2005 NESO "Happy Days"Convention and Trade Showheld in Morgantown, WV

Hello “Dairy Queen” Operators... If youmissed this years’ NESO Convention and TradeShow, you missed a good one. There were 90+store owners in attendance at the new RadissonWaterfront Place in Morgantown WV... a beautifulnew hotel, with a great room rate and superb facil-ities for our functions . The weather was not allbad in spite of a warning for three days of theworst snow storm of the season …of course theworst of it missed us.

Fifteen operators took the ServeSafe courseand we are happy to say all 15 passed. This coursehas been offered for the last 5 years, and we are

lucky to have had the same instructor, Bess Vassfrom the WV Department of Education each year,she makes a course with somewhat dull materialvery interesting.

The Trade Show saw a large turn out ofyour suppliers…39 exhibiting there wares. Theyoffered a lot of door prizes and drawings duringthe exhibits. Also during the exhibits, we heldtwo contests one on cone making and the othercake decorating.

For the second year in a row, BroughtonFoods & Shenandoah's Pride Dairy remain thereigning champs in our "Best Theme Booth" Con-test. Connie Copelan of Blade Uniforms came ina close second place. Our thanks to all the Suppli-ers who participated in the contest.Betty Gwara receives her crown from 2004

Queen Carolyn Daniel of Hurricane, WVand Guest Speaker Herma Johnson of theWV Dept of Agriculture. Story on pg 2.

Winners of the Exhibitors 2005 "Best ThemeBooth" Broughton Foods & Shenandoah'sPride Dairy, Dean Foods Companies.LtoR Mark Roe,Nell Harper, Trinka McCord& of Broughton Foods

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Cone contest winners were:1st Pace .. Todd Francis, No. Lima, OH2nd Place ???????3rd Place Trent Rapp No. Lima, OH

Cake Decorating winners were:1st Place - Marcie Smith, Rochester PA2nd Place - Beverly Peddicord, Reedsville, WV3rd Place - Ken Neuzil, Cleveland OH

The yearly auction was held at the conclu-sion of the Trade Show to support the NESO costof putting on the convention. Additionally, manybooth prizes were won during our hourly draw-ings.

On Saturday of the Convention, HarrisCooper addressed the many concerns regardingyour rights as a franchisee and how all the currentchanges will affect you. If you’re thinking, itwon’t happen to me......GUESS AGAIN! Youbetter be informed.

Harris did an eloquent job, as he alwaysdoes. We are indeed fortunate to have a personsuch as Harris heading up our association.

We ask you for your continued support inpurchasing DQOA/DQOC products. As IDQ’snew program unfolds there may be some savings,but this is not in your best interest and you should

support yourself, by being loyal to DQOA/DQOC& NESO.

Be sure and read the DQOA news alertsand newsletter and respond when calledupon…AND, don’t forget to pay your dues.

Annnemarie Boeckman & Ty Harvey pre-sented the Pepsi program and answered questions.Call the NESO OFFICE if you have questions orneed help converting to the program. Rememberthis Pepsi program will put more mon money inyour pocket.

Ann Atterberry gave a presentation on theco-op insurance program. Most important is theEmployment Practices Liability Insurance! Canyou afford not to carry it? Call Ann at 800-755-9594 today. There are several stores that wishthey had switched. Now they have lawsuits anddiscovered that the coverage they purchased lo-cally from that good friend in town who was go-ing to take care of them, didn’t and now have nocoverage .

Dave Yaple, Erie Pa. Territory Operatorattended and took questions regarding his seat onthe Council and the warehouse committee

2005 Queen CrownedThe NESO 32nd Annual Banquet con-

cluded the conference on Saturday night withMrs. Betty Gwara of Lordstown, OH beingcrowned the 2005 Queen. Betty has been workingat the Newton Falls Dairy Queen since she was“drafted” as she calls it, when she was 14 yearsold. Her aunt and uncle owned the Newton FallsDairy Queen, and this is how her life long careerbegan behind the counter. Her favorite part of theDairy Queen Business is “all the nice people youget to meet”. She and her husband Dave of 31years own two locations, the Newton Falls DairyQueen since 1979 and the Lordstown DairyQueen since 1990. Every day Betty can be foundbehind the counter at the Newton Falls DQ, thelocation she started at in her teens. When askedwhat her favorite hobbies are, she is quick to re-

2nd place Winner of the Exhibitors 2005"Best Theme Booth" Connie Copelan ofBlade Uniforms

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spond, working the “Dairy Queen” is first, then shop-ping and traveling. Betty’s favorite DQ products tomake are the new Moolatte and the old stand-by, ba-nana splits. She and Dave have two children, Johnand Stephanie. Congratulations on your very specialappointment!

