Dear Friends,

We held our annual Apple Sale Professional recognition dinner on Wednesday night at the local barbecue joint. Apple has an on-line training program with several levels of achievement. It is a job requirement here at Small Dog Electronics that all employees, from the shippers to the consultants must reach the highest level of Apple training – Apple Product Professional. We were the first company to have 100% of our employees reach this level. There is one more level, though and that is Apple Sales Professional.

Three years ago I decided to reward those that reach this ultimate level with a dinner and personalized gift. The first year only six people managed to reach ASP and we went to dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town, the Pitcher Inn. I gave each employee a personalized fleece vest. The next year we had about 20 employees reach ASP so we planned a dinner at our neighbor restaurant, Pulcinella’s, in S. Burlington and each employee received a custom hooded sweatshirt.

This year, 31 employees made ASP and we chose to have the event at the Cider House BBQ in Waterbury, about halfway between our two locations. The gift this year was a baseball jersey with shorts for the men and pants for the women. There was a bit of controversy, though, as our marketing department seems to have a case of spring fever or has been overrun with Boston Red Sox fans since the font that was used had a suspicious resemblance to the Red Sox logo. Now, Hapy loves the Giants and I am a life-long Cubs fan, so whatsupwitdat? I may have to adjust some salaries in that department.

I was also able to honor two employees who have been with the company for over 10 years. Art Hendrickson was our first employee and has been with the company for over 12 years and Rob Amon has just reached the 10-year mark. Now in our 15th year of business, Small Dog is old enough to make this a tradition. We have another handful of employees who will soon be reaching their 10-year anniversary.

Right before the party, Geoff and I went to Burlington to receive an award for being one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont from Vermont Business Magazine and Governor Douglas. This was a true honor and it was great to hear about the other nine small/medium companies who also won this award.