Team Updates

Transitioning to a new year at NoRa

Wishing all of you a wonderful 2026.

As we say goodbye to 2025, I wanted to thank all of you for a wonderful year filled with lots of lattes, plenty of pastries, beaucoup breakfast sandwiches and a ton of tea.  

We've grown in numerous ways over the past year.  For those of you who like numbers, you can click here to see some of the 2025 stats including how many drinks and sandwiches were made, the most popular pastry, the busiest months and the total number of orders last year.

Having looked at the numbers from last year as well as looking at where our biggest opportunities exist, we will be making some changes to the business to help create an even more vibrant and enjoyable spot for our NoRa Community.  These are summarized below in the BUSINESS CHANGES 2026 section.

2026 Forms Needed

ALL EMPLOYEES NEED TO COMPLETE OR UPDATE THE FOLLOWING FORMS BY JAN 15

I need to make sure I have updated and accurate information for all team members.  Each employee at NoRa must update all of the following forms or provide the requested response by Jan 15th. 

For paper forms (indicated by the word PAPER below), each team member will receive a packet with the forms to be updated.  

I9 - Employment Eligibility Verification 

• PAPER form.  Will be in packet.  You will need to bring proper documentation as indicated.  

W4 - Federal Income Tax withholding

• This is an ELECTRONIC form/update.  You will access through Workforce (QuickBooks).  You should have access to this but let me know if you don't.  You MUST review it and update if needed.  Especially important is to make sure Workforce has the correct physical address and e-mail address so I can send you your W2 before the end of January.  You must send me a message once you've reviewed or updated. 

1-B Conditional Employee or Food Employee Reporting Agreement

• This is a PAPER document and will be included in your packet.  

ABC Training

• This is an online course that produces a digital certificate upon compoletion.  All employees who currently or may in the future take orders from customers must take this course.  It should take less than 30 minutes.  Once completed, send me a copy of the digital certificate that you will receive once passing the test.  You may access the online course at  https://abc2.nc.gov/Training

ServSafe

• ServSafe Manager Level certification is required for any NoRa employee who works on average at least three shifts or 20 hours a week.  If you meet these criteria and do not have a current Manager Level ServSafe certification or if your current certification will expire in less than six months, you must work with Nicole to schedule time to attend the class.  NoRa pays for the class as long as you successfully complete the class and continue to work at NoRa for three months after completion.  

Tip distribution

Starting January 1st, all tips (both cash and credit card) will be distributed to the people working in a tip-eligible role at the time of the transaction.  Tips will be calculated by Square based on team members' clock-in/clock-out times.  

Special events and activities may handle tip distribution differently - specifically if gratuity is incorporated into the event costs.   

PTO Policy (2026)

Who is eligible?

Any NoRa team member in good standing (no performance issues) who works an average of 100 hours a month 

Accrual Rate

Team members who have transitioned to regular status (successfully completed training) will earn .04 hours of PTO for each on-shift hour worked.

Maximum carryover

Each team member may carry up to 40 hours of earned PTO at the beginning of each calendar year.  All accrued hours over 40 hours will be paid out to the team member in the final paycheck of the calendar year.  

GRANDFATHER CLAUSE

Any current team member who is in good standing and working at least 25 hours a month at NoRa will maintain their current accrual rate if it is more than the new rate.  

Kitchen hours to be extended

As the business has grown, the demand on house-made and food-to-order from the kitchen has increased.  Whether its having food available in the afternoon and evening to options more appropriate for afternoon snacks or evening get-togethers, there have been a growing number of requests from customers.  

As we look to create a new business model for the afternoon and evenings, I am looking to expand the hours the kitchen is open as well as look for menu options that kitchen and non-kitchen staff can offer until late in the day.  We are looking at both mostly-ready-to-serve options from our vendors (like Cheney) as well as made-to-order foods like sandwiches and desserts that can be prepared by kitchen-staff working afternoon or evening shifts.

Price updates

I will be announcing small increases in most of our items in January.  While we did add a small surcharge for to-go items this past year, we have basically been absorbing all of the cost increases from our vendors for the past year.   My goal is to keep the increases small enough that our customers don't complain.  I will send out a message to the community before we raise the prices.  If you do receive feedback once the increases take effect, please pass on to me.

Loyalty Program Update

As mentioned earlier, in January we will be rolling out the following changes to the NoRa Loyalty Program.  The official date of the transition will be announced so that the community has at least two weeks notice before the change occurs.

Points accrual

Customers will continue to earn 1 point for every $1 spent.  This is the same as the current program.  The only additional item to highlight is that points can be earned either at NoRa or at Dog-Eared Books as the program spans both businesses.

Reward redemption

With the new program, we are moving away from reward goals such as a Free Drink or a Free Food Item where you must spend a set number of points to get.  Moving forward, the program will change to a simple points per dollar discount.  The current points to dollar rate will be 10 points for every $1 discounted on your total bill.  