Board of Directors Elected for2005The following directors were re-elected:

• Donna Peterson ,Winchester, VA• Jerry Bartoe, Huntington, WV• Rick Bepler, Canal Winchester, OH• Tom Cleary, Wellington, OH• Ken Neuzil, Cleveland, OH• John Wilcox, Mullens, WV

The 2005 Officers are:

• Ron Rapp, President, No. Lima, OH• John Wilcox, Vice President, Mullens, WV• Donna Peterson, Secretary, Winchester, VA• Jerry W. Coyne, Treasurer, Martinsburg, WV

Over all, the convention was a huge success, Thanksto all that came , all that helped, and all the suppli-ers……IDQ President was invited , along with Mr.Keller, BUT they DECLINED OUR INVITATIONdue to a previous committment….what else is new?

Instant Money Winning TicketMissing, Do You Have It?

We are looking for the holder of ticket #193. If you have this ticket you were one of the lastfive for the drawing. You need to fax or mail thestub to Jerry Coyne: fax 1-510-740-6353 mail to1239 Shower Lane, Martinsburg, WV 25401 YOUHAVE WON SOME MONEY.

NESO Welcomes PA Stores toConvention

We were pleased to have had around 40 peo-ple from the state of PA attend our show… many forthe first time. Maybe, in the future, they may join

forces with us. They would certainly be most wel-come.

Shopping Insurance ?A local insurance broker approached me the

other day and asked if he could quote my policy.Why not?? IDQ didn't return my call or get back tome even after I returned there postcard asking if Iwanted a quote. Anyway after an inspector withseveral questions that Ms. Atterberrry had neverasked and about 2 weeks of phone calls came tosee me letter in hand. For the low, low, price of$26,750.86 he could write my two stores. Only alittle more than $17,000 more than Palmer andCay. One store is $4800 and the other is $4500.Exactly the same coverage also(I gave him my pol-icy to go by). When are other operators going towake up and see what a great thing we have in theDQOA!!!!

Submitted by Jerry Bartoe, Huntington, WV

THE PEPSI ZONEIntroducing National Accounts Manager Allen Ko

Hello and welcome to the Pepsi Zone. I amexcited to have the opportunity to contribute to theNESO newsletter and provide information to oper-ators on Pepsi programs, initiatives and other up-dates. The 2005 Pepsi-Cola Beverage MarketingPrograms are ready to hit the streets. By commit-ting to participate in (3) programs for Braziers andGrill &Chills, and (2) programs for Limited Stores,Soft Serve, Treat Centers and Orange Julius, youcan earn $.45/gallon in annual marketing funds for2005! There will also be a separate form to com-plete if you want to sign up for the Aquafina waterprogram. All marketing programs are FREE toparticipate and will be automatically shipped toyou. Look for the participation forms in the mail inthe next few weeks and return it to us by May 30th

to qualify. If you have any questions about the pro-grams or you did not receive them, please contactme at (718) 459-3573 or email atallen.ko@pepsi.com Please see related Pepsi Forms in this Newsletter

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Pam Simmons, Buying Group Coordinator330-565-8700

330-549-0555 faxemail: drapp11947@aol.com

Hope you are finding lots of GREAT appli-cants to work your front counters. I think this is thehardest time of the year, the time of NEW hires. Ihave included another incentive program at the endof my newsletter to inspire your “old” and “new “employees to keep working hard.

