AUTUMN... now the changes (Part 143t)

AUTUMN... now the changes (Part 143t)

The subject of the meeting wasn’t a big surprise because there had been enough work being done by the telephone company to warrant questions from the staff. What the meeting accomplished was to lay out a plan of action starting with the transfer of the name and addresses of our depositors and how it would be accomplished. Gina was introduced as the one to oversee the project and they were all told they would be a part of it. Also mentioned was the hope that transaction training would be started once the name and address file was transferred to the service bureau. There were two things that were surprising, at least to me. The first was in that there wasn't a negative reaction to naming Gina to be the one to be in charge. The second was the interest they showed in just how the information would be transferred over the telephone lines. I couldn’t even begin to explain it but promised that when the service bureau trainer showed up that I'd get her to try and explain it to them. Another surprise was that a number of them actually realized how much time would be saved by eliminating ledger cards. When the meeting was over I was pleased with how it had gone. I’d really expected a comment or two about Gina but was happy that there weren't any.

The teller machines from the service bureau arrived on Thursday afternoon along with a message from Albie that the service bureau was ready to test the new switch as the telephone company had, supposedly, installed it. That was the good news. The bad news was that I now had to get them to return to the bank and install the necessary data packs so that we could activate the machines. By the end of the day I had a verbal confirmation that they would be there the next day. Based upon what I’d been told (and experienced) they weren’t the most reliable when it came to meeting their commitments. But, at least the tellers could see what they would be using in the future. The machines were a bit bigger and now that we had them on site I could get the contractor in to modify the counter where they would be placed. I could see that progress was being made.

What I didn’t need was to have Moira show up at quitting time with a request for help in moving. She had to be out of her house by the first of November. That meant it would have to be done over the weekend. I'd indicated that I'd try to help her out but hoped that it wouldn't come to pass. It definitely wasn't what I wanted to do on my time off. With a forced smile on my face I told her I would. Bret overheard our conversation and volunteered to help as long as he had a ride. That was good news because it meant I’d be done sooner. When I was going out the back door it came to me that the new guy, Mike, had told me that he still had a small truck. Even though I knew it wasn’t exactly ‘fair’, I asked he he could help out. I’m sure, as a new employee, he looked at it as an ‘order’ and he said he would. At that point, I didn’t care.

The next morning, Hobie reminded me that Halloween was the next Tuesday. He was the Chamber of Commerce representative for the bank and I knew he hated being involved in the Halloween promotion as he’d passed it off on me the previous year. I’d hoped to avoid getting involved again in their annual Chamber of Commerce Halloween promotion. Chamber members were encouraged to get their employees to come to work in costume and then they’d be eligible for prizes. As soon as I could I delegated the job of finding volunteers from among the employees to Bret as I had way too much going on. Even though the previous year I’d stumbled into seeing a good panty viewing when one of the girls was getting into her costume, I wanted no part of it. To me it was just another time waster.

I spent the majority of my time trying to pin down the telephone company on the installation of our data packs. It was mid afternoon when, unannounced, four men paraded through the lobby looking for me. Trish, who was dating a telephone company employee, knew a couple of them and ushered them to my desk. At that exact moment I was talking with a district supervisor for the telephone company. When I told him my problem was solved as the workers were there to install the packs he responded by saying that it wasn’t possible as the work order hadn’t yet been processed.  I don’t remember what my response to that news was but I hung up as quickly as possible.

It was a quick installation as all the conduits and wiring were in place. They ran their test and assured me that there was a clear signal straight through to the data center. I wanted to get confirmation from the service bureau before they left but it was after 4pm and Trish let me know that the only reason they’d stayed that late was because she knew a couple of them. Albie said he’d go into their computer room and would guide me on how to send some data to them. In a way it was almost like Christmas morning when opening presents. It took about 15 minutes to get everything coordinated but when I hit the ‘send’ button it only took Albie about 10 seconds to yell ”Bulls eye!“ into the phone. Success!

Hobie had left for the day but Bret, Cara and Gina were standing there as I pushed the button and could hear and see my reaction to hearing that we were connected. Before Albie hung up he said he’d get Gracie, the lady who had trained me on the teller machine, to call and let me know when she’d be able to come out to the bank to do the same thing for whomever we wanted trained. I found that a bit ironic as both those people were standing right there.

It was around 5pm when I picked up the phone and heard Gracie’s voice. Even though I’d only spent a short time with her the voice was clearly recognizable. She seemed eager to get started and agreed on Tuesday. I’d already forgotten that it was Halloween. The initial plan was that she’d arrive after lunch, spend one night and then return to the service bureau at the end of the next day. In the course of the conversation she asked if I could make a hotel reservation for her. I’d not given that a thought. The hotel had closed and only the restaurant remained open. There wasn’t a motel that I, in good conscience, would allow anyone I knew to stay at but I said I’d take care of it just to end the conversation. However, I didn’t really know how.

To be continued...