September 2007
Affiliate Newsletter
Susan Nicolais, EVP




Operations
RBA has entered into an agreement with Hector Chichoni of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, LLP. Hector will serve as the RBA National Immigration Counsel. He will provide RBA 5 hours each month at no charge for the development of articles and white papers for RBA publications and the web site. He will also be available to speak at our conferences if we so desire. In addition to the work for RBA, he will provide RBA members with a free 15 minute consultation on immigration issues and then offers a 10% discount off his hourly rate. In exchange for this RBA has designated Mr. Chichoni as our official immigration counsel. For more information, contact Mr. Chichoni directly at 305-577-7014 or hchichoni@ssd.com.

RBA members can now download new holiday-themed promotional materials from the RBA website. The new materials include posters and banners and feature different holidays including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Mother’s Day. Each holiday theme comes with a 4-color, 2-color and 1-color option. Members can customize the banners and posters with their bakeries name. RBA has established a group buying number with Kinko’s which gives members a 10% discount on printing and a 30% discount on copying. The program will be officially rolled out at ARBE. For more information on the program contact Huyen Dang at 1-800-638-0924 or hdang@rbanet.com.

Mike Kalupa has appointed Paul Caske of Dawn Foods to fill the new allied director position on the Board. His term is 2007 – 2010. Additionally, Rick Bittner of Bakemark and Warren Patterson of General Mills have been reappointed to another term as allied directors to the Board for the term 2007 – 2010.

The following affiliate Board representatives were appointed to new terms for 2007 – 2010: Chicago Area Retail Bakers Association, Bill Goebel; California Retail Bakers Association, Kirk Rossberg; Deep South Retail Bakers Association, Felix Sherman; Greater Cincinnati Retail Bakers Association, Dan Buskin; Greater Southwest Retail Bakers Association, Rick Boone; and Upper Midwest Bakers Association, Peter Kamrowski.

At its meeting in September, the Board approved going to a tiered dues structure for retail members. The tiers are based on gross revenue and segmented as follows: revenue $500,000 or less; revenue $500,001 - $750,000; and revenue over $750,000. Additionally, the Board approved a dues increase based on the tiers as follows: $350 for revenue $500,000 or less; $400 for revenue between $500,001 - $750,000; and $500 for revenue over $750,000. The affiliate rebate portion will continue to be $95.


Additionally the Board approved adding a line with a $10 donation to the foundation pre-populated on applications and renewal notices. This will be implemented beginning January 1, 2008.

Also at its September meeting, the Board created an emeritus class of membership to honor those in the industry who have influenced the association and the industry. The emeritus members would be honored at the annual conference in Atlantic City next year possibly at a general session. Criteria for becoming an emeritus member are:


The Board received a proposal from CANAINPA, the Mexican association for retail bakeries. The proposal addressed how CANAINPA and RBA could work together to address the needs of the Spanish speaking baker in the US. One of the components of the proposal was making their publication available to RBA members at a discounted fee. The RBA Board accepted the proposal and we will begin working with CANAINPA on implementing the elements of the proposal. Stay tuned for more information on this in the near future.

The Board approved a balanced budget for 2008.


ARBE – Based on the report from the show manager there were 4,124 paid registrants with 550 of those registered for the Frozen Desserts Show. There were 376 exhibit booths on the floor with 250 from RBA, including 15 complimentary booths and 126 from Frozen Desserts, including 2 complimentary booths. Most of the exhibitors were pleased with the show and were able to spend more quality time spent with customers. Many of the attendees were new businesses and RBA will follow up with these attendees to gather feedback on their reason for attending the show. The show manager reported that there were reservations for 85 booths for the 2008 convention.


IBIE – RBA will have an area on the trade show floor where we will be conducting three demonstrations as well as have a membership booth. RBA will put on demonstrations for attendees. Demonstrations are as follows: Ceril Hitz of Johnson & Wales will demonstrate decorative dough, Buddy Valestro of Carlo’s Bakery will demonstrate cake decorating techniques, and Gerald Molloy of Viking Cooking School will demonstrate seasonal fruit tarts with infusions.


Membership Update – Robert Smith, King Arthur Flour, has been appointed as chair of the new membership committee. Also appointed to the committee is Curt Bourchart. Mike Kalupa will appoint additional members to the committee which will work with staff in recruitment and retention activities, identifying new member services, in serving as advisor for evaluating new and existing member benefits.

In the last quarter of the year, we will focus on recruiting former RBA members as well as data-mined state-by-state list, regional grocery store bakeries and pandaderias and other applicable ethnic bakeries.

If you would like to assist RBA in recruiting members and need materials to support that activity, contact Cara Ross at cross@rbanet.com. She will send you membership brochures and applications.


Member Services Update – Staff has been working to identify additional benefits for members.



