December 07' Managers Newsletter

It's the end of the year and all the focus is on labor, labor, labor. We have tried our best to keep all of our managers on salary but you are all aware of the reasons why we can't. Thank you for understanding the situation and working with us to make ends meet. There are a few things that we would like to stress:

1. make sure that if you are scheduled to start at 8:00 am that you clock in at 8:00am.
2. Make sure that when you take your breaks that you adhere to the same rules as crew and clock out for your breaks.
3. If there is too any crew working in any certain area, do the right thing and make the proper cuts or structure breaks to cut back during the slow gaps.
4. Incorporate yourself in the line when making your numbers of how many we have in any given area.

There has been too many communication break downs over the past few weeks. This has got to stop. Cara and I will be working on a way to have one Lead Shift manager that will call ALL of the shots for that shift. This way we can avoid having crew using the managers against each other. This will also help us to stream line our leadership skills, and give us an idea of what areas we need to work on. All managers will share this responsibility and who ever is the lead Shift manager will be also ultimately responsible for the safe for that shift. This means if Vicki is the shift manager and she cut half of the crew at 10:30 am, then we run with half the crew. There will be no calling Cara or Ray to figure out basic store running needs. This is the slow period and this is when we need all managers to step up and shine. We cannot wait until the middle of March to find out we don't have the strength in our management staff to handle the store.

The news so far with all of our future stores is still unknown. The properties that were being looked at have all fell through and the owners are searching for possible locations for development. We will keep you posted as we find out more information. This basically means that, YES, you will have to put up with Ray for the spring break time frame. We will be concentrating our management staff on the one and only store that we do have and make is a moneymaking powerhouse. This does not change our plans for sending all the managers to raining, but does give us a little more time to prepare for your testing. Please make sure that we have all of your serve-safe certs. on file and we will be informing you on your next portion of your training.

A new accountant has been brought on board and will be handling all of our financial needs as well as paying our bills. Once we get our inventory setup into the posi-touch system, he will be giving us feed back as to how well (or bad) we are doing. There also a new maintenance man that will be able to come in weekly if we need to change lights, do minor electrical, and other needs around the store. His name and number is on the contact list in gmail.

• We hope to be having a Grand opening in Jan. 08'
• We are currently looking for a couple of new hires for crew. We are looking for referred individuals only.
• We are happy to have Michelle joining us again as of next week on the management staff.
• When writing the Daily Activities e-mail, use the mailing list. This is done by going to the address box and pressing the letter "A" this will bring all matches that start with the letter A. The first one on the list is called Activities mailing list. This will help to ensure all the right people receive the e-mail
  

That all we have for now, but let's try to stay focused and continue to remember that we are the driving force behind how good this DQ experience in Panama City can be. This is more than a burger joint. This is the New face of Dairy Queen and want this place to make money hand over fist so that we in turn can make the cash. Any ideas that yo may have to boost or sales or market us better is welcomed. Have a Great week!

Activities Reports

As most of you have heard, we have begun the process of sending reports to the owners. These are good for a few reasons, It keeps the owners in the loop and it gives us a way to have all issues that we deal with on a daily bases. We can use them later to pull up reports on individuals and subjects to see how often they have occurred. A couple of things to be mindful when writing these reports. 1st off, label the reports in the header as followed "Daily Activities on --/--/--" or "Nightly Activities on--/--/--". By doing this it will be easier to pull up and review our reports. Next, in the report, please include your name and the names of the managers on duty. Also, if you are writing the night report, please include the final sales for that day and the labor percentage. These reports are not letters but informational reports of the activities. We should try and be as factual as possible by leaving full names of crew that we are talking about, and issues that are important to the running of the store. Individual complaints and stories about how everything happened. We need to be specific about our details, but leaving our emotions out of the report (just the facts). The best part about this process is that we are not leaving notebooks with personal information laying around the office. We would not want some of the things that we will need to write laying around for everyone to see. Last thing to be aware of is that we will be doing this for each shift. That means one for morning shift and one for night shift. It would be my suggestion to have the person that is doing the paperwork at the end of the night to put it on the list of things to do. That is only a suggestion and does not mean that the other managers cannot do the report. I hope this sheds little light on what is expected from you with the reports. As always, if you have any questions or need any help, please feel free to ask Cara or Ray at any time. Thank you again for all of your hard work.

