4 JULY 15,2006
Smoke Signals
ShippingReceiving's Jeff Mercier Moves To The Casino, Rick Courter Takes
Mercier's Post And Virginia Roof Takes On Courter's MailPrinting Route
By Ron Karten
Tribal member Virginia Roof is
now the one on the Tribal campus
who is stopped by neither snow nor
rain nor heat nor gloom of night
from the swift completion of her
appointed rounds.
She has been providing relief for
Rick Courter (Cherokee) who held
the post of MailPrinting Clerk
before her, for more than a year,
but in May, as Tribal member Jeff
Mercier moved from the Shipping
Receiving Clerk position to a posi
tion as a Dealer at Spirit Mountain
Casino, Courter moved back to the
ShippingReceiving Clerk position
he used to hold.
Roof has worked for the Tribe for
more than five years, first in House
keeping, and until her recent move,
as the Records Clerk in the Record
Retention department.
A lifelong member of the Grand
Ronde Community, Roof is daugh
ter of Tribal Elder Marvin Kimsey
and Community Elder Eleanor
Kimsey, and granddaughter of
Tribal Elder Nora Kimsey.
Through her mom, Roof is grand
daughter of McMinnville couple,
Cliff and Helen Reynolds.
Her husband is community mem
ber Lonnie Roof.
In her spare time, Roof enjoys
beading, making moccasins, being
with her grandkids and driving or
walking through the mountains.
"When I grew up, there was no
reservation, no cultural ties, except
Dad would supply us with deer
meat and fish. When he got started
in restoration, we got interested
and grasped our identity. Before
that, I didn't think about it. I
guess we were a little discriminated
against in school, but the school
f " "
-.r
i J 1 - :
V x i ;
I X V.: -
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Rick Courter
ShippingReceiving Clerk
" , ' " : : 1 T
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Jeff Mercier
Dealer At Spirit Mountain Casino
and students then were known as
the Grand Ronde Indians. We had
sweat lodