November 6th, 2019

November Newsletter

  Fundraising Raffle for ProStart

We are trying a new way to raise to funds to support ProStart this year; a Raffle! We will be selling no more than 200 tickets at $100 each. On December 31, we will draw four winning tickets and purchasers will have the opportunity to win one of four great prizes:

Prize 1: Ten restaurant gift cards, each worth $150 for a total of $1,500 in gift cards. Participating restaurants include Applebee’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Famous Dave’s, McKenzie River Pizza, Montana Club, The Depot in Missoula, Walker’s Grill in Billings, The Lodge at Whitefish Lake, Montana Ale Works in Bozeman and The Silver Star in Helena.

Prize 2: Big Sky Vine and Dine Package. Three nights lodging at Huntley Lodge and two All Access passes to Big Sky’s premier wine and food festival.

Prize 3: Tanglewood Restaurant Dinner in Bozeman; a specialized dinner for 16 people in Tanglewood’s private dining room. Alcohol not included.

Prize 4: Yellowstone National Park Travel Collection. Includes two nights at one hotel of your choice in Yellowstone National Park, two dinners and two breakfasts for two people, and one tour/activity of your choice for two people.

Call Valerie at 406-206-4461 if you are interested in purchasing raffle tickets.  


On Thursday, November 7, the Economic Affairs Interim Committee will meet at 8:30 in Room 137 for a full day of meetings. The Economic Affairs Committee has jurisdiction over the Alcohol Control Division in the Department of Revenue and has sent a letter to the Alcohol Control Division. The letter requests that the Department’s new rule regarding the implementation of a new Point Based System for Violations of Alcohol License Penalties, be put on hold and it requests that the Department appear before the committee and justify why they proposed and adopted the rule. We previously have sent out two Action Alerts opposing this rule.

On Friday, November 8, at 10:30, the Department of Revenue is proposing yet another ill-advised rule which impacts difficult to reach restaurants and bars—think ski resorts. The proposed rule requires that beer distributors send their truck drivers up in the snow cat to deliver beer and wine. At present, the beer trucks deliver to the base and the resort brings the beer and wine up in a snow cat in the middle of the night, when there are no skiers. The rule offers an alternative to this—the resort can pick up the beer and wine at the distributorship every time they need product. Neither option works. We will be testifying against this rule and asking for a more a business friendly rule before ski season begins in about 3 weeks!


Montana’s Minimum Wage to Increase to $8.65/hour on January 1, 2020

The Montana Department of Labor announced that the minimum wage in Montana will rise by 15 cents per hour, from $8.50 to $8.65 per hour. Click here to read the announcement.

 
Our guest speaker at the November 12th Bozeman ORCA meeting will be Chief Deputy Attorney General Jon Bennion. Jon is interested in learning  about the success of our ORCA Group in Bozeman. As the Deputy Chief Attorney General, Jon was responsible for getting the Department of Justice's legislative agenda passed.  We encourage our Bozeman area loss professionals and law enforcement to attend!  

Next MTORCA Meeting Dates
Billings ORCA: Tuesday, November 12th at 3pm at the Heights Target Store
Bozeman ORCA: Tuesday, November 12th at 2pm at the Bozeman Target Store


 Montana Restaurant Association Board Meeting

The Board of Directors for the Montana Restaurant Association will meet on November 13 in Bozeman to discuss several emerging issues that might require legislative action in 2021: tip pooling to reflect the federal law, off site alcohol delivery of difficult to reach locations and alcohol licensing ideas.

A & A Implement
B & B Tire Company
Big Sky Kubota
Billings Farmhand, Inc.
Bobcat of Big Sky
Border Plains Equipment
Borrie's Restaurant
Churchill Equipment Co.
Cousin's Family Restaurant
Eugene's Pizza
Grand Mere Restaurant Group
Haufbrau House and The Filling Station
Hilperts OK Tire
Johnson Distributing
Lodge Boat Club, LLC
Markle's Inc
Midland Implement Company, Inc
Musselshell Valley Equipment
Norman's Sport & Western Wear
Oasis Casino
PJJ, Inc Business Office
Rainbow Ranch Lodge
Republic Services of Montana
Rising Sun Auto Repair 
Swift Creek Cafe
The Celtic Cowboy
Tri-County Implement
Tri-State Truck & Equipment
Vermeer Rocky Mountain
Village Inn Pizza
Western Meat and Sausage Block

 


New Member Profile:  Quality Foods Distributing, Bozeman.  

We are delighted to welcome our newest member, Randy and Nancy Lindberg, owners of Quality Food Distributing (QFD) in Bozeman!  Randy’s family has been in the health and natural products business for 70 years, which started at Lindberg Nutrition Services in Los Angeles.  After spending 33 successful years with the family business, Randy went to work for United Natural Foods, a publicly traded company as the Western Region President.  Randy and Nancy brought his lifetime of experience in the industry to Montana by creating QFD.  QFD provides natural, organic, specialty, and local/regional foods, like farm-to-table, to their customers throughout Montana and the Northern Rockies. 

Interested retailers and restaurateurs should visit their web site at www.qfddistributing.com or call Randy at 406-551-2231.

We are delighted to welcome these New Members to our Association!

             

           


Calendar of Events:
November 13th, MTRA Board Meeting
November 20th, Gene Burgad Reception
November 21st, ProStart Teacher Training
March 5th and 6th, MT ProStart Invitational
April 22nd, MEDA Board Meeting

  

 

Montana Retail Association