Advance - NuwayCoop.com

Advance
D E D I C AT E D
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E M P O W E R E D
•
M A K I N G
EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
1,540 Gallons Pumped in 2 Hours
By Al Seckinger, Retail Div. Manager, 507-639-7114, [email protected]
That’s how much E85 was dispensed during the E85 promotion at the Fairmont
NuMart Convenience Store from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 13. As Tim Gerlach of
The Minnesota Clean Air Choice Team says, “You just can’t pump it much faster
than that!”
NuWay Cooperative, the
American Lung Association,
local GM dealers, and county
corn growers also staffed
E85 promotions between
11 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Truman
on June 14 and in St. James
(downtown) on June 15. As
you know, we had employees
whose job it was to stand
at the till and do nothing
Little girl behind the wheel of a corn-powered
for two hours but authorize
race car at St. James E85 promotion.
pumps. Great job!
We averaged 1,500 gallons
per store—and at each store
we invested about $2,000 to sell E85 at 85¢ per gallon. The result: we had flex
fuel vehicles lined up for blocks. That’s a total of $6,000 that NuWay Cooperative
spent to promote E85.
Why do we do that? Because E85 burns cleaner than straight gasoline while
reducing our dependence on foreign oil and improving our security as a country.
Plus, it supports NuWay Cooperative’s customers, many of whom grow the corn
used to produce ethanol.
NOTE: The Iowa Clean Air
Choice Team has said they
will beat our record of 1,540
gallons pumped in two hours
during their E85 promotion
at a Des Moines c-store. We
said, “Bring it on!”
Customers packed the pumps at
the Truman NuMart Convenience
Store to buy E85 at 85¢ per gallon.
A
D I F F E R E N C E
Summer 07
Intranet Up
and Running
By Anne Bedford
Director of Human Resources and
Customer Relations
507-636-7134, [email protected]
By now you
should have
received a letter
with your User ID
and Password for
the new Employee
Intranet. How do
you access the
Intranet? Go to
www.nuwaycoop.com and in the upper
right hand of the home page, enter
your User ID and Password.
This will give you access to all kinds of
employee information, including policies,
procedures, and the latest employee
news. One NuMart Convenience Store
manager tells us, “I love the online forms!”
In the future, this will be the main
way NuWay Cooperative communicates with its employees. It’s our commitment to keeping you “in the loop”
as this company grows. So, enter your
User ID and Password on your home
computer or a computer at work, and
get familiar with the Intranet.
If you have not received your User ID
and Password (every NuWay employee
will receive one), please contact me.
Job Hunting
Looking for advancement? All NuWay
Cooperative departments now post their
job openings at www.nuwaycoop.com.
Check it out.
While at the website, log onto the
Employee Intranet to read this and
previous issues of the NuWay Advance.
Some day in the future, this newsletter
may be published exclusively on the
Intranet.
D i v e r s i f i e d • I n n o v a t i v e • E x c e p t i o n a l Va l u e
Credit Our Hardworking Employees
By Kevin Jones, General Manager, 507-639-7124, [email protected]
Thanks to our sales and operations
people for the long days you put in this
spring, away from family, making sure our
customers got the inputs they needed
to plant, grow, and protect their crops.
Thanks, too, to our retail employees for
your extra efforts to stage another successful event—our 11th Annual Customer
Appreciation Days.
Embrace change
NuWay Cooperative continues to evolve, and sometimes
that creates stress. For example, over a 12-month period, we’re
implementing two new software systems—one for farm supply
and one for retail. We’ve finished with farm supply and retail
is next.
In the implementation process, we’ll encounter issues and
challenges. As we work through these, try to remember the
end goal of the changes: to continue to be a viable business
and a good place to work.
NuWay will survive and prosper as long as we continue to
evolve. Look back over the past five years and see how we’ve
improved. In other words, try not to concentrate so much on
the problems that you lose sight of our achievements as a
company and as an employee group.
We need to continue to evolve and look for those things—
like new software systems—that can give us an advantage over
our competitors. So, embrace change. It means we’re succeeding and moving forward. And thank you for your hard work
and patience in making these changes to give you and your
company a future.
2006-07 results
We’re approaching the end of our fiscal year. With the excellent farm supply volume last fall and this spring, everything
is ahead of budget at this time. We’re having a good year in
retail as well.
It’s too early to give specifics, but financial results for the
year look very promising. More details soon.
Safety Committee Your Advocate
NuWay Cooperative has a committee dedicated to providing a safe workplace for its employees and a safe place for its
customers to do business.
Anne Bedford and Brian Carlson recently attended a seminar put on by RJF Agencies on how to run an effective safety
committee, and the NuWay Cooperative safety committee
met June 21 in its first monthly meeting of the summer.
A major role of the committee will be to review or put in
place policies on subjects like:
• Confined space
• Lock out tag out
• Forklift
• Return to work
• Emergency action plan
Office/Store
Brian Carlson (Chair)
507-639-7142
Anne Bedford (Vice Chair) 507-639-7134
Lon Oelke
507-639-7143
Karen Skellenger
507-553-6315
Al Seckinger
507-639-7114
Neil Chaffee
507-639-7122
Doug Reitz
507-375-5909
Jay Striemer
Cell phone
507-236-4220
507-236-1086
507-236-4039
507-236-8163
507-236-2560
507-236-0679
Your safety committee at their June 21 meeting.
Another major role of the committee will be to deal with
any issues or concerns brought to committee members by
NuWay Cooperative employees. “Nobody will beat you up for
making a complaint,” says Brian. “In order to address a situation, we have to be told what’s wrong.”
