Jama Company and Community News

Orange Week at Jama

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jama-orange-week-image-2It’s been an exciting year of growth for Jama, evidenced by close to doubling of employees this year. One of the ways we initiate our new employees is through Orange Week, a quarterly orientation. What started as pizza in a conference room has evolved into a three-day Jama University. During Orange Week, new employees are hosted in a nearby offsite location, where they get a crash course in the history of the company and get to know each department.

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Orange Week Q3 2013 included coffee and a lesson in the history of Jama with CEO Eric, a mini-seminar with employee #4 Steve, titled “What are Requirements?” and a very informative round of Two Truths and A Lie with Colleen, our Director of Finance and Operations. Also on the agenda were presentations detailing the inner workings of each department, a hands-on Jama training and a sprinkling of informative and borderline-cheesy-but-still-funny icebreakers for the 15 new recruits.

jama-orange-week-image-1The lasting impact of Orange Week is the class gift. The spirit of Orange Week and the personality of each class shows through with the selection and purchase of a gift. In the early days at Jama, we had a grocery fund called the $440 Fund (pronounced “four-forty”). (When we did the math originally – X number of employees multiplied by X dollars per month—the total was $420, but for obvious reasons we didn’t want to have a fund called the four-twenty fund…so we added $20 and ergo, the four-forty fund was born). Each month a different employee was given $440 and put in charge of groceries for the company for the month. This meant that some months we had a nice mix of fresh fruit, granola and yogurt in the kitchen, and other months we had cases of Cup-a-Noodle and Kirkland brand GORP. One favorite was the month that someone stopped at a local bakery each morning and brought in fresh-baked, still warm artisan bread and butter.

We long ago outgrew a monthly grocery allowance of $440, but wanted to keep the legacy of the $440 fund at Jama, so fast-forward to present day. Orange Week class is given $440 to purchase a gift for the company. Past gifts include potted plants to warm up our brand-new office, a bike repair and cleaning station, framed photographs of our customers and the work they do and a commissioned oil painting of an astronaut planting a Jama flag on the moon. Each gift has represented not only the unique character of each Orange Week group, but is representative of a point in Jama history. Plus, we’ve allowed new employees to contribute to the shaping (and decoration) of their workplace. I can’t wait to see what our Q3 2013 class comes up with!

Be sure to check back on our careers page regularly to see what positions are open.

class gifts

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