Happy Centerversary

 While the Center celebrates 28 years serving our clients, our newest Client Service Associate, Melissa Cyrus, is also celebrating a milestone … her first “Centerversary” with us. 

We are proud to take a moment and recognize Melissa. It was a year ago May 14^th that she added her enthusiasm to our team.  Melissa said the momentous occasion sort of snuck up on her, telling us, “It’s been a year already?  Hard to believe … it went by so fast!  I feel very fortunate to be working at such a wonderful place surrounded by such awesome people.  It sure makes the time fly.” 

Guess Melissa just proved the old adage Time flies when you’re having fun. And all that wisdom from someone who has only been around for a year. Just wait to see what she has to say on her 10^th Centerversary!

Center Celebrates at Slows Bar-B-Q

 Sometimes you have to get a little dirty to get the job done. That’s why our Center team members rolled up their sleeves and dug in. We take our commitment to achieving our Center Vision 2020 very seriously and we are having some delicious fun doing it! Here is a glimpse of our latest team outing and a little over-indulgence at Slows Bar-B-Q in Downtown Detroit. Our Center 2020 vision was top of mind when our newly formed Social Committee organized a team luncheon and awards ceremony to celebrate the many talents and achievements exhibited by our fellow co-workers.  As our Vision 2020 states, “We relish the opportunity and responsibility to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for all whom we serve.” The photos suggest a Mission Accomplished. By taking care of our team members, we hope to build a magnet for attracting new talent and leadership to The Center. And even if some of us got a little of Slows’ Bar-B-Q sauce on our awards, it was worth it.

Happy Centerversary

 

The Center celebrates its 28th year! Founded in 1985, our success and longevity would not be possible without the support from our team members.

Let's take a moment to recognize Jen Hackmann, RP℠ who celebrated her 12th Centerversary at the end of March.  Congratulations!  With a big smile Jen took a minute to put her thoughts into words, "I  feel honored to be part of such a special group of individuals and look forward to the next 12 years!"  

Years of Hard Work Produce an MBA for Laurie Renchik

 It took four years of juggling a full-time career and sacrificing a lot of precious free time, but we are proud to announce that our Laurie Renchik, CFP® recently completed postgraduate work to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from Walsh College. Despite the challenge, Laurie tells us, “I enjoyed the journey which was filled with new opportunities for learning.” Walsh College is a private school that was founded in 1922 and is one of Michigan’s largest graduate schools of business.

Her newly minted MBA comes with a specialization in Finance, which is a perfect classroom match for her position at the Center.  Laurie says the MBA program helped, “Expand my analytical abilities beyond the scope of personal financial planning to include business management expertise, ultimately helping me better serve Center clients and our Center 2020 Vision.”

What's up next for Laurie? She says she will take the knowledge she gained and put it to work. We applaud Laurie for her recent accomplishment and the four years of hard work and dedication that made it happen.

Teaming up with Gleaners Food Bank

 On Saturday February 23^rd, Center team members and their families volunteered to support Gleaners Food Bank.  Jen Hackmann, Client Service Manager said we really pulled our weight.

Thank you, thank you for all the support for the 1^st Gleaners volunteering event - we had a total of 214 pounds of donations (I think Tim’s donation of multiple cans of fruit cocktail put us over the 200 pound mark),” Jen reported. “And according to the organizers at Gleaners, this food donation will provide 178 meals for our hungry neighbors in need.  Gleaners collects over 2.5 million pounds of food from food drives like ours and distributes the donations to more than 600 partnering groups in need each year.”

After an orientation and video introduction to Gleaners Food Bank, our volunteers got to work. We went from standing still, trying to figure out what we were going to be doing, to a full-on assembly line working at what felt like a 100 miles per hour.  Jen remembers saying to Troy Wyman, CFP ®and Gerri Harmer, Client Service Associate, “I have a new and GREAT respect for assembly line work!”  Apparently it is not as easy as it looks!  Some of us packed bags of fruit while others worked with packaged food, putting together large boxes of noon-perishable goods to be handed out to families in need. 

And despite the demanding morning of helping out at the food bank, we couldn’t get enough! We’ve already planned another Gleaners volunteer day on Saturday, September 21^st from 9am – noon.  Anyone who would like to join our group is more than welcome.  If you happen to get the volunteering itch on your own one Saturday morning, you can just show up at 9am on any Saturday at the Detroit Gleaners Distribution Center.  You do not need to be part of a group and the Detroit Distribution Center is the only site that takes “walk-in” volunteers.

