Minuteman Parking had another successful year and revenues grew by almost 20% in 2009 even as the hotel and hospitality business slumped due to the economy.  We were able to grow our business and add shuttle operations in a year when our competitors were scrambling to survive.  Making up the difference was our recent focus on parking services for the Medical Facilities business where we added four new accounts in 2009.  Our goals for 2010 are to continue our strong growth, focus on the customer and improve all of our customer encounters.

I am proud to announce that Tu Sam was selected as Minuteman Manager of the year for 2009.  Tu is the manager of the Seattle Airport Marriott site and has worked for Minuteman for almost six years.  Tu started as a Driveway Ambassador and worked his way up to manager.  Tu was the highest scoring manager in our location audit and had superior guest satisfaction scores.   The bonus was that his facility had zero accident claims for 2009 which is amazing because it happened at an airport property.

Minuteman Parking President Chris Fox Presenting 2009 Manager of the Year Award to Tu Sam from the Seattle Airport Marriott

Some of the other awards handed out include:

• The Revolving Door won by Dawn Harper at Hoag Hospital for hiring the most employees during the year
• Most Appreciated Manager won by Ron Machon at Torrance Marriott for hiring just 1 new employee all year
• Mr. Discipline won by Gary & John at St Joseph Hospital for handing out the most written warnings
• Follows the Rules by Kennedy Maringa at St Bernadine for having the highest score on the location audit
• Just Focus and Do It by Bryan Kramer at Tower Hotel for accomplishing all of his goals during the year
• Knows What Time It Is by Kennedy Maringa at St Bernadine for having the lowest overall lunch punches
• Knows What Time It Is by Ian Wilson at Manhattan Marriott, Tu Sam at Seattle Airport Marriott, Aaron Rosen at Fantasy Springs and Derek Coffinger at the W Hotel for great improvement in reducing lunch punches
• Zero Tolerance awards to Tu Sam at Seattle Airport Marriott, Ron Maachon at Torrance Marriott and Kennedy Maringa at St. Bernadine for having $0 (ZERO) claims in 2009
• Mr. Safety for the best improved claims to Walter Avelar at Marina Marriott, Rico Saavedra at the Huntley Hotel and Ian Wilson at the Manhattan Marriott
• The Closer Award for successfully closing the Monterey Plaza Hotel by Aidan Gabriel at the Monterey Plaza Hotel
• Mr. Service Award to Walter Avelar at Marina Marriott for improving the overall guest satisfaction score

Our team building activity this year was bowling at the Lucky Strike Lanes in Torrance.  Dawn Harper and Ron Machon surprised the rest of the managers with their bowling prowess by each bowling well in excess of 150.

Minuteman President Chris Fox Thowing Yet Another Gutter Ball

I would also like to thank Crecenciano Moreno who created our lovely balloon centerpieces.  Creceniano is one of our shuttle drivers at CHOC and he makes balloons all day long for the visiting children.  We value his extra efforts and dedication to bringing his version of happiness and joy to the CHOC facility.

Balloon Arrangements Created by Crecenciano Moreno, Shuttle Driver for CHOC

Minuteman Parking moved into our new office in El Segundo this month.  Less than one mile from the ocean, the new offices are close to downtown El Segundo and the 105 and 405 Freeways.

Chris Fox in his New El Segundo Office

According to Chris Fox, President of Minuteman Parking:

We had been at our old offices for more than 5 years and with our recent growth, we were nearly busting at the seams.  Our new location in El Segundo projects a more professional image, plus it is centrally located for our employees.  We have the room we need now for offices and storage, plus plenty of room to grow.

Controller Wilson Tang

Controller Wilson Tang had this to offer:

I think the new setup is more conducive to working and it has already made the finance team more organized and productive.  Plus, the location is close to El Porto which is one of the best surf spots in the South Bay.

There are some new amenities in the office too.  For example, there is a large lunchroom with a flat screen TV and couch where employees can relax.  The lunchroom will double as a training facility.  In Chris’ office, there is also a large conference room where employees can collaborate on projects.  In addition, there is much more space to prominently display the Boston sports memorabilia that Chris has collected over the years, but the Wheaties boxes have not yet made an appearance.