NESO/DQOA Mix ProgramJosh Schmieg, DQOA, attended at NESO’s

request, the Youngstown DMA November meetingconcerning the mix program. This meeting wasneeded to address certain aspects of the mix pro-gram. Some operators had concerns about the pro-gram. Akron and Columbus had representation inthe meeting by Dick Fulton and Rick Bepler. Peck will be carrying the DQOA mix, butwill only deliver mix 2x per week per store. Themajority of the stores will still be able to participatein the program. A few stores do not have the coolerspace to be limited to the 2x per week delivery, an-other issue was the extra cardboard generated bythe mix “box”. This issue with the extra cardboardonly seemed important to a few operators. Josh de-cided to bid out the mix production and also inves-tigate whether it makes sense to have an alterna-tive distributor that can handle 3x per week. An ex-tra delivery a week would incur additional moneyper gallon. Many additional issues would need tobe solved if an alternate supplier is considered.After the meeting, Josh sent out requests for bidsand received only 3 responses. All factors consid-ered, Superior Dairy from Canton Ohio, can bestmeet the needs of all the distributors. The bid cameback from Superior Dairy $.03 cheaper than thecurrent Superior price. This is encouraging news,and indicates that Superior really values theDQOC/NESO mix business.

Since only a few stores were concernedabout the 3rd delivery, the other options and in-creased costs to the operator could not be justified.So for the upcoming season Peck, Brown, and

Glass City will be distributing your mix, manufac-tured by Superior Dairy, Canton Ohio.

This mix program is one of the BEST mixprices in the country, because of the volume andthe fact that the operators are willing to supportthe program. This program will never have“extras”, because they cost , you , the operatormore money.APRIL MIX COST- $3.21per gallon and rebate of$.02

Rebate mix checks will be mailed by end of April!

UniformsIf you attended the convention in Morgan-

town, WV, you had a chance to meet our new uni-form supplier, Blade Uniforms. They have replacedCintas as our DQOC endorsed supplier. The uni-forms that are offered are: Navy Knit Polo, RedKnit Polo, Navy visor,Navy Ball Cap, and one styleof Shoes for Crews.The Navy knit Polo is priced at$10.05. Visors are $2.55. (remember in the early90’s we paid $18.65 per uniform shirt? )Thanks to DQOC -- you are saving $8.60 per uni-form shirt, 12 years later!

Contact Blade uniform at 1-800-741-5664.Remember All DQOA members receive dividendson uniform purchases from this supplier.Shoes forcrews are also stocked at $28.95. They are onlycarrying one style, for additional styles you cancontact Shoes for Crews directly at 1-800-329-0102, though there will be no dividends if you buydirect from shoes for crews.

DQOA UpdateBy now, most operators have attended the

PRIDE meeting for the Spring. You are now awarethat IDQ will be requiring plastic cake domes foryour cake program. Due to this change, DQOC has

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elected not to order any more cake boxes from themanufacter.

Peck has already exhausted their supply ofsheet cake boxes and cannot get anymore. The newsheet cake box will cost the operator about $2.00according to IDQ. The current box is about $.68.This is an increase of $1.31 per BOX. When thedomes are required you will want to adjust yourcake price accordingly.

Some of the new products in the warehousefor this season:• Crown Select Whipped Cream approx cost $12

for 12 cans plus dividends• Misty Flavors: Cherry, Grape, Lemon Lime,

Kiwi Strawberry, Blue Raspberry (coming soon: watermelon, for the ARTIC Rush)• Jalepeno Bacon (made by superior)• All Grill burger Items, including the Grillburger

Wraps(including c/s mushroom sauce)• Artic Rush cups 16 oz and 24 oz size(May 1st)

maybe sooner• 24 oz moolatte cups are now in the warehouses.• DQ Blizzard cup with Birthday Bash Graphics

(shipping to warehouses now).• CHILI SAUCE- Approved - Finally!- ship date

to select warehouses May 1st

• Cake Packaging will be changing to a new plas-tic dome. We are depleting our cake box inven-tory and searching for a supplier for the cakedome. The sheet cake boxes are now depleted.

