JUNE 2020
In this issue
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CEO’S MESSAGE TO BLUE HAWK STAKEHOLDERS
BLUE HAWK RETIREMENT – Helping BLUE HAWK Members Thrive
THE DASHBOARD – The Dashboard Status Update
VENDOR PARTNER SPOTLIGHT – Pamlico Air
BENCHMARK BLUE – Recover Strong Program
SAVINGS4MEMBERS – Cutting Costs Without Cutting Corners
2020 BLUE HAWK AWARDS – 15 Award Category Winners
15-YEAR ANNIVERSARY – BLUE HAWK’s 15-Year Anniversary Slide Show
VIRTUAL NEW PRODUCT SHOWCASE – 2020 Virtual New Product Showcase
BLUE HAWK GIVES BACK 2020 – MERISTEM
BLUE HAWK UNIVERSITY – Training Tracks Raffle & BHU Second Quarter Stats
HARDI COVID-19 RESOURCES– HARDI’s Up-to-Date Resources on Regulatory, Market Insights, Employer Resources, Member Insights and More
BLUE HAWK SOCIAL MEDIA – Like us and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
CEO’s Message to BLUE HAWK Stakeholders
Lance Rantala
Dear BLUE HAWK Community,
Last Friday marked the end to our first ever, and hopefully final, Virtual Annual Conference. We are forever grateful to our BLUE HAWK community for your extraordinary effort to complete your Cyber Face-to-Face appointments. Over the past two months, BLUE HAWK carried out over 6,000 online meetings from unique locations around the country.
Additionally, the BLUE HAWK staff would like to congratulate all Members and Vendor Partners who received an award during the Virtual Conference. Though we would have preferred to celebrate your success in person, we hope you enjoyed seeing your company’s name in the various award communications and social media posts. Cheers to everyone who received an award!
To celebrate the conclusion of our 2020 Virtual Conference and our 15th Anniversary, we ask every BLUE HAWK Member to pick a new Vendor Partner, Alliance Partner, and Solution Partner, and start buying from them! Remember, only you control the destiny of your member-owned and financially transparent cooperative. Thank you.
We miss you and look ahead to our next BLUE HAWK event. Please stay safe and be kind.
Support BLUE!
Lance Rantala
BLUE HAWK CEO
Helping BLUE HAWK Members Thrive: A whole new 401(k) experience
BLUE HAWK is committed to providing Members the right solutions for your businesses—solutions that bring you economy of scale, show clear value for money spent, save time, reduce risk, and help you show your employees that you value what matters to them.
Through our partnership with Lincoln Financial Group, we’re delivering a new, refreshed BLUE HAWK group 401(k) plan, effective this summer to do all this and more.
Here’s what you’ll experience with the new BLUE HAWK group 401(k):
- Lower administrative cost and no annual audits
- Less administrative work, as you hand off many of the responsibilities that come with running a 401(k), including filing Form 5500 and employee loans
- Relief from many fiduciary obligations, while maintaining your current plan design
The Dashboard Status Update
The Dashboard is going to be a game-changer for Members, Vendor Partners, and the cooperative. This powerful and intuitive web-based analytics platform tracks and maximizes growth opportunities.
All Members and Vendor Partners will have logins and benefit from using The Dashboard with the quarterly rebate data provided by our Vendor Partners. Though, Members and Vendor Partners who consistently upload transactional data will experience additional benefits.
If you are already uploading data, thank you, and please establish a timetable for consistent weekly, bi-weekly or monthly transaction file uploads.
If you have not gotten started yet, please schedule a one-on-one appointment with Exactus Advisors by clicking the button below. You will be asked to identify yourself as a Member or Vendor Partner and then select an appointment time that works for you.
Vendor Partner Spotlight
Our experienced reps and distributors provide local, expert Pamlico Air product support and customer service! Click here to use the Pamlico Air Rep Locator to find your local rep; or contact our Corporate Sales Team at: sales@pamlico-air.com
www.pamlico-air.com | 252.623.4010
Benchmark BLUE Recover Strong Program
Benchmark your quarterly performance anonymously and securely against BLUE HAWK Members
- Participation Fees for Benchmark BLUE waived in 2020 and 2021 (Value $1,000 per year)
- Deadline to sign-up: August 31, 2020
- Includes personalized “Data Tour” with CoMetrics’ CEO Paul Giudice to review your results and discuss potential opportunities
- 1st half of 2020 Shared Insights among active participants
- Those who sit on the sidelines will not have access to shared insights
The new reality:
- BLUE HAWK Members and their families are going through an incredibly difficult time.
- Many businesses have experienced significant declines in sales and enduring substantial cost reductions while trying to conserve cash.
- The uncertainty could make it easy to ignore data and let fear drive decisions or not make any decisions at all.
- As we close in on the impending recession caused by this tragic pandemic, we know the economy will recover.
- It is just a question of when?
Why continue to benchmark?
Cutting Costs without Cutting Corners
A Q&A on the Perks of Membership
For any distributor, it’s a relatively simple equation that hasn’t changed for centuries: effective training, good processes, and quality products equal a satisfied customer (and a thriving business). But as current events have shown us, the unexpected can quickly add variables to that equation. Now more than ever, it’s clear that when it comes to creating a satisfied customer and a satisfactory bottom line: “the tools of the trade” refer to more than just the people and equipment you have in your corner.
As a cooperative, BLUE HAWK’s independent members come together to create scale that gives each member an edge. To take that one step further, our partnership with Savings4Members sharpens and extends that edge. By partnering with BLUE HAWK and hundreds of groups like it, Savings4Members has built a cooperative network entirely focused on connecting members with even greater scale, cost-cutting benefits, and a full team to help them take advantage.
But this edge cuts a little differently, so we talked to Veronica Pratt, Account Relationship Manager at Savings4Members to learn how members can cut costs without cutting corners by making the most of every tool available, including their membership.
“So Veronica, Savings4Members is already working with many BLUE HAWK Members. For those yet to take advantage of this benefit, are there any updates members should know about?”
Veronica Pratt (V.P.): BIG updates – and there are even more to come. For the past year we’ve been focused on making it faster and easier for members to take full advantage of their benefits. The biggest upgrade members will notice right away is our completely overhauled Member Dashboard. Here, we’ve made it easier than ever for members to check out the discounts they have access to, activate them, and quickly get in touch with a Savings Expert by phone, email, or online chat…
