Networking Is Just One Payoff

RMA Journal, The, Feb, 2001 by Carol McGinn

Sandy Sutermaster parlays job skills into rewarding volunteer work.

"No matter how well I think I might have my day planned, it could all change with that first phone call in the morning," says Sandy Sutermaster, vice president and relationship manager of Mellon Bank's Global Cash Management Department. Fortunately, she has developed a range of professional and interpersonal skills that handily cross over to her work as a volunteer for RMA and other organizations.

At the Pittsburgh-based Mellon, Sutermaster underwrites and monitors credit quality for corporate users of the bank's cash management services. Her portfolio includes customers with different risks and who use various services. Other responsibilities include reviewing companies financials, conducting discussions with company management to determine how to structure services, and making hundreds of decisions based on her customers' credit quality.

"You definitely need good people skills in this position," she says. "I deal every day with internal sales people trying to book the business, who may or may not have credit training, as well as the external customer." Her negotiating skills "are always being challenged. There's a lot of gray when it comes to the assessment of someone's credit quality." Meantime, her organizational skills are also on call. "Sometimes I have to regroup and change directions," she says. "That may involve delegating or making a change in plans to get the job done."

RMA Investment

Sutermaster's delegating and planning skills have certainly proved useful in her role as president of RMA's Pittsburgh Chapter. Instead of being consumed with last-minute crises, she is able to take the forward-looking view necessary to ensure continued success. "With the help of an exceptionally energetic and qualified board and an excellent paid administrator, I have been able to realize my goal of having our entire 2000-01 program year planned by last June. Now we can just look to the future."

Sutermaster has been an RMA Associate for more than 10 years and has served the Pittsburgh Chapter in several capacities, including a five-year term as head of the chapter's Commercial Lending School. She rotated through the chairs before becoming president this year. Sutermaster calls herself a "lifelong RMA volunteer" and hopes to start an affinity group for past presidents when she reaches that step.

RMA ROI

"I firmly believe in RMA's networking potential," she says. "I would continue as an RMA member for the networking opportunities alone, especially now that we have other professionals in the group."

Among her other volunteer roles, Sutermaster is an assistant leader for her daughter's Girl Scout troop and helps at both of her children's schools whenever possible.

"I think volunteering puts some balance in my life," she says. "I've noticed that most of the people in my bank who are successful are involved in some organization as a volunteer. On a more personal level, I also want my children to see what I'm doing, to learn the importance of reaching out as a volunteer.

"My advice would be to get involved and stay involved!"

McGinn is a Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania-based freelance writer and desktop publisher specializing in financial and business topics.