of work it is, if they don’t like heights, they’re not gonna be here.”

Each tank presents a unique challenge. Weather is sometimes a major factor, says Rosenwach, who told stories of servicing tanks with frozen pipes or trying to fix electrical malfunctions in the middle of snowstorms. On new buildings, tanks must go in whenever the building is ready, to maintain the construction schedule.

“We work whether it’s 90 degrees or 5 degrees outside. Whatever it is, we’re like the postmen,” he says.

At the heart of the craft is the ability to make a huge, watertight tank. Water tank building is “like barrel-making,” Lewis explained. “It would be like being a cooper 100 years ago. It’s the same principle, pretty much.”

Lewis’ job consists of milling wood for the staves, floors and roofs of each tank. With two other woodworkers, he fits them together in Rosenwach’s shop in Greenpoint, and then disassembles them for transportation to the installation site.

Wood is usually milled specifically for each job. Newcomers have to learn how to “run the lumber” through the milling machines, because a piece of lumber can’t just be taken and put in the machine. Any open knots have to go on the inside of the tank, so the wood touches the water and swells the knots closed.

Lewis prefers “keeping his feet on the ground” to doing installation work. To do that, he said, “You have to have it in your blood. It’s gotta be something that you’re very comfortable with, because if you’re not, it’s a dangerous place to be.”

Although he might not accompany his creations to their final rooftop homes, he is proud of what he does.

“There’s a lot of jobs where you don’t see your product out there. You know, you don’t see what you’re doing. And it’s part of the history of New York. They’ve always been here. And that’s nice; you can walk down the street and see what you did.”

Rosenwach echoes the sentiment.

“I love being in a business that can contribute something, produce something, give something to the city,” he says. “Once I was in traffic in one of the vans with the company name on it, and the guy passing us put his hand up and says, ‘Rosenwach Tanks, keep on going!’ That made me feel pretty good. It’s the service part. We look at the skyline and see that we did that.”

This movie takes a look at the creativity behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets.

It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism and sustainability.

It documents the creative process and looks at how things impact our lives.

We can learn about who we are, and who we want to be, by the objects we surround ourselves.

Gallery hours:
M & W: 10 – 6
T & T: 10 – 8
F & Sat: 10 – 5
Closed Sundays

One of the many women’s cultural organizations to be initiated in the nineteenth century (including fellow Association member, The Pen and Brush), NAWA’s purpose was to help women artists counter the difficulties they faced in gaining recognition and equity in professional training, exhibition opportunities and the marketplace.

Now an unquestioned truth, the founding statement of the Women’s Art Club insisted that art by women was equal in creative achievement to the work of men and that this would be understood only when women proved themselves in the public sphere.

In 1913, the Women’s Art Club changed their name to the Association of Women Painters and Sculptors to reflect the importance of sculpture as part of their annual exhibitions.  In 1917, with a membership of over 500 the group changed their name once again to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors to emphasize the growing geographic spread of their membership.

One of the members, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founded the Whitney Studio Club and supported American artists by providing exhibition and studio space to them.  The resulting work became the founding core of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In 1941, the group became the National Association of Women Artists, as it is known today.

NAWA’s exhibitions have been seen in Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, England, Scotland, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece and India.  They have also organized exhibition exchanges with women colleagues in Asia, South America and Europe and in 1969 participated in the celebration of women artists at the Internationale de la Femme in Cannes, France where NAWA members won nine awards.

NAWA was one of the founding members of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC.  In March of 2009, during Women’s History Month, the group held their first symposium at the museum.  Fifteen past presidents presented about their time in office providing an interesting historic insight.

The permanent home for NAWA’s collections and archives is at the Jane Voorhees Art Museum at Rutgers University.

Mission Statement of the National Association of Women Artists

The purpose of the Association is to promote culture and education in the Visual Arts through exhibitions of its members’ works, lectures, art demonstrations, scholarships, awards and other educational programs.

The Association shall foster public awareness of, and interest, in works of art with emphasis on Fine Art created by women.  It will encourage new emerging artists through all appropriate means.

If your business has seriously been thinking about Going Green, a unique opportunity has just emerged.  A Certified Green Consultant in New York City is working with CNBC on a career transition segment, possibly called “From Wall Street to Green Street”.  There will be two pieces to the segment: the transition interview and a walk-through with a client of the process to green a business – from assessment through certification.  Each piece will air 1-2 minutes.

This is therefore a request to find a business not just for the show but to actually sign on as a client and go through the process of earning your certification for greening your business practices.

To qualify, your business must be in New York City and be available for 2-3 days for the preparatory work and a day of shooting over the coming 1-3 weeks.  Key company personnel should be available for interviews.  While CNBC retains the right to produce the final version of the show, the company will be allowed to assist in presenting its best side.

One company will be chosen that best suits the criteria for this program.  The residual benefits of this exposure should be obvious.  CNBC is a heavy hitter in the marketplace, and while the segment is focused on careers in transition, your business will get exposure during the green certification process segment.  The CNBC programming, however, is only part of the exposure that the selected company will enjoy.  The Green Business League, who provides the national certification, has made agreements to promote this program through a hard-hitting Internet campaign that will be spread throughout the country.

To submit your business for consideration, please email a brief description of your company to michele.moran@mandmgreensolutions.com.  Also include any steps you have taken to-date to green your company.  One and only one business will be chosen.  This is not a sales promotion or an effort to sell products.  The filming schedule will occur shortly after the selection is made, and the company will need to be flexible as to the time constraints.  The timeline for this offer is VERY short.

The Green Business League certification will be an actual process, which will include:

• Assessment
• Development of Sustainability Plan with tradespeople
• Training
• Supply Chain Management
• Development of Sustainability Policies
• Assistance with marketing

The certification process will naturally continue well beyond the taping of the show, which has an immediate timeframe.  This certification program is about your daily operating practices, not about the building, and is therefore affordable.

The Green Business League is a well-respected authority on Green business.  It is a national program, which has begun expanding overseas.

Good luck and let us know if you apply!

More details on the FORWARD’S award-winning website.

This year, we’re turning up the volume at St. Ann’s, and we expect to sell out the house with three outstanding headliners: the charismatic rock and blues singer Dana Fuchs (star of Sony Pictures’ 2007 release, “Across the Universe,” who most recently sold out Manhattan’s Highline Ballroom on November 6th!); the soulful sounds of Brooklyn’s own The Revelations featuring Tre Williams; and Purelements, whose unique brand of dance originated on the streets of East New York. Our M.C. will be comedian and Brooklyn native Carole Montgomery. Two of our favorite Brooklyn-based friends have partnered with us to create this event: Moore PA Hire is handling staging, sound and lighting; B.L. Howard Productions is coordinating the concert.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2010-02-11
End Time: 22:30