 |
News from the Oregon Dry Cleaners Association |
 |
|
|
|
From the Editor's Laptop...
 What did you gain from attending this
years ODCA
Convention in Kah-Nee-Ta? Hopefully you learned a
lot of useful information to make your job easier and
had a good time meeting old friends, making new
ones and sharing experiences. I know I did and I
would like to share a few highlights of mine.
It seemed that the energy was much higher this year
than in the past. The Presidents Reception received
the best turn-out I've ever seen and the mood was
ecstatic. We missed seeing a few familiar faces who
were unable to attend and
we hope they can make it next year, but were elated at
all the new attendees. The dinner at the
reception was an all out Italian Buffet and we all took
advantage of the delicious food and hosted bar. I
would like to thank Steve Young for standing up,
introducing himself and asking each in turn to do the
same. It really helped to ensure everyone knew
everyone. I hope we make this a regular part of the
reception. Energized by the evening many of us didn't
want to go back to our rooms right away so we
headed to the lounge for a few more libations and
dancing to a great band. Dry cleaners know how to
party and it was a great chance to catch-up on the past
year with a few more friends. Of course, with a great
band playing the music of "our generation", a few of us
just couldn't resist the opportunity to hit the dance
floor. Go Barbara and Steve!
 Breakfast was great and none of us went
hungry for
lack of food. In fact, the meals were excellent
throughout the event. Did you try the Indian Fry Bread
at breakfast? Add a little Huckleberry Jam and WOW.
We picked up a package of mix in the
gift shop so we could make more at home. Our Guest
Speaker's presentations are covered later in this
newsletter so I won't spend time on that here. They
were all excellent and gave us a wealth of
information. Sadly, Dick De Zeeuw of DEQ was
unable to make his connecting flight from the east
coast so we didn't get any updates on the Dry Cleaner
Program. However, he has promised an update via
this newsletter so watch future issues for his report.
With ten dry cleaners audited this past year, it should
make for some interesting reading.
 The banquet is my favorite part of
convention. As chair
of the committee that put the
event together, this is my chance to finally take a
deep breath and relax. We started with a hosted bar
for the cocktail hour. This was a new addition this
year. You could tell when you entered the room the
energy was still high as the air was electric. Usually
the room slowly fills up, this year it seamed everyone
was there from the start. Our dinner was the House
Specialty,
Kah-Nee-Ta Bird in Clay. A game hen is
sealed in baker's clay and slow roasted. The story of
the tradition is told and you then break open the bird
with a hand-made juniper mallet which is yours to
take home as a keepsake. What a hoot to see all of
us banging away with our mallets. The bird was
excellent and the wild rice and vegetables made it a
perfect meal. You know it was good by how many
spots you find on your clothes the next morning.
Ahhhh,
job security.
During President Scott McClure's speech, he talked
about the computer class ODCA sponsored earlier in
the year. As an example of what we learned, a copy of
the PowerPoint display that shows on a continuous
loop in my cleaners was shown. The presentation
was made in version 07 and the translation to an
earlier version caused it to run a little off. We had to
convert it as it shows on a wide screen monitor and
the dimensions would have been way off. Our
Webmaster Leslie Kettenhofen did a great job of
converting it without knowing what it was supposed to
look like. She also added music. As the PowerPoint
presentation started, so did
Queen's "We Will Rock You". Now what do you expect
would happen in a room full of happy dry cleaners
armed with juniper mallets when that music
starts? You guessed it. I think it began at the
Westport table. "We will, we will Rock You!"...and
then...BOOM BOOM BOOM...BOOM BOOM BOOM. The
entire room joined in. What a noise we made! I was
laughing so hard my chest hurt. So thank you Leslie
and Westport!
 Scott continued with his speech and
shared his
reasons for wanting to continue as President for a
second term. You can read more in his column this
month. Next up was the Tom Mosher Award for Dry Cleaner of the
Year. This was certainly THE
highlight of the event for me. Kathey Butters will tell
you about it in her column.
Then came everyone's favorite part of the
evening. Tickets were passed out and drawings were
held. The prizes were many and it was so fun to
watch as people realized it was their number that had
been drawn. Even though my number wasn't called
out, I still loved watching others win.
I have had the joy of chairing the convention
committee several times. But, I have discovered that
after a two year stint, its time to step back
and "recharge". So I left this year's event satisfied that
it was successful but a little sad that next year I won't
be on the committee. I am however excited that Claire
Anchick will be chairing next year. She has done an
awesome job in the past and I look forward to
attending next year without having to worry over the
details of the event.