Combination Lunch Room and Training Facility

While the physical location for Minuteman Parking has changed, the mailing address and phone number remain the same.  You can continue to reach us at:

Minuteman Parking Company
1601 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 368
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310 390-7458

CHOC

Minuteman Parking just added CHOC (Children’s Hospital of Orange County) as our newest customer in our growing medical facilities area.  CHOC is the first hospital devoted exclusively to caring for children in Orange County.  Since opening its doors in 1964, CHOC has led the way in many areas of pediatric health care.

We will be providing services for all of CHOC’s parking and shuttle operations in the City of Orange.   CHOC is embarking on a construction project to build a new state-of-the-art patient care tower scheduled to open in 2013, and we will be shuttling all employees and visitors during construction with up to six shuttle buses.  We will also manage their 5-story, 526 space self-parking garage and will provide Ambassadors for the front entrance and visitor valet parking in the garage.

As with our other medical facility customers, we are improving patient flow and serving as an extension of these facilities’ already outstanding patient care.  In addition, our Ambassador program continues to dramatically improve patient satisfaction scores at our partner hospitals.   Minuteman Parking also provides parking services to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, St. Joseph Health System in Orange, Loma Linda Medical Center, Catholic Healthcare West and Newport Lido Medical Center.

Signing up CHOC as a new customer was a team effort for Minuteman Parking, and they were impressed with our medical facilities experience and our approach to customer service.  The bid team included VP of Operations Craig Owens, Controller Wilson Tang, and CFO Consultant Mike Gleason.  We are looking forward to implementing our stellar customer service and parking operations services at CHOC starting at the end of April.

New Minuteman Parking Shuttle Bus for CHOC

Some of Minuteman's Extensive Collection of Wheaties Boxes

If you get a chance to visit the offices of Minuteman Parking, you cannot miss the extensive collection of Wheaties boxes.  According to the history of Wheaties on Wikipedia, Wheaties was created in 1922 as a result of an accident by a clinician at the Washburn Crosby Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Washburn Crosby later became the General Mills company.  In 1934, Wheaties began a practice of putting pictures of athletes on their boxes as a way to go along with their “Breakfast of Champions” slogan.  Since then, hundreds of athletes and teams have been featured on Wheaties boxes.

In this short interview, Minuteman Parking President Chris Fox explains why he collects Wheaties boxes.

Q - How many Wheaties boxes are in your collection?

A - Over 300.

Q - Do you have any favorites?

A - I like all of the ones depicting a Boston sports Championship.  The Celtics and Larry Bird boxes were the first ones that I ever bought.

Q - When did you start collecting Wheaties boxes?

A - I got my first Wheaties box in the mid 1980’s and I really started to get a lot of new ones when people began to sell them on EBay.

Q - How does the Wheaties message about the “Breakfast of Champions” resonate with Minuteman Parking?

A - Wheaties is one of those old American brands that are synonymous with success.  The only people or teams that they put on the box are Champions (they also usually only sell them in the geographical area of the winner on the box).  You don’t get on a Wheaties box if you come in second place.  Here at Minuteman Parking we know that there is no room for second place.  The guy who comes in second does not get the contract or keep the customer.

I ask you, how do you get to be a champion?  My answer would be through commitments; commitments to excellence, to others, to self and to your own integrity.  To have a successful career or relationship, one must make and keep commitments.

Would how you live your life qualify you for a Wheaties Box?  If not, now is the time to change.

Thank you Chris for sharing your passion and insights - and if you’re visiting Minuteman Parking anytime soon, don’t forget to bring your bowl, spoon and milk!

And for the more curious, here are some more Wheaties links to check out:

• Wheaties website
• Wheaties article from Wikipedia
• List of athletes appearing on a Wheaties box
• Wheaties boxes for sale on Ebay
• Get your own picture on a Wheaties box

While we were building the new website, we took a number of pictures that ultimately were used in the new site.

You can watch the slideshow below to see the best pictures from our collection:

Thank you to all of our employees who help make Minuteman Parking a great company! We hope to include more employee pictures in the future.