Today is “National Food Service Employees Day” and we are excited to look back and reflect on the history of Tip20, and the positive impact that we have had on consumers and helping fellow waiters, waitresses, bartenders and managers all make the service industry a little bit better.

Our article about “Why you should tip” as been viewed thousands of times and has been frequently reposted across the world wide web.

We’ve covered important server topics such as handling campers, How to tip on free and discounted meals, how to handle difficult management situations, your legal server rights, service industry wages and so much more.

We’ve had a lot of fun too! We enjoyed visits from reality show celebrities, interviews from magazines and newspapers and we’ve been talked about on radio stations across the country. We have even been included for reference in a few educational text books! We have developed a great relationship with many other industry bloggers over the years too. It is great to see our industry getting the attention it so deserves and letting the world know that serving is a “real job” for many of us!

Working in the service industry can be very grueling. Typically working the hours when everyone else is playing and playing while everyone else is working. We do long shifts often with no breaks, but it can also be very rewarding and profitable. We’ve had great stories about restaurant guests going way over the top both in good and bad ways. We have also seen how the economy forces restaurants to raise prices and that raised and prices often gets taken out on the servers tips.

When Tip20 was started back in 2002, the mission was to educate consumers on how, why, where, when and who to tip and also to educate servers and bartenders on how to earn their tips and be better at their jobs. We have always felt that tips should be earned and not be just automatically given. Although tips are a critical part of every server’s income and in fact one of the biggest reasons to show up for work, tips in reality are a gift from the consumer who has been satisfied with the services they received from their server or bartender.

Our article on “tipping and taxes” has helped thousands of servers to get a better grip on their taxable income, what needs to be reported and what doesn’t. We have answered hundreds of questions e-mailed to us or post our discussion forum and throughout the blog. We listened to your feedback we try to make changes to Tip20.com to improve the speed and security and informational value and are offerings.

As we approach our 10 year anniversary next year in 2012. We are looking to further growth, development, change and more robust, interactive, useful information for our readers. Over the month of October you can expect to see some changes around Tip20, a little bit of a facelift, some simple overhaul and most importantly more regular content for you to learn from and enjoy.

A as we grow, we would very much like to have your input as to what is important to you. What would you like to see, what are you are not finding other places on the internet and basic overall feedback. Do you have an article to contribute or opinion to share? Send it in! We’ll ensure you get proper credit!

We will be integrating Facebook and Google+ more prominently in our site so it will be easier to share articles and information you like with your friends and coworkers. You will see improved product offerings for things like shoes, insurance options, job searching, etc. So if you haven’t subscribed to our feed you may want to now as we will be offering special offers for our subscribers. Also while your at it, please follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!

So the team here at Tip20! would like to thank you Service Industry for helping us make it to where we are and keep us going long into the future!

Today is the day to fire up the backyard BBQ, or to go down to the local bar n grill, to grab yourself a delicious, American Cheeseburger.

A little history…Adding cheese to hamburgers became popular in the mid-1920s to mid-1930s, and there are several competing claims as to who created the first cheeseburger. Lionel Sternberger is reputed to have invented the cheeseburger in the mid-1920s at the age of 16 when he was working as a fry cook at his father’s Pasadena, California sandwich shop, “The Rite Spot,” and “experimentally dropped a slab of American cheese on a sizzling hamburger.

To celebrate today’s National Food Holiday, Tip20 would like to pay tribute to a local, Minnesota favorite, the Juicy Lucy. For those of you that have never experienced a Juicy Lucy, or “Jucy Lucy” to many, is a cheeseburger with the cheese inside the meat patty rather than on top. A piece of cheese is surrounded by raw meat and cooked until it melts, resulting in a molten core of cheese within the patty. This scalding hot cheese tends to gush out at the first bite, so servers frequently warn patrons to let the burger cool for a few minutes before consumption.

Enjoy a cheeseburger today, perhaps you could invent the new best burger!

Sybil Presley

Lifetime waitress Sybil Presley of Memphis, Tennessee has made it her mission to get a month recognized nationally as “Be Kind to Food Servers Awareness Month”

January is the proposed month and Sybil has been looking to join the National Restaurant Association and garner their support in getting a resolution passed. Congressman Steve Cohen is helping Sybil to get Be Kind To Food Servers Month nationally recognized through Congress. Also being sought is a concurrent request of proclamation from the President for the Be Kind to Food Servers Awareness Month.

Sybil explains; “Be Kind To Food Servers Month was created to elevate the status of waitresses and waiters and to establish a positive relationship between food servers and the dining public. To bring public awareness to what a food server goes through to get the customer’s food to their table. An on-going campaign to shine the spotlight on the pet peeves from both sides of the tray-food servers and customers,making both parties aware of areas that can be improved upon for better service for the customers and generate more tips for the waiter and waitress. Be Kind To Food Servers Month will help to gain more respect, patience and appreciation for the food servers of America!”

Sybil has also created the Be Kind To Food Servers Social Network and Support Group., Info can be found on Facebook.
She is looking for suggestions from food servers and anyone who has ideas on how they would like to celebrate the Be Kind To Food Servers Awareness Month in January. In August Ms. Presley hosted city-wide blood drives. The Life Blood mobile units came to area churches and there was a festival atmosphere with food vendors and entertainment. She invited food servers to volunteer and donate blood, and plans on keeping the blood drives as one of the annual events.

If the Bill is passed while she is trying to raise money to get to DC, She will still go and thank Congress and publicize the cause. Sybil points out “This is more than just a month, it paves the way for year-long projects that will benefit Food Servers.” Sybil has also started an on-going Be Kind To Food Servers Social Network. Sybil is accepting donations in any amount to help realize the goals of her movement.

You can read more about Sybil Presley at www.SybilPresley.com and she may also be contacted via email.

by Alexis Jeffries
MONEY Magazine – Money Poll

It’s an annual dilemma: What’s an appropriate holiday tip for the people who serve you throughout the year? Etiquette expert Peggy Post recommends a gift of a week’s to a month’s pay for full time help like a nanny; and the cost of at least one visit for people who provide a regular, less frequent service, such as a hairstylist. But you probably also want to keep in line with what your neighbors are giving so you don’t look like a tightwad. In a MONEY poll, readers owned up to the tipping sums below; Post says they are suitably generous.

Average Tip

• Mail Carrier – $20
• Hair Dresser – $20
• Cleaning Person – $75
• Occasional Babysitter – $25
• Full-time Nanny – $270
• Gardener/Yard Worker – $50
• Newspaper Carrier – $15
• Garbage Collector – $20