Dec 21, 2007
A New Year and a New Attitude
It’s that time of year again…for some of us, it’s a time for self analysis and reflection. Many of us have resolutions and will work hard to fulfill them. 
It’s also time for gathering together and spending time with family, friends and co-workers. For those of us who are lucky enough to work here, our co-workers are our friends and Sundance itself is like our family.
This past weekend, Sundance Vacations held their annual Christmas parties;
marketing on Saturday evening, sales and administrative on Sunday evening. Braving snow and ice, our intrepid employees put on their party clothes and boogied the night away. The sales party this year was very special. In the past, our Wisconsin and Illinois offices have had their own Christmas parties because of their location; but this year, for the first time ever, all of the sales offices were together when our Midwest sales teams joined the East coast sales and administrative teams for an amazing gala at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City. 
We ate and we danced. Some of us even tried our luck in the casino before retiring to our rooms.
On Monday morning, the staff was invited to attend a presentation with the motivational speaker, Chuck Reaves. 
It was a great presentation and Chuck had some really innovative ideas, ideas that could be used as part of a New Year resolution for your life and your work…What did you learn from Chuck Reaves? 
Is there anything you heard that you plan to implement this year? Please send in your comments.
To All, a Very Merry Christmas, a Peaceful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!!
Kathy O’Mara
Communications Director
The Christmas party was a wonderful time. Having worked for the company when we were not so big I was in awe at the number of employees. It is a shame that more sales reps did’nt attend the fabulous motivational presentation. I noted that most of the sales managers were there. Maybe its this dedication to improvement that generated their careers. I followed up back at the Princeton office with my own Motivational meeting. We set goals and steps to become number one, our rightful place!. Our motto for the new year is “NO Excuses”. God bless Sundance Vacations and the wonderful people who work for it.You are all like a family ,a very much loved family. Merry Christmas and a happy and prosporous New Year!!
Although it was a liitle rough waking up for for it, the motivational seminar was very inspirational.
I think the statement that moved me the most was when Chuck Reeves said that “if you continue to do the same thing , the same way, all the time, you will not succeed”.
That is so true!! We need to keep coming up with new ideas everyday to keep trying to improve to the best of our ability.
The other thing that was quite interesting is when Chuck Reeves asked, “What are the three single words that will make you rich ,famous and successful?”
My creative boyfriend’s answer: “Stick ‘em up!”
Chuck Reeves answer: “I don’t know!”
Athough, I got a chuckle out of my boyfriend’s answer. I think that saying “I don’t know” is one of the smartest things you can say when you really don’t know the answer. So, many people are afraid to use those 3 little words. But, the person that will succeed is the person who can say “I don’t know, but I will try my hardest to figure it out!”. Also when you say “I don’t know, what do you think?” it leaves room for many creative answers that you may use to your advantage.
So, in a nut shell- Don’t be afraid of “change” and don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. But be afraid if you don’t know how to change!!!
I forgot to add something in my last comment.
For those of you who attended the seminar, I hope you were as motivated as I was. I am really looking forward to a record breaking year in 2008.
For those of you who couldn’t get yourselves out of bed to make the seminar, you are obviously the one’s who need the motivation! Too bad you missed it, there were some great words of wisdom to help you succeed in both your personal and professional life.
Mr. Reaves inspired several new and exciting ideas for both John and I, so even if no one else was motivated(and I know that isn’t true) we got our money’s worth.
One of Chuck’s points was that customer’s are attending an entertainment event when we first make contact. The optimal end result of that contact is to put the client on vacation; another entertainment type event. He posed the question, “What could you do to maintain that entertainment?”
My mind has been racing ever since which is surely a great thing (other than the loss of sleep). Several staff members have been assigned to research the potential use of Segway’s.
Sometimes in the current situation customers walk wide around our display so that they won’t be asked to sign up. My goal with the Segway idea is to change that. Perhaps we could hold “Segway races” during our Dover speedway event? Staff members were challenged to come up with interesting uses that could intrigue event goers and bring them to us willingly.
I heard a rumor that one employee’s husband who attended the Reaves discussion is now the motivational speaker on the job at his place of employment. He carries the workbook in his lunchbox and quizes his co-workers about whether they see an old hag or a beautiful woman and makes them count the “f’s” in the paragraph! That’s great.
Thank you Sundance!! The party was really great,Mr. Reeves was great! I won $600 In AC. I realy enjoyed putting faces to all the names!! I hope we can do this again next year!! Our motto is to be great in 08!!!
I know Sundance always puts on an extravagent Christmas party but this year topped the charts. We had so much fun!! Being a first timer in Atlantic City I was really shocked. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and even better New Year!!
I had a very good time at the company christmas party at genetti’s.. they keep on getting better and better each time . I love how they showed the pictures of our office ( GO TAMAQUA)
i can’t wait till next year 2 keep that trophy
Thank you, John and Tina! I had a wonderful time in Atlantic City. Believe it or not, this was the first time I stayed in Atlantic City for longer than 1 minute! It was nice to see everybody from all the Sales Offices and to meet Chuck Reaves. My favorite part of the evening was playing the Game Show with my friend Pat.
This years Christams party was so much fun! It was my first Christmas party with Sundance, celebrating my one year Anniversary on January 9th 2008.
I am looking forward to many more fun years and yes of course keeping that trophy in Tamaqua!..go Tamaqua day and night shift!
I know this comment is late, but better late than never!!
I just wanted to be able to thank Tina and John for the wonderful time in A.C. As a new employee at that time, I was still struggling with learning about the company and how to manage my job duties and responsibility. I am now becoming much more comfortable in this enviroment and becoming closer to my co-workers(weekday family). I am realizing how much I really love it! I was able to meet and spend most of the morning after the party talking with Chuck Reaves and I really enjoyed all of the input that he had for me regarding my personal life. The picture of the “old hagg” was something farmilliar to me as I had seen that in an inspirational seminar held at my previous employer and my husband who also attended both Chuck’s seminar and the previous seminar with my old job, laughed with me as we discussed the differences in the two companies outlooks. I just want to say that the company I used to work for is still my husbands employer and my husband could not believe how our co-workers outlooks were positive. That says alot about us. We are a family! and are all positive!!