Monday, June 22nd
We got a late start today, which was great because I definitely needed that extra sleep. Kara and I got to sit in on a a meeting about a new professional development program Auxiliary Services is thinking about implementing called Stepping Stones. It's a program that would allow employees the opportunity to expand on different interest and skills beyond their positions. What I really love about this place is that they really care about their employees and can acknowledge the fact that they may have certain skills that can be useful the university as whole are even considering giving them the chance to explore potential career paths. While in this meeting, I found it interesting how the scheduling would work for the different departments and the employee(s) that would be selected to participate. Although, it was made clear that it would take time to see how and where to place people depending on the requirements of different departments.
After the meeting, we headed over to Bolton to with Joey Hreha and Craig Smolenski, two of the closing assistant managers, to check out their very different management styles and learn how run a closing shift. When we got there, Joey was just about to work on the assignment sheet for the closing shift. I thought the set up for this night was interesting because there were quite a few people that were out, so making sure that there were enough people to cover all the stations proved to be a little challenging. When I was with Joey, I noticed how he approached every situation like it was no problem and treated everyone like they had been friends for years. So I completely understand why people would come to him to ask for the day off or when they are dealing with delicate situations. During my time with Craig, found him be more task oriented than people oriented. He explained to me how he sometimes finds it challenging when it comes to balancing delegating task and not stepping on the toes of other managers, but he also taught me that the key to dealing with that most of the time is simple communication. When it comes time to close a dining hall as big as Bolton, communication is definitely key because you cannot afford to waste time sending three or more people to do the same task because you did not know if anyone had been sent to do it.
Tuesday, June 23rd
Kara and I met with Kris for breakfast and to just check in on how everything was going since we had not really seen her much in the previous week. After breakfast, we headed over to Central Food Storage. While there, we got the chance to speak with Stuart Hammond, Food Pro Manager, and Brooks Oliver, Materials Manger. Stuart is the keeper of all things Food Pro. He showed us how menus for the different dining commons are organized within the system and also how they go from Food Pro to the easy to read Create My Plate menu on the UGA website. Everything that comes into storage gets a number, without that number it is pretty much non-existent. It was pretty cool to see how they keep up with all the materials they need to keep the dining halls and the eateries running like well oiled machines. Brooks took us on the tour of building while also explaining to us how they pack orders and how the keep track of things like eggs and milk by using the LIFO (last in, first out) method. It is still minding blowing to me see the things that I have learned in class in practice. When Brooks took into the refrigerator, I was practically shaking because it was 32 degrees in there. Now, I thought that was the last of the tour, but oh no Brooks then took us (almost had to drag me) into the -8 degree freezer. I had never been so cold in my entire life. I thought for sure my ears were going to freeze and fall off. 
Inside Central
After we left Central, we went to O'House to meet with Cole, Mark, Rob, and Chef Sam to finalize the menu, start working on ideas for decorations, and to get a crash course on recipe writing. Without giving anything away, I can confidently say that this menu sounds absolutely delicious and the decoration are going to be AWESOME!! Recipe writing was kind of hard for me to pick up on because it has to be written a certain to specifically for Food Pro and for the equipment that they have at O'House. Food Pro is rather picky about the way the weights and measures have to be put in. To be quite honest, measurements is not really one of my strong points, but the practice from writing these recipes, I am sure I will have a handle on it before I leave UGA.
Wednesday, June 24th
Kara and I were able to work with catering for an etiquette dinner. We got a crash course on how to properly serve people a plated dinner. I had been on the opposite side of am etiquette dinner, so it was nice to see to this side of it. We helped load and unload the truck, which was pretty easy the first time. But when it came to load the truck back up after the service was over it felt like everything was heavier. We all learned a lesson about completing service to a table before moving on to the next because we had a table that left half served after the whole room had been served. I think that was only because we all putting down plates thinking that someone else was going to finish the table. But we had it all worked out after the salad was served, so that was no longer an issue. I really enjoyed working that event. It was nice that at the end of the dinner, the participants were very grateful and very pleased with the meal.
Thursday, June 25th
I had the opportunity to work with Henry Green, one of the opening assistant managers at Bolton. When I got there, he had already been there for about 30 minutes opening the building. He took me around to show me some of what he had already done such as turning on the lights, opening the back door, and turning on some of the wells for the hot line. Afterwards, he let me check for miss/double punches on employee time clocks and if any students had gone over the allowed 20 hours. It is very important to check and double check the student hours because if they do go over, it begins to complicate things when it comes to having things such as offering benefits and taxes. He also let me make the lunch assignment schedule for the full time employees. We had to check the call out book a few times to double check that the stations were all covered with those people out. That was much easier than making the regular schedule for the next two weeks. It felt like every time we thought we had accounted for the people that were going on vacation, we find a huge gap in time that something would not be covered. With us working so hard on making sure that schedule was correct, we almost missed the transition from breakfast to lunch. Mr. Henry showed that the main thing to check for during that time is making sure that all the balcony doors are unlocked, all the barricades are removed and taken out of the way, and making sure that every station is covered. I also learned that even if we would have completed payroll and missed something, there are another set of eyes that looks over it before it is completely signed off on.
The office
Friday, June 26th
Kara and I bounced around from office to office today to talk more about the business side of Food Services. We started in Katrina Pittman's office. She is the Human Resource Manager for Food Services. We had previously spoke with her on a walk back to Bolton after the Stepping Stones meeting, but on Friday she was able to show us some of the policies they have and also the process of posting jobs within the department. She made it very clear that when it comes to how long job postings are kept open depends on not only the type of job but how many people put in a application/resume for the position. She showed us a Food Worker 1 position that had recently closed with 243 applicants. She also told us that she tells managers when they are interviewing people to keep at least 3 choices in case someone turns down the position or falls the background check. Something else I learned for her was that they have to keep a separate folder for medical files outside of the personal file that each employee has. I always that the two were one in the same.
After we left Katrina's office, we met with Katherine Ingerson, the dietitian, and her dietary assistant, Danielle. In talking with them, I learned that they did way more than just community outreach. They also help plan the menus, find healthy alternatives for things that need to be replaced, consulting students with diet concerns and restrictions, among other things. Before talking with them, I had the same idea of dietitians that I suppose most people do, that they only work in hospitals and nursing homes. I had never really thought about how they fit on a college campus, but after talking with them it makes much more sense that they are on a college campus.
Before we head to our last meeting, we met with Ellie and Paul for lunch with some updates on the Grab 'n Go project. Kara had some great ideas for the labels and packaging and I had some delicious gluten free options to spice up the menu that I believe even someone who isn't gluten free would enjoy.
The last spot on office hop was Cindy Malcolm, the Assistant Director of Business Service for Food Services. She showed us the ended of the payroll that we had completed earlier in the week. She also elaborated on the different issues that come with students working over 20 hours and how they handle situations when it does happen. She also told about some things they considering with Snelling dining hall because it is so old. They cannot tear it down because it is on the historic buildings list, so they are trying to determine if it will be easier to keep it open as a dining hall and pay for the many different upgrades or if they will turn it over the university and left them figure it out. After we left her office, we spent the rest of the day working on our different projects.
The Weekend
I spent all of Saturday inside because I do not like going out into the rain. I heard that Athfest was pretty cool this year, but I looked up some of the bands that were there and they were not really my type. On Sunday, I went down to Six Flags for about a hour. It was a pretty nice day to be outside, so I really enjoyed myself.
See you next week kids!!
Flo :)
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