McCallum Announced as NRA's Chief Strategy Officer

January 2, 2008

Happy New Year! I would like to share an exciting announcement with you—one that I expect will provide critical and strategic support for our “new NRA” and “new NRAEF” in the coming year and beyond.

I am pleased to announce that Mike McCallum, President and CEO of the Oregon Restaurant Association, has agreed to serve in a newly created role as Chief Strategy Officer for the “new NRA,” reporting directly to me.

Many of you know Mike through his leadership of twenty years with the ORA, nine as President and CEO. For the past year, he has been one of three state restaurant association executives working on the national Unification Task Force (UTF) with the NRA and NRAEF. The charge to this Task Force was to construct a path to align the two national and 50 state entities to serve our industry at the most effective level possible. This group was key in successfully crafting the elements of the transaction between the two organizations that will result in a stronger NRA -- a nearly $60 million entity with well over 200 employees, officially effective today.

Many of you are also aware that we are close to making a final decision on selection of a strategic planning firm to assist in charting a new path that will allow the NRA, the NRAEF and the State Associations to serve our industry even more effectively in the coming years. That information will be forthcoming shortly.

In his new role as Chief Strategy Officer, Mike will be directly responsible for guiding the engagement of the firm in conducting this strategic plan over the next several months. He will work with me, and with the Strategic Plan Advisory Committee (comprised of NRA and NRAEF officers, Board members and SRA executives), to gain involvement, input and commitment from all segments of the industry, including the state restaurant association executives and their Boards, to the future vision for the “new NRA” in support of a growing and vibrant industry.

In this role, Mike will interact with all parts of the organization in an effort to build bridges and improve connectivity. In addition, he will also be the primary liaison with state restaurant associations as efforts proceed to better align national and state agendas and plans. Combined, state restaurant associations bring another $60 million of combined resources to the table in service to this industry. Mike’s job, in part, will be to work with me to better align the collective $120 million of these entities for greater effectiveness and efficiencies.

I am grateful for and excited about Mike’s willingness to provide his talent, insight and leadership, and I’m also appreciative that the officers of the ORA have granted him a two-year leave of absence to take this assignment. I believe Mike will provide great service to the industry across our nation in this role.

Mike will continue to live in Oregon, although he will regularly work from the West Jackson Blvd office in Chicago and will travel extensively to other states as well as Washington D.C. During the transition from President and CEO of the Oregon Restaurant Association into his new role, we anticipate that he will be spending approximately 25% of his time in January and 50% in February on these new duties, and will transition to the 100% full-time position on March 1st.

Again, I am pleased to share this announcement with you, and hope you will join me in welcoming Mike to this new role in the industry as he joins us in 2008.

All the best to you in the year ahead!

Sincerely,

Dawn Sweeney
President and CEO
National Restaurant Association