The Curl Newsletter Nov07'

MANAGERS,

What we have created here is a news letter to inform you of issues that we are dealing with. Hopefully this will be helpful to understand our issues in each area and have to the knowledge to share when a crew member asks you about certain things. The Layout out will be as followed:

• Intro and where we are at
• Whole house
• Grill
• Chill
• Service
• Closers
• Openers
• Closing

Most of the issues will be brief but if there is any questions are you need further information, please feel free to contact Ray or Cara.

Entire House

1. Communication among Managers must stay professional. We will not be tolerating cursing at, to, or around crew or other managers. The ones that this pertains to know who they are and must cease. We are professionals and must speak as such.
2. Managers must also treat each other with respect. There has complaints of managers talking down to other managers. We are all equals when it comes to respect.
3. Coming in late, Leaving during shifts, and leaving early are becoming a regular occurrence. This is not an issue as long as it does not effect our labor and it is approved by the remaining managers on that shift. they have the right to deny the request if it causes issues within the shift.
   
4. Borrowing money from the safe by managers is still allowed, but must be paid back by the next paycheck. Crew are not to borrow from the safe.
5. Schedule changing of crew should be noted by a manager. This is to avoid crew scratching on the schedule and having uncovered shifts.
   

Grill Managers

1. Use timers on the fry station
2. Use Temp Sheets on every shift for record keeping (Forms are in the office)
3. Regulate food waste by not over cooking meat and portioning shrimp
4. Oil is to be done as pre-closing duties at night
5. Know you boosting codes
6. Fry freezer is to be unplugged and thawed on wed. nights

Chill Managers

1. Freezer is to be unplugged ad thawed on wed. nights
2. Lids must be on waffles to keep from getting soft
3. Pre-close duties should started and completed by 9:30PM

Service Managers
All Trash must be emptied

Closers

1. The quality of product is still suffering due to our pre-closing process. Do not sacrifice quality for timely closings.
2. If there is a process of pre-closing that will expedite our night get approval from Kenny, Cara, or Ray before putting into action
3. Take out all rags
4. Check your closing crew out before they leave
5. Check Garbage
6. Check for food in sinks
7. Check Cooler
8. Check Freezer
9. Money is the last duty not the first
10. All Managers must stay until all managers are done
11. Closers will be called in if these issues are left
12. PM Shift managers coming in are to support AM shift managers- This means that the AM shift Managers are in charge and will issue out breaks and cut crew as needed

Openers

1. Do not leave without setting up night crew
2. Check with closers before leaving

In Closing
Overall we are doing well. Our Labor has improved and we are getting deep into the off season without any problems. Some things to be aware of. We are going to be testing you on your Grill and Chill knowledge in Dec. This is a deciding factor on your training for upper management. Please find the training books and begin studying. Also if you are in need of the Servesafe course, get that taken care of ASAP. These are things that will determine the speed of your position in the company. Thank you again for being apart of this team and continue to take ownership in this store.

opening Monday August 27th

Alright so we have been hard at work for the past 9 days with training and have learned a lot of things with a lot of practice with dry runs and VIP parties. So today (Sunday) is our one day of rest before we open our doors. Are we ready? We have had the help of Eddie , Mike and John from Corporate to help us with gathering our needed supplies and trying to put our focus in the right direction. I feel as though we are ready for the rush. There are plenty of things that we will be ironing out this coming week, but we will get it down soon. One other thing that I wanted to share was something that John set up for us. If you check the G-mail, you will see a DQ update message that comes once a day. What this does is searches the web for anything dealing with DQ and then posts shows you the link to it. Some of it is garbage, and some of it is interesting. Check it out some time.

Just something to be aware of, If you were to go to My maps on the gmail site you would find each of the managers marked on a map. This could be helpful if you are looking fo a ride to work and to see where the other managers live. We are quite a spread out group. I will try to keep this updated, but if you can help by keeping your address current in case you move would be helpful. I will also keep the new locations for our future stores on this as they come available. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

OKAY FIRST TEST

Every time I turn around someone else is quitting. Today we lost another manager. Well here is a little test for you to try to see if you are cut out to be at DQ. Actually, it's just a game, but check it out. It's pretty funny because there is some true in it. I have gotten past the 1st level so I don't know what happens if you don't get fired. So click HERE to check it out.

