Cheers Brian! I am so envious that you have defrocked the green apron. I offer this video as a monument to our many dialogues over chimay and our mutual intersst over the greatest pop-cultural decade of our century, the 80's.

I am honored to have become a part of this fellowship despite joining at it's chronological tail end.  I honestly believed that i could not have made it my first year in Boston without the generous hand of Gentry, Kelly, Brooke, James, and Cade. Each of these individuals have been a tremendous blessing in my life, and for each of these individuals I give thanks to our God.

It is so remarkable how our ethos has been so similar to Mars Hill church in Dallas, and that in the manner of Mars Hill, even for us to stop the administration of sacrament on a weekly basis still does not constitute the end of our eucharistic celebration of commnunity.  Returning home two weeks ago showed me the love and care that many of the mars hillians have for each other after so many years and after its church closure. I know that this will be the case for those of the S and S.

From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor

Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience

As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.

Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.

Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.

Historiography: For this class, I chose for research the 18th century Italian philospher Giambattista Vico. His philosophical ideas are a striking foretaste of Kant, and was an inspiration to James Joyce. Recall Finnegan's Wake.

At Harvard Divinty
Reading and Research: investigating the nature and character of the emergent church. I am taking this class alongside Anna.

We have been in conversation with the Animal Control Officer in Hamilton (not PETA as originally reported) and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to determine the appropriate manner by which to deal with this wildlife in order to ensure the safety of our students and their families.

The turkeys have become very aggressive, so we are asking mothers not to take your children out in strollers. If you see the turkeys outside your building doors, please call Campus Safety."

"As many of you have noted, there is a group of wild turkeys who have made our campus their home. Recently we have received reports that some of these turkeys are becoming quite aggressive. Campus Safety is researching our options for coping with this situation and will provide a more comprehensive response to the campus community shortly. In the meantime, please use caution encountering the wild turkeys – do not engage them, run after them or provoke them."

I enjoy seeing that family of Turkeys wandering around the grassy knolls. It makes me feel like a pilgrim that just landed in the new territory of America. Are not wild turkeys are part of the plymouth rock/new england culture?