March 25, 2010 

Bob,  

I’ve been giving retirement serious thought the past week as I am turning 69, and I have completed all goals and succession plans thanks to you and TAB. R&J is doing well going forward; so along with resigning from TAB, I am semi-retiring from active business life.  (I will need to go into the office on occasion for my own sanity!)  Being able to spend two months in Florida is a good sign I am ready. Today, I feel like a winner.

I need to thank the TAB process and everyone on my TAB Board for the ability to do this.  When I joined TAB seven years ago, I thought of it as a great way to meet fellow business people, not thinking they all could make a difference with me and my type of service business.  It turned out that it is all the same, from the CEO down to the actual product.  We all had the same concerns, keeping people employed and showing a profit for the effort.

At that time, I wasn’t sure I had the confidence or ability to take the risks to grow larger.  After all, I was dealing with the lives of families.  I wasn't sure I would be able to keep them all employed if I took the risk.  It forced me to think and act bigger.

If you remember, I had just purchased the building and had only four service trucks.  We had the TAB Board meeting in that little room in the shop area.  My goal then was to have a conference room.  We completed the addition, which gave us room for the TAB meeting, but also gave the management team a place to have our weekly meetings.  It all took off from there.  We now have 11 service trucks on the road and individual offices for everyone.  My sons are fully capable of running the business, and our management team is, well, a management team!

I completed what I set out to do in May of 1974 working out of a spare bedroom with two elementary school kids and a new mortgage and a $5000 loan to start my business.

Bob, thanks for keeping me focused during the one-on-one meetings; and thanks to everyone else.  Farewell. I will miss all of you.

Bob Berry

R&J Control