MAYHEM IN MAY... life goes on (Part 159g)

MAYHEM IN MAY… life goes on (Part 159g)

We walked into the room with me leading Norman. I’d cleared a table in the front of the room for him to lay out his materials and when we were halfway there heard a Board member call out and ask “Can we see a picture of what our new phones will look like?” It didn’t register with either of us right away and Norman slowed a bit to respond. When he did it was to say he’d have to get it from the material he was carrying. When he reached the table he pulled out the actual presentation folio he’d prepared for me, turned to the page, folded it back and gave it to the Trustee who'd spoken up. As soon as he did a couple of others asked if he had copies of it for all the members. The question caught him by surprise and before he could attempt to answer Bert (the president) spoke up and stated Norman had not come prepared for a group and didn’t have copies to hand out. That’s when I heard the not so dulcet tones of “Polack Joe” calling out for someone to make copies. As I’ve written any number of times before, the bank had a wet copy 3M copy machine that made extremely poor copies and it took ‘forever’ to make just one. As soon as he spoke I knew it wasn’t possible but I certainly didn’t want to be the one to speak up and tell him. I was in a position to catch Hobie’s eye. Thankfully, he jumped in to explain. He wasn’t even finished explaining when Joe shot out something like ‘You mean you don’t have a Xerox machine?” When Hobie answered that we didn’t he came right back with “Why not?” For the next few minutes the conversation centered around copy machines. I remember looking at Norman and kind of shaking my head. The end result was I was charged with contacting Xerox and to pursue a contract for one of their copiers.

With that settled Bert introduced Norman who told a little about Northern Telecom. As soon as he mentioned it was a Canadian company Joe wanted to know why we were even talking to a “foreign” company. That prompted the Chairman of the Board to respond. He was in poor health and rarely said much. He was more like a figurehead and even though I’d rarely interacted with him I was surprised by what he said and how he said it. In essence he questioned Joe’s motivation for the question and noted that he’d not said anything when Bert had just spoken about the presentation just a few minutes prior. Then he said that it didn’t matter and pointed back at Norman and told him to continue with his presentation.

Not to drag it out but what had happened prior to our entering the room was that Bert had made a case for the Board to approve an expenditure of up to $17,000 for the Northern Telecom system. Then it came back to me that it was the reason for the Trustee making the statement about “our new phones”. Bert had already sold them on the need and now Norman was selling them on the system. I watched Joe who just sat there staring off into space. My thoughts at that time were consistent about the Board as a whole… why did they ever choose him?

When we walked out of the room Norman was very, very excited. At the bottom of the stairs he told me that this sale put him in line for regional salesman of the month. As for me all I wanted was to get the installation started. Going out the door he assured me that he’d shepherd the installation through to completion. I felt good about the way the day had gone.

The next day I made contact with Xerox. When I told Trish about it she didn’t believe me. I’d asked a couple of times why the bank had resisted getting a Xerox copier and all I’d been told was that my predecessor had been “duped” into buying the 3M product and, with the money invested, they refused to consider Xerox. As I told Trish about how it all came about she laughed. I’d been too surprised when it happened to see the humor in it. The Xerox office servicing our area had only been open for a short time and was still trying to fully staff it. I was told that they would have someone at the bank on Monday but couldn’t tell me the salesperson’s name. I didn’t care as long as they showed up.

I was feeling pretty good with two ‘wins’ but was brought back to reality when Hobie called me over to his desk. I thought it was to discuss what had happened at the meeting and I was partially right. After Norman and I’d left another item that wasn’t on the agenda was discussed. It had to do with staffing the new branch. The very first thought was that Jerry had gotten in touch with one of the Trustees… and I was right. I desperately wanted to know who he was aligned with so, again, asked Hobie. If he knew he wouldn’t say. What Hobie wanted was for me to make arrangements with a motel to hold interviews and then to get want ads placed in all the area media. Because we were discussing the hiring I asked if I was to do the interviews. I distinctly remember him shaking his head in a negative manner. Just the thought of Jerry doing interviews with absolutely no experience made me speak up to protest. His response reminded me of when I’d proposed Gina to be the chief clerk… not good!

To be continued…