SPRINGING AHEAD... A busy time (Part 127d)

SPRINGING AHEAD... A busy time (Part 127d)

I was to visit another of the service bureaus at the end of the week and really didn’t want to do it after seeing the first one... but I had to go through with it as one of our Board members was a friend of that bank’s president. When Laura came in to work on Wednesday she’d heard from James and he and his wife were bringing Peggy and her baby home on the weekend. The one thing she didn’t want to do was to go back to living at home full time. Being there on the weekends was hard enough. She’d met a boy she liked and even though she was over 18 years old her father prohibited her from dating. Hobie, the vice president and my boss, overheard me talking with her and her concerns with renting the quarters that Betsy had offered. Hobie’s wife and Betsy were close friends. After hearing Laura explain the situation he said he'd speak to Betsy and see what he could do. At that point, thankfully, the matter was out of my hands.

Elle had received a phone call from the principal of the first school she’d taught at after I’d given up racing horses and moved back to the area. He was now an administrator for the school district where the bank was located. He was faced with finding a substitute teacher to finish out the school year for a woman who was pregnant and having difficulties. At one time Elle and I had talked about such a situation that had occurred in our own school district. She felt it was unfair for a substitute to have to do all the duties of a salaried teacher while only being paid about 40% of what that teacher was paid. She was also aware that if she were to turn down an opportunity that she’d go to the bottom of the call list so she called and asked what she should do. I was up to my eyeballs with everything I was involved in and didn’t have the time to go over what we’d already discussed so, more or less, blew her off by telling her to go see the administrator and tell him how she felt. She wasn’t happy with me when I hung up.

The appointment with the other service bureau was geared to a luncheon so I'd had time to go in to work before heading out. When I looked over at Laura she was wearing a smile, something that had been missing all week. I didn’t want to be too obvious so waited to ask Trish what was up. Hobie had done what he said he’d do and had spoken not only to Betsy but to her husband as well. He'd talked them into lowering the rent but had also persuaded them to buy a “combo” unit with a sink, small refrigerator and stove. It seemed like one of my “problems” was well on the way to being solved. At least I didn’t have that on my mind as I drove to the appointment.

The man in charge of this service bureau was very definitely Swedish, from the blond hair, his accent and his name, Sven. I was a bit concerned as we ate lunch because he spoke as if it was a done deal between his bank and mine. I let it slide as him being an optimist. My real concern came when viewing the facilities. The operations center was located in the basement of the main office and definitely an afterthought. There was absolutely no room for expansion. When I asked about that, Sven said they’d address it when it became necessary. The other service bureau had been located in a stand alone building with room for at least two more computers. As the afternoon progressed, I began to have more and more doubts about the viability of doing business with them. Without going into details, we (my bank) would be nothing more than like a branch of their bank, only able to offer the same services, products and rates they offered. There was no customization of any of their programs allowed. Their cost per transaction was lower but there were other expenses that wouldn’t be covered like the messenger service to deliver the daily reports. Each of the two service bureaus used a different equipment manufacturer and the purchase cost was basically the same for each. My first attempt at bringing the bank into the present (using electronics) had been shot down by the cost of the equipment we’d need but the Board had somewhat come to grips with that. As I left for home I knew I’d have to “sell” the idea based upon our need to be competitive with other financial institutions. I didn’t “know” many of the Board members but what little I did know about them was that they enjoyed living in the past. It was going to be difficult.

I went straight home only to find Elle still mad at me for not taking time to fully listen to her about the job offer. She, rather curtly, told me she’d made an appointment to go in and see the administrator the following week. All I could say was that I agreed with her position. Even though it had been primarily me who had negative feelings about Pat (the PTA lady), I found that part of Elle’s anger was derived from a call Pat had made to her that afternoon. I’d seen her as a “control freak“ for quite a while but Elle had pretty much defended her. Pat had called to tell Elle what she (Pat) wanted served at the party we were hosting for the group on Saturday evening. So, needless to say it was a ”chilly“ meal and evening for me.

My goal was to be at work early the next day to try and intercept Hobie before he got too involved. The reason was to find out just how ”tight“ the Board member was with the president of the bank with the service bureau that I’d just visited. The one thing I didn’t want was to create friction by knocking that service bureau if it really was a ”done deal“ with them. Hobie was somewhat distressed but asked me to give him my unbiased comparison of the two. When finished I could see he foresaw a problem. He thanked me for being honest with him and told me that he’d get back to me as far as how to proceed with my presentation at the full Board meeting the next week. That meant I’d have to worry about it over the weekend.

When I got back to my desk Trish was waiting with the typed report on the dress code project I’d been working on. That, too, was to be presented at the upcoming Board meeting. Trish, not knowing the pressure I was under concerning the service bureaus, asked if I thought it would be appropriate if she ”modeled“ a pants suit for the Board since they were the basis for the whole dress code project. Like the day before, with Elle, I didn’t have the patience for a discussion on the matter right them and there and tried to defer her. But, Trish, as usual, ”pushed“ and said that Lena, the secretary for Bert, the president, had come up with the idea and was willing to do it if she had someone to join her. Lena, as I’ve described way earlier, was an unmarried, somewhat plain, woman, now in her late 30’s. Of all the females at the bank she was probably the most fashion conscious and best dressed. As the skirt hems went up so did hers but not to the extent of Katie and Jerena, the tellers that some of the Board members wanted to censure. The fact that she thought it was a good idea made me back off so I told Trish that I’d give it some thought.

To be continued...