FROM THE FIELD
July 2004
FER Fortnightly, Lost Letters and CFESA News

Well, call it housekeeping month. The “Things To Deal With” yellow stickies are stacking up here, so might as well start clearing out a few of ’em:

* First item’s a reminder, and a small bit of horn-blowing. As Robin wrote in his column last month, depending on when you receive this July issue, you may already have received the inaugural edition of a very different kind of e-mail newsletter from us called FER Fortnightly. Honk, honk.

Another newsletter? Yes, and this one’s different. We think you’ll find Fortnightly far more useful than what usually stuffs your in-box.

We know you don’t need another weekly newsletter, so Fortnightly as its name indicates, will arrive just every two weeks. That’s enough to keep you posted without burying you alive, and besides, truthfully, not that much happens in the equipment and supplies market each week to justify a weekly.

We've found many of you cringing, faces contorted, over growing regulatory complexity.

Which brings us to content: It’s tailored for you, it’s a quick read, and it expands beyond what we already tap into here in the magazine. In our travels around the business, lately we’ve found many of you cringing, faces contorted, saying you just can’t keep up with regulatory actions. So Fortnightly will deliver regulatory news while it’s happening, and whenever possible, even before it’s finalized. A section called Regulatory Report will focus on what impacts equipment, supplies and facilities first, but we’ll also cover whatever bears on operations, too.

In addition, Economic Report will keep you posted on economic measurements, trends and analyses as they apply to foodservice. Our fearless publisher will be riding herd on that section, drawing on a quarter-century of foodservice experience to offer useful historical perspectives.

Finally, we’ll round out each issue with Industry Report, short announcements of broader topics hitting the industry. We hope you find the whole package useful, and we’re counting on you for feedback.

* Second item on today’s list: Some of you recently sent Letters to the Editor that no longer exist. Returning from the National Restaurant Association Show in May, we found yours truly’s hard drive had eaten itself lock, stock and e-mail. Most of the important bits were backed up, but a few key pieces weren’t. My e-mails, including a handful of recent reader letters (including a great one about soy sensitivity and labeling) and several years’ worth of Tim Bohan’s jokes, are gone. If you’ve e-mailed me for the Letters column, please resend.

* Item three: If you’re among the many grinding your teeth at night over installation woes, you really need to check out a program in the works at the Commercial Food Equipment Service Association. An ad-hoc CFESA committee, chaired by Tony Rapanotti of A&R Repairs/Bakers Kneads in Warren, Mich., is making great strides toward a formal program to train, certify and otherwise equip service techs to become installers. Already, the CFESA Web site shows you which CFESA member firms are involved in installing, and to what extent. Check out more details in the NRA meeting coverage elsewhere in this issue.

Brian Ward
Chief Editor