The committee’s summer meetings will always be the third
Thursday of the month. If you have an issue that needs to be
addressed, call any of these safety committee members:
2
©2007 NuWay Cooperative. All Rights Reserved. Published in partnership with VistaComm® (www.VistaComm.com).
Operations Crew Begins Preparing for Fall
By Brian Carlson, Operations Manager, 507-639-7142
With the corn and bean crop in the
ground and growing well, operations
crew members Tom Claussen and Ryan
Lippert, who had been operating TerraGators,® headed back to the shop to
change out equipment for the fall. That’s
a three-month process. Two others will
join Tom and Ryan as soon as spraying is
done.
Jim Sodeman, Jake Oldenburg, and Gary Muller, who had
been working in the fertilizer plant, are now performing leak
checks and GAS Checks.® They have also begun summer filling tanks—a program which will continue through August.
Lon Oelke continues to divvy out chemicals that our patrons or sprayers need, making sure those things are billed
out properly. Other warehouse employees are busy returning
unsold seed and chemicals.
We’ve retained seasonal employees to upgrade our customers’ propane storage tanks. Cody Falk and Rodney Hanson
level and power-wash tanks in preparation for painting. They also check for leaks. (If they find a leak, they contact
Tom Zender to repair it.) The very next day, Henry Solomon,
Ron Nelson, and Dan Schmidtke paint the tanks. They have
been refinishing some of the tanks and equipment around our
facilities, making things look really good.
Who’s Your Beneficiary?
Have you experienced a life-changing event: a birth,
divorce, or death? Be aware of who the beneficiary is
on your 401(k), Health Savings Account, or life insurance
policy. Contact Anne Bedford to make any changes.
Log On, Print Out, and Sign
NuWay Cooperative’s Injury Reporting and Return to
Work Policy has been updated. The policy must be
read, signed, and returned by every employee to their
supervisor. Please log onto the Employee Intranet at
www.nuwaycooperative.com to print out a copy of the policy.
Customer Appreciation Days a Success
June 11-17 we held our 11th Annual Customer Appreciation
Days at our NuMart Convenience Stores, giving away over
$1,500 in gas (a $100 and a $25 winner at each store) and
selling two gallons of milk for $6—an amazing value. We set
up hotdog wagons
at several locations, providing our
customers with a
dog and a pop at
a reduced price.
We also had lottery wheels where
customers could
buy five dollars of
lottery tickets and
NuMart Convenience Store customers enjoy an inexpensive meal of
spin the wheel for hotdogs and pop during Customer Appreciation Days.
“fabulous” prizes.
Where we didn’t have a lottery wheel, we had a lottery board
that worked in a similar way.
Our customers had a blast!
We hold Customer Appreciation Days every summer in
June or July to:
• Show our customers we value their patronage throughout
the year.
• Encourage our faithful customers to continue to shop with us.
• Bring in new customers and keep them coming in for our
exceptional value, clean stores, and uniformed employees
with bright shiny smiles.
Giving back to the communities in which we do business
and creating a little excitement is what Customer Appreciation Days is all about. And we APPRECIATE THE WORK YOU
DO as retail store employees to clean and merchandise your
stories in preparation for this annual event. Thank you for
making it a big success.
Cars and pickups lined up two blocks south of the
St. James store to fill with E85 at 85¢ per gallon.
C ustomer S er v ice T rumps E v erything ! 3
Living the Brand
for May
The May “Living the Brand” award has been presented to operations employees Troy Droegemueller, Ryan Lippert, and Reid
Rettke, and energy specialist Chad Larson. The operations employees became aware that a large fuel customer of NuWay Cooperative
was not happy. They brought the problem to the attention of their
manager. Together with Chad, they worked to satisfy the customer
and save the account. That’s Diversified and Innovative!
This kind of team effort to Live the Brand earned each one a
$100 gift certificate. Congratulations, guys!
NOTE: We are extending the “Living the Brand” promotion
through August. Those employees recognized for Living the Brand
will get a $5 gift certificate and one employee each month will be
selected to receive a $100 certificate.
Left to right, Reid
Rettke, Al Seckinger,
Chad Larson, and Brian Carlson. Brian
and Al present $100
gift certificates to Reid
and Chad. Missing
from the photo—
“Living the Brand”
employees Troy
Droegemueller and
Ryan Lippert.
Where’s My
Pit Crew?
During the Martin County
Sesquicentennial, five NuWay
Cooperative employees and
spouses “Lived the Brand” by
participating in a go-cart race
to raise funds for the Fairmont
Foundation.
Racers included Pat Bedford, Krissy Heifner, Chad Larson, Lon Oelke, and
Troy Schmidtke. NuWay Cooperative was a sponsor of
the race.
Krissy Heifner receives
coaching from Lon Oelke.
Familiar Face,
New Position
By Rock Reker, Sales Division Manager
507-639-7126, [email protected]
Scott Johnson has been hired
as a certified energy specialist by
Cenex,® which trained him on their
line of refined fuels, propane, and
lubricants.
NuWay Cooperative has leased
Scott full-time to market these
energy products. He will work with farmers and home
heating accounts in Minnesota—servicing existing accounts and prospecting for new sales. NOTE: Chad
Larson will continue to work our Iowa market and commercial accounts in Minnesota.
We’re glad to have you back as part of our team, Scott!
Thanks, Operations!
It was a distinct pleasure to work with the operations
division during the busy planting season. Thank you for
your hard work and dedication to providing our customers with product and to putting it on the ground.