12 DECEMBER 1, 2002
Smoke Signals
Sarah Harvey Benefits from Tribal Program
Portland State University Graduate looks forward to more education.
By Ron Karten
Tribal member Sarah Harvey
dropped out of college the first time
through. That was at Oregon State
University (OSU). She thought
maybe she wanted to work. This time
through, at Portland State University
(PSU), she took classes after work not
just to finish up but because she found
classes that would definitely help her
on the job.
This successful foray into education
is not something she could quite put
her finger on. She tried. She sug
gested that PSU provided a lot more
"hands on" experience than Oregon
State. She said that Grand Ronde
Tribal Elder Claudette Parazoo, who
works for Grand Ronde's Tribal Coun
cil and also just graduated from PSU
was "such an inspiration." She re
called that while working at Spirit
Mountain, she used to "watch other
people with degrees and experience and
wanted that for myself."
A lot of reasons explained her re
turn to education and a bunch more
explained reasons for her success this
time.
"I had incredible family support,"
she said. She counts among her sup
porters husband, Michael ("I share the
degree with him"); her sons Jordan,
4, and Evan, 2; her brother, Tribal
member Adam Henny, an OSU gradu
ate who heads the Spirit Mountain
Marketing department and also her
mom, Sanda (Sam) Henny, who helped
out with the kids while she was at
school and who went through a battle
against cancer during this time.
"I want to thank the Tribal Council
and the Education department," she
said, "for all they've done for me."
It probably also helped that by the
time she decided to return to school,
she was certain that as the Casino's
Benefits Manager, she had found the
kind of work she could pursue for a
lifetime.
"I love the interaction of dealing with
employees," she said. "I can't imagine
doing anything else at this point in my
life."
And her schooling in the Social Sci
ences was perfect for this occupation.
She comes out of it with a certificate
in Human Resources Management.
She studied diverse populations, social
service programs and abusive situa
tions. "I'm learning more about people and
how different we are, said Harvey. "It
has increased my awareness. I'm a
better trainer, a better organizer and
a better communicator now."
She said that it is important for her
to work for the Tribe, "for the connec
tion back to the Tribe." This summer,
she hopes to add to her degree a Cer
tificate for Chicano and Hispanic Com
munities. "I see a lot of correlations with what
they've gone through and what the
Tribe has gone through," she said.
Graduate school is next for Harvey,
possibly in Public Administration.
"I can't say I'm doing it for career or
monetary reasons," she said. "I sup-
l-SrN J
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Sarah Harvey
port education and I want more."
And in the end, maybe one thing has
made the biggest difference "I'm so
much of a better learner now," she
said.
Deborah Larsen Takes New Title Financial Risk Manager
Finance department post is new, needed.
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Deborah Larsen
By Ron Karten
Tribal member Deborah Larsen pre
pared for this new post with the Tribe
as the Safety Specialist at the casino.
This new position represents growth
in her career and with Tribal
community's responsibilities growing,
her efforts to save the Tribe money on
its many insurance needs and to make
sure that there are no gaps in the
Tribe's insurance policies will help the
community grow wisely.
As the Casino's Safety Specialist, she
handled insurance claims, made sure
that the Tribe was in compliance with
government regulations, like health
and safety regulations, for example and
she helped develop safety and training
manuals.
The priorities of her current job in
clude evaluating insurance coverage
for Tribal members and employees.
Health care "is the Tribe's biggest pre
mium item," she said.
An effort to consolidate the many
insurance lines covering Tribal and
Casino employees could be completed
by the beginning of 2003, Larsen said.
Health, property, liability and work
ers compensation policies are being
evaluated not only for cost and the
completeness of coverage, but also for
such issues as service, said Larsen.
In some cases, changes will not mean
dollar savings, but hopefully will result
in employees enjoying "a better run pro
gram," Larsen said. That would be the
case in the Workers' Compensation
area. "The new company is local and
pro-active in handling claims," she said.
With four children Eddie, 8
months, Raymond, 2, Jeromey, 13, and
Andrea, 17, Larsen does not have
much free time on her hands, but the
day oi this interview she was about to
play her first game of golf.
"I took some lessons," she said, a little
bit uncertain about how much they
would help.
She also enjoys arts and crafts, and
home improvement projects.
Larsen started working at the Tribe
10 years ago as an Administrative As
sistant in the Small Business Division.
In 1995, she moved over to the casino,
where she learned the ins and outs of
insuring such a large entity. And as
of May, she is back with the Tribe. B
Bryan Langley Moves to Finance Department
Procurement Manager is detail oriented.
By Ron Karten
Tribal member Bryan Langley has
been working for the Tribe since 1991.
He started in the Social Services and
moved from there to the Education
Division, where he was a Short Term
Training Coordinator.
As Procurement Manager for the
Finance department since May, Lan
gley is responsible for shipping and
receiving, purchasing, mail and
records retention.
Those of us who work for the Tribe
here in Grand Ronde have probably
noticed the explosion of bar code tags
on everything from doors to comput
ers. That's Langley's doing. It is part
of the work that Shipping and Receiv
ing is doing to build inventory con
trol. "We have literally millions of as
sets," he said. "We're going building
by building" in the effort to tag every
one and keep a record of it in a Tribal
database.
The Tribe contracts with various
government agencies to purchase ev
erything from health care materials
to automobiles and as might be ex
pected; each agency assigns rules for
spending and reporting those expendi
tures. The Purchasing Division aims
to keep the Tribe in compliance with
all those rules.
The Records Retention division re
tains important records for the vari
ous departments and divisions on re
quest. The mail division, Langley said, "is
pretty straightforward." The mail gets
picked up and delivered.
All this takes what they call a "de
tail oriented" kind of person, and Lan
gley fits the bill. Even in his off hours,
Langley takes a lot of pleasure in plan
ning. For example, he's a long-time
bow hunter and
one of the great
joys for him even
in this endeavor is
"planning the
hunt." He takes
out the maps and
pulls from his memory the spots that
have intrigued him or drawn him
during previous hunts and lays out
a plan.
"Of course," he said, "the plans may
change based on wind direction" or
other variables, but rather than take
away from his instinct for planning,
this flexibility demonstrates why he
is not only a good and effective
hunter, but a good and effective man
ager as well.
Which all leads to the area where
Langley puts in his greatest efforts
the family. With Rhonda, his wife,
Bryan Langley
whom he calls a "domestic engineer,"
the Langleys are raising three children
Brayden, 4, Kara, 6, and Bryanna,
7. Rhonda, with dual degrees in Art
and Early Childhood Education, takes
the lead in home schooling the kids and
with great results.
Though the family now lives in Lin
coln City, they are building a new home
in McMinnville. Hoping for a Janu
ary finish, Langley will be pitching in
on the roof, the floors and the paint