Your Association and I are working behind the scenes on your behalf – all the time! When you read through the Front Burner article, you’ll see we were able to secure some good legislation for Kentucky’s restaurant industry. Even though legislators are not in session, we work throughout the year with Kentucky Departments of ABC, Labor, health departments and other agencies on behalf of the industry. If you have an issue and need help, I hope you’ll call me so I can help you.
Our first ever Sporting Clays Tournament on June 14 is being received so well! We’re already sold out of teams but still have several sponsorships available. Since it’s the inaugural event for us we’re keeping it simple – and our participants are really excited about it! Golftoberfest on October 4 is gaining momentum as well. People want to get together to have fun! We’re accepting nominations for our Restaurateur’s Gala in January too, so I hope you’ll nominate some deserving staff members who either helped you get through this past year or are helping you through this next one. We need to celebrate together, as an industry, and recognize how much we’ve relied on one another! I hope you’ll be there with us.
Membership continues to be growing strong. Our “Join Now, Pay in 6 Months” offer has been embraced by a good number of restaurants – but we want more! You can fill out an application and we’ll make your restaurant member now but won’t invoice you your chosen dues amount until six months have passed. Member applications are at kyra.org.
I know most of you are desperate for staff to return and looking for any way to get them back or attract new employees. I wish I had a magic bullet for you. We are working with Kentucky Career Center for help with some untapped labor pools and free training for employees. Please let me know if you’d like the slide deck from the webinar we did together mid-April. As you look into ways your business can stand out as an employer and you consider adding benefits, one of our members is Derby City Direct Primary Care – they offer plans between $50-$80 a month with unlimited visits to Dr. Lovelace with no contract. Whatever you can offer to attract interest from potential employees, we want to help you with that. If you have ideas you’d like to share I’m all ears.
Thank you for being a KRA member – and if you’re not yet a member, what are you waiting for? We need you, we want to help you and our industry voice gets stronger when you’re part of it.