December Newsletter
Ho-Ho-Ho!
With the next two weeks being Christmas and New Year’s, this month’s newsletter is coming early. It includes donation and community service stories, employee recognitions, digital Christmas cards, helpful technology tips, a brand new company overview video, and more!
El Reno Midwest Bus Sales Gift Cards
Typically, our El Reno Midwest Bus Sales location collects toys and food around the holidays. This year, due to the pandemic, they were unable to do so, but that didn’t stop the team from finding a way to give back. In place of the toy and food drive, they teamed up with the El Reno Blessing Baskets and focused their efforts on collecting Walmart gift cards for local children in need.
In total, employees at the El Reno location were able to gather $325 worth of gift cards.
El Reno Midwest Bus Sales Bell Ringing
The El Reno team wasn’t done after their gift card donations. Later in the month, a handful of employees volunteered time at Wal Mart to ring bells for the Salvation Army. In total, the team rang bells for eight hours.
ADS Amethyst Place Donations
ADS employees joined forces this month to collect diapers, pullups, gloves, hats, and scarves. All of these donations were given to Amethyst Place, non-profit serving local families in need.
DS Bus Lines Employee and Grandchildren Give Back
Linda Thompson, an employee of DS Bus Lines in Belton, MO, teamed up with her grandchildren this month to prepare gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
Linda and her grandsons Mason, Porter, and Walker donated a total of six gift boxes, with each grandson donating a box for another boy in their age group. Linda and her granddaughter, Lyla, prepared an additional three boxes for girls between the ages of 8-10 years old.
The boxes will be shipped to children in need by Rev. Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse organization. This is the fifth year Linda and her family have participated.
DS Bus Lines Driver Recognized for Heroic Act
Winnie Harris, a DS Bus Lines Driver in Louisiana, was recently honored for a heroic act.
The West Baton Rouge Parish School Board recognized Winnie for remaining calm and professional under pressure as a passenger on her bus suffered a seizure. School board officials complimented her ability to provide care and assistance to the child who was having the seizure, while simultaneously keeping the rest of the passengers calm and quiet.
DS Bus Lines Safety Message Contest
Early this quarter, in honor of School Bus Safety Week, DS Bus Lines held a competition in which employees could submit an essay or video related to our Core Value of Safety. The winner of the competition was Mary Agee-Harris, a driver working out of Olathe, KS.
Mary thought outside of the box and created a catchy poem that would help students to understand the Safety Core Value from a driver’s perspective. You may click on the image below to view the poem.
Christmas Card and Ugly Sweater Competitions
Last week, an email was sent out giving employees the opportunity to submit digital Christmas cards and ugly sweater pictures.
Below are the submissions:
Traci and Todd Christian, employees of DS Bus Lines, submitted a ‘Farm Card’ that was created in 2004. This card was sent to over 200 customers of their Organic Dairy in Texas. Pictured in the photo are Traci’s sister, Cynthia (left), Todd (middle), and Traci (right). Traci and Todd would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy ‘Moo’ Year!
Debra Choate, Jamie Case, and Kelsea Benham, all employees of Midwest Bus Sales, submitted a ‘Rudolf! Full Power’ digital Christmas card. The ‘Oklahoma Office Gals’ found a way to incorporate Rudolf as well as a Thomas Built Bus into their card, and even wore hats and antlers!
Kira Noel, an employee of DS Bus Lines, submitted a photo of herself in her best ugly Christmas sweater. She really got into the Christmas spirit by including glasses and a tree topper headband!
While the initial plan was for the winner of each competition to win a prize, we will be giving each of these entrants a prize as a token of appreciation for helping to spread holiday cheer.
Company Video
Over the past few months, The Kincaid Group’s Marketing & Communications Department has worked to put together a company video that encompasses each division, our Core Values, and more. To view the finished product, click on the video below.
Updated Company Overview Video 2020 FINAL
Always Learning
We have also recently added an ‘Always Leaning’ section to the monthly newsletter. This section will be used relay tips related to technology, organization, efficiency, and more. If you or your team has a tip that you think would benefit other employees, please submit it to our Marketing Team at marketing@thekincaidgroup.com.
For this first month, we have information relating to a Microsoft Teams update that will occur by the end of January 2021 (this idea was presented to Marketing by Adam Tubbs):
The update Microsoft Teams is making will enable presenters to now see a ‘presenter view’ when using Teams Presentation Sharing.
Once the presenter selects a PowerPoint file from the Teams Share Tray, Presenter View is opened automatically. The presenter can see the current slide, the slide notes, and a thumbnail strip of all the slides in the deck for easy ad-hoc slide navigation.
This view is private to the presenter in control. If another presenter clicks “Take Control”, presenter view will be opened for the second presenter, while the previous presenter will be switched to the audience view without any access to the slide notes and the thumbnail strip.
Social Media Reminder
Below are links to various social media pages of our divisions. Please feel free to like/follow as many as you would like. Additionally, the Marketing and Communications team is always looking for ideas on social media posts. If you ever have a work-related story, picture, video, etc. that may be worth sharing, please send it to marketing@thekincaidgroup.com. Social media is free publicity and a great way for the community to stay up-to-date with the work and accomplishments of our outstanding employees.
Thank you for your continued support of The Kincaid Group! To submit a story or point of interest for future newsletters, please contact Communications Specialist, Blake Hosley, at blake.hosley@thekincaidgroup.com.