The only items that you have to buy from an IDQwarehouse are:Buster Bar Cups, Quarts and lids, novelty bags,DQ sandwich wafers, cake inserts, DQ salad Con-tainers, DQ bacon Bits, DQ ultimate Sauce, DQdilly Papers, Coffee Cups/lids, Flamethrowersauce, garlic mayo, Chicken Basket liners, Kids frybags, Kids Treat Bags, Gravy, and PepperjackCheese.Remember, All DQOC warehouse purchasesproduce DIVIDENDS to DQOA members!

Employee IdeasNow is the time to promote good work

habits beore the April/May rush begin. We (North

Lima DQ) started a new program with our employ-ees to encourage extra jobs getting done. It has beenworking extremely well!

I made a list of 70 small jobs that wouldtake 5 minutes or less to complete. Some examplesof the jobs include:• Cleaning the outside trash can at grill• Wiping the blast freezer rubber gaskets• Dusting the lights in the front room• Cleaning the cooler door inside and out• Cleaning the wall above the 3 bay sink• Cleaning 2 shelves• Scrubbing all the feet of the metal shelving in

the backroom

These are all little jobs that could be donemore often and take just a few minutes. We haveabout 70 shifts per week, so on each shift each em-ployee picks from a quart container labeled“NEEDS DONE”. When the job is finished it isplaced in another Quart container labeled “DONE”.When everyone on the shift completes one task, allthe employee names are placed in a cup, one is thendrawn. This person then gets to clock out 15 min-utes early and go home. If the grill person is chosen, he/she cannot leave early but get an extra 15break. If the manager gets all the employees to fin-ish a job the entire week, they receive 1 hour of va-cation. Since two employees leave early each day,you actually save a little on payroll and reward yourmanger too. If the manager misses one shift he /sheforfeit’s the vacation hour. I never have to ask ifthe jobs got done, the employees know to do themas soon as they arrive, because they can’t wait tofind out who will get picked to leave early. Ouremployees love to leave a few minutes early, andwe get the extra jobs done. Try it at your store andlet me know how it goes. I will print it in our nextnewsletter.

Tricks of the TradeI have called some operators with questions

on some of their tricks…

Cut up grilled chicken and place it in agravy cup with a lid, stored in the cooler. When agrilled chicken salad is ordered, remove the lid and

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boost in the microwave, then place on the salad.Breaks are determined by first one on the shift getsthe first break. Last person to arrive gets the lastbreak. ( Breaks assigned by order of arrival)

You can buy edible ink and a rubber stampto mark your dilly bar and buster bar sticks. Youcan stamp every 50th stick with “Free Dilly” or“free Buster bar”. This encourages repeat businessand builds novelty customers.Edible Ink is avail-able thru a local print shop, check in your area.

Included in your ad kit was coupons for freegrill burgers. These are full color or orange withblack ink. One operator, Don Kendrick ,MahoningAve DQ, had mailing labels printed “with the pur-chase of French fry and drink”. He then stuck theseon each free grill burger coupon and gave them outinto the community. It cost $10 for 500 sticky la-bels.

This is a great idea! Each customer had tobuy something to get their free grill burger,it is stilla good value to the customer.

Lastly, I received an email from BillHaines, Lorain Ohio DQ. He asked me at the con-vention about trash bill reduction. I told him to callOMEGA- Jessica Carey @1-888-326-6342It took a few phone calls, and about a 2 week wait,that is it, and here is Bill’s response-“Hi Pam, Jessica from Omega just called me, andshe got BFI to reduce my rate way down, so shesaved me quite a bit. Things worked out very well.Thank you so much.Bill

That is all there is to saving money, a fewphone calls. He even got to keep his same trash ser-vice. Call Omega,ask for Jessica, it can’t hurt. 1-888-326-6342

I have had a lot of calls for VISA Program-First Data-You Must Ask for the NESO program tosave the most money, even more than the IDQ pro-gram.1-866-499-4668.

