Community Involvement Click on images to view image galleries
Erica in Action
When Erica isn’t ensuring the sales department sails on smooth waters, she’s volunteering at Wild Iris Books to ensure one of the few feminist bookstores in the U.S. remains open. Let’s give her a big shout out for her contributions to the community and for the terrific Gainesville Sun article this past week.
If you still have Christmas shopping to do, stop by Wild Iris Books. One, they have great books, gifts, and handicrafts by local artisans (love the soaps!). Two, they’re having a moving sale throughout the holiday season. And, finally, you get the warm feeling that comes from supporting a local business that gives back to our community!
Fantastic Food Drive
Thanks to everyone who made our October food drive for Gainesville Harvest a success. We dropped off 495.2 pounds of food today.
Gainesville Harvest Needs Your Help
We’re collecting non-perishable food for Gainesville Harvest through November 15th at our Gainesville office. If it’s been a while since you’ve cleaned out your pantry, Gainesville Harvest is in desperate need of your support.
Below is a letter from Director Frances Leslie:
Hello Friends of Gainesville Harvest,
This is the first notice that I have written to anyone to ask for food and water. The last two years have been the worst that I have seen in my career. I have always believed that if you work hard and do the right things by others, that you will always find a way out of any situation. This year we cannot work it out without some help. Gainesville Harvest staff, volunteers and donors have always worked with whatever we gleaned, reclaimed and purchased to meet the needs of others. The numbers are many and the resources are few.
Not only have we been called to use whatever we find, now we also have the challenge of diminishing food insecurity while helping many to stay well. Too many elderly are suffering from the lack of proper nourishment and the lack of medication in an effort to raise the next generation of our children. Children are coming to sites alone to get something to eat because no one is at home. We are seeing a greater number of fathers waiting in line for any additional leftovers after everyone has been served. Whether or not they need the food is not my priority now, it is to abort the serious and devastating effect of hunger in our youth.
The answer to this problems is a community who will not wait for a great plan, but know that the plan is our helping one another. One of the main problems is the fact that recipients must go to three or four sites to get enough food, even for a few days. When you must continue to hunt everyday it wears on the mind, body and spirit. This winter we would like to get a grip on how we serve the poor and needy. We must understand the problems and seek out solutions that are sustainable.
We have eight pantries in Gainesville and serve over twenty-seven sites. Some have no food at all in stock and others have very little. This is a dilemma you can help us solve.
GH will gladly receive canned, frozen, refrigerated, cooked, and prepackaged food items. We are also in need of powdered milk, oatmeal, cereal, grits, canned meat, tuna, eggs, juices, peanut butter and jelly just to name a few.
We are looking for people to help us make it through the winter months or through a week. You pick out what is convenient for you and your friends, family and coworkers. I am inviting everyone to come and see what can be done in this community when resources are used for those it was intended for in this crisis.
Lastly, we are going at top speed to serve more hot meals during the winter months. We have sources such as North Florida Regional, VA Hospital, The Villages, Starbucks, Shands, Pizza Hut, just to name a few that donate seven days a week to assist in serving ready to eat foods. Many people would go to bed hungry without the prepared meal. The resources are ideal for people on restricted diets and parents who do not have enough time or emotional fortitude to prepare nutritional meals. We must reinforce these resources with pantry items and the list above. We must purchase pans for prepared foods. The cost is enormous for us at this time, but must be obtained for health reasons and food safety.
Please contact me at 352-665-0726(cell), or 352-378-FOOD (3663). Please do send a copy of this letter to as many companies, friends, coworkers, and families that will be help in this crisis. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Frances Leslie
Director
Collecting for Gainesville Harvest
It’s time for our bi-annual food drive. We’re collecting canned goods and dry goods for Gainesville Harvest all July. Feel free to drop by with anything you’d like to clean out of your pantry — or just to drop by, say hi, and see what we’ve collected!
Congratulations, Sandi, on your Work of Heart nomination!
B&B would like to acknowledge Contract Administrator Sandi Saurers for her work with the Florida Native Plant Society. Her efforts landed her a nomination to the 2012 Work of Heart Awards, which recognizes remarkable volunteers who help make our community stronger. Way to go, Sandi! (Doesn’t her yard look amazing? And it’s all native plants.)
Fun fact: This is the second time a B&B employee has been recognized by the Work of Hearts Awards, and we’re a company of under 20. In 2010, Michelle Gould won the Education Volunteer of the Year for her work with the Take Stock in Children program in Alachua County.
Open House Event - 2011
B&B held an open house on May 25, 2011 for all of our loyal customers and community partners in honor of our 25th anniversary. As you know, we are proud to be a contributing member of the Gainesville community and one of our favorite organizations is Gainesville Harvest, a local food bank. For our open house, we encouraged everyone to bring canned goods for Gainesville Harvest in exchange to be entered into a raffle for local vendor gifts. We are proud to announce that we collected over 800 pounds of food – nearly a half ton! During the event, Gainesville Harvest also found another corporate donor and Wild Iris Market donated a website redesign to the organization. We thank everyone who joined us in helping make this happen!
B&B Office Systems News Click on images to view image galleries
Our Resident Chihuahua Makes the Gainesville Sun!
Reggie, our resident Chihuahua, was featured in the Gainesville Sun’s article on pets in the workplace. Isn’t he adorable — though he looks a bit terrified in the article, doesn’t he?
B&B Voted One of the Top 100 Companies to Work for in Florida
Florida Trend magazine ranked B&B Office Systems the 11th best small company to work for in the state. That, in itself, is pretty cool. What makes it humbling is the ranking stems from survey results based on our employees’ (anonymous) evaluations.
Employees rated the company on areas such as leadership and planning; corporate culture and communications; role satisfaction; work environment; relationship with supervisor; training and development; pay and benefits; and overall engagement.
Firms were divided into three groups — large companies of 250 or more U.S. employees, midsized companies of 50 to 249 U.S. employees and small companies of fewer than 50 U.S. workers. The survey were then tallied and 100 companies selected from the participants.
B&B (#11) and Benefit Advisors (#8) were the only two companies in the North Central Florida area to earn this distinction. (And we’re proud to share this honor with one of our clients!)
Visit Florida Trend’s website to read more about the award and other top companies around the state.
Net Promoter Score
Ever wonder what happened with the surveys your fill out with us after every service call? An outside company compiles them — as they do for dealers all over the country — and tells us how we’re doing.
So how are we doing? Well, last month our score was 100%, which means 100% of you said you would recommend us to a colleague or friend. To put it in context, the average US company scores around 10%. Many well-loved companies, such as Trader Joe’s and Apple, score in the 70%-80%.
And we’re ranked 15 in North America of all the servicing dealers being tracked. Our goal? To improve, so that we’re at least in the top 10 by year end.
Thank you for taking the time to fill out your surveys. We read them. We take what you say very, very seriously and we use your insights to keep improving. Please keep letting us know what we can do better.
Closing Early on July 3rd for Independence Day
We will be closing early, at 1pm, on Tuesday July 3rd to observe Independence Day. Normal business hours resume on Thursday, July 5th.
Have a lovely July 4th!
Doggie Day 2012
Dogs and employees alike enjoyed B&B Doggie Day. All the pooches made new buddies, played well together, and begged in unison for Earth Pets treats. The only sad moments were when one of their pack had to go home.
