Clothesline Cleaners was presented with the awards for New Store of the Year and Social Media Effort of the Year and we earned a runner-up award for our van designs. We won these awards among a pool of applicants who had submitted their efforts to a panel of judges consisting of leaders in the fabricare industry who were featured presenters during the conference, including:

■       Trudy Adams, Director of Customer Service and Sales for The Cleaner’s Supply

■      Don Desrosiers, President of Tailwind Systems

■      Carolyn Nankervis of Marketwise Consulting Group Inc.

■      John Rudolph of Cleaning By Page and Nationwide Carpet Cleaning

■      Tom Pisani, Finance & Economics Adjunct Professor and Former CFO of a Fortune 500 Company

These are all top industry players in the industry and we are fortunate to have had their participation in the conference. Methods for Management serves the drycleaning industry through independent consulting relationships as well as coordinating and facilitating Management Bureaus.   MfM Management Bureaus provide a safe, non-competitive environment where members are comfortable sharing information, issues, and concerns with peers that they trust and respect.  MfM as helped clients, nationally and internationally, improve profits and operations since 1953.

We also went on two plant tours during the conference.  Our first tour was through New Oriental Cleaners in Nassau, led by Lana Lee-Brogdon, her husband Chris, and her father Henry.  The group enjoyed the experience of this dry cleaning plant on the Bahamas! Angel and Franky Suarez of Rey’s Cleaners led our second tour through their plant in Miami.  The group was thrilled to see their large warehouse plant operation which reaches all over the city and even miles outside Miami.

It wasn’t all work. Keh gave the group hula dancing lessons and together we wrote a song dedicated to MfM.

Keh and Gary McCracken perform a song they composed at the business retreat

Success 2010 Blues
Well we want to welcome you to Success 2010
A four day cruise sponsored by MFM
Chance to meet and greet old colleagues and friends
A floating business trip for not much to spend
If this is bad economy, then I like the trend
Sail on to success, I hope the fun never ends
Oh Yeah,
A great trend!

The waters been rough we’ve got to stem the tide
But don’t you fret cause along for the ride
We’ve got guest speakers here from far and wide
Giving us pointers on how to survive
The storms may blow, the waters may rise
They are here to teach us, how to be wise
Oh yeah, we’ll survive!

Diana Vollmer, is the big cheese
Say; Girl, Staple, Upcharge, pass the dinosaur please
She dosen’t like excuses she’s as tough as a nail
Marta will tell you she’s a tiger by the tail
Expenses and costs, your profit and loss, the EBITDAL
Nothing gets by her, like a fly on the wall
Oh yeah, that ain’t all!

She packs a lot of business into just a few days
There never is time to sit around and laze
The schedule is tight, from morning till nigh
When it’s all done we just sit back and sigh
Benchmarks to beat, case studies, and feats
It’s so exhausting, I think I could die
Oh yeah, but I’ll try!

We’re all about the same; we’re on the same track,
Cleaning people’s clothes like sweaters, coats and slacks
Mustard stains, the boiler pains, drapes on the line
Hangers, clips and tissue paper, shirts done on time
A million different messages, buttons and soap
We lost that one shirt now we feel like a dope
A dope, on a rope!

Well there’s a lot of us here, with individual names
Like, Anton’s, Balfurd’s, Blue Sky, and Greene’s
Ablitt’s, Art, Bowen, Burke, and Kean’s
Cleaning by Page, and Crest Quality
The Cleaning Company, Crouse, Dandy, and Don’s
Davis, Drake, Glyndon, and Fashion
Oh yeah, we’re not done!

Hallmark, GreenStreets, and Dublin
Hallak, Hilker’s, and Martinizin’
Hill Street, Lemon Tree and New City
Moons, Modern, Nichols Hills and Spiffy
Prestige, Shirtland and Shaffers Dry Clean
Westbank, Tripps Fine and Supreme
Oh yeah, we’re all clean!

Now’s the time for cruisin’ let’s go
Swimming, Dancing, Dining and a casino
When business is done how bout a massage and spa
Island excursions – PinaColada
One last thing that we’d like you to know
We’re Gary and Keh from Clothesline that’s in Idaaahooooooo!

Earns International Drycleaning Award

2009 Award of Excellence Recognizes Top Quality and Service

CLOTHESLINE CLEANERS has met the rigorous demands of the Award of Excellence program.  The BOISE-based cleaner passed all cleaning and customer service evaluations and earned the 2009 Award of Excellence for Quality Garment Cleaning & Customer Service.

This prestigious international award program is administered by the Clothing Care Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group.  To date, approximately 140 companies around the world have attained the Award of Excellence, which requires passing separate stain removal and cleaning performance tests among other criteria.  CLOTHESLINE CLEANERS is the only drycleaner in Idaho to do so.

The Clothing Care Council (CCC) represents the interests of the cleaning industry, clothing manufacturers, and consumer advisors in identifying those cleaning plants that provide the highest level of clothing care.  The group began accepting applications for the Award of Excellence for Quality Garment Cleaning & Customer Service in 2005.

Visit www.ifi.org/consumer/AOE.php for more on the AOE Program.