Certification – A certified master baker practical exam has been scheduled at the Culinary Institute of America on October 13-14. If you have anyone interested in taking the exam, contact Heather Trusty at htrusty@rbanet.com. The following exams have taken place to date in 2007:


January 2007 – Midwest Culinary College
Certified Decorator – 7 participated. 1 candidate passed and 6 failed.

March 2007 – Kendall College
Certified Baker – 2 participated and both failed. 1 candidate failed by one segment and the other by two segments.
Certified Master Baker – 3 passed and 2 failed

May 2007 – Jacksonville Hyatt
Certified Decorator – 5 participated and all failed. 1 candidate failed by one segment and will retest in Las Vegas.

July 2007 – Atwood’s Bakery
Certified Decorator – 2 participated and both passed.


Foundation Update – The RBIF has been working on two initiatives, the Katrina Relief Fund Drive and the Mentors for Success program.

Katrina Relief: In 2006 the RBIF conducted a fund raising drive to help the retail bakeries affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Katrina Relief Fund received $30,963 in donations from General Mills fund raising effort as well as from individual donors. In addition to the contribution from sales of Danish mix, General Mills held bake sales at their offices in various locations. Acknowledgements of these donations have been sent to General Mills but no receipt was given since the donors received a product in exchange for the money given.

A grant application form was developed for use in applying for the funds and distributed to bakeries in the impacted areas. The grant applications were reviewed by the Grant Review Committee whose members included: Mark Atwood of Atwood’s Bakery, Jackie Scott of Scott’s Pastry Shoppe, Heather Henstock of Modern Baking, Jay Allen of General Mills, and Susan Nicolais of Retail Bakers of America. All of the monies collected for the Katrina Relief Fund were distributed to retail bakeries. None of the funds were used for administrative costs.

The foundation held its annual meeting in conjunction with ARBE in Las Vegas and identified several new initiatives that it will be pursuing. The foundation will begin investigating available grants for which it can apply to help in its mission of helping retail bakeries. Additionally, used equipment has been donated to the foundation and the foundation will work on distributing it to bakeries that suffered losses in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Mentors for Success: The Foundation is also moving forward with the peer-to-peer consulting program called “Mentors for Success.” The initial volunteers for the program have been loaded into a database and a call for additional volunteers has been disseminated. The program is designed to help bakers overcome challenges they may have in their bakeries. The RBIF is working to set up a bank of volunteer mentors who have experience in solving problems in their own bakeries. Bakery owners will be able to access the mentor list and select a mentor specifically suited to helping them with their particular problem. The bakery that utilizes a mentor gets a set of fresh eyes to look at the problem and work with the baker to determine the best way to a solution. Mentoring can take place with a visit to the bakery or via email with an exchange of information on particular areas.

How it works: The RBIF recruits mentors and keeps the list updated and available to bakery owners. The mentors are volunteering their time to help fellow bakers. The bakery owner soliciting help through a mentor will be responsible for the transportation and lodging costs for the mentor who comes to their bakery. We want to match experienced and successful bakers with retailers that want help. Mentors will volunteer their time to the retailer providing advice, encouragement and solutions on everything from product flow to merchandizing. While this may sound like a small beginning, the rewards can be enormous. We believe that bakers helping bakers, one at a time, will make a real difference to the success, profits and survival of the bakers who use the service. If you know of anyone who would like to participate, they can contact me at snicolais@rbanet.com or 703-610-0272.


Calendar of Events – If we don’t have the dates of your future meetings on the RBA website Calendar of Events, please send them to me and I will ensure that they get listed. This is an easy way for us to help you get the word out on your upcoming events.


Committee – Call for Volunteers: RBA is still looking for members who are interested in becoming more involved in the association’s committees. With finding time to volunteer being a challenge, we are working diligently to ensure that the commitment is minimal. We are searching for volunteers to serve on the membership, education & editorial advisory committees. Below is a brief description of the scope of work for each committee.

The Membership Committee evaluates potential RBA Member benefits and services as well as to help guide the marketing and membership efforts of the association and meets via conference call once per month.

The Education Committee helps plan the educational content for RBA’s upcoming workshops, meeting and conferences and has a couple conference calls scheduled per year.

The Editorial Advisory Committee works with the staff to develop stories and topics for the associations’ publications, newsletters and Web site and has once conference call every two months.

Volunteering is a great way to share your knowledge and ideas with the RBA community. If you are interested in participating or know someone who is, contact RBA at info@rbanet.com or 800.638.0924.


Question – Are you interested in working with RBA on a joint workshop. If so, please contact me at snicolais@rbanet.com or at 703-610-0272.

I would love to hear from you with suggestions on how to improve this monthly communication. My direct telephone line is 703-610-0272 and my email address is snicolais@rbanet.com.

This update is being sent via email. If someone from your affiliate should receive this and they didn’t, please send me their email address and I will add them to the list. If you are receiving this and do not wish to be on the mailing list, please let me know.