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In This Issue ...
- World Floral Expo
- Women's Day
- Leadership Change at CalFlowers Board
- Memorial Day Flowers
- In Memory of Carol Lee Amling
- Transportation Updates
- New Members
Going Social ...
Members, please follow us on Instagram @CalifFlowers and hashtag #CalFlowers. Watch for event or news-specific hashtags. And we welcome your photos! Please share with Michael LoBue at [email protected].
Upcoming Events
Women's Day
March 8, 2016
World Floral Expo
March 9 - 11, 2016
Los Angeles, CA
IFE
June 20 - 22, 2016
Chicago, IL
AIFD
July 3 - 7, 2016
Orange County, CA
Save The Dates
2016 Member Meetings:
8/9/16 Hyatt Regency Monterey, Monterey, CA
8/16/16 Park Hyatt Aviara, Carlsbad, CA
8/18/16 Fess Parker, Santa Barbara, CA
2017 Fun 'N Sun:
August 9 - 12, 2017 Park Hyatt Aviara, Carlsbad, CA
CalFlowers News
Our goal is to communi-cate on a monthly basis with the membership and interested parties about recent past and upcoming events, program updates, and general information about how CalFlowers is engaging in the industry on behalf of the membership.
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World Floral Expo This Week in Los Angeles...
 WFE opens on Wednesday, March 9 with a brief opening ceremony by Pat Dahlson, CEO of Mayesh, and Mike Mooney of Dramm & Echter and newly elected president of the CalFlowers Board of Directors (see below).
According to current reports, CalFlowers members will occupy 5,400 sq.ft. of exhibit space, of which 3,000 sq.ft. will be California flower growers. The total California Pavilion is almost double what it wasn in 2015. Once again, there will be more flowers on display from California than any other growing region in the world!
WFE promoter (HPP) expects another attendee record-breaking year, with an increase of more than 30% in the number of attendee-companies over the 2015 record-setting attendance. CalFlowers is extremely grateful to HPP for their incredible support of the US floral industry and our CalFlowers members!
Momentum is gaining for Women's Day across many markets. CalFlowers, along with AFIF, Asocolflores, CCFC, SAF and WF&FSA, has increased promotional activities for this important emerging floral holiday in 2016.
Even if you were not directly involved in some of these projects, each CalFlowers member should be asking: "What can we do to raise the visibility of flowers as a way to show love, honor & respect for women on March 8?"
Posters & Magnetic Truck Signage ¿ Asocolflores, CalFlowers, CCFC, SAF and WF&FSA distributed 10,000 posters to more than 45 supply chain members. Association of Floral Importers of Florida (AFIF), instead of posters, will be distributing magnetic truck signs to ensure that consumers "get the message" while driving around their communities.
Giving Back ¿ Several members that we know will be donating portions of their Women's Day floral sales to local women's causes in their communities. To draw attention to this, CalFlowers placed an ad in the March issue of Florists' Review to promote the holiday and give a shout-out to ArizonaFamily Florist, Florabundance & Kitayama Brothers. If you did the same, please let us know and we'll recognize your generosity in the April issue of this newsletter. (A big thanks to ArizonaFamily Florist for contributing the design and artwork for the ad.)
Metro Promotion ¿ As reported last month, we expanded the very successful Women's Day promotion we did with Asocolflores in the Greater Phoenix market last year. At last count ArizonaFamily Florist, our project coordinator for this promotion, reported that the Women's Day Holiday Facebook page is on its way to reaching 10,000 subscribers. This year's promotion has been scalled out to nine (9) states involving more than 100 florists:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Oklahoma
- Missouri
- New Mexico
- Louisiana
- South Carolina
"Can't wait for Women's Day to become a flower-holiday in its own right so we can shift our promotional efforts to other opportunities," said Michael LoBue, CalFlowers CEO.
Leadership Change at CalFlowers Board
 At the Board's March 2nd meeting Robert Kitayama (Kitayama Brothers) submitted his resignation as Board President. Robert said: "It's been a pleasure and an honor to serve our membership as Board President and I think this is an ideal time to turn over leadership to Mike Mooney who can help guide the CalFlowers' strategic initiatives to their next level. I would also like to acknowledge the other Board members and our membership for their support over the past 15 months. I look forward to continuing to support CalFlowers as a general member of the Board in the role of Immediate Past President."
  The Board of Directors elected Mike Mooney (right) (Dramm & Echter) President effective immediately following the meeting. The Board also elected Ben Dobbe (left) (Holland America Flowers) as Vice President to fill the vacancy created when Mooney became President.
