The South Arlington Lead Share Association (SALSA) meets for breakfast Friday mornings from 7-8:30 a.m. at the Juke Box Diner, 7039 Columbia Pike, Annandale. The first half hour is for networking. The meeting officially begins at 7:30 a.m. Only one business per profession can be represented. Visit salsanetworking.org or call Pat Cardillo at 571-331-8670.
First Edition Toastmasters meets every Friday at noon at 1700 N. Moore St., Suite 1030, Arlington. The diverse membership of this Toastmasters chapter includes small-business owners and employees with a variety of government agencies and associations. Visit to find out how Toastmasters can improve skills in all areas of public speaking and communicate more effectively. Call Barbara Hicks at 703-558-2266, or visit www.firsteditiontm.org .
The Arlington Chapter of Business Networking International (BNI) meets for breakfast every Tuesday from 7:30-9 a.m. at the Arlington Holiday Inn, N. 4610 Fairfax Drive, Arlington. BNI leverages the power of word-of-mouth marketing and offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and referrals as they grow their business. Only one person per professional classification or specialty may join a chapter. For more information, please contact Greg Brewer at 703-237-2705.
The Northern Virginia Business Referrals group meets every Tuesday at 7 a.m. for breakfast at the Metro 29 Diner, 4711 Lee Highway, Arlington. The group facilitates networking by limiting membership to one member per profession and has been in existence since 1996. For more information on Northern Virginia Business Referrals, call 703-312-7117, or visit the NVBR Web site, www.nvbr.org.
The Small Business Development Center at the Arlington Campus of George Mason University has announced that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is providing long-term loans at low interest rates for small businesses that have been impacted by having personnel in the National Guard or reserves called to active duty. The program is called the Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
Loans of up to $1.5 million are available at interest rates up to 4 percent. Terms can be as long as 30 years depending on individual cases. Loans of $5,000 or less do not require any collateral, while loans above that amount require collateral to the extent it is available.
For additional information or help with a loan application, contact the Arlington SBDC at 703-993-8128. The Center is located at the George Mason Campus, 3401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 320.
Norman M. Dreyfuss, executive vice president of the IDI Group Companies of Arlington, has been appointed to the position of chief operating offecer of the company. Dreyfuss will now be responsible for all of IDI's development activities.
Having joined IDI in 1981, Dreyfuss is currently directing the development of the Leisure World communities in Silver Spring and Lansdowne. In 2003, Dreyfuss received the Milton E. Kettler Award from the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association to honor a long history of civic contributions. Since 1998, Dreyfuss has served as the co-chair of the Affordable Housing Conference of Montgomery County and received the "Doc" Kapiloff Private Sector Affordable Housing Award in 1999. He was the 1996 president of the Suburban Maryland Building Industry Association and is a former member of the Montgomery County Task Force for Moderate Priced Rentals, the Child Care Task Force, the Accessory Apartment Task Force, the Maryland Governor's Commission of Condominiums, the Aspen Hill Master Plan Citizens Advisory Committee Cooperative and Homeowners Association, and the Montgomery County Committee for More Efficient Use of Existing Housing Stock. He has also been a member of the Wheaton Redevelopment Steering Committee, the Montgomery County Historical Society and the Jewish Council for the Aging and regularly assists the Jewish Social Service Agency with special projects.
Gival Press, a gay-owned independent press founded in 1998 by Arlingtonian Robert L. Giron, published "Sweet to Burn," a lyric poem by Beverly Burch; the book was recently awarded a Lammy award, the Lambda Literary Foundation's award for lesbian poetry.
Red Hot & Blue Restaurants Inc. was voted by Washingtonian Magazine readers the area's No. 1 place for barbecue in 2005. The article appeared in the July 2005 issue of the magazine. The original Red Hot & Blue, at 1600 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, will be undergoing a renovation this fall.
Gripped Films, based in Arlington, is showing an encore presentation of its sports documentary, "Off Road to Athens" at the Bethesda Row Cinema in Bethesda, Md., on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. The initial showing in Arlington sold out. The film covers the path taken by eight athletes hoping to make the U.S. mountain biking team headed to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The film is showing in select theaters around the nation. More information is available at www.offroadtoathens.com.
Arlington's Virginia Hospital Center has announced the launch of Executive Health: a specialized health promotion and wellness program aimed at providing high-level executives efficient access to comprehensive prevention services, screening tests, and medical consultations all in one day. Executive Health plans to target corporate executives age 40 and above — not only those from Fortune 1000 corporations, but also individual executives, spouses, and mid-tier companies that may have several employees in need of customized health management.
Eakin/Youngentob Associates, headquartered in Arlington, has been selected by Montgomery County to redevelop Fleet Street in downtown Rockville. The redeveloped area will be the first mixed-income community in Montgomery County to include workforce housing.
The new gastrointestinal endoscopy center at Virginia Hospital Center was open for a tour for area physicians June 28. The new center includes a registration suite, family waiting area, 12 private recovery rooms and a sixth gastrointestinal endoscopy procedure room. The sixth procedural room is expected to reduce treatment wait time for patients. The center will continue its current gastrointestinal procedures with the aid of new technology including magnifying colonoscopes and endoscopes to enable the earliest possible detection of disease. In addition, Virginia Hospital Center is adding televisions to private recovery rooms and providing patient family members with beepers so that they can be paged at any time.