The Owners' Manual | Issue 13 | Summer 2018

employee-owner means to me” essay contest, with a cash prize for the winning submission. They had people from their company submit a 1-2 page essay on employee- ownership; what it means to them, why they think being an employee owner is valuable, etc. They ended up receiving a lot of great submissions and it really helped showcase why being an ESOP is so special. Name: Julia DeFrances Title: Marketing Coordinator Department: Marketing Office: Meriden What was your favorite part(s) of the conference? The encouragement to progress and to be creative. What was the best idea you heard at the conference? That there’s never a bad idea. Name: Karina Molnar Title: Billing and Accounting Operations Associate Department: Accounting Office: Meriden

Karina has

it was a great conference. I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and share ideas with other employee-owned firms. I was surprised at how many different types of firms there were in attendance – one minute you could be talking to someone from a bioengineering company and the next you could be talking to someone from a brewery. What was your favorite part(s) of the conference? Spending time with my fellow committee members. We had three days to get to know each other better, share ideas, and have fun. What was the best idea you heard at the conference? One company I spoke to did a “what being an Plus, she found the chance to help and learn a great opportunity and experience as well. What did you think of the conference? The conference was a great experience, not just to be able to get to know some of our ESOP team but to have the opportunity to meet people from other ESOP companies and to be able to share knowledge. I wasn’t surprised but was enlightened with the positive atmosphere.

been at BL for 2 ½

years, and joined the committee about 6 months ago. She joined the committee because

she liked its focus on educating employee-owners about our ESOP plan, developing programs/events and growing the company culture.

Julia has been at BL for almost 10

months and has been on the committee

since January. Julia started at BL the

week before ESOP month, so her first introduction to the committee coincided with her introduction to BL. During ESOP month, she realized how important the committee is to BL’s culture, and she knew that she wanted to be a part of that team. What did you think of the conference? Overall, I thought