Greetings, and welcome to this month's edition of "The Scoop". The ice cream newsletter that 100% guarantees that no animals were harmed in the production process. (Although I nearly squashed the dog when he was a little slow moving out of the way as I came through the living room carrying my laptop. Luckily, our little pug doesn't have much of a tail to trip over.)

I had to rush to finish up this edition, as I meant to send it on Friday, but got caught up in setting up my new computer, so didn't have the time to devote to it that I normally do. (That's meant to be a disclaimer: Excuse any poorly written sentences in the rest of this! Maybe I'll start using that excuse more often...)

THANK GOD that the end of winter is within sight! We've seen steady increases in our customer traffic over the past weeks, and on days when the temperatures creep up into the 40's and even to the 50's, we get sudden rushes of people infected with the sudden spring fever -- GOT TO GET SOME ICE CREAM!

This past Saturday and Sunday we were approaching "average" traffic levels, even after Friday's dumping of 8" of snow. The warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours seem to be triggering the ice cream cravings in our customers!

Girl Scout Invasion

If you read the story about my "incident" with the Girl Scouts and their cookie sale in the last newsletter, you know we're committed to buying *a lot* of girl scout cookies this year.

To try to get some publicity out of it, we're hosting the first (of a hopefully annual) "Girl Scout Cookie Kickoff" night. We'll have scores of scouts at the store on Tuesday, February 26th, and will be hosting tours of our store, giving away free samples of our newly minted (that's a pun, son) "Mint Cookie" flavor.

I'm also working on a flavor that uses Caramel Delights (some of you may remember these as "Samoans", but apparently the PC police have gotten to the girl scouts as well...) I'm not sure what the final recipe for this one will be, but likely a coconut base, with caramel and maybe some fudge. Sounds yummy, doesn't it?

The scouts will be there selling cookies as well, so come on by if you didn't get your order in in time this winter!

Oh, and we've had some cute T-shirts made for the girls. They'll be on sale at the store at our cost, which is $7/shirt. But I only ordered a limited number of these, so if your daughter wants one, make sure you get there EARLY, before they're all gone!

A last minute update: The Lawrence Eagle Tribune *did* run a story about our cookies, although the story was a little bit twisted from the version that's on our website, and what I told the reporter. We were happy to get the publicity though. If you want to read the story, you can find it here:

http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_050010302.html

Boy, Do I Treat These Kids Well!

On January 31st through February 2nd, I travelled to the great, white, frozen town of Lansing, Michigan to attend the 41st annual Great Lakes Ice Cream and Fast Food Association's winter convention. (Why the heck can't these organizations hold a convention in Jamaica in the winter?)

I'd never attended this convention before, and I had a lot of fun, and attended some interesting discussions on running an ice cream business.

One of the seminars was on "Managing Your Employees", and the woman leading it seemed experienced in running an ice cream shop. She told us a lot of the techniques she uses in keeping her team on their toes and working hard. I'm sure her methods work for her, but as I listened (both to her and to the responses from the others attending), it struck me how much differently we treat our team from the way most stores treat their serving staff.

One of the "motivational techniques" the speaker cited was in bringing candy bars to the store. If an employee did a good job, they got a "Mr Goodbar". If they did something dumb, they got a bag of "AirHeads". And if they came in in a sour mood, they were made to wear a plastic pickle pin on their shirt for the rest of their shift.

On another topic, most agreed that anyone needing a day off had to have a written request for that day at least three weeks in advance, and that if someone couldn't make a scheduled shift, they got one warning, then lost their job.

Most of the attendees agreed that these were great ideas. But I sat there thinking "If I did any of those things to my kids, they'd stuff me into a freezer and turn me into a popsicle!"

I try to treat our serving team as adults, although I know some of them aren't quite there yet. If they do a good job, they know that their reward will be better shifts -- both more hours, and shifts that are flexible enough to fit into their schedule. While I dole out my fair share of good natured teasing if I notice the kids are not doing their best work during a shift, I don't think I'd ever be able to hand one of them a pack of AirHeads at the end of the night, as I know where that package would end up (or, at least, where I would *suggest* it end up) if my own boss gave me one.

