Quarterly Newsletter of Allied Florists of Houston
September 2019 |
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Wow… what a time we had at the Allied End of Year meeting. We had over 100 in attendance, including almost the entire TSFA board of directors and education committee as well as many of our past presidents. It was a definite who’s who of Houston/Texas Floral royalty.
Kirksey Gregg and the team at The Ballroom at Bayou Place converted Southern Floral company into an elegant venue fit for the finest of events. The room was draped to 12 feet high in Hot Pink, Royal Blue and Purple Sheer curtains, with Cream colored sequined, floor length floor coverings. The tables were set with silver colored glass charger plates, white china, silver ware, a wine glass and a water glass.
Kim Jones, Alan Masters, Lynn Lary McClean
As the guests arrived and were seated, they were greeted with a beautiful strawberry and mixed green salad and a piece of the most luscious chocolate cake complete with a slice of strawberry. After our invocation, the meal was served. Each guest received sliced beef tenderloin, smashed potatoes and green beans and their choice of wines. It was a most elegant dinner, plated perfectly and served by a group of outstanding servers complete with welcoming smiles.
READ MORE
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2019-2020 Board of Directors
(With pics and bios if available) |
President, Alan Masters AIFD CFD
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1st Vice President, Alli Meaux
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2nd Vice President, Maggie Bailey
 Maggie Bailey is the owner and creative director of Bramble & Bee, a retail flower shop and wedding design studio based in Tomball, TX, which she runs with her husband, Mick. Their business specializes in organic, garden style design and she loves to source as much as she can from local flower farms and growers. Maggie first began designing in 2012 and there was no turning back! She was named one of the top florists under 35 by Florist Review Magazine and has had her work published in print magazines including Florist Review, Modern Luxury Brides, and The Knot, as well as countless features on floral design and wedding blogs including, Martha Stewart, Botanical Brouhaha, Green Wedding Shoes, The Knot, and Brides of Houston.
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Retail Director, Ace Berry AIFD PFCI TMF
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Retail Director, Lana King TMFA
 Lana King has been a member of Allied Florists of Houston since 2007, and serving her fifth year as Retail Director on the Board of Directors. She is also a proud member of Society of American Florists, Texas State Florists' Association, Society for the Advancement of Floral Design, Teleflora, Flower Shop Network, The Knot, and Wedding Wire.
She started working in the floral industry in 2007, and then in 2011 achieved Texas Master Florist certification at the Benz School of Floral Design, Texas A&M University, and further achieved the certification of “Advanced” Master Florist in July, 2018. Along with her husband, Sam, they fulfilled Lana's dream of opening her own full-service and custom floral shop in Cypress – and Blooms from the Heart was born on December 1, 2013! She has been a recipient of design education scholarships awarded by Teleflora and Society for the Advancement of Floral Design. The shop has been awarded “Best Picks Community Favorite” with Houston Community Newspapers and “Living Magazine's Best of Reader's Choice”.
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Retail Director, Kim Jones AIFD CFD TMFA
 I was born in Connecticut and grew up in New Jersey before moving to Texas in 1978. My career in the floral industry started by working in a greenhouse while making dried flower arrangements to pay for college tuition. I have been a professional floral designer for over 48 years receiving my Texas Master Florist Advanced certificate in 2005 and induction into the American Institute of Floral Design in 2015.I have recently become a Texas Master Gardener .Since 2010 I have been fortunate to work at one of the most creative floral shops in Texas,-The Blooming Idea in The Woodlands.
I have two sons. My oldest son, Rocky, is a Captain for the Spring Fire Department and his brother, Paul, is a social studies teacher with the Cy-Fair school district.
When I’m not designing or researching new floral techniques, I’m gardening or walking my collie Piper.
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Retail Director, Donna Tall
 Donna Tall has been designing for 10 years now. It all started when she walked into a small town flower shop in Liberty, Texas asking for a job and a chance. The owner Pamela Litton gave her that chance and quickly realized Donna had an amazing talent for floral design.
In 2013 Donna lost her mother suddenly and someone close to her suggested having her mother's memorial flowers preserved. That was all it took for Donna's curiosity and creativity to take over. Donna opened her floral preservation company SadieAnn's Floral Designs in 2015, putting her fresh floral designing on hold to create preserved floral keepsakes for others to cherish a life time. In 2018 Donna combines her preservation company with fresh flowers in the small town of Corrigan, Texas.
In 2019 she competed in her first design competition (The Houston Cup), where she tied for first but in the end came excitedly home with second. Donna has become a member of Allied Florist of Houston and recently taken a seat on the board. July 2019 she will be joining many other designers from around the world in Las Vegas, Nevada at the AIFD Symposium to test for her accreditation as a Certified Floral Designer and an invitation to join the elite family of designers who are AIFD.
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General Membership Director, Hallie Morrison AIFD CFD
 Hallie Morrison is a College Station native with a love of all things floral. She graduated from Texas A & M University in 2016 with a Bachelors of Arts in Horticulture. She quickly made a name for herself by receiving “Designer of the Year” in the student competition at the 2016 AIFD Symposium.