You will want to be sure and read next month's ODCA
newsletter. I have talked in the past about the
onslaught by the media against PERC dry cleaners
and questioned what it is I can do in my shop to
become more "green" in my customers eyes. Well,
I've done my research and I don't think you will want to
miss the first of my two part article, "Is DrySolv Right
for Me?"
Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving? I hope you
have had a great year and have plenty to be
thankful for, I know I do. And the future looks even
better.
Have a great month, a great holiday and may you stay
healthy
and prosperous!
Brian Olson CED, Director, District 1 - Newsletter Editor
|
|
A Message from the President |
|
Here it is the first of
November already and business
is certainly picking up with the change in weather.
Now is a good time to
make sure all your equipment is working and the
proper maintenance has been done
because down-time now isn't something you want to
have to deal with.
A
good time was had by all at our annual convention
held at Kah-Nee-Ta High
Dessert Resort & Casino on October 5th and
6th. For those of you that
did not attend, you missed informative speakers such
as Jan Margosian with the
Oregon Department of Justice, Consumer Fraud
Division, Lyn Schmidt of Energy
Trust of Oregon and Nancy Judson & Dave
Eliopulos with PayChex. The
vendors have our thanks also for their continued
support of ODCA. Thanks
go out to Westport Supply, Covers etc,. LMT
Distributors, DCCS Computer Systems,
Peterson Equipment Co., Northwest Solvents and
Supply, Streets, Taylor Boiler
and Pacific Fabricare Systems. My personal thanks
go out to Brian and his
Convention Committee for putting together another
fine event and the Food and
Accommodations were excellent.
It is an
honor to be selected again to
lead this Association for 2008 and allow me to
accomplish a few things that I
did not get done this year. One thing that we have to
finish this year is
a rewrite of the by-laws to bring us into compliance
with existing law since it
has been at least 25 years since they were last
updated. We are close and
will be mailing these out to you in November for your
review along with a
ballot.
In 2008 I have some specific goals that
I would like to put
forth. First I want to expand education that will include
hands-on-training in spotting, cleaning, pressing, wet
cleaning and customer
service and keep the cost down as much as possible
for members so they might be
more able to send employees. These would be full 1
or 2 day classes on
Fridays or Saturdays and I will be looking for volunteer
plants to hold these
classes. Let me know if you are interested in hosting
one of these
classes. The second thing I would like to do is raise
consumer awareness
and get the Association involved in our communities
so that when we are in the
news it isn't always something of a negative nature.
We can accomplish
this by having Blanket, Clothing and Food Drives or
fund-raising for Special
Olympics, MD and many more worthy causes. We can
educate local store
buyers and salespeople on dry cleaning fabrics and
their ability to be
cleaned. We can give talks at local schools for
Science and Business
classes. How many kids, let alone adults, do you
think actually know what
dry cleaning is? When we do good things, or there is
good news about our
profession we need to issue press releases and
when misinformation is printed
about us we need to respond and not remain quiet.
To help facilitate this
plan of action I will be naming a Community Outreach
Committee that will be made
up of Board members and voting members alike. So
if this sounds like
something that you would be interested in taking part
in, please give me a
call!
In the next year, let's make the Oregon
Dry Cleaners Association a
better organization by taking part in some of the things
I have outlined
above. Members, talk to the non-members you know
and tell them why
membership in this association is an asset to
themselves and their business and
encourage them to join. Spend just a few minutes of
your time to promote
the ODCA. This Association's Officers and Board
donate hundreds of hours
of personal time to make sure your rights are
protected, be it through
legislative, DEQ or press and they do it for no
personal gain other than the
belief that they are doing something good for the
industry. Show us that
you appreciate our hard work by donating a little of
your time in helping us
promote this profession that we all have
chosen.
Until next
month,
Scott
|
|
Guest Speakers Provided Valuable Information |
|
 Attendees at the ODCA convention this
year were very fortunate indeed. Our fist guest of the
day was Jan Margosian, spokesperson for the Oregon Department
of Justice, Division of Consumer Fraud.
