Georgia Association of Convenience Stores
March 22, 2019
Time is running out to apply for a GACS Educational Foundation Scholarship! This year, we will award $26,000 to GACS members and their families.
Applicants must meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for any scholarship:
*Must be a high school senior or college freshman, sophomore or junior
*You must be an employee of a GACS member company or a dependent son or daughter of a GACS member company employee.
*The eligible employee must have at least one year of continuous service as of January 1 of the year in which the scholarships are awarded.
*You must be employed or have a parent/guardian that is employed at a GACS member company at the time awards are announced.
Additional requirements may be applicable, depending on the scholarship. Eligibility details for all scholarships can be found here.
Applications are accepted online until 11:59PM on March 31. We encourage members to start their applications early to ensure all necessary documents are received before the deadline.
March 21, 2019
Meredith Coleman, Sales Analyst and Marketing Manager for Jones & Frank, has been nominated as a candidate for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Women of the Year. LLS Man & Woman of the Year is a philanthropic competition to support blood cancer research among a group of motivated and dedicated individuals in communities across the United States. The man and woman who have raised the most funds during the ten-week campaign are awarded the prestigious title of Man or Woman of the Year in their community. Meredith is competing in honor of the Boy of the Year, Braylon Beam. Meredith’s goal is to raise $100,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The campaign kicks off March 21st and ends with the winner being announced at the Grand Finale Gala on June 1st.
March 18, 2019
First Lady Marty Kemp has begun a GRACE initiative to fight against human trafficking in Georgia. In Our Backyard, who GACS began partnering with in 2018, commended our work with a letter to the First Lady.
“As an organization, IN OUR BACKYARD, has been heavily involved in anti-trafficking efforts in Georgia over the past year. We collaborated with GBI, Atlanta PD, FBI, Wellspring Living, and many nonprofit partners to combat human trafficking surrounding the Super Bowl and act as a catalyst for further action the other 364 days of the year.
In these efforts, we also aligned closely with the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, an organization that serves the convenience store industry in your state. To say that they were incredible partners is an understatement. What began as an opportunity for them to give back to their community turned into an ongoing commitment to engage their industry as the eyes and ears to spot human trafficking and save lives. They have been one of our strongest convenience store industry supporters nationwide.”
March 8, 2019
Courtesy of NACS
On March 7, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its proposed update to the “white collar” exemption, also known as the overtime rule.
In 2016, the Obama Administration proposed and finalized dramatic changes to the overtime rule, which doubled the salary threshold under which all salaried employees must be paid overtime. That rule was ultimately invalidated by a federal court in Texas prior to implementation, necessitating this move by the current DOL.
The new proposal seeks to move the salary threshold from $455 per week ($23,660 annualized) to $679 per week ($35,308 annualized). This amount is slightly above adjusting the current salary threshold for inflation, roughly $33,000 annualized.
March 7, 2019
GACS is excited to launch a new Lunch & Learn educational series, taking place across the state throughout the year. This series is designed to give convenience store retailers education in a short, localized format.
All luncheons will take place 11:30am-1:30pm. There is no cost to GACS retail members.
Our series will kick off April 9 in Jackson and will feature representative from the Department of Revenue. Register now.
The schedule for the remaining Lunch & Learns is as follows:
May 14 - Columbus - GA Department of Revenue - Registration Open
July 9 - Dalton - USDA SNAP
August 13 - Waycross - GA Dept of Agriculture, Food Division
October 15 - Jackson - USDA SNAP
November 12 - Columbus - GA Dept of Agriculture, Food Division
Interested in sponsoring this event? Each meeting is available to a limited number of sponsors. Download sponsor form for additional information