In 2017 she moved to Houston to work in Wedding & Event Floral at The Senterpiece, but has recently changed career paths to the wholesale side as a sales rep for Mayesh. Hallie recently received her AIFD pin in Las Vegas and is excited to continue to learn and grow in this industry. She desires to one day have the opportunity to educate and mentor other designers and is thrilled to be apart of the Allied Team.
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General Membership Director, Michael McCarthy AIFD CFD
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Wholesale Director, Rob Spikol
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Wholesale Director, Charity Reel AIFD CFD
 Twenty or more years ago Charity Reel joined Mayesh Wholesale as a "young, impressionable person who knew nothing about the floral industry." At the time, she was working for Airborn Express, a competitor of Fed Ex and UPS. She pitched Mayesh on the cargo air companies services-and was turned down- but the national Sales manager, Chris Dahlson, called her later offering her a job!
Reel has spent her entire floral career based in Los Angeles CA, where a big part of her job started in sales, scouting, developing and sustaining new customers. She worked her way to the sales manager and applied those same skills to help build the sales staff in the LA Mayesh shipping division. A year and a half ago Charity set out to join the team at the time our newest Mayesh location in Houston TX. Alongside Peter Sessler and Joe Wilridge, Reel plays a big part in leading the location to the highest success in developing a winning team, increasing sales and attracting the attention of Mayesh corporate as one of the most successful locations out of 17 located in 9 different states in 2018!
Charity says.... " you are only as good as the team that surrounds you and I am convinced I have one of the best teams in the floral industry"!
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Secretary, Debbie Lyon TMF CFD
 Debbie Lyon TMF is originally from Tulsa Oklahoma. She is married with three grown children. Debbie and her husband Kenn love spending time with their four year old granddaughter Braelyn and are looking forward to the birth of their new granddaughter Elle in November. Debbie is a floral manager at Kroger. She earned her Texas Master Florist certification in 2017. Debbie is also the 2017 Texas Designer of the Year.
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Board Advisor, Ken Senter AIFD
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A driver’s daily journal would be interesting reading... Tom from Ohio - “We once delivered an FTD BIG HUG MUG to a farm....No one was home so the driver left it up on a high window sill because there were some animals roaming around ....
That FTD design, for us 'oldsters' included a little stuffed tan bear hugging the mug.
We got a call that not only did a goat get to it, it ATE the stuffed bear!!!!
We sent pictures and FTD featured the story in a newsletter they had. I still have the clipping somewhere around here....”
Cammy from Wisconsin - “A driver made the last delivery of a dozen roses and went home. I get a call from Sender a couple of hours later and he is steaming mad! Says there were only 11 roses in the vase and recipient called and thanked him but wanted to know what ultra romantic meaning there was behind 11 roses. She also hinted maybe she expected the 12th one later that day with a greater surprise.
Oh man I did a total refund...I couldn’t believe I mis-counted. The next day when I mention scenario to the driver he says “you mean people actually count the roses?”. Apparently he popped a head off so he removed the rest of the stem thinking no one would notice. I wonder what ever happened to that driver. He was dismissed. Lol”
Chris from Texas - "A dog peed on my driver's leg this past week"
Louie from Alaska -"In the 80s and 90s, we offered costume delivery for most holidays. At Easter, the guys wore a white tx with tails, and a fleece hood with ears. We had a gal delivering one year, and she wanted a costume too- so a local seamstress made a fleece bunny suit for her to wear. By the time Easter rolled around, our gal was about 6 months pregnant and had a sizable tummy showing. She made a house delivery and the guy says, "Wait a minute, I'm gonna get a tip for ya," She waited on the front porch and could hear him rummaging around. Finally he came back to the door and handed her a can of beer for her tip. "I saved this for ya," he said.
Did I mention she was pregnant?"
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Well, we have made it to another school year. WOOHOO… It is going to be a fun year for us here at Allied and I am looking forward to the changes that are taking place and seeing us grow bigger and better than ever. |
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Two Exciting Programs Coming this Fall |
We have two really exciting programs coming in the fall for all of you who are able to attend. As announced at our end of year meeting, there are some changes coming in the programs and the first one in our September meeting. The meeting will be held September 10th at Greenleaf Wholesale with a business program and 3 hands on break out sessions in which attendees will be creating 3 different projects to take home or back to their shops. Look for the flyer for a more detailed explanation on these sessions.
The business program, will be 30 minutes long, and guests will learn more about phone sales and driving your profit margin up, creating more revenue in our shops. It is an exciting seminar that will encourage you to revisit the way your sales staff presents your product, add on sales etc. Don't miss our own Allied member Lori Wilson of Team Floral as she teaches more about the business side of our industry.
November's program is being presented in conjunction with Fleur de Vie Houston and we will be bringing Putnam and Putnam, a design duo from New York. They will be teaching on their fabulous style of design. Every attendee that night will leave with their book and can get that signed if desired. The book, program and dinner is included in the cost of registration. It is another must attend event for our fall season. Mayesh will be hosting this event their location as well as providing all of the flowers for the night. This meeting is November 13th.
