Note 6. Derivative Financial Instruments

Interest Rate Swap Contract

Our risk management objectives are to ensure that business and financial exposures to risk that have been identified and measured are minimized using the most effective and efficient methods to reduce, transfer and, when possible, eliminate such exposures. Operating decisions contemplate associated risks and management strives to structure proposed transactions to avoid or reduce risk whenever possible.

We have assessed our vulnerability to certain business and financial risks, including interest rate risk associated with our variable-rate long-term debt. To mitigate this risk, in 2008 we entered into a five-year interest rate swap contract with Bank of America, N.A. (“BofA”), to hedge the variability of interest payments associated with our variable-rate borrowings under our Term Loan with BofA. The swap contract expired July 1, 2013. Effective January 23, 2014, we entered into a new interest rate swap contract with BofA, to hedge the variability of interest payments associated with our variable-rate borrowings under our Term Loan with BofA. The new swap contract terminates on September 29, 2023, and had a total notional value of $8.0 million as of March 31, 2014. Through this swap agreement, we pay interest at a fixed rate of 2.9% and receive interest at a floating-rate of the one-month LIBOR, which was 0.15% at March 31, 2014. Since the interest rate swap hedges the variability of interest payments on variable rate debt with similar terms, it qualifies for cash flow hedge accounting treatment. As of March 31, 2014, unrealized net losses of $239,000 were recorded in Accumulated other comprehensive loss as a result of this hedge. The effective portion of the gain or loss on the derivative is reclassified into Interest expense in the same period during which we record Interest expense associated with the Term Loan. There was no hedge ineffectiveness recognized during the first quarter of 2014 or 2013.

The fair value of our derivative instrument is as follows (in thousands):

Fair Value of Derivative Instrument
	March 31, 2014			December 31, 2013
Fair value of interest rate swap	$	(239	)	$	-

The effect of this interest rate swap contract that was accounted for as a derivative instrument on our Consolidated Statements of Operations for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2014 and 2013 was as follows (in thousands):

Derivatives in Cash Flow Hedging Relationships	Amount of Gain (Loss) Recognized in Accumulated OCI (Effective Portion)			Location of Loss Reclassified from Accumulated OCI into Income (Effective Portion)	Amount of Loss Reclassified from Accumulated OCI into Income (Effective Portion)

Three Months Ended March 31,
2014	$	(239	)	Interest expense	$	41
2013	$	92		Interest expense	$	94