You Asked, We Listened: ORLA Launches Health Plan

Visit OregonRLA.org/HealthPlan

The federal healthcare requirements are upon us and as much as the country has tried to avoid the implications of full implementation, it is here to stay. In a recent survey, 97 percent of ORLA’s membership told us to dig in and find a solution. So we did.

Starting in 2016, businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees will be on the hook to pay for the healthcare of any employees working 30 hours or more per week. And if you don’t, say hello to a fine of $2,000 per full-time (30 hours or more) employee per year. That’s right – these fines come knocking every single year.

The year 2016 is a monumental one for healthcare. Through 2015, businesses were able to deduct a total of 80 full-time employees from their fine obligations which led to the majority of businesses having zero liability for the year. In 2016, that changes as the federal government changes the full-time employee deduction to 30. In other words, if you have the equivalent of 50 or more full-time employees and have over 30 employees working 30 hours or more a week (full-time), you will be charged $2,000 per full-time employee over the magic 30 threshold.

At first glance this may seem like a bigger business issue to you. Don’t buy into that trap. As the new fines unfold, employers are bound to see more healthcare coverages for workers emerging in the marketplace creating major competition amongst big and small employers for workers. In the not too distant future, mom and pop location “X” may start to lose their employees to bigger business “Y” because bigger business “Y” is now offering some form of a healthcare plan to their workers to avoid federal fines.

The shifts in the marketplace are coming and the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association is ready with a solution. As of December 1, 2015, ORLA’s health plan options are available for members big and small but will be a member only benefit for active businesses in the association.

For under $49 per full-time worker per month, member businesses will be able to join the ORLA Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) Plan giving each subscriber access to preventative care. In addition, the plan will save large employers from excessive federal fines for not offering coverage and will protect all workers signed up in the plan from individual yearly fines that are incurred when they don’t have health coverage.

In addition, ORLA will offer a MEC Plus Plan for under $69 per full-time worker per month that provides access for each worker to four doctor office visits a year.

Both plans will become a major solution for our industry and member businesses due to their ability to protect employers and their employees from fines while offering an affordable health coverage option to businesses interested in adding a perk to their workforce benefits.

The healthcare evolution in the United States is at our doorstep and we will all feel it one way or the other. Do yourself a favor and take action by owning the solution that has been vetted and packaged for you through your membership.

Visit OregonRLA.org/HealthPlan for more information and to get a quote.

Not a member yet? Email our membership department and we’ll get you squared away. | Jason Brandt, President & CEO

ORLA to Welcome Change in Leadership

Jason Brandt

After a 32 year career in association management, and a terrific experience it has been by the way, I will be retiring in October. The decision to do so was made after a great deal of thought as I truly enjoy my job. It is an honor to represent ORLA’s members as I very much admire their passion for the industry, the jobs that they produce and the communities that they positively affect every day. Working to protect their rights, represent their positions on issues, provide them with needed information and educate their workforces made every work day something I looked forward to with enthusiasm. That is a gift that many don’t receive in life and one I value greatly.

However, there does come a time when you know it is time to move on to another chapter in your life. That time arrived for me last year. I came to grips with the fact that the energy level I’d always tapped to meet all my work obligations was much lower that it had been. I finally decided, or more truthfully knew, that it was time for ORLA to have a new CEO to lead the association in the challenging and changing times ahead.

So, working with ORLA’s Executive Committee, we developed a succession plan last summer. That plan laid out the search process, the type of person the board wanted to replace me with, and a timeframe for getting all of this done and the replacement hired. The search began in September of last year and culminated in the selection and hiring of my replacement in February of this year. A contract has been signed and your new CEO will start his new career on August 10, 2015.

Your new leader will be Jason Brandt who is currently the CEO of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. Jason has worked for the Salem Chamber the past 11 years beginning immediately after graduating from Pacific Lutheran University. Jason grew up in Salem and lives there now with his wife Natalie and their two daughters. He has served as CEO of the Salem Chamber for over four years and is a leader in the chamber world in Oregon and the Western region of the country. He brings with him a thorough understanding of association management principles and law, nearly five years of association management experience, experience in the government affairs arena both at the state and local level, and an enthusiastic, people-oriented can-do attitude that will mean great things for Oregon’s hospitality industry.

