The Mid-America Automatic Merchandising Association (MAMA) once again held a successful Winter Seminar on February 24, 2007 in Kansas City, MO. Josh Patrick from Stage 2 Planning Partners gave a presentation on financial planning for business owners and Chris McAllister from Harris Interactive presented the results of recent NAMA vending and coffee research.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 2007 MAMA Annual Convention, which will be held June 1-3 at the Lake of the Ozarks! For further details contact Kim Barnett, MAMA Executive Director, at kbarnett@vending.org.

The second annual silent auction will be held Saturday, June 2 at the Annual Convention-Lake of the Ozarks at 6:00pm.

Some of the items to be auctioned off include:
One seat to the NAMA Emerging Leaders Program
Gift Certificate to Mike Shannan's Restaurant in St. Louis
Deluxe room for 2 at the Resort at Port Arrowhead, including breakfast
J.A. Henckels 18 piece knife and wood block set
And there are also multiple golf packages and sports tickets to bid on!

For more information: To donate a prize or additional information concerning auction items contact:
Tim Merideth - tmerideth@burchfood.com 573-471-3003 x 203

The Mid-America Auotmatic Merchandising Assocation (MAMA) adopted a new Kansas policy regarding vending in schools. MAMA's Kansas policy regarding vending in schools will be to "remove all products that are classified as minimal nutritional value foods (as defined by the USDA) from vending machines in Kansas schools and will work to implement a program centered on healthy vending choices."

In discussing the new policy MAMA President, John Mitchell, Jr. said "Our members are committed to delivering healthy foods and snacks through this program. We're proud to launch this initiative as an industry in cooperation with schools to meet the needs of students of all ages." In addition to this new Policy, MAMA's national association NAMA has an ongoing program called "Balanced for Life" that promotes nutrition, exercise and education for school children, parents of all ages. For more information go to : http://www.balancedforlife.net

Rep. Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, has been active in encouraging development of programs like the one announced today. "Providing healthy choices through vending machines at schools is a vital part of an overall strategy of improving the health and fitness of our Kansas School kids."

The Mid-America Automatic Merchandising Association (MAMA) is a multi-state (Missouri and Kansas) trade organization of automatic merchandisers related professionals committed to vending excellence through its representation of the merchandise vending industry. Its members include service companies, vending machine manufacturers and suppliers of vendible products, component parts and support services.

It has been and exciting and eventful winter for MAMA and there is much to report:

For those of you who could not be there, you missed a great Winter seminar. Our ever-dutiful, Bill Short, worked diligently with Danielle Del Carlo and Kim Barnett of NAMA to organize the event that was power packed full of valuable information. I think we all appreciated learning about Kansas and Missouri DOT regulations and about employee relations do's and don'ts. For me, though the highlights was a presentation by Grayson Wood, Director of Risk Management for Five Star Food Services. It was really valuable to learn the five steps Five Star takes to embrace their security. It's amazing all the various ways hidden cameras can be deployed. It may be 22 years after 1984, but Big Brother is definitely watching now. I hope those of you who missed the event will consider attending next year adn I encourage you to send your managers. I know it's tough to give up a Saturday, but I promise the return on your invested time will be significant.

In addition to our organization of the Winter Seminar, we have been working hard on legislative issues. In particular, there has been much discussion and work related to vending in schools. In Kansas, Tom Burgess helped us as we worked hand in hand with Kansas Representative Jason Watkins to craft a healthy vending in schools policy. We are currently working with Rep. Watkins to issue a joint press release. The issue of healthy vending is pervasive. We are taking active steps and are working with NAMA to publicize our efforts toward providing healthy vended options. We intend to discuss this issue further in upcoming conference calls and at the Annual Convention at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Speaking of the Annual Convention we are excited to announce the First Annual MAMA Live/Silent Auction. Your auction committee is searching the far corners of the planet to collect all items of interest to be auctioned at the Lake. This is sure to be fun and will raise some money for a cause in need - MAMA. Please contact Tim Meredith or Frost Selmon if you can make a donation to the auction. Otherwise, sign up to attend the convention and polish up your auction paddle - you won't want to miss out on the great deals or the festivities.

Finally, please allow me to make an impassioned plea: We need your support. As our industry continues to consolidate, there are fewer companies that are members of MAMA, and even fewer that actively participate. I hope you will get involved and become active participants. If you do, you will repaid many times over. You will develop friendships and have a lot of fun. And most importantly, you will support your industry. Through our legislative efforts and our public relations campaigns we get the positive message of the work we do for our communities. Unless we can get more active support from more vending companies, it will be difficult to maintain our efforts. I ask that each member company assign at least one person to be actively involved in MAMA. I ask that you participate in our meetings and recruit new members. If each member company will get actively involved we can maintain the energy we need to continue our important work.

In order for the President to have business meetings and not ask folks to travel he has conference calls. You are invited to participate. It is a good opportunity to know what is happening. The next "meeting" call is April 20th at 2:00 pm. Please consider joining us. The number is 800-944-8766. The pin number is 1401 and them press the # sign.

I look forward to seeing you all at the Lake.

Sincerely,

John Mitchell, Jr.

Tim Merideth, Vice President of Burch Food Services was inducted into N.A.M.A.'s Certified Executive (NCE) program. This recognizes his accomplishments, initiative and professionalism in vending, coffee service and on site food management.

The program tracks the same curriculum courses offered at traditional MBA schools including marketing, finance, supply chain management, technology and negotiation skills.

Tim has been a board member and served M.A.M.A. as President. We thank Tim for his continued dedication to our Industry and Association.