Berthier Street Bakery
By Vampcakes Resident

TYPE: Official

BACKGROUND: I'm applying to be a co-lead at the Berthier Bakery at the request of Kouta Ugajin; she wishes to promote Saff to Shift Manager, as a way to take care of the bakery (in character and out of character) in her absence, though Saff would still report to Kouta. This means I’d be a quick and direct contact for the bakery so that any questions, concerns, events, or story line ideas would be answered in a timely manner. This also includes fulfilling and implementing Kouta’s original ideas when she was hired as the bakery lead. I am currently working in character as the assistant manager, which was an in character promotion this past summer. Kouta thought it would be best to have me keep an eye on the bakery when she wasn't around and have been doing just that; even before the in character promotion, I kept in close contact with Kouta, updating her on the current story lines inside the bakery, new hires, possible events happening in town, and ideas to enhance the role play experience for the workers and customers, i.e. employee aprons and workable take-away pastry bag props. Kouta was very good about responding to the above mentioned, and we'd then make a plan on what actions to take in character to keep the bakery active in town. One direction I’d like to see the bakery go is one that not only serves and caters to special events or just for people with a sweet tooth, but for the locals to treat it like “the place where you get your bread.” Just as Hathian has a butcher shop and a coffee shop, the bakery should have the same small town feel, where the locals purchase items at each specialized store, rather than a giant supermarket. To this I propose making a variety of breads and rolls available on the menu. In thanks for for doing this, Kouta and I would reward the repeat customers with a punch card system: i.e. every 10th purchase is free. I've worked at the bakery for almost a year and have loved every moment of it. I enjoy baking in real life and wish to carry that passion over into this role I’m applying for, to inspire other workers to really dive into a baking environment, whether that be in the kitchen baking, making delivery story lines of assigning employees to work at Hathian community events where we are catering.

UNIQUE: In collaboration with Kouta, I would propose having the bakery start serving traditional Louisiana pastries and desserts on the standard menu, such as Pralines, Pecan Pie, King Cake during Mardi Gras and Beignets which are the official state doughnut. This would definitely make the bakery stand out as a grassroots business with the Louisiana flavor most Hathian locals would be accustomed to. We’d also like to think that the bakery is a place where people are rewarded with good food, so to thank the employees of Hathian, they would receive a percentage off each purchase, and a special thanks to the Police and Fire Department for their service with Free Doughnut Fridays. Kouta has voiced that the bakery will always donate to charity events, weather that be money or food. I’d like to take this one step further and propose that the leftover pastries from each day, are donated to a homeless shelter in town (if there is one) or some place similar to those less fortunate. This would give the bakery a real community service presence in town which could add to their likability and vulnerability in the cities story line.

EXPERIENCE:Before I entered the land of role play I was a club kid. I was hired at a few clubs to work as a host, security and director of operations. Here are some of the skills I learned at each job: - Host: Greeting and information; this will be a helpful skill for welcoming newcomers to the bakery and Hathian to get them acclimated to the rules of role play and sim rules. -Security: Moderating and dealing with difficult people/griefers; many a times as a host I had to IM people to politely ask them to cease what they were doing if it was against the sim rules, mostly for things like spamming in local chat, particle spamming or general griefing. Generally it would start off with a warning, anything after that was reported to sim moderator for them to deal with. -Director of Operations: Working in a team setting and managing an online data system; for this I delegated out times for hosts to come in to work their shift at the club, and if they couldn't make it, i’d update the online data system, then look for a replacement. This level of responsibility made me have to be available at all times in IM’s so hosts or other directors could contact me for rescheduling or meetings. I’m a stay at home wife, so after all my house chores are done for the day (lol) I am available to play Second Life, making me be on frequently, which is a plus. I’ll be able to reply to inquiries about the sim or bakery quickly.

IDEAS:FOR NEW EMPLOYEES: Firstly, I’d check the roster to see who had just signed up to work at the bakery. From there I would contact them to welcome them to the group and give them a care package for their bakery role play experience which would include: a Berthier Bakery apron, functioning pastry props that they can give out to customers when a purchase is made, and the current menu and price guide. I'd also inform them of the current NPC items that we have in the bakery such as the CCTV, baseball bat, and mace that Kouta has added a while ago to ensure the workers IC safety, in case of any emergency situations in the store. FOR NEW AND CURRENT ROLE PLAYERS: -Weekly notices about current bakery specials -Notices about upcoming events -Team meetings -Ask if anyone wants to work at an event the bakery is catering -Standardized menu and price guide

OTHER:I’d like to do to celebrate Saff’s promotion is to have a low key mini block party, to include cookie decorating, cupcake decorating, and a tour of the bakery kitchen for the kids of Hathian. For their parents I’d have a bread and cheese station open for them to sample the new breads being put on the menu. I’d like collaborate with Bottoms Up for this to include some wine for the adults as well. This would be a nice event to introduce Saff as the new Co-lead to the citizens and establish her as a contact for the bakery.