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our families and our employees, have transitioned to Zoom meetings for the foreseeable future. Since July, all NCASEF Board meetings have been held virtually, once per month, for 5-6 hours at a time. Each meeting has had presentations from 5-6 vendors who want to get their message to franchisees. We are still planning our May 2021 meeting to be held in Long Island, New York. Our Zoom meetings have worked out well, with over 90 percent of our FOAs represented at each meeting. We are pleased to announce our 2020 Convention and Trade Show will be held via Zoom on November 17-18 from noon to 8pm CST. No one has to travel, franchisees will soon be able to register fro free, and vendors can still buy booths and take orders (see NCASEF.com for more information). We will still have a franchisee Legal Forum, and State Of The Coalition/Ask The Chairman Sessions. This arrangement only makes sense, since most companies do not permit their employees to travel at the current time. After cancelling our August convention and trade show at the National Harbor Gaylord Hotel in Washington, D.C., we have agreed to schedule our 2021 convention and trade show at the Gaylord in Orlando, Florida, virus permitting. We have not made any changes to our Affiliate Program for 2021.
“We are pleased to announce our 2020 Convention and Trade Show will be held via Zoom on November 17-18 from noon to 8pm CST.” 26
“It is in our best interests to postpone our election from this November to May 2021. The Board will discuss this and vote on it during our November meeting.” ELECTIONS FOR NCASEF OFFICERS According to our bylaws we must have elections for NCASEF vice chairman every two years, and there are no proxies allowed. In keeping with the strict secrecy rules we adopted for our elections last year, I think it is in our best interests to postpone our election from this November to May 2021. The Board will discuss this and vote on it during our November meeting. If health restrictions due to COVID-19 by some miracle are rolled back by the end of the year, we will plan to have a meeting and tabletop trade show in Dallas sometime in February 2021. Our next chance would be in Long Island in May, if the CDC eases restrictions on travel. We plan to poll the Board this month to see how they feel about travel for these meetings. TELEGRAM APP FOR FRANCHISEE COMMUNICATIONS I would like to give a special shout out to Neil Shaw, a franchisee from Boston, for suggesting we form discussion group on Telegram due to its unlimited number of participants. The day after his suggestion we put rules in place and formed a group that crossed the 300-person mark in two days. We now have over 906 franchisee members communicating. I took a personal interest in this because my main motive was that every franchisee should have access to participation. When I look at the posts on the group, I see discussions on topics like maintenance, accounting, and the cash register being stuck. It’s helping franchisees big time. I would like to thank every franchise who has joined. My eventual goal is to have 1,500
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franchisees representing 4,500 stores communicating with each other. For a franchisee to ask a question of the entire group it takes only a single post. For national officers to communicate with franchisees it is easy, it is 24/7, and it is restricted to business posts only. To join, send a message to your local FOA or to the NCASEF national office at nationaloffice@ncasef.com. You must be a franchisee and preferably a paying member of the National Coalition. These are trying times for everyone, but I believe we can be patient and work with each other. The National Coalition is committed to supporting franchisees as well as our vendor partners, whose support is crucial to us. Thank you for your sponsorship, you are helping us tremendously.
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$232.1 million of music sales in the first half of the year, compared to CDs, which brought in only $129.9 million, according to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America. • Lowe’s paid hourly employees a total of $100 million in its sixth round of pandemic-era employee bonuses in October, bringing the total additional pay this year to more than $675 million, reported CNBC. The new bonuses come as Lowe’s reports ongoing strong demand for appliances, DIY supplies and outdoor tools with consumers sticking close to home. • In response to the national coin shortage, Pennsylvania-based convenience chain Wawa recently held a chainwide sweepstakes where customers could enter to win “Shorti” sandwiches for a year by simply exchanging a minimum of $5 of rolled coins for dollar bills at any Wawa store. • Waze recently rolled out a new feature that allows U.S. drivers to link the navigation platform to fuel partner apps for contactless payments at participating Exxon, Mobil and continued on page 34