We welcomed more than 200 Founders Council members and other attendees to our World Headquarters this week, and we did it in grand style. Check out some of the photos on our Amway Facebook page. And if you missed the live stream of their arrival courtesy of our Amacam, the replay is available here. Watch for more coverage in the weeks to come!

The 2013 Founders Council began today in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Tomorrow we welcome them to our World Headquarters. Here are some fun facts. Did you know…

We are preparing to welcome about 200 members of our 2013 Founders Council to West Michigan next week, and for the first time ever you are invited to watch part of the festivities.

We will present a live broadcast of their arrival at our World Headquarters in Ada, Michigan. The one and a half hour live-stream will air on May 14th at 2:00 p.m. EDT via a special tab on Amway Corporate Facebook page.

Thanks to new technology – our Amacam – we are able to share all the glamour and excitement of the event with Amway distributors, prospects and friends around the globe.

The Amacam consists of three high-definition cameras (two inside and one outside) that will showcase the members as they arrive to walk the yellow carpet and be welcomed by hundreds of Amway employees.

Attendees to this year’s Founders Council group come from 15 different countries and include 11 new Founders Council members!

So, mark your calendar and plan to join us for the celebration. (How many of our top distributors will you be able to identify?)

Post by Gary Wade.

As a health and beauty company, Amway employees get to be brand ambassadors of wellness, something that was recognized recently when Amway was honored at Michigan’s Governor’s Fitness Awards with the Outstanding Healthy Workplace award.

Amway was one of four finalists selected in the category among many nominees throughout the state of Michigan. Nominees were judged on criteria that included wellness programs and resources, policies and benefits, measurements of success, leadership support, community involvement and accolades.

Spend some time on Amway and Nutrilite campuses and you’ll notice the commitment to wellness. Employees are encouraged to stay active and achieve their physical and nutritional best through the Optimal You health and wellness program. This program offers nearly 40 physical, nutritional and emotional wellbeing resources, including a financial incentive for maintaining good health.

It’s those qualities that the Governor’s Council recognized. And it’s one more way that we are committed to Optimal Health.

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With more than 900 research and development professionals employed by Amway, discovery is job #1.

In fact, more than 1,000 patents have been secured during the company’s history and over 800 more are pending. Many of these discoveries are driven by customer demands, feedback from distributors or advances in the market.

But some of the best discoveries happen simply by accident.

Take, for example, the company’s invention of non-chlorinated automatic dishwasher detergent. In the 1980s, there was not a non-chlorinated product on the market and Amway wasn’t trying to develop one. But, while testing a potential product for soil removal, our R&D professionals noticed that the product eliminated spots. Upon further testing, it also seemed to clean plates, plastic and other flatware better than anything else.

Quickly, a new product was born.

“It was all just serendipity,” Amway Scientist Ernie Brumbaugh said. “The result of observation and the understanding that something unique was happening in front of our eyes.”

What came to be known as Crystal Bright Automatic Dishwashing Detergent is just one of many discoveries made by Brumbaugh, who’s been with Amway for nearly 43 years.  It’s also one of the reasons the company recently honored him with induction into the Amway’s new R&D Distinguished Scientific Leadership Society – the highest honor bestowed by the R&D division.

Our Amway One by One Campaign for Children had quite a week last week.

Amway staff attended the International Corporate Citizenship Conference, organized by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.

Our own Jesse Hertstein was one of the speakers, explaining how our campaign is organized globally, but is implemented with flexibility among the local country affiliates.

We also were honored with an award: Our film highlighting 10 years of our One by One Campaign was named one of the 10 finalists in a film festival sponsored by Boston College.

Many thanks to all who voted for it. That film has now been viewed more than 10,000 times. Thank you to everyone for helping us share our story!

Today we mark International Women’s Day, a day celebrated since the early 1900s to note the contributions of women to society.

Two of our distributors from Amway Hong Kong had an opportunity recently to make their own contributions.

 Jolly Tsang and Sammy Lee were invited by the Carnation Women’s Association to conduct leadership training to a group of 30 women in the Eastern District of Hong Kong.

Jolly delivered a powerful and persuasive speech about her personal experience with education, her job search, and her path to success as an Amway distributor. Sammy shared her secret to beauty – inside and out.

Thank you, Jolly and Sammy, for setting a wonderful example of leadership and entrepreneurship for the women you spoke to and for women everywhere. And a special thanks to all the women in our company across the world – employees and business owners alike – for all you do.

(Thank you to Cynthia Chin and Yvonne So of Amway Hong Kong for helping with this story.)

Remember this video highlighting the wonderful accomplishments of our business owners and employees through 10 years of our Amway One by One Campaign for Children?  It has a chance to win an award and you can help.

It’s part of the film festival at Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship. The website is recording public votes through March 1 for the best video.  Please vote and help us share our story! (Click here to vote.)

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Last night, cosmetics industry professionals gathered at the Beyond Beauty Gala in New York City to support the James E. Marshall OCD Foundation, which raises money for education and research into Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Clubhouse International, community centers for people living with mental illness, will also benefit.

The disorder affects millions of people worldwide and is considered among the top 10 most disabling diseases in the U.S. — more than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined.

That’s why the cosmetics industry is taking a stand to expand its concept of beauty beyond physical attributes to include the beauty from within — and we’re proud to support this cause.

Congratulations to the Beyond Beauty 2013 co-honorees Nicolas Mirzayantz of IFF and our very own George Calvert, Ph.D, vice president R&D and supply chain at Amway, for their work to bring attention to this cause.

“We are proud of our association with this tremendous organization and the great work that it does in OCD awareness and research,” Calvert said.

Our wireless power research and development operation was one of the stars of the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show.

“It was a year of influencing wireless power,” said Dave Baarman, Fulton’s director of advanced technologies. “We were selected by CNET as one of the three finalists for Best of CES 2013. That was quite an honor given the competition.”

Also on center stage was Qi, the wireless power standard Fulton Innovation helped develop with the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC).

“It was an explosion of hundreds of products using Qi this year,” Baarman said. “The WPC booth was packed and loaded with all types of adapters, battery packs, hardware, devices and solutions, including the Toyota Avalon wireless charging solution in leather to launch later this year.”

Congratulations to Fulton Innovation!