HEADING FOR SUMMER... and whatever it brings (Part 160u)

HEADING FOR SUMMER… and whatever it brings (Part 160u)

While trying to wrap my mind about that I got word that the rental trailer for storing the gifts had been delivered. Mae, one of the tellers in training, let me know she’d gotten a commitment from her sister and two nieces to handle new accounts during the branch opening celebration weeks. As if that wasn’t enough good news Barney, the sign guy married to my cousin, stopped in to say that he’d just connected the power to the new signs he’d made and installed on the ends of the branch building. A bit on the negative side, I noticed Jerry was participating, verbally, in the training on the teller machines. That concerned me because one of the rules the bank had was that officers were not to make entries in passbooks. I’d pretty much avoided Jerry since my ‘blow up’ at him the preceding week. I asked Lorie what was the reason and she said he wanted to understand just how the machines worked. I laughed because I honestly believed he couldn’t even begin to understand the whole concept of data transmission using phone lines. So… I stepped in and asked him to come to my desk. He clearly wasn’t happy about it. As we walked to my desk I was wishing I had even the slightest hint of what Hobie had said to him after the ‘blow up’ because he had pretty much ‘behaved’ since then.

I started by alluding to Hobie’s ‘chat’ with him and then came right out and told him I didn’t know what had been said. I told him it didn’t really matter just as long as we both went by the same rules. I told him I was told that he reported to me and he had to clear any major decision making though me. I then asked him if he understood that. He nodded affirmatively and when he did I asked him why he was verbally involved in the machine training. He didn’t answer and when he didn’t I told him to stay away from all the training. I expected him to respond in some way but all I got was a blank stare. With him looking right at me I can still remember me shaking my head in disbelief.

To get him out of the way I had Bret work with him on gathering all the forms that had been printed for the branch in anticipation of delivering them to the site. However the lack of a CO made delivery of them a potential problem. But my immediate problem was in coming up with ways to keep Jerry out of the way.

The rest of the day (and most of Tuesday) was spent on the phone with a combination of problem solving, both big and small. If Jerry had been able to be trusted most of these items could’ve been handled by him. Certainly not far from my thoughts was the full Board meeting on Wednesday. Hobie had warned me to be prepared to be called in even though I was not scheduled to be at the meeting. The reason? Because all the members would be there and the chances were extremely high that there were some who would be clueless as to what was happening as far as the branch was concerned.

Fast forwarding to Wednesday and the meeting itself; I’d worked myself up to having a headache by the time the members started walking across the lobby. Board meetings for me had always been stressful and that was even when I was prepared for what I’d be doing or saying. Not knowing what to expect made for, in my mind, an impossible situation for me. Bret commiserated with me which at least made some time pass. When it got to be close to 4pm I made the mistake of thinking I was ‘safe’. I was on the phone with the distributor for the blankets we were giving away for the promotion when Trish walked up and signaled for me to head upstairs. It was a long walk!

I’ll spare you the details but, in synopsis, the acting Board chairman lost control of the meeting when it got to the report on the branch. Gee, the local Trustee/attorney stepped up and, according to what Hobie told me later, “laid down the law”. Evidently, there was a small group who didn’t like some of the things about the branch itself as well as the promotion and tried to make suggestions. That led to a mini battle of words and accusations. Gee, being an attorney and with courtroom experience, told them it was too late for any of that. Hobie didn’t mention any names but I had my own ideas of just who the dissident Trustees were. It was after Gee gained control of the meeting that I was called in. The saying “He had my back” was certainly the case here because he ‘filtered’ the questions I had to answer, deftly rejecting any that were subjective. All I had to do was give empirical data or the status of a particular item (i.e.: the signs on the building). One positive thing that did come from my reporting the delay in getting our Certificate of Occupancy was that the new Trustee/attorney from the area where the branch was located said he’d personally take care of the problem. I was told to await his call in the morning. My time in the meeting was probably less than a half hour but, by the time I returned to my desk I was wringing wet from perspiration… and with a headache that was about as bad as I’d ever experienced. I felt so bad I didn’t wait around for Hobie before leaving.

Heading home, it was difficult to drive. Once there I told Elle I couldn’t eat and grabbed three or four Anacin (my mother lived on them in place of aspirin) and went upstairs to bed. I never heard Elle when she joined me. By daylight the pain was acceptable and I could string one thought behind another. I had a hard time remembering my time in the meeting though. My focus was on the statement made by the Trustee about the Certificate of Occupancy problem. I figured that being able to get in the building even on Friday would be a help. Now all I had to do was wait for his call. It didn’t take long. It came around 10am and he said we could move in immediately. I told Hobie and then made arrangements to start moving supplies and people. I also told him that I was going to be there to oversee everything. I did have a fleeting thought that he might tell me to let Jerry do it but he didn’t. When I told Jerry he seemed almost stoic. It was a bit chaotic but by noon everything was in motion. When I called the data center they were very helpful and told me they would send Gracie (their training person) out to monitor the test transmissions. Hearing that made my day.

To be continued…