Jan covered a multitude of subjects protecting you and
your customers and her visit was quite timely. New
laws went into effect October 1st of this year which
allow you to effectively "freeze" your credit reports so
that no-one can access your information. This may
not work for everyone but if you have enough credit
available to you and have no plans to apply for more,
this may be the perfect tool to help protect yourself
from identity theft. (You can unfreeze your credit report
if needed)
Another law designed to protect you and your
customers goes into effect January 1st of 2008. A
packet provided by the
Department of Consumer and Business Services
outlines your obligations as a
business to protect your customers private
information. Do you have credit card information on
file? Addresses? You must have a security plan in
place to protect your customers information. By
following the guidelines outlined in the
packet "Protecting Personal Information, A Business
Guide", you will protect yourself from liability should an
event occur.
Jan covered the top ten list of complaints filed with the
Attorney General's Office. Fortunately, not only is our
industry not on the list, but complaints filed against dry
cleaners are low.
Each and every attendee walked away with a bag
provided by the Attorney Generals Office filled with
useful information. From Selling on the Internet, Work
at Home Schemes, Internet Auctions, The Cooling Off
Rule, Taking the Scare Out of Auto Repair and
Oregon's Lemon Law to Navigating Your Phone Bill
and more, the information provided was timely, useful
and could well save you tens of thousands of dollars.
 Next to speak was Nancy Judson of
PayChex.
If you have ever had questions about how a payroll
service could be of benefit to your company, this was
the chance to have your questions answered.
PayChex not only offers you the ability to
outsource your payroll, but all associated payroll items
as well. They offer Employee earnings statements,
Payroll journals, month-to-date department
summaries, a notice of cash needed to cover payroll
expenses and tax liabilities, accurate notifications of
tax liabilities and deposits and payroll worksheets to
record your next payroll. As well, you can have direct
deposit of employee checks, signed and hand
delivered paychecks or access cards, (much like a
debit card) for employees who may not be able to
obtain a checking account. Also offered are Group
Health plans and Pay-as-you-go workers comp
insurance. The list goes on and your payroll is
tailored to your individual needs.
 Dave Eliopulos of PayChex gave a
PowerPoint presentation on 401k plans. He included
plans and features, investment options,
administrations and record keeping, plan comparison
and managing your plan. He showed us how even a
business with as little as one employee can take
advantage of tax savings and retirement security by
putting together a 401k plan. This subject can be a
little dry and Dave did a great job of giving us the
information we need without going into
details that may not concern our particular needs. The
best part of this is its
all handled through the PayChex payroll system so
you don't have to invest hours of your time managing
it.
 How is Energy Trust of Oregon "Changing
Business as Usual"? Lyn Schmidt has the answers.
Energy Trust is a public-purpose organization
dedicated to energy efficiency and renewable energy
generation. They help Oregonians save energy,
increase the comfort of their homes and businesses,
and move toward energy self-reliance.
They offer energy efficiency programs with cash
incentives and tax credits for your business. Lyn has
worked extensively with the Hospitality and Restaurant
Industries and is now bringing the advantages of
these programs to the Dry Cleaners of Oregon. Using
a real cleaners as her example, she showed that by
replacing the old T-12 lighting fixtures with new energy
efficient T-8s, just how much money could be saved in
energy costs, how much Energy Trust would pay for
the project and tax credits available through the State
of Oregon. Payback for this particular project was
about six years. Every project will vary.
In addition, she talked about other items Energy Trust
can help us with, washing machines and water
heaters being the main items. Unusual items such
as your dry cleaning machine may also be available
for incentives. Our industry is new to Energy Trust and
as they learn more, they will be able to offer more and
more benefits to us. We look forward to Lyn returning
next year with even more ways for us to save energy
and increase profits.
|
|
Vendors Shared their Products and Services |
|
A few years ago, our Convention Chair Leslie
Kettenhofen added Vendor Table Top displays to the
ODCA conventions. They have become a popular
staple of our event ever since and this year was no
exception.
 Alex Johnson of Westport Supply told us about standard
products and services available through his
company as well as new ones. New is Westport's
affiliation with Fabricare
Choice Distributors Group. Offering a catalogue filled
with all the products you need and use daily. We also
appreciate Jim Butler, (one of two in our group), giving
us a more indepth understanding of Westport Supply
and it's goal to provide excellent service and products
to the dry cleaning industry. Thank you Jim!
 Bobby Scwhartz of Dry
Cleaning Computer Systems,
(DCCS), flew in from the east coast to share his
impressive system with us. He explained the value of
a POS system and the features his company's
product has to offer. If your plans call for an upgrade
or new POS system, you owe it to yourself to check out
this software.