Visa/mastercard Equipment-as of Jan 2005

Brown Food ServiceMark Qualls

606-638-1139Louisa, KY

Delta Gloves800-874-3633Richard Zook

West Chester, PA

Gregg Riddle888-285-2132

Health InsurcnaeNorth Lima, OH

WonderlicPersonnel Testing

800-706-4673

Schwebels Bakery330-783-2860

Tony SugarServes Ohio

CPI800-269-2202David Finney

Ceiling tile cleaningNew Middletown, OH

All BulbsLight Bulbes

330-549-9852Jeff Sabrin

North Lima, OH

Discount Paper800-752-7655

Ask for EDLas Vegas, Neveda

Register Paper

Yellow Beard FlrSystems

866-330-SLIPDave Dickens

Brunswick, OH

Hearn Paper800-225-2989

John KegleyChemical Lot sweeper

Musair800-833-4150

Joe ElumDrive-thru Equip

Canton, OH

Peck Food Service800-732-7325Mark Rosatti

Aurora, OH

Fad DistributingEdible Images877-728-4643Kenny Notter

St. Louis, MO

Dejane BusinessRegisters

330-497-9696Bob Wynkoop

Canton, OH

OTC Innovations866-GET - DEBIT

Jim MeadeFree Debit Machines

Cintas800-914-1960

Towels and Mats

AISGrill/Fryer ServiceYoungstown, OH

877-346-6455

Bullseye TelephoneJoe Pianecki

440-724-0937

ShenandoahTrophies

Rob Stenzel540-886-6872

Glass City FoodsRick Jackson

800-526-8845Holland, OH

Honey-DoHandyman

Greg Deiters330-882-2412

Service PlusPayroll Processing

Bob Brammer800-846-PLUS

First DataVisa Program866-499-4668

TSSTotal Soft Serve

Cleveland,WITom or Todd

920-565-3273

Capital PlannersFinancial Services

Dan Jindra216-360-7400

Mix HoseDave Gwara

2550 East River Rd. Newton Falls, OH

330-872-5649

330-872-5139 faxdgwara@ao

l.com

Green GuardFirst Aid Kits

Luke Harrington419-448-9363

B&BLight Covers

Sky-Scapes937-829-0633

NE

SO

NESO Operator ... page 7

$259-unit is the T7plus hyercon @ merchant ware-house.com

Schwebel’s (Bread Supplier) has the grillburger bun- $.95 (8 pack)

Greg Deiters-Honey-do handyman has de-cided he is not able to work for the dairy queens.His business has taken him in a different direction.

I wanted to mention a special thank-you toall of you that decorated a cake at our 1st everNESO cake booth. FAD, Brown,and IRD reallycame through with the cake supplies for the cakebooth. Blade uniforms, Superior Dairy, PeckFoods,Brown Foodservice, also helped with dona-tions to make the exhibit’s a success! Thank-youfor your help!

Send your suggestions for the NESO Buying GroupNewsletter to Pam Simmons at: email: drapp11947@aol.com330-549-0555 faxorCall Jerry Coyne: 304-263-6380 voice510-740-3653 faxemail: dacoinc@adelphia.netorJeff Haynes: 304-562-7355 voice510-740-3586 faxemail: neso@charter.net

(Continued from page 6)

Did You Know....There are over 40,000

Chinese Restaurants in theUnited States, thats more

than the number ofMcDonalds, Wendys andBurger Kings combined.

* Pay YOUR Dues* Buy YOUR DQOC Products* Attend YOUR Conventions* Reap YOUR Rewards

Tell Us Your StoriesWe are always looking for announcements

or informational stories to put in "The NESO Oper-ator". If you have a DQ related item you wouldlike to see in the Newsletter, please send it in.Some ideas for Newsletter articles could be:

• A NEW OPERATOR IN YOUR AREA

• A SUCCESSFUL PROMOTION AT YOUR STORE

• AN EXCEPTIONAL EMPLOYEE

• OPENING OF A NEW STORE OR REMODEL

(SEND PHOTOS)• AN OPERATIONS TIP OR TECHNIQUE

• OPERATOR YEARS OF SERVICE MILESTONE

Classified Ads WelcomeWe also welcome any classified ads you

may have that are DQ related. Send us your ads foritems to sell.... Stores, Equipment, etc. It's FREE !