It seems to be a conspiracy

I guess it's not that bad, but we are at another block in the road. It seems as though we have added a couple of more days to our expected building turnover. We have also seen some changes in our management team from last we met.It seems as though Sherry has decided that she is not going to be staying with DQ. We are still meeting on Wednesday and hopefully we will all be assembled as the management team and see all the new faces added. We are still looking for some more crew personnel, so let us know if there is someone that you know that you would like to be apart of the opening team. A simple e-mail to the site will let us know and we will work out an interview time for them.

A Night Out

The other night, I decided to go out for an ice cream with my wife. Of course this brings up the argument as to which place to go. It is a simple plan, we were to go out and get a dipped cone for my wife and I and bring home a small sundae for my mother-in-law that was watching our daughter. After a short drive, we went to Mc D's which has disappointed us two times before because they were always out of something which prevented us from getting ice cream. When we got to the counter, sure enough, they were out of cones. Ok, so now it's my wife's turn to choose where to go. A short drive later and we come to the next stop. In this ice cream shop, there is another couple standing there waiting for service but nobody behind the counter. Odd... We politely waited a couple more minutes and still nobody behind the counter. I noticed the discouragement on the other couples face, so I did what most people would do, (well , maybe not) I went behind the counter and went into the back storage room to go look for the crew. When I opened the door to the back room, one was on the phone and the other was sitting down reading a book. I could tell by the look on their face that I kinda surprised them. I asked if they were still open (a stupid question since it was only 7:30 PM), which they replied stunned. After making my way back out to the front, only one of the two girls came out to find 6 other people now waiting for service. Her excuse to them was, sorry the bell on the door doesn't work anymore. This didn't stop my wife from ordering, but by this time I was kinda irritated. Well, we were still needing a sundae to take home, so on our trip back we stopped by another drive thru and ordered a simple hot fudge sundae. Surely the worst of the night had pasted. When waiting in the drive thru you could see that the car in front of us had a dog in the lap of the driver. When the girl in the drive thru past the food out of the window she stuck her head into the car and loved on the dog with kisses and petting. Don't get me wrong I am a dog lover, but this was a little bit strange to see. Of course as we were pulling into the window, my wife made a comment "I hope she washed her hands after that". rolling up to the window, you could see her in the distance making the Sundae, which meant that there was no way that she had time to wash her hands before doing that. This was the kicker, while walking towards the window she sneezed with the lid in one hand and the sundae in the other (can you imagine which she used to cover her mouth). She showed no signs of knowing what she just did and greeted us with a great big smile. I noticed on her name tag that she was the Asst. Manager of that store which really disappointed me. Now This was not one place that all of these things happened, but a combination of three different places which leads me to believe that this happens to a lot of people, a lot of the time. I hope that as Managers, we can recognize these short comings in our competition and not allow these things to occur at the DQ. We will be trying to prove to the locals that we are where they want to bring their business and not be labeled as another nasty fast food joint. The only way that we will be able to do that is by not allowing things like what we experienced to happen with our service. It will be up to us as managers to control all of these issues like, guest services, having enough product, and hygiene. The owners are very clear about their expectations when it comes to hygiene, so let us work as a team and not disappoint them.

Touching Bases

We have been getting closer and closer to the coming day. I hope that you are all as excited about getting started as I am. We are going to be having the hiring dates on Monday thur Thursday of next week and I hope that all of you have been gearing up potential crew members. I am sure that there are people that you have workd with are still work with that you feel could be an asset to the company. We want to see them on those hiring dates. On Thursday we will be touring the Work site which means that will need everybody to come in clothes that are comfortable and don't mind getting dirty. You have seen the pictures online, but nw we will be out there in the dirt and it is dirty. Don't forget to bring something to drink as well. Write down any questions that you might have, like will we have Birthday parties, or will there be Car Shows in that hugh parking lot, or maybe, what are we going to do for the locals to bring them in during the winter. If you have the answers, bring them too. Once again, this is your site and for you to communicate with us. so feel free to leave a comment at the bottom or post your own blog. Have a great day and we will see you on Thursday.

The Curl

This is another way to communicate with all of the managers. Their will be a small posting of the splash page whenever there is a new posting in which you can read at your convenience and add comments whenever you would like. Some of you may be familiar with Blogger and the way it works. You are more than welcome to go in and tweak it and add elements if you would like. We just ask that you keep it professional and if you plan to post a blog that it be in regards to information with DQ and what we stand for. There will be times when we may post information that may be interesting for you as managers and could help in your growth as leaders. ~ ray