Posted By Paul Kafasis on June 21st, 2013

Long ago, back in the days of EDGE smartphones, we welcomed aboard Jeff Johnson as employee #008 at Rogue Amoeba. That was back in June of 2008, which means we’re now celebrating five full years of working with Jeff! Such an anniversary is most decidedly worthy of note, and so we’d like to take a moment to show our appreciation.

When our first employee Mike reached his fifth anniversary, we procured a special gift in the form of a hard-to-get SSD drive for him, and customized it with a personalized engraving. For Jeff, we went a slightly different route.

Tennis, Anyone?

As anyone familiar with our Staff page knows, Jeff quite enjoys playing tennis. For Jeff’s anniversary, we came up with the idea of a VIP shopping experience to acquire some new, top-of-the-line tennis gear. A quick search led me to The Tennis Shop, a small and well-reviewed family-run business in Madison, Wisconsin. Speaking with the Dermodys for just a few minutes was all it took to know I’d found the right business to work with, and they were happy to help us out.

We prepared an elegant card to inform Jeff of his gift:

As Elegant as Ammo Gets

Jeff will be working with Peter Dermody to pick out exactly what he wants (on us, of course). After that, he’ll be storming the courts, so watch out, Wisconsinites.

Members Only

In addition to Jeff’s personalized gift, we also created something we’ll be giving to all members of Rogue Amoeba’s Five Year club: a challenge coin. If you’re in the military, or know someone who is, you’re probably familiar with challenge coins. If not, they’re custom coins which prove membership in a club or celebrate an accomplishment. In this case, our challenge coin recognizes an employee’s five years with the company:

Shiny!

Replete with Latin (“For Five Years with the Company”), the coin signifies Jeff as a member of a very exclusive club. While we hope to add all employees to this club, it’s still a rare thing worth marking with a bit of pomp.

Say It Again

While we celebrated with Jeff privately, it’s also worth noting his accomplishments publicly. Tens of thousands of users have benefited from Jeff’s great work over the past half-decade, particularly in Airfoil. But Jeff’s had a hand in almost everything we’ve released in recent years, so if you’re using a Rogue Amoeba product, he’s probably made it better for you.

And from the founders, thanks for the past five years Jeff, and we hope to have you around for many more!