Let’s All Give Melissa Cyrus an Official Welcome!

 We would like to take a moment and officially recognize our newest team member Melissa Cyrus and applaud her recent accomplishment.  Melissa came aboard in May 2012 after two summer internships with The Center in 2010 and 2011. She has settled in nicely to her new role as a Client Service Assistant and recently passed the challenging Series 7 securities licensing exam as well as the Series 63 which cover state laws and regulations.  Congratulations Melissa!

Melissa earned her bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University with a double major in Finance and Economics.  When not at work, you might find Melissa playing basketball or running and in the summer she enjoys being on the water boating, kayaking or tubing. Melissa enjoys spending time with friends and family. And when it comes to mottos, she is a firm believer that you should be yourself because everyone else is taken.

Serving Our Community and Profession

 The Center takes pride in serving our communities, our profession and each other.  Below you’ll find the many organizations supported by our team’s volunteer efforts.

• Sandy Adams, CFP® was appointed to the Board of Visitors for the Institute of Gerontology (IOG) at Wayne State University and also serves on the Legal and Financial Advisory committee for the IOG as well as a liaison to the Board of Visitors for the last two years.
• Marilyn Gunther, CFP® serves the Board of her community foundation in North Carolina
• Sandy Adams, CFP® and Julie Hall, CFP® led Junior Achievement activities.
• Dan Boyce, CFP® served on the Governing Board of an elementary charter school, as well as continuing on the Board of Trustees of Prescott College.
• Laurie Renchik, CFP® and Tim Wyman, CFP® participated in Leadership Oakland and Melissa Joy participated in Inforum’s Executive Leadership program.
• The Center proudly supported the local community and Gleaner’s Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan through the celebration of food, wine and art! The 9th Annual Vine & Dine, hosted by the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce.
• Matt Chope, CFP® offered his thoughts on what it means to leave a Legacy of Value as part of the The Youth Diversity Symposium annual event developed by the Southfield Community Foundation.
• Carrying on a proud Center legacy (and following in Marilyn Gunther’s, CFP® footsteps), Sandy Adams, CFP® was appointed to the Board of Personal Financial Education Services, an Ann Arbor based non-profit organization with a mission of promoting personal financial education in Michigan and beyond and to empower youth and adults to build more stable financial futures through financial education.
• Dan Boyce, CFP® continued his leadership at the Institute for Sustainable Social Change in Prescott, AZ.
• Betsey Schrock, Bookkeeper/Office Manager, was elected president of Stagecrafters, a large community theatre organization located at the Baldwin theatre in Royal Oak.
• Troy Wyman, CFP® was elected to the Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association of Michigan and to the executive board of the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce.
• Melissa Joy, CFP® began serving on the Business Development Committee for Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings.

To find out more please feel free to contact the team member aligned with your organization of interest.

Excellence is Not Perfection

 Passion for Excellence: a Center Value that guides us in our daily actions. 

No one is perfect, but we can all strive for excellence. Setting the bar high and striving for continual improvement is a function of excellence.

Perfection is to have no flaw. Excellence is to recognize our mistakes and learn from them. Furthermore, excellence is to implement systems to automate repetitive tasks and eliminate waste.

Perfection is to do no harm. Excellence is to be compassionate when mistakes inevitably happen. When mistakes happen it’s best to listen. Let clients realize we are truly hearing them - be sympathetic about the error. Acknowledge that we understand how this affected them and that we are striving to build ways so this will not happen again.

Perfection is pure and rigid. Excellence can have a core set of "rules" but also be unique and flexible.

NO! – can be a threatening word; try to be careful when using “no." Consider this, “Let me see what our options are."

Perfection can be intolerant and exact. Excellence was best said by Gandhi: “Intolerance is usually all that I can not tolerate, so I guess I still have some work to do.”  Be open to differences; some clients are older and slower than others

Perfection is static and closed. Excellence is open to possibilities but accountable to detail. We generally find comfort in our similarities but growth in our differences.

Perfection is rude. Excellence is about attitude, a strong discipline to continual improvement, a focus on goals with open communication.  I will ask you to consider embracing work discussion with a level of constructive criticism when necessary this next year. Especially when developing systems and processes for the entire organization to use. Tighter specifications to details are necessary when building synergies for an organization like ours.

