ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE DiRo-NA'S

DiRo
Inside & Out
- NA Continues to Evolve
8 DiR - oNA SUMMER 2006
During the spring, Board
members of DiRo - NA met to
discuss the long-term plans
of the organization.
DiRo - NA’s Mission:
Revisited and
Revitalized
The Distinguished Restaurants
of North America strives to serve as the authority for recognizing and
promoting excellence in fine dining.
With the mission as their mandate, the Board agreed a set of key goals
and objectives to continue to improve our organization:
— Continue to strengthen our organization financially
— Create greater recognition of the DiRo - NA brand, within the Industry
and within specific, consumer-focused, programs
— Complete the implementation of DiRo - NA’s strengthened Quality
Assurance Program
An important goal for the organization is to continue building our
financial security. As you know, DiRo - NA operates
on voluntary contributions from its stakeholders.
Your contributions to the PR & Marketing
Program help to brand and market DiRo - NA
and participating restaurants; and our Strategic
Partners provide the majority of our revenue to
implement our core activities. Some revenue is
generated from merchandising, such as the
DiRo - NA Guide, and this revenue also goes
towards supporting our operations overall.
However, these funds are not guaranteed year
on year, which means we must strengthen
DiRo - NA financially in order to plan consistently – both for our annual
programming, and for the essential public outreach that keeps our
DiRo - NA name and brand “top of mind”.
The second important goal is to build DiRo - NA as a marketing tool
that benefits all DiRo - NA stakeholders: our strategic partners, our
consumers, and all our members. Developing DiRo - NA as a brand with
a consumer focus will really maximize the organization’s ability to
partner with a wide range of sponsors and other strategic partners. This
will make an enormous difference in our ability to develop DiRo - NA and
its member restaurants into a household name.
The third goal, and a central goal to DiRo - NA’s success, is to continue to
implement and strengthen the Quality Assurance Program and its
inspection process in order to maintain the highest level of membership.
We have had great success from the activities of the Quality Assurance
Committee over the last year, and we are very encouraged by the way
the inspections program continues to develop.
The Implementation Task Force
Members of DiRo - NA’s Board volunteered to meet as an
Implementation Task Force, charged with implementing the changes that
will achieve our goals. The members of the Implementation Task Force are:
— Paul Bartolotta, The Bartolotta Restaurants and Bartolotta Ristorante
di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
— Peter D’Andrea, Old Hickory Steakhouse, Nashville, TN
— Chick Marshall, Mr. Stox Restaurant, Anaheim, CA
— John Metz, Hi Life Kitchen and Cocktails, Norcross, GA
— Tom Parsell, Magnolias, Charleston, SC
— Margo Provost, Log Haven, Salt Lake City, UT
— Bob Spivak, The Grill, Beverly Hills, CA
— Dee Lincoln, Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Dallas, TX
Two additional teams will assist the Implementation Task Force:
Membership Survey Group
This group will survey the
DiRo - NA membership to
help initiate and guide
DiRo - NA’s transition. The
primary goal, as previously
outlined, is to strengthen
DiRo - NA’s financial structure.
An important part of
this survey will be to understand
the type of membership
contributions that DiRo - NA will need to program its core activities
year on year. The Membership Survey Group will be asking for your
feedback on the core activities that you think should define DiRo - NA.
You will be asked to comment on the public programs for DiRo - NA: the
Scholarship Awards, the Annual Conference, and DiRo - NA Week. The
survey will be distributed during the summer of 2006.