A Promotion at Work!

True. It is long overdue, but I was finally promoted at the annual Branch Manager's meeting from Assistant Branch Manager to Branch Manager of both the Sacramento and Modesto offices. I still don't know who I was supposed to be assisting, but that is water under the bridge. I was gratified to be the recipient of a long standing ovation as my name was announced and I went forward at the Awards Dinner to accept my new commission. I have been long suffering in my Underwriting Manager days and more recently with my days as an Assistant Manager as I dutifully showed up at the Branch Manager meetings (this was my fourth and first as a Branch Manager) and did all of the tasks and went to all of the meetings that the Branch Managers did, but was somehow not an equal to the rest of the Managers. There were three of us out of 8 Assistant Branch Managers that actually were the de facto Branch managers of our offices. The other ABMs all were "assisting" Branch Managers (what a concept!). All three of us were promoted to Branch Manager. There is one ABM who is still a de facto Branch Manager, but he joined us last January and has to put in his time, I guess. He is in the Houston Branch. I was thrilled to finally get the recognition as a full leader in the management of our $1 Billion company. The fact that my branch has grown from $6,300,000 to $14,000,000 since 2004 when I took over might have something to do with the promotion.

The fun and rewarding thing for me is that I will no longer be compensated on my own production, but now be rewarded on the strength and profitability of my two offices. The company has a lot of new and innovative ways to drive new business and a couple of initiatives with the underwriters to increase new business production in the last couple of months. It was a fun and informative meeting this year.

I came home to a new living room as Darla had painted the walls a soft brown color and painted the mantle on the fireplace white from the stained wood look it had before. It was a surprise, but frankly, I was so tired when I got home last night that I didn't even notice that she had painted the mantle as well. It looks really nice.

I was exhausted by the time I got home at 10:40 PM last night, which happened to be 1:40 AM EST. Darla was understandably chatty and wanted to bring me up to date on what had been going on. I finally fell asleep about 12:15 AM and was up at 6:00 AM and in the office by 7:00 AM. I have to leave early today as I have my permanent crown put on for the tooth I cracked on the trip to Austin. Darla and I will leave tonight for Tahoe where we will spend the rest of the week at a timeshare at the Tahoe Beach and Ski resort. We, at one time, considered buying into the Tahoe Beach and Ski as we like it so much and is a great location in Tahoe, but with our two other time shares in Puerto Vallarta and Hawaii as well as our two weeks a year in Nuevo Vallarta, we have plenty of trading opportunities. This week is courtesy of our timeshare in Kauai. It will be nice to have some down time after the meetings. I flew in last Wednesday and it was nonstop from then on. Part of the true value of the meetings is the networking that the Managers do before and after work hours and unfortunately, they keep us busy until about 10 PM every night. Then, of course, the hospitality suite opens and getting to bed at a reasonable hour is a chore.

I flew through Las Vegas and had about an hour and forty-five minute layover. If it was longer, I would have met Jennifer for lunch, but I didn't want to go back through screening with such a tight window, so I just sat and lost money at the poker machines as I waited for the flight. I did call Jennifer and say "Hi. I'm in town." Darla and I will stay in Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving weekend and it will be good to visit with both Jennifer and John.

Well, this is short and I've actually been working on it all morning, but getting interrupted by staff and payroll, etc. I'll add some pictures next week of our trip to Tahoe. The weather looks great with highs here in the 80's and the 60's in Tahoe. Ciao.