 Jack Ellison of the Western
Cleaner & Launderer
shared information on his publication. Have you
subscribed to this free monthly industry paper? Jack
pointed out a disturbing trend in business
reviews. Showing us a Seattle newspaper article
wherein over 200 cleaners were reviewed by
consumers. These reviews are very subjective and
cleaners that should be in the top ten are listed way
down on the list. He pointed out the importance of
every customer walking away happy when they
leave
your
store.
 Lisa Thornton and Ken Bitke of
Covers etc, Kleerwite Chemical and
Seitz Chemical spoke about the
products they carry and introduced their newest line.
Lisa and Ken travel the state to meet each of us in our
shops and provide excellent customer service.
 Joe Bays, General Manager of Pacific Fabricare Systems in
Tukwila, Washington drove down to share
information and answer questions about the new
DrySolv solvent,
(nPB). It is the only solvent available
as a drop-in replacement for PERC.
 Martin Peterson of
Peterson Equipment Company
re-introduced himself and shared information on the
lines of equipment they carry and the services they
provide. Peterson Equipment Company has long
been a strong supporter of ODCA and we are always
happy to have them with us. This year we had a
special treat when Dennis and Marlys made a
surprize visit to our Saturday night Cocktail Hour. It
was great to see them again!
Also on tap, was Jim Butler (the other one)
representing Taylor
Boiler. His table provided information on new
Parker
Boilers as well as information on repair and
maintenance.
|
|
Tom Mosher Dry Cleaner of the Year Award |
|
What a pleasure it was to present Brian Olson, 45th
Avenue Cleaners in Portland, with the Tom Mosher
Dry Cleaner of the Year Award for 2007.
Tom Mosher was President of ODCA in 1966 when he
passed away. To honor his dedication to the industry,
ODCA presents the Tom Mosher Award; the criteria for
selection includes participation in the ODCA, the
industry and the recipient's community.
One of the traits I admire most about Brian - if he
takes on a project, you can count on it being done, not
just completed, but done above expectations. Most of
the tasks Brian took on this year were behind the
scenes so members most often didn't have a clue
how much effort Brian gave to ODCA. The ODCA
newsletter that you received each and every month
was put together by Brian. This year's convention,
which was awesome, was Brian working hard for the
members of ODCA and all convention attendees.
Brian also put together a fact sheet for dry cleaners to
hand out to any customer who had questions
following the unfavorable KATU dry cleaning news
piece done earlier this year. Brian not only wrote the
fact sheet but with the help of Scott McClure, got it
endorsed by the Korean American Dry Cleaners
Association (KADCA) and the National Cleaners
Association (NCA). He also worked closely with Nora
Nealis at NCA to ensure accuracy.
With all Brian did for the ODCA and the dry cleaning
industry it is hard to believe he had any time to give
back to his community, but he did. Brian participated
in Project Bundle Up, did cleaning for two non-profits,
the Pacific
Festival Ballet and Triangle Productions. He also
Chairs the Cemetery Committee for his congregation,
Beit Haverim and regularly meets with families for pre-
planning and immediate need.
Brian is a highly decorated dry cleaner with such
awards as NWPC's Model Cleaner Award, EPA
Evergreen Award, Mayor's Spirit of Portland Award,
DEQ Certificate of Exemplary Public Service and
most recent, the NCA Circle of Merit Award for
Customer Service for his creation of the "Don't
Hang Up" pads. Convention attendees each received
complementary "Don't Hang Up" pads in their
registration packets.
Brian is a two time recipient of the Tom Mosher Award,
only the second person to ever receive it twice. With
all Brian does for ODCA, this industry, and his
community, it was such an honor to present this year's
award to him.
|
|
Many Thanks to our Sponsors |
|
No Event of this type would be successful without the
support of our sponsors. We would like to thank the
following for their generous support in providing gifts
and door prizes.
National Cleaners
Association 2 Complete Webinars and a Gift
Certificate to attend one of your choice.
Westport Supply Always tons of Freebies and
Samples for us to take back to our shops.
Northwest Solvents and Supply The
ones with the Big Red Truck! 10 cases of struts to
keep our pants up!
PayChex
Solutions from Hire to Retire...and a $50.00 Gas
Card!
Cleaner's
Supply Ten very nice Gift Bags and a "Got
Spots" floor mat.
Jack Ellison,
Western Cleaner & Launderer Jack is a great
supporter of Oregon's dry cleaners year round and
Alex will put those golf balls to good use!
| Quick Links... |
|
|
|
|
Return to Top
This page revised 26 December2007
|
