(Presented by Brenda Monteith's Executive)

This message appeared in the May 2005 Austin Chapter PULSE. 

This is the speech that Bill Penak, Brenda Monteith’s executive from SBC Communications, gave at our Membership Meeting in April. If you missed the meeting, we thought you would enjoy reading this letter.

Hello my name is Bill Penak and I am with SBC Communications. First I would like to congratulate the Austin Chapter of EWI  on their 25th anniversary.  I am a guest of your president Brenda Monteith who if you haven’t noticed is missing from today’s meeting.  The reason she is missing is we sent her out of town, in fact we sent her out of the country.

She and her husband are currently enjoying some very special time in Cabo San Lucas as guests of our company.  Brenda is one of only 15 people in our five state business unit that has earned the recognition of a president’s club winner.  She is being recognized for her outstanding  sales in 2004.  If she were sitting in the audience today it would really embarrass her if we took just a moment to congratulate her on that achievement.  So lets do it anyway, they can put it in the minutes.

Bill Penak
Guest Executive
Austin Chapter
SBC Communications

As a senior account manager she and her team are responsible for managing the SBC relationship with two of the states largest agencies.  The University of Texas at Austin and UT Systems and the Texas dept. of criminal justice (the prison system).   Brenda has been with our company for 24 years in fact if she were going to be here tomorrow, we would be celebrating that anniversary with her.  For the last fifteen of those years Brenda has worked in my organization in four different assignments working her way up to her present position.

As her Sales manager, I would like to take most of the leadership credit for her successes, but I am confident Brenda owes much of that individual success to her involvement in EWI. Over the last (years) I have seen Brenda grow and mature through her association with this fine organization.  Her involvement with professional peers has allowed her the opportunity to network, share insights, and learn from others in the professional business world.

Since my success is totally dependent on the success of my team members, I too owe some of my individual success to the efforts of this organization.

The point I am trying to make is we at SBC are committed to supporting EWI and all the good that you do, I have seen first hand the return on that investment.  To the members in the audience today thank you and good luck as you look to the next twenty five years.  To the guest considering becoming part of this group, I encourage you to talk to the membership committee and sign up today.  I will be glad to visit with any of you to share my personal perspective and if your leadership has questions about whether your involvement will bring value; I am more than willing to visit with any of them. Joni has all of my contact information.

Again thank you for allowing me to visit with you for a minute, congratulations on 25 wonderful years and when you see her, tell Brenda how proud you are for her achievements in 2004.  Knowing Brenda, she will insist that you share in that success.