Speaker of he Day:

Geoff Davis introduced today's speaker, Reese Browning, owner of Old Town Pizza. OTP was recognized as our Rotary club's business of the year this year. OTP supports many local community organizations: 29 counted by Geoff.

Reese - strives to make OTP a better business and a better community partner.

Take aways:

Recognized Jackie Weston.

Playing sports taught him a lot about teamwork and how to get along with team mates and have good sportsmanship.

Worked at HP for 25 years. HP believed employees were more important than customers; learned to take care of employees.

Bought OTP on Nov. 2, 2002. 3 locations now and their own beer making company.

Goal since 2018 has been to own all his locations and has just purchased the old Post Office building in Roseville. Dealing with outside forces that you have no control over makes business harder. Better chance to be successful if you can control or at least predict what the outside sources are going to do.

Lifelong dream to own his own business so he can be accountable only to his own team and to the customer.

Theme is Good as Gold, standard he tries to achieve.

Philosophy is to get better ever day, and to live in and serve our community.

Vision/Mission/Culture: Waiting list to get in

All feedback is 5 stars. Zero staff turnover.

Every senior leader is an owner or shareholder in the company

Every hiree has to go through orientation; some decide to go elsewhere because the expectations are too hard,

Values: sales, teamwork, continuous improvement, generosity, service to others, integrity

Company rewards results and improvement. Training and coaching for people who don't get results.

Those who don't succeed move on to other employment and are supported in doing so.

Summarized by: Great locations; beautiful clean, safe spaces; quality great tasting food and beverages; friendly full service; options for dining in, take out, delivery and catering. Strives to get better at this every single day.

Plan is to last for generations; has a succession plan.

Brand is turning 25 years old this year, opened on July 20, 1999.

Employee owners/shareholders have to meet certain criteria and have to buy in..

How Reese inspires young people who have different work ethic to become valued team members:

Very clear expectations when posting job opportunities and as employer and during orientation/training.

70% of staff are friends or family of current employees.

“It's not about you. It is about the team and the guest.”

Full time employees in Auburn: 64 total, 30-40 are 30+ hours/week (FT), Turnover rate in top 1% worldwide.

No company will last long if it doesn't evolve. Tattoo and piercings policy has evolved. More liberal now with tattoos: nothing on the hands or face; have to cover arms or hands if tattoos are on them. Reason is they can be construed as offensive because of different points of view. Very complicated, comes up a lot. Wants everyone to be comfortable when they come to OTP. Guests who create scenes are asked to leave.

Noise levels in restaurants: Auburn store will have acoustical material installed over the next few weeks. This will be addressed at the get-go in new locations.

Recitation of the 4-way test

Adjourn