Goodbye to Josh

Well, we knew it had to happen one of these days. Our Marketing assistant, Trade Show guy, BargainYARNS deal-hunter, Customer Service rep, Carrier of Heavy Things, and all around good-guy is leaving us. Yes...that's all one person. Josh.

When Josh first came to us he was looking for his first big break in marketing. He was a journalism grad who'd held jobs in health care, auto insurance and -- as he worked his way through school -- bartending. When you combine the customer service skills of a bartender with the compassion of a health care worker and the telephone experience of an auto insurance rep, you've got a guy who we figured would be great with our Yarnmarket customers.

Sure enough, he was. And while he was helping us man the phones and web sites, he was also learning everything he could about marketing: how to select media and develop a media plan, how to organize a trade show, how to create and analyze research studies...lots of things that made him the perfect candidate for a job at a really wonderful organization: Battelle.

Now I'd love to say that we're devastated by the loss of Josh, but I can't. We're thrilled that he's landed such a terrific job in the very exciting field of scientific research and development. When we hired him we told him we expected to turn him loose on the world once he'd gotten a little experience. We've done that many times before with young people who showed promise, and we're delighted that we've been able to do it again.

Just to embarrass Josh, here's how he got the job at Yarnmarket:

Letter to me from my friend, Casey, on 7/18/07:
I’m attaching my son-in-law's resume, his name is Josh. He is an entry level project manager, his degree is in journalism. He is trying to break into the field of Marketing, PR, Communications. He may be quite interested in part-time work in this area to get experience. No pressure at all to look at or consider his resume, just a thought.

Casey

That was followed up with a letter from Josh's wife on 7/20/07

Good morning Deb,

How are you doing? Wonderful, I hear. Mom tells me that you would like to speak with Josh about possibly working with you! That is great! He would like to speak with you too! I will have him give you a call if you send me your telephone number. He is working today from 8-5, but he may be able to call you during his lunch hour.

Thanks for your interest!

Regards,
Shelley

Every guy should have a wife and mother-in-law who are this supportive of his career! Josh started with us on August 13, 2007, much to the delight of his executive placement personnel.

I'd like to thank Josh for being the Yarnmarket Guy for the past 18 months.

Josh, all the ladies here are going to miss your smiling face and terrific sense of humor. Our regular phone customers will miss the helpful advice you provided to them. And I'm sure that Alex is going to miss the days when he wasn't the only Y-chromosome in the entire Yarnmarket organization.

We're very proud that you're leaving our yarn store for such a stellar organization. All we ask is that you teach the 20,000 employees at Battelle to knit.

Best of luck, Josh. We hope you enjoyed being our YarnMartian guy for a while.


For those of you who want to know who's who in the shot: Josh is surrounded by a few members of his harem, left to right:
Alma, our wonderful picker 'n packer who's been with us almost since we started
Susie, who keeps Yarndex up-to-date and has the sweetest puppy she sometimes brings to visit us
Lisa, who helps with Yarnmarket orders, and who ensures all our BargainYARNS and YarnMerchant orders get out quickly and correctly
Michele, our jack-of-all-trades who does everything from photographing our yarns to painting the Showroom
Jenny, our new Web Mistress who did such great work on KnitchMagazine.com
Jan, who has also been with us just about since we started. Jan's a walking Yarndex Directory
Julie, who picks 'n packs and knits the most wonderful garments. I love her Kool-Aid dyed mittens. (And they taste good, too!)
Me
Tina, who gets here bright and early each morning to open up the shop and start organizing orders to be shipped each day
Brenda, who prepares orders for shipment and waits each evening for Marlon our UPS guy to arrive. Her daughter just passed her Bar exam in CA. (Congratulations! And now could you please make Brenda a Grandma?)
Amy, who helps pick 'n pack and who I envy right now because she made a commitment to get into shape and she looks great!
Not shown are:
Alex, because he took the shot. He also took the shot of Snowflake the Squirrel. He's good with wildlife and YarnMartians.
Pat, who scans a lot of the yarns you see on Yarnmarket, was co-inventor of Pat and Michele's Handy Dandy Yarn Stackers, and who provides tremendous help to our customers on the phone
Sharon, our customer service rep and in-house artist. She painted the Caledon Hills landscape
Jill, our award-winning cook. Jill's at home recovering from foot surgery. Get well soon, Jill! We miss you.
Lori and the other Lori, who always hide when there's a camera around. We think they're part of the Witness Protection Program
Stefanie, our fashionista who had to stay home today because the schools are closed
Lynn, the nicest Customer Service person in the business, and the woman Trace Adkins has met face-to-face on two occasions but has been too shy to tell her he loves her
Susan, our scanner extraordinaire who is absolutely meticulous about getting those colors right!