REALLY BIG CHANGES... and repercussions (Part 133g)

REALLY BIG CHANGES... and repercussions (Part 133g)

Hobie arrived back to the bank around 1:30 or so. As the corporate secretary there were certain functions he had to do before and during full Board meetings. He was obviously behind schedule and in seeing that offered to help in any way I could. He declined but did make it clear to me that he expected me to be available to come into the meeting when he called. I did ask for some direction as to what subject I might be querried on and I remember the look on his face when he retorted ”Anything and everything!“.

The meeting started at 3pm sharp and it was about ten minutes after that when I got the first call. I went up the back stairs as it was more direct and quicker. When I walked in I saw all the trustees up and away from the table and gathered around a couple of the boxes of blankets that had been torn open. Some were holding the clear plastic wrapped items and were headed back to their seats. Hobie, upon seeing me enter, came up to me and, obviously agitated, ordered me to go get a dozen or more of the picnic coolers. When they had been delivered to the bank the cartons were just tossed down the cellar stairs with a number of them bursting open. The loose ones had been moved into the file storage area of he basement so, with Bret’s help it didn’t take long to retrieve them and to return.  I knew what was going on and I’d voiced my displeasure about it to Bret as we  collected them and made our way up the back stairs. It was almost comical to see the trustees sitting at the table with some of their faces blocked by their new found ‘loot’. Bret and I were told to distribute the coolers around the table and while we were doing it the chairman of the gifts committee ordered me to go get them all a tool kit, the third gift for the campaign. I used a poor choice of words when I said ”I can’t.“ The words had hardly left my mouth when one of Trustees shouted out from behind his blanket ”What do you mean? That was an order!“

The one thing I took away from the following dialog was that both Bert (the president) and Hobie ‘had my back’. They both, almost simultaneously, stated that they hadn’t yet been delivered. It was Bert who directed his next comment to the Trustee who had admonished me and said that I deserved an apology. Whatever he said was lost with within the noise of the all the side conversations that were occurring around the table. At that point Bret and I were excused. I was fuming! When we got to the landing I turned to Bret and told him that if Hobie hadn’t spoken up I was going to tell that Trustee to go f___ himself. I remember Bret standing there with his head going up and down like a bobble head doll.

I was called back about fifteen minutes later to provide a copy of the print ad that would run in the local paper the following Thursday. The paper was only printed once a week and I’d been troubled by the fact that it was a day after the campaign was to start. I’d ordered the radio ads to start on Monday but you can’t display pictures on the radio. As the ad was passed around the table the new Trustee from the Western part of the county spoke out and asked why I hadn't put the ad in the ‘Pennysaver’ papers, the free and widely distributed publication that had little editorial content. They were distributed on Tuesdays. The ad agency and I had considered that but budget constraints had nixed the idea. When I tried to explain it was good old ‘Polak Joe’ who interjected his thoughts and boldly stating that if we didn’t advertise the bank was being ”pennywise and pound foolish“, having invested all that money in the gifts. Within seconds the ‘noise’ around the table was in favor of that. Bert called for a motion to approve additional money to run an ad in that type paper for the next two weeks and it was passed unanimously. I left the room wondering why the Board even bothered to hire managers since it seemed like they were now running the place.

I was on the phone with the ad agency when the next call came for me to return to the meeting. The agency told me that not only was the bank going to have to foot the bill for the ad space but, because of the formatting of the Pennysaver type publications, we would have to pay to have the ad redone to fit it. I decided not to bring that up when I returned.

The Board had finally, after many months, gotten back to considering service bureaus to process our savings transactions. It had been left for the committee that had originally been established to investigate the bank’s options to go visit the physical plants where they would actually be processed.  When I walked in I was told to set up same day visitations for up to seven members of the Board. When I heard the number seven I know my face had to have shown the surprise. The original committee was only three members. As before, I didn’t say a word and just stood there as I was given a number of calendar dates that would accommodate those who wanted to make the trip. As I made my way back down the stairs I knew I’d have a problem with one of the bureaus as they had forewarned me that their facility could only handle a few people at a time and had asked me to plan accordingly. But, I had my ‘marching orders’.

 By the time I got back to my desk everyone had gone, even Hank. On nights when the meeting ran late Hobie would take care of letting the members out. If my salary hadn’t been up for consideration I would’ve left too but I was determined to find out what my raise was to be. Already a bit paranoid about it, I wondered if the actions of the day that concerned me would have any effect on the final outcome. I had to wait until after 6pm for Hobie to finally appear and another twenty or so minutes for him to let all the members out the door. He knew why I was still there and, after taking a deep breath, told me that my raise wasn’t what he and Bert (the president) had requested. That sounded ominous and I, literally, held my breath. I’d been hoping for a 10% raise based upon the increase in my responsibilities. That would’ve been a little over $700. When Hobie mouthed the words $750 I actually thought I’d misheard him. This time I was really at a loss for words.

Before I ever got a chance to speak Hobie told me that the meeting he’d attended at the local attorney’s office earlier in the day was sort of a salary committee meeting. In the original one, even though Joe was told that he was only an observer, he continued to ask questions about how the merit system worked. Hobie said that, based on that, the attorney who was the chairman feared that that Joe would try, in some way, to ”derail“  the salary raise proposal that would go before the Board. What he did was to contact, by phone, the other members that he felt would back him (and the proposal) should that happen. It wasn’t really a meeting but, as Hobie described it, ”insurance“. As much as I wanted to ask what actually happened, I didn’t. Hobie finished up by telling me that the only thing that changed was all the officers increases were reduced. Then he stood up and said ”Good night“.

To be continued...