I’ll be working with Jason getting him familiarized with all things ORLA through September. You might watch for us as I’m sure we’ll be traveling about the state introducing Jason to ORLA’s thousands of members (see ORLA Convention). Serving as CEO of the association is a demanding job and Jason’s skill set will serve him in good stead as he moves into his new position.

I can’t tell you what a joy and honor it has been to be allowed to lead the association. I know what a great job the ORLA team does every day representing your interests. The ever-changing, challenging times the industry has been through have certainly left you with an experienced team of professionals who know how to produce results. That will serve you and Jason with excellence in the years to come. You’re sure to see new ideas, innovative solutions and a fresh, new look at industry challenges from Jason – all good things that are healthy for ORLA. If you’re not already a member, please consider joining ORLA and supporting what will be another great era in ORLA’s long and distinguished history of representing the industry’s interests. Jason and your business need and deserve that support and participation. | Steve McCoid, President & CEO

Supporting ORLA Ensures Your Industry’s Vitality

Members networking at Convention

ORLA is a membership organization and, thus, it is important for its long term viability and fiscal health that it maintains a large, growing, supportive membership. Over the years the association has used all types of sales approaches in its efforts to convince industry operators that they needed to part with a small portion of their hard earned dollars to support its activities. At times we leaned on our very successful suite of endorsed services and the savings they provided members the key reason for joining. Certainly, in terms of a return this made sense to the thousands of operators who joined for that reason. However, this approach created a purely financial relationship that didn’t last if a program’s returns didn’t meet a member’s expectations, leading to a constant turnover in members.

That has led to ORLA changing its sales message to one focusing on the mission of the association as the key reason for joining. That mission, one that calls for ORLA to advocate for, communicate to, and educate its members, is one that when used as the reason for joining produces long term, loyal members who understand and support what ORLA is there to do for them. For your association is the only organization in the state existing to provide those services to your business.

We advocate by representing your interests before the state and federal legislatures and local city councils and county commissions on all issues affecting your business. In other words we lobby for you on a daily basis and are recognized as a leading business association in this arena. One of the largest business political action committees in the state is also managed by ORLA to increase your political profile. We also proactively promote all the good the industry and your business does for Oregon to the state’s media. We serve as your spokesperson.

We communicate to you the information you need to have to successfully operate a business. Those communications can be an explanation of a new regulation or statute that applies to you and your business. It can be providing information on a new program, new technology, industry news or best practices in management. We communicate to the industry through two print magazines, a great website, two e-newsletters, as-needed government affairs e-alerts, and lottery newsletters and confidential bulletins.

We educate management and their employees by providing cutting edge online training programs in food handling and alcohol serving; classroom management-level food safety training; an annual regional trade show and annual convention; and all the information listed in the communications above.

No other organization provides all of these services to you because protecting and representing your interests is our sole reason for existing. We know that meeting that mission creates a better operating environment for your business, thus enabling you to be more profitable.

Membership also benefits those associates that sell goods and services to the industry. It is in their best interest to support ORLA too as the ability for their customers to turn a profit and grow their businesses means that their business will in turn sell more goods or services. It behooves all industry members – retail and associate - to support the only association representing their interests in Oregon by becoming a member; for what is good for the retailer is good for the associate and what is good for the associate is good for the retailer. We’re one industry and we’re in this together. If you’re not a member, consider our mission, this message, and support your association. It truly is a low cost investment in your business that will produce large returns. | Steve McCoid, President & CEO, ORLA

Renewed National Partnership

ORLA is once again a partner with the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) effective with the start of the New Year. The board and staff are enthusiastic with the changes being made in AH&LA’s mission, staff and approach to representing the industry. The AH&LA Board heard the concerns from many state associations regarding the collection and payment of dues at the state level and acted upon them in a very proactive manner that is to their credit. They all bode well for a stronger, more effective and focused national trade association to represent your interests.

ORLA had ended its partner state agreement with AH&LA two years ago after a great deal of review and discussion. At that time, the agreement created issues and limited membership sales for your association. Oregon was not the only state to raise these concerns. At the time we ended our partner state agreement, nearly one third of the state associations weren’t working with their national association. Clearly something had to be done.