Memorial Day is right around the corner! CalFlowers continues its support for the special tribute created by the Memorial Day Flower Foundation (MDFF - charitable nonprofit entity). This marks the 6th consecurive year that the MDFF has placed flowers on headstones at Arlington National Cemetery and passed our bouquets to family and friends paying respect to the loved ones. We like to this of this gesture as "flowers for the remembered and the remembering."
CalFlowers is especially proud to be working with MDFF this year to bring this moving tribute to five (5) National Cemeteries around the country, in addition to the event at Arlington National Cemetery. The following cemeteries are the ones we're working on:
- Presidio National Cemetery (San Francisco - 26,000 headstones)
- Miramar (San Diego -
- National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona (Phoenix - 44,000 headstones)
- Tahoma National Cemetery (WA state)
- Woodlawn National Cemetery (MA state)
We would like to acknowledge CalFlowers members Holland America Flowers and Myriad Flowers for donating bouquets and roses for the cemeteries in California. Ocean View is once again donating bouquets for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (T.A.P.S.). TAPS provides support services for spouses and children who've lost parents/spouses in combat.
To be honest, complete success at these "heartland" locations is dependent on additional sponsorship. If you know of an organization or corporation in these locals who would like to be part of this unique tribute, please contact Michael LoBue at: [email protected] (or 415-561-6111).
In Memory of Carol Lee Amling
April 12, 1940 - February 7, 2016
Carol Lee Amling was called to God unexpectedly on Feb 7, 2016. Carol was born on April 12th 1940 in Orange CA. She is survived by Norman her husband of 28 years and her children Karen Dueker, Mike Bathke , Rob Bathke and their spouses, along with her 6 step children, 21 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. Carol was born and raised in Orange. She attended St. Johns Lutheran School and Orange High School and lived on an avocado ranch near La Veta and Prospect growing up. She was a life-long member of St. Johns Lutheran Church and served as a teacher at the preschool for 8 years. Her love for her family cannot be summed up in this small space. She touched so many people during her life and was an amazing person. She will be missed by all.
She loved traveling with her husband, scrapping with her daughter, going to the cabin with anyone who would take her and just hanging out with her grand kids. Family was the most important thing in her life and spent as many nights as possible playing Shanghai and games with them. She hosted foreign exchange students for several years and was their American mom. Carol was blessed with a beautiful voice and enjoyed singing in several church choirs as well as around her player piano. She was extremely generous to everyone. It only took a few minutes for her to touch your life and she did that with nearly everyone she met.
Transportation
- We are pleased to announce a new Sales Rep for Alaska Airlines Cargo. Please welcome Michael Yu. Michael will be our sole sale representative for Alaska Cargo and he can be contacted at [email protected] or at 949-394-2956.
- When you need special assistance with OnTrac, members are encouraged to utilize OnTracs Special Account Desk. Here CalFlowers members have a dedicated specialist that can help with a wide variety of special shipping needs. Please call Carla Rodriguez at 800-334-5000 x 3152 or you can email Carla at [email protected]
- Did you know that FedEx Ground can be a big money saver when shipping flowers overnight to areas that are close to your location? FedEx Ground¿s overnight reach is larger than you might think and it worth a look. Please visit http://www.fedex.com/grd/maps/ShowMapEntry.do?cc=US&language=en When you type in the origin zip code and click on the ¿view overnight map¿ this will tell how far you can ship for next day delivery. Please remember that ground is not time definite so these packages may not arrive until the afternoon.
- For members wanting to take advantage of our new American Airlines shipping rates, be sure to email me your PAL number ([email protected]). We will then link your company to the pricing plan. For members who do not currently have an AA PAL number, please visit www.aacargo.com to get started.
In other OnTrac news, all shipping CalFlowers members should now be on-line booking with OnTrac. WebOnTrac is an excellent tool that can help shippers with most everything they need when booking a shipment. Using paper waybills adds complexity and risk to their digital system. WebOnTrac software even has provisions that can catch errors before they can be submitted. If you are not using OnTrac's free booking software, we strongly recommend you do, and it's easy to start. Just contact OnTrac for more info at 800-334-5000 or visit www.ontrac.com.
NOTE: Transportation Rate information and documents are now viewable/downloadable (as PDFs) on the CalFlowers Members Only site. Please note that these documents are considered sensitive material and are available to the primary contacts for Ag Buddy, Associate Floral, Associate Grower, and Floral members only.
To access the Members Only site, simply login using the Member Login button in the top-right corner of our website.
Click Here if you dont know or dont remember your username and/or password. This document will help you login.
New Members
In February 2016, we were pleased to welcome the following new CalFlowers members:
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Associate Grower
Kennicott Kuts, LLC
Waterford, WI
Scenic Place Peonies Homer, AK
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