Benefits for customers

There are multiple benefits for our community to the new approach.  First is that customers can now get discounts on nearly everything they purchase as opposed to just on drinks and food items.  While there will still be some items that aren't included in the loyalty program (such as events, charity activities, etc.), customers should be able to redeem their discounts whenever they want.

A second benefit is that customers don't need to wait until they reach a threshold amount - such as 50 or 75 points.  Even if the customer only has 10 points, they could still use it to reduce their overall bill by a $1.

Last, the program does span both NoRa and Dog-Eared Books so customers can use their purchases at either place to save money or get free products at either location.

Things to be aware of

Points must be spent in blocks of 10 points per $1.  This means that to get an order of $11.43 for free, they would need to spend 120 points or the equivalent of $12. 

NoRa reserves the right for some items not to be included in the Loyalty Program for either accrual or redemption.   

The points per dollar ratio for redeeming may change at any point.  This includes both directions as we may have times where we offer a dollar discount for less points or where we raise the number of points required to get the dollar discount.

NoRa Membership Transitions to Community Cup Monthly Program

After receiving some feedback about getting rid of the NoRa membership program, I have decided not to eliminate the membership program but to change it to a Community Cup monthly program.  The program will be straightforward and simple - pay a monthly fee and you can get as many cups of coffee as you want during that month.  It will only apply to the Community Cup and does not provide any discounts on anything else.  

NoRa Gift - AAA membership

Colleen is continuing her gift giving by providing AAA membership to team members who want it.  We need to submit the information now.  If you want a membership, please send to Colleen through slack the following information ASAP.

• Name
  Address
  Contact phone #
  Birthdate
• And if you would like to add a roommate/partner (living at your address) as an associate to your account pls include:
  Name
  Email
  Phone #
  Birthdate

Health Insurance Potential for 2026

We are evaluating getting health insurance for our team for people meeting minimum criteria in 2026.  

If you are planning on working an average of more than 20 hours a week and would like to consider getting health insurance through a small business policy through NoRa, please send the following information to Matt in Slack ASAP.  

• First name (legal)
• Last name (legal)
• Date of birth
• E-mail (to be used by health insurance plan)
• Zip code (your current resident's zip code)

Note - we do not know the costs yet as they are determined by the number of people and their demographics.  Once we do know, we will let people know the options and the costs.  This is not a guranteed thing but will be decided whether we offer once we get back the options and costs.  

In addition, if you are married or have a family, you can request coverage under the spousal or family plan.  If you want to consider that, you must send the information requested above for each additional member on the plan.

New Hire - Aneesa

Aneesa Muhammad will be joining us a Barista at the beginning of the year.

Aneesa just graduated (a few days ago) from North Carolina Central University with a degree in Writing.

In addition to being a Barista, which they have done at several places, Aneesa will add to the ever-growing group of NoRa team members who enjoys books and will be, I'm sure, authoring some amazing books in the not-too-distant future.  With Aneesa's hiring, I believe we now have a critical mass to start a "Creative Writing" night at NoRa similar to Silent Book Club where we encourage people to come and spend a quiet hour or two writing at NoRa every couple of weeks.

Please join me in welcoming Aneesa to the NoRa team.

PTO payouts in current paycheck

As a reminder, several of you will see additional hours in this week's paycheck for PTO.  This is due to the new 40 hour maximum carryover of PTO for calendar years.  For those that had more than 40 hours accrued as of this paycheck, you will receive PTO for all hours over 40.   

What does a 40 hour maximum carryover mean

At the end of each year, whatever hours you have above 40 will be paid to you as PTO in the final paycheck of the year.  Those people will then carryover 40 hours of PTO to the new year.  You don't need to keep the amount of PTO earned less than 40 hours during the course of the year although if you do have more than 40 hours of PTO remaining when the finaly payroll of next year is processed, you will receive a payout of the hours above 40 that you have accrued.  

Books for Charity

Details about the event below

• All books in The Library as well as on the blue bookshelves in the main cafe area are for sale.
• Customers can take as many as they want and pay as much as they want per book. (suggested minimum price is $1 per book)
• Customers can self-checkout at the kiosk in The Library near the front by where the printer is or can check out at the counter.
• 90% of all money collected will be donated to charities identified by the NoRa Staff (please share any charities you feel strongly about so we can let our customers know some of the places we'll be donating to)
• We will likely continue this sale through Christmas.
• We will be adding a few books to the shelves during the event but not a lot.

NOTE: As of 12/22/25 at 1 pm - we have raised $263.  Please mention that this event will continue probably to at least Christmas if people are interested.

GIFT CARD - $10 MINIMUM VALUE

Effective immediately, please set a $10 minimum value to purchase or add to a NoRa gift card.

Also, you can let people know that Gift Cards purchased at NoRa or at Dog-Eared can be used at either location.