AH&LA’s leadership recognized the need for change to ensure the association’s continued relevance in Washington DC and across the nation and to position the association for long-term success and survival. The board commissioned an industry-wide survey of the 575 key stakeholders in the industry to discover what the membership, state associations, members and staff of AH&LA wanted their national association to provide the industry in way of programs and services. They took those findings, developed committees consisting of all the stakeholders mentioned above, and started the planning process. New funding strategies and by-laws were the result as well as a more focused mission statement and strategic plan. Advocacy and communications to members and the public were the main focus. State associations will no longer be required to collect and forward dues to AH&LA unless they choose to do so with payment for their efforts and the national dues were lowered. State associations will now pay dues at a much lower level to be a partner state with AH&LA.

Since the AH&LA membership approved all of these changes a great deal has happened. Katherine Lugar was hired as the President & CEO and charged with implementing the many changes the new plan called for, which she has done at a thorough and rapid pace. The Government Affairs team has been turned over, the quality and amount of communications coming from the national office is greatly improved and the budget is much higher with the new funding program. In short, Katherine and her staff have done a terrific job of implementing a very demanding plan that has restructured and positioned AH&LA for the future.

What this means for ORLA members is better representation in DC, improved information on national issues being available to you, and lower dues to be an ORLA member (by 40 percent). By the way, we opted to continue to sell AH&LA memberships to the independent lodging operators who choose to be AH&LA members at the rate of $2 per room. It isn’t required to join ORLA but certainly is an option that we strongly urge you to consider and support.

The board and staff of ORLA are very excited about the new AH&LA and what it means for the industry. It is refreshing to work with an organization who listened to the concerns of the states and other stakeholders, found out what they wanted and then developed a plan to deliver that in a very timely manner. We’re proud to be a partner with that team and look forward to working with them to provide you with seamless coverage of your needs at the state and national levels. | Steve McCoid, president & CEO, ORLA

Your Association’s New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year! Now that we’ve survived the holiday season of 60+ football bowl games, putting up and taking down the Christmas decorations, and attempting to watch what we eat and drink (for me unsuccessfully as usual) it is time for making New Year’s resolutions. I’m a believer in making these and every once in awhile a resolution has actually been made and followed by yours truly.

For instance, my 1986 resolution was to quit smoking and January 1, 2014 marks 28 years of non-smoking – a good thing. I must confess that there are the annual resolutions of losing weight (and keeping it off) and eating healthier that are not religiously kept. However, I’m making them again in 2014 as only a stubborn Irishman can do. One has to set goals to succeed, right?


With that thought in mind, I’m going to share ORLA’s New Year’s resolutions for 2014 with you. These are the best kind of resolutions because they are made by someone else (ORLA’s staff) so you aren’t faced with meeting them yourselves but you will be the beneficiary if ORLA’s staff keeps them. Doing so will benefit the industry and your business. So, with this win/win proposition in mind, here are your association’s 2014 resolutions:

•    ORLA resolves to continue to operate the preeminent government affairs program in Oregon for the benefit of the industry and ORLA’s members. This includes an on-going role as one of the general business lobby’s leaders in Salem.

•    ORLA resolves to be the information source for the industry whenever an issue, question or problem needs to be addressed and/or answered with current and specific information.

•    ORLA resolves to continue to be a leader in the promotion of the industry, and all the wonderful benefits it provides our state, to Oregon’s public and private interests and the state’s print and electronic media.

•    ORLA resolves to continue to be the leader in providing mandated training to the industry. Constantly updating and improving our pioneering online training products is a must to keep our members’ employees properly trained and informed.

•    ORLA resolves to continue to fund and operate one of Oregon’s largest business political action committees to support the campaigns of pro-industry candidates to the Oregon House of Representatives and Senate. Doing so will ensure that the hospitality industry’s stature and voice are recognized and heard in Oregon’s political arena.

•    ORLA resolves to continually ask our members and the hospitality industry what they want their association to do for them, and to act on those requests in an expeditious manner.

•    Finally, and most importantly, ORLA resolves to never forget that we exist to represent, advocate for, inform and educate our members and industry. This is our mission and one we take very seriously.

As you can see, we have a great deal to do in the coming year. All of our resolutions are based on what our members have told us they want their association to do for them. You have a staff of association professionals dedicated to making your industry a better, more profitable one to work in. We welcome you to join us in representing our great industry.

In fact, I would suggest that you make a resolution to join ORLA, if you aren't a member already, in 2014 and become part of the only trade association in Oregon that represents and promotes your business’s welfare. Team up with ORLA’s dedicated staff of professionals this year. Doing so will be one of the best, and least expensive, business decisions you can make in the coming year.

Steve McCoid
President & CEO, Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association