The others at the convention also made a big deal that they hold a Pizza party once or twice a season. I treat my kids to dinner just about every shift, especially on weekends, and folks thought I was crazy to be doing that on a regular basis. (I can't help it, it's the Italian in me that just wants to feed everyone ;^)

I think the way we value our serving team is reflected in the number of returning veterans we have each spring. We normally don't lose more than one or two over the course of the winter, and a lot of them tell me that their friends are envious when they hear about how great the Mad Maggie's team has it. I figure that if we keep our team happy, they'll keep the customers happy, and our business will continue to grow. So far, I think it's an approach that works, and I'm glad I don't have to resort to thinking up cutesy ways to insult my team, as I'm not clever enough to think of those things, and I doubt the kids would buy it if I did!

Maple Syrup Kickoff

Another upcoming event that we'll be attending is the "2008 Maple Month Kick-off", being held from 10:30 to 12:30 on March 7th at our friends, Turtle Lane Maple Farm, who supply us with some delicious maple syrup for use in our Maple Walnut ice cream.

TLMF is an authentic sugar house, and has the distinction of being the one closest to Boston.

There will be a lot of politicians there (I'll try to behave...), as well as several third graders from the local schools and assorted other people looking to munch on some great Maple-themed treats. TLMF will be conducting tours of their sugar house, and it should be a fun event.

We'll be there serving fresh Maple Walnut ice cream, as well as making fresh waffle cones, and serving them with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream drizzled with fresh maple syrup. Sounds like a yummy event, so drop on by if you're around town on that day, and help us all celebrate the end of the winter and start of spring!

[You can read all about the event at Turtle Lane Maple Farm's website.]

Flavor News

As noted above, our newest flavor is Caramel Coconut Cookie: Coconut ice cream, mixed with pieces of Caramel delight cookies, and with a thick ripple of caramel added. I've been eating this all week, and I think it's a good one, though one customer suggested adding fudge, rather than caramel.

I also found a source for awesome imported Australian ginger pieces, so I made a fresh Ginger ice cream. It's a strong taste, but the Ginger lovers seem to think it's perfect!

Staff Profile

Things are starting to heat up on our hiring front, as I've already started receiving applications from hopeful new team members looking for summer work. We've still got a whole bunch of veterans who I haven't had the time to feature here though. So, in this edition I'll introduce Sara, who's one of our North Andover crew members.

Sara started working for us last summer, while we were still in our North Reading location. She joined at the same time as a group of other North Andover kids, and I don't think I could keep the names of any of them straight for the first few weeks they worked for us.

Sara quickly stood out, as I realized that she's the one who likes to stay busy. Oftentimes when I came to the store when there had been a quiet period, I'd find that she had been toying around with decorating cakes, or dreaming up some new sundae conconction, or making waffle cones, or *something* to keep herself from just sitting around waiting for customers to show up.

Sara spent enough time practicing her cake decorating skills, that she's now one of our best at it, as she and our main decorator, Carolyn seem to have a running competition to see who can come up with the best new decorating ideas.

She's been one of our steadiest team members throughout the slower winter months, as she's taken a regular weekend afternoon shift, and filled in one or two nights a week. I can see "Team Leader" skills in Sara, as she's generally the one who takes charge when I give the team some chore to accomplish. And she's pretty quick on her feet, as I don't think I've yet gotten her to fall for any of my pranks around the store, she's usually one step ahead of me.

Sara was pretty pleased with herself when one of our regular customers told me that she had made him a better frappe than the one *I* had made him a couple of nights earlier. I think she just got lucky, and hasn't yet reached the level of "Frappe Master" that she *thinks* she has.

Sara is finishing her Junior year at North Andover High, and is active on the Football and Basketball cheerleading teams. She's threatening to play Lacrosse in the spring, though I warned her that she's too tiny, and is likely to lose a few teeth if she does. She is a perfect example of the type of smart, outgoing, hardworking personality we look for on our team, and we're happy as all heck to have her on it.

If you see her at the window the next time you visit, make sure to tell her you read about her in the Newsletter!

Newsletter Coupon

Hey, Spring is just about here. Let's kick the winter blues with a special offer: Tell us you're a newsletter reader, and we'll turn your cone into a sundae, for free!

Buy a kiddie cone, we'll make it a Mini Sundae.
Buy a small cone, we'll make it a Small Sundae.
Buy a medium cone, we'll make it a Large Sundae.

Can't beat that deal with a wooden spoon, huh?

That's it for this week. Make sure to come by and visit us during Girl Scout night (or any other day, for that matter!)