Send Articles & Classified ads to Jeff Haynes,NESO Asst. Executive Secretary • 103 RosewoodDr., Hurricane, WV 25526 • 304-562-7355 • fax:510-740-3586 • email: neso@charter.net

NESO 2006 ConventionPlans are under way for the 2006 conven-

tion and Trade Show, we are working on plans tobe in Charleston WV at the Embassy Suites. Asplans firm up we will keep you informed. Dateswill be January 26, 27, & 28 2006

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crown select bullseyeform goes here

NESO Operator ... page 9

Stacie, June & Marcie Smith of Rochester,PA and Jim Scott of Lyons-Magnus

The Radisson Staff Judges the entries of theCake Decorating Contest.

All the kids were winners in the Kid CakeDecorating Contest

Tom Vance, Rupert, WV, Rick Bepler,Columbus, OH, Chris Burns, Marlinton, WV

Pam Simmons,No. Lima, OHpresents BeverlyPeddicord,Reedsville, WVwith a CakeContest Trophy.

"The Apple Chords" entertained us at theBanquet.

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NESO BoardmembersRon Rapp, PresidentPO Box 445 North Lima, OH 44452330-549-3231 • 330-549-0555 faxdrapp11947@aol.com

John Wilcox, Vice President2015 River Dr. N., Mullens, WV 25882304-294-7352 • 304-294-4154

williew@mail.usa.comDonna Peterson, Secretary310 Stonehenge Rd, Winchester, VA 22601540-723-0503 • 540-723-0504 faxdaleanddonna@adelphia.net

Jerry Coyne, Treasurer1239 Showers Lane, Martinsburg, WV 25401304-263-6380 • 510-740-3653 fax

dacoinc@adelphia.netLeonard AndersonHC 76 Rt 87 Box 6, Hinton, WV 25951304-466-1824 • 304-466-0601 fax

wilmaba@citynet.netJerry Bartoe1939 Adams Ave, Huntington, WV 25704304-429-1316 • 304-697-2253jb2700@aol.com

Jerry Coyne • NESO Executive Secretary • 304-263-6380 • 510-740-3653 fax • dacoinc@adelphia.netJeff Haynes • NESO Asst. Executive Secretary • 304-562-7355 • 510-740-3586 fax • neso@charter.netPam Simmons • NESO Buying Group Coordinator • 330-565-8700 voice • 330-549-0555 fax • drapp11947@aol.com

North Eastern Store Owners Inc.103 Rosewood Dr • Hurricane, WV 25526

NESO Office Contacts

Dave Gwara2550 East River Rd., Newton Falls, OH 44444330-872-5649 • 330-872-5139 faxdgwara@aol.com

Ken Neuzil5501 Memphis Ave., Ceveland, OH 44144216-398-8538 • 216-398-7464 hm/faxkdneuzil@aol.com

Dean Paidas772 Brookfield, Youngstown, OH 44512330-726-1316 • 330-726-9148dqpaidas@zoominternet.net

George Stegeman622 Moeller Ave., St. Bernard, OH 45217513-641-2100 • 513-242-0402 faxgstegeman@webtv.net

Tom VancePO Box 1059, Rupert, WV 25984304-438-6211 • 304-392-6817

icecreamman@frontiernet.netKathy WallacePO Box 144, Martins Ferry, OH 43935740-633-3815 • 740-676-9150 fax

Dairy Queen®,Brazier® and the Red Ellipselogo are registered trade-marks of American DairyQueen® Corp.

Rick Bepler7759 Pembrock Dr., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068614-531-7497 • 650-227-2299 faxLbeplerdq@aol.com

Chris Burns10 Smith St. Marlinton, WV 24954304-799-7227 • 304-799-4516ctburns@sunlitsurf.com

Mike ChapmanFrametown Rt. Box 17 Gassaway, WV 26624304-765-2287 • 304-364-5154gateway46207@msn.com

Tom Cleary504 So. Main St. PO Box 26Wellington, OH 44090440-647-4741 • 440-647-4712 fax

tomkaryl@comcast.netChuck DanielPO Box 441, Hurricane, WV 25526304-562-6421 • 304-562-6570 faxcvdan72@aol.com

Dick Fulton1262 Kenmore Blvd, Akron, OH 44313330-753-7999 • 330-753-1214 faxracmfulton@aol.com