Our work for clients is hardly ever completed. Perfection is completion, while excellence is usually found in the pursuit.

I'm proud that our firm has always pursued excellence.

Matt Chope Shares Values at Youth Diversity Symposium

 On November 9, 2012 Matt offered his thoughts on what it means to leave a Legacy of Value.  Through discussion and a hands-on exercise students explored their true life values.   Matt helped them look inside themselves to determine who they are and where they stand today.  A value Matt takes to heart and practices throughout both his personal and professional lives.

This year’s symposium, "Millennials Creating a Legacy", focused on global issues that the millennial generation face and the legacy that they hope to leave behind for future generations.

The Youth Diversity Symposium is an annual event developed by the Southfield Community Foundation and is being helped in partnership with the Council of Michigan Foundation in 2012.  The event offers a diverse base of youth from the metro Detroit area an opportunity to interact with each other and engage in learning activities centered on social issues and philanthropy. 

Marilynn Levin Shares a Proud Grandparent Story

 “I just had to share this story of my grandson Malcolm…… (Marilynn Levin)  This happened the weekend of No. 24^th in Philadelphia.  Lots to be learned from this kid - And I know this too:  I'm just in awe of the kid and terribly, terribly proud of him.”  The following story is told by my son David.

Reference Notes:  Malcolm turned 10 in August,  PS139 is his elementary school in Brooklyn, NY 

Malcolm is officially the highest-rated player in P.S. 139 history.

If you want the short form of this story, know this. This was a big goal of Malcolm's and we all feel really great about it.  If you want the, long (and possibly insufferable) version, keep reading.  Either way is truly ok.  You've been warned.

When Malcolm set this goal, it seemed impossible. Coming into the fall it started to seem inevitable.  But then, Malcolm's rating actually started to sink, and his confidence was shaken.

At the low point, Malcolm decided he only wanted to play much higher rated competition. Part of this was tactical, if you lose to a higher rated player then your rating doesn't fall much.  But part of Malcolm's decision was that he felt he would perform better if he took on a bigger challenge.  Having a hard time with a big goal?  Take on a tougher challenge.  Ok.  His call. And one backed up by Mr. West his chess coach. But I had my doubts.

So Malcolm entered the Under 1800 section at the National Chess Congress this weekend.  His official ranking for the purposes of the tournament was 1400.  He was far and away the lowest rated person in the section.  (He would have been in the middle of the pack at best in the Under 1600 section.)

Malcolm lost his first two games and took the losses hard. I felt bad for him, gave him lots of hugs, and worried that we were in for a very long weekend. In the very next match, Malcolm went out and took down the number 2 seed! He gave away a knight in exchange for two pawns and then exploited the absence of those two pawns to methodically grind out a win over the course of the next sixty to ninety minutes.  People kept coming around the board to watch. A small crowd of admirers gathered. Malcolm's opponent hunched over the board, breathing heavily, grunting occasionally and gamely maneuvered, trying to save the position. The pressure mounted.  He and Malcolm were locked in a tight, tight grip like two sumo wrestlers.  Each move countered by the other. Then it was Malcolm's turn and he did...nothing.Well not exactly nothing. But instead of attacking his opponent, he stepped back. And all of a sudden, Malcolm's opponent had nothing to hold on to. I was stunned with how calm Malcolm was and how flexible the maneuver was.

The game lasted a couple more moves, but it was all but over. And then it was all over. The lowest rated player in the section (who had no business in the section) had beaten a player (rated 1789) who fell just under the top ceiling for the section. Malcolm went on to another draw and in his final match he stunned a much higher rated player with a move that looked like it gave away a piece but actually won the game. I happened to visit Malcolm's board at the decisive moment.  He made the move and his opponent stared down at the pieces: 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes passed.  Then he hung his head, turned off the clock and said, "you win." Then he looked at me and said: "He is very, very good."

Malcolm and I sat down and analyzed the game. It's up there with the most spectacular things I've ever seen on a chess board.  In some tournaments, they have a prize for what's called a "Chess Brilliancy." I have no doubt this would qualify. Well, I know this: It is a strange feeling to be so surpassed at something by your ten year old. And I know this too: I'm just in awe of the kid and terribly, terribly proud of him.

Love,
David