Summerville SCORE will celebrate the expansion of its services at the Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce on Thursday at 11:30am with the cutting of a large blue ribbon to announce it will begin walk-in hours on Thursdays at the Chamber located at 402 North Main Street.
    
    Currently counseling services are available by appointment only.  Beginning on January 12th, SCORE will offer walk-in hours on Thursday from 10:00am to 2:00pm at 402 North Main Street in Summerville.  

    The event in Summerville is one of several announcements that the SCORE Coastal Chapter will make to celebrate its 40 years of service to the Charleston three County Region, taking place in 2012.

    Speakers and organizations scheduled to take part include:

        Joe Conti, Coastal Chapter Chairman.
        Summerville Mayor Bill Collins.
               Dorchester County Chairman Larry Hargett
        Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce
        
    SCORE is a nonprofit association founded in 1964 that is dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth, and success of small business locally, statewide, and nationally.  SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration.  Since its formation, SCORE has helped more than 9 million new businesses to start, grow, and protect their small businesses. SCORE mentors are active and retired business owners and executives, with extensive experience in a variety of business fields.   

    The SCORE office in the Chamber has been in Summerville for a decade and offered services by appointment only with one of the SCORE counselors in Summerville.   Now, the counselors will be available for walk-in every Thursday from 10am to 2pm and also by appointment.  SCORE can be reached by calling the Chamber at 873-2931.

    Initial SCORE counselors as the walk-in hours begin on Thursday are Janice Campbell, Reeve Conover, Hank Cardarelli, Jim Friar, Henry Lewis, Steve Mizell, and Joe Mendrzycki.  One of these counselors will be on duty at the office on Thursday from 10:00am to 2:00pm.  Walk-ins are welcome at this time.  An appointment is not needed for these hours.

    The Coastal Chapter of SCORE also provides a number of workshops and seminars during the year.  Subjects include Business Start Up, Business Plans,
Financial Resources, Legal & HR Issues, Using the Internet, Effective Marketing, Branding, and Small Business Bookkeeping.  Dates and locations can be found at the website http://coastal.score.org. There is a small charge for seminars/workshops.

    More information can be found at http://coastal.score.org.