The flyer below is linked to the ticket site, so click and book your ticket now.
Go ahead and mark your calendars and save the dates now for both of these really unique opportunities.
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SAFD Meeting
Sept 17, 2019 |
The Society for the Advancement of Floral Design (SAFD) will hold its September meeting on September 17th at Christ the Good Shepherd Church... |
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Jim Johnson Cup
March 3, 2020 |
Save the date for the 4th Annual Jim Johnson Cup on Tuesday night, March 3rd, 2020. Hosted by Pikes Peak Wholesale in Houston, Texas... |
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Pikes Peak of Houston Fall/Christmas Show |
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Flower Arrangements Still Top Sellers?You bet! About 65% of the average retail florist’s sales are flower arrangements. A good portion of the remaining 35% of sales are also flower related. The vast majority of sales have something to do with flowers.
Florists are still very firmly in the flower business, even though most report adding gift lines and other non-floral merchandise to their inventory.
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CAREing for Your Customers |
Train your staff to use CARE with every customer during the sales transaction. |
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Upcoming events for AFH and other floral industry events. |
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You can improve your business just by following these managerial tasks: |
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Team Floral Article
Employee Rewards Programs:
Does Yours Motivate or Aggravate? |
Let’s say you enter a 5K race and you cross the finish line in first place. You are awarded a year’s worth of cat food, even though you do not have a cat. The second place finisher is given a bicycle and the third place runner is handed a pizza and a case of beer. The fourth place finisher is loudly heralded and awarded $5,000. It turns out that the runner who crossed the finish line in fourth place is actually the winner. The goal of the race was not to finish first, but to be the first to finish wearing a certain brand of athletic shoes.
So, what’s wrong with this scenario and what does it have to do with employee incentive programs? First of all, the goals of the race weren’t made clear to the participants and second of all, the rewards didn’t correlate with the activity or the recipients. Many employee incentive programs suffer from the same problems. Even with the best intentions, reward programs can frustrate or disappoint rather than motivate and inspire employees.
What’s the purpose?
Reward programs are profit-makers, not expenses. If your rewards system produced 10% more in profits for the year, wouldn’t it be worth sharing 5% of that extra profit? Done correctly, a reward and recognition program should create more net revenue for your shop. If it doesn’t, it’s because there is a problem with the way it was developed or the way it is being implemented. Sometimes it boils down to expecting a lot for a little. In other words, lofty goals are set but the rewards are hardly inspiring..
Pinpoint the behavior and improvements you seek, then establish ways to measure them. Steer clear of rewards for activity that is too broadly defined or not clearly defined at all. For example, one of the most over-used and use- less employee recognition programs is “the employee of the month.”
The criteria is hardly ever specific or it changes from month to month so that the recognition appears to be arbitrary. Also, it limits the number of winners. It’s a clear case of good intentions and poor planning and execution.
Be precise in what you want to accomplish. Is it an improvement in quality or performance? Do you expect to increase productivity? Do you want to increase sales to each customer? The more specific you are, the more participation you will receive. Keep in mind that what gets rewarded is what gets done.
Set up programs where everyone who merits recognition gets it frequently. Be aware of the impor- tance of timing. The longer a reward is delayed, the less value your employees will see. Once it is announced or the goal is met, the reward should fol- low immediately.
Money Motivators
Cash rewards carry a lot of clout. Luxury items, however, are king. While surveys show that employ- ees don’t always favor cash over other types of incentives, cash usually makes the top three. Cash rewards are best used when tied to performance and not to contests or competitions.
Set clear criteria for earning cash bonuses and then track and inform employees as they move closer to reaching the threshold. In this way, your employees will see their progress and get positive reinforcement immediately. When you show employees how to earn a bonus, everyone is on square one and knows what it takes to reach square two. And no one expects a free ride on the money train. You can pay bonuses weekly, biweekly, or monthly at the most.
Tie bonuses to activities that impact revenue. In this way, you make it clear that a bonus is based on outstanding performance and not entitlement or sen- iority. Continue to communicate the intent behind the performance-reward program and why the goal is important to the overall financial stability of the shop.
Other than Money
What you think employees will value can be very different from what they really want. Yes, plaques, certificates, thank-you notes, and shop discounts are part of it, but so are days off, flex time, gasoline allowances, and gift cards. The biggest reward is one that an employee is passionate about and is consid- ered too extravagant to purchase.
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 It is with much excitement that we announce the opening of our 10th location and very first international distribution center.
Greenleaf also introduces our wholly owned company (entity) in Mexico, Four Brothers Farms.
Learn more about us on our website |
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Dues and applications can be submitted online for new members. Retail Membership: $150 yearly; Wholesale Membership: $150 yearly; Associate Membership: $150 yearly; General Membership: $50 yearly. For all details visit our website: alliedfloristsofhouston.org
(Current members will receive notices when yearly dues are due.) |
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