The Triathlon's Journey to the Olympics

Lonnie Lazear serves as district manager for the Glory Days Grill group in Fairfax, Virginia. Beyond his work in areas such as personnel management and food quality control, Lonnie Lazear enjoys staying active by competing in triathlons.

The history of the modern triathlon is typically traced back to Mission Bay, San Diego, in 1974, during which time Olympic runners often used the unique combination of events while training for marathons and other long-distance running events. John Collins, a competitor at the first-ever Mission Bay Triathlon, left California soon after and established the Ironman version of the event in Hawaii.

By 1982, the Ironman in Hawaii had to introduce qualifying standards due to its popularity. As the decade ended, the sport successfully formed its first international governing body. The top priority for the International Triathlon Union was to discuss the sport’s inclusion in the Olympic program with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which accepted the sport in 1995. Standard elements set for the triathlon at the Games were a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer bike ride, and a 10-kilometer run. The triathlon made its debut as a medal sport at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

 

A Brief Look at the Most Popular Scout Merit Badges of 2019

Lonnie Lazear joined Fairfax, Virginia’s Glory Days Grill as a manager in 2003 and continues to lead the restaurant, along with several additional locations, as a multi-unit district manager. Lonnie Lazear further engages with the greater Fairfax community through his work with organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America.

In 2019, the single most popular merit badge for members of the Boy Scouts of America was the First Aid badge, which was earned by 62,352 Scouts throughout the nation. First Aid was followed in popularity by badges for Swimming, Camping, and Citizenship of the World, each of which was earned by at least 50,000 Scouts. Personal Fitness rounded out the top five with 49,802 Scouts.

Camping enjoyed a particularly strong year in 2019. After establishing itself as a Top 8 badge between 2014 and 2018, the Camping badge increased by 5 percent to its No. 3 position. That said, the American Business badge enjoyed a leading growth rate of 166 percent, while interest in Backpacking nearly doubled, growing by 78 percent.

It should be noted that all of the top 10 most popular merit badges are on the "required" list to achieve the Eagle Scout rank. When this group of badges is removed, the most popular badges are for Fingerprinting and Rifle Shooting, with 36,510 and 34,049 new Scouts, respectively, followed by badges for Archery and Leatherwork. More information about merit badges is available on the Boy Scouts of America website. 

The Importance of Implementing Good Company Culture in Restaurants

Lonnie Lazear leverages his formal education in tourism and hospitality at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to lead Glory Days Grill as a multi-unit restaurant manager. In this capacity, Lonnie Lazear oversees all operations at the restaurant franchises, including food quality control and contract and personnel management. As with other businesses, restaurants rely heavily on company culture to succeed, and this culture is shifting toward a focus on customer-first environments.

Broadly, company culture refers to the behaviors of a particular entity and the meaning tied to said behaviors. A company’s vision, value, language, organizational strategy, and many other things affect these behaviors. In restaurants, they dictate the daily life of a business and its employees. Good culture helps employees feel comfortable and enjoy their time at work with their coworkers. This, in turn, affects customers since they respond to employees’ behaviors.

Since customers are so affected by company culture, it’s often wise to implement a customer-first culture. Employees of all levels in an organization are responsible for maintaining this type of culture, from the CEO to the janitorial staff. It involves knowing the customers and understanding their needs, training staff to respond to these needs and always put the customer first, and rethinking the layout of the restaurant to improve the customer experience.

 

Three Things to Consider Incorporating in Loss Prevention Strategies

The manager of the Glory Days Grill franchise in Virginia, Lonnie Lazear has been working in the hospitality and dining sectors for over a decade. During this time, he has won several accolades, including being named managing partner of the year in 2008-09, 2011, and 2014. As a manager, Lonnie Lazear handles such things as personnel management and profit and loss management. Poor loss prevention strategies are capable of preventing the success of a new restaurant, regardless of how many positive aspects of the company are in place. Below are several things to improve loss prevention:

- Set up automated alerts. Implementing an automated system helps restaurant leaders avoid the headache of manually analyzing data so they can focus on other aspects of restaurant management. Such systems are capable of catching fraudulent activity from employees, such as the wagon wheel scam.

- Control access. By adding fingerprint security at the point of sale, restaurants can more effectively track each transaction to specific employees. As a result, examining inventory variances, schedule changes, and questionable transactions is simplified so restaurants can prevent losses faster.

- Add video security. While video shouldn’t be the primary method of identifying loss, it’s still an invaluable part of a restaurant’s overall loss prevention strategy. It helps restaurants confirm certain activities and identify issues in the data to avoid a false positive.

Tufts University Studies Impact of Scouting

An experienced restaurant professional, Lonnie Lazear has served as manager of Glory Days Grill in Fairfax, Virginia, since 2003. In this role, he oversees hiring, heath and safety regulations, and food quality control. In addition to his professional responsibilities, Lonnie Lazear is an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America.

Boy Scouts of America regularly partners with universities and other research organizations to analyze the impact of scouting programs on young people. Scouting, which encourages service to others and cultivates leadership skills and self-reliance, has a long history of instilling positive values in youth. According to a 3-year study by Tufts University, Scouts achieved consistently higher scores than their non-Scout peers in areas such as obedience, kindness, and trustworthiness.

The study, which conducted interviews and collected survey data from nearly 400 non-Scouts and 1,800 Cub Scouts under the age of 12, found that Scouts embrace positive social values at a higher rate than non-Scouts. Additionally, Scouts who attend meetings regularly report higher outcomes across all categories of character development.

Key Benefits of Being a National Restaurant Association Member

A resident of Reston, Virginia, Lonnie Lazear studied hospitality and tourism at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. At present, Lonnie Lazear serves as a District manager of Virginia-based Glory Days Grill, where he oversees 7 restaurants personnel, food quality and safety, and contract management functions. Mr. Lazear is also a member of the National Restaurant Association.

The world’s largest food service trade association, the National Restaurant Association supports over 500,000 restaurant businesses through advocacy and representation, and is staffed by a team of over 750 people. Membership with the organization provides several benefits, including discounts on products and services aimed at preserving the American food service industry, and free admission to the National Restaurant Association Show.

National Restaurant Association members are kept informed about regulations and laws that affect the restaurant business, and are provided with an annual industry forecast that identifies upcoming trends. Membership also provides access to the association’s Educational Foundation programs, which are courses designed to attract new employees and enhance the skills of existing employees. These programs provide members with networking and peer learning opportunities.