As you can see from above, we had a social network that was exclusive to the Leadership Meeting this year. I never take pictures at the meeting because I guess I'm just too busy or uninterested in documenting the week. I left on Tuesday morning at 6:30 AM and set my alarm for 4 AM to try to acclimate to the East Coast time zone. It worked because I forced myself not to sleep on the plane. I was picked up in Detroit by our car service who picked up myself and our VP from Scottsdale, Michael. They were kind enough to send a Lincoln MKZ, which was a nice ride from DTW to Dearborn and The Henry Hotel. I was in early enough this year to join the Managers on the Tuesday night dinner. We had about 24 at Buddy's, a pizza joint in Dearborn where we were able to watch the first game of the World Series. We got back to the hotel about 10 PM and I was able to watch the last of the blowout from my room.
Wednesday we were up at dawn and bussed over to Headquarters in Farmington Hills at 7:30 AM. We had a full day of meetings, breakfast, lunches and an all Headquarters opening of the meeting replete with cider and donuts. They had awards and pins for 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and one for 30 years. The first recipient slipped on the steps leading to the stage and fell straight back and hit her head on the floor. They had to call 9-1-1 because the lady was showing signs of delirium. They checked her out and took her through a concussion protocol. She was taken to the hospital, but seemed okay the next day. We headed over to dinner at Andiamo's in Dearborn at 7:30 and were back to the Henry about 10:30.
Thursday was a 7:45 bus ride to Headquarters and meetings with our carrier partners followed by a team exercise where we had to do graffiti that depicted the theme of the meeting "Powerful Together". We now have 14 companies that all support what we do at Burns and Wilcox. The combined companies have revenues of $1.6 billion, but Burns does $1.2 million of that total. We now have 1400 employees at Burns and a total of over 2000 globally. We hope to open an office in Vancouver, BC next year and I have offered to come in and help them hire and get set up for the new office. We'll see if they take me up on that. We were done by 2 PM and took a bus ride back to the Henry where we had afternoon meetings until 5:30.
Thursday night was Sports Night at the Henry. They brought in over 60 games, including a simulator for golf, tennis, basketball, soccer and hockey that was the hit of the night. They also had several sets of racing simulators that allowed four people at a time to compete in a race. They had ski ball and basketball games, darts, foosball and air hockey and it was a fun night. Traditionally, we would have dinner at Franklin Hills Country Club on Thursday night, but Alan's son, Danny, is more involved in decision making now and suggested a game night and it was a great mixer.
Friday was meetings and breakout sessions at the Henry until 5:30 PM. We had a break from 5:30 to 7:00 PM and I'd just got to my room and changed into my shorts and a tee shirt when Harvey called and said that Alan was ready to meet with me to go over Sacramento's numbers and do my annual review. I followed our San Diego Associate Manager, who has been losing people and premium volume this year. I wasn't sure if he'd be in a good or bad mood, but had little to worry about as we are having another record year. Alan was effusive with his praise and was thrilled when I offered to step up and take over the Fresno Branch, whose Manager is retiring in December and they are struggling. The branch has 15 employees and $12 million in premium volume. Alan has been looking for a way to give Matt, my Associate Managing Director, more authority and an opportunity to take on more of a leadership role. It looks like Alan will have Matt take on the lead role and have me mentor him on how to run a Branch. I'm happy to help.
Friday night was our annual Awards dinner and Sacramento had another great night. Matt won an award for having the third highest new business volume in the company and an award as the number two producer in the entire company for Atain, our wholly owned insurance company. Matt also won a Leadership award and an award for being in the top 15 producers in the company. Peter also won the same award. Sacramento was given the Gold Award for Division II companies that write between $25 million and $35 million in premium. We were the Bronze Award winner in 2013.
Next up were promotions and I sat thru about 12 people who were moved up to Associate Manager and Manager positions. I was then called up and Alan went through a fairly long discussion of the evolution of Sacramento from a branch that was losing money to a highly successful office. He also discussed the mentorship abilities that I have shown with the five management trainees that have come though my branch. He then promoted me to a Vice President position and the ovation from my peers was long and loud and complete with a standing ovation. I don't think I've ever felt more respected and loved by a group of people before. It has been a long road here in my office and I can say that I am thrilled to be recognized as a leader in the company. I was beginning to feel Matt breathing down my neck and to be promoted and affirmed by upper level management is extremely gratifying.
I got home at 9:30 Saturday night and Darla picked me up. She surprised me with drinks and a card when we got home. I was also surprised to see the main wall between the living room and kitchen repainted by Darla. She put up a French painting of a restaurant named Leon de Lyon. You can see the picture of the wall above. The other pictures show Matt in the top picture(second from the right), our graffiti team and the third picture shows Ajay from my team who was also there as part of the Kaufman Accelerated Management Program (KAMP) in the middle forefront of the picture.
I was up early today and off to golf at Diamond. We had a tournament with RGC and it was the Past President's tournament. I would normally have passed as I was exhausted, but wanted to be a part of this event. I shot 38 on the front with two birdies and won $28 I skin money. That was the good. My back nine was a 48 for 86 and I finally gave in to the jet lag and tiredness that surrounded me.
That is it for this week. Darla and I have our final Financial Peace class this week and are well on our way to a more relaxing retirement. I hope everything is going well for each of you. I hope also that Dad and Shirley are having a great time on their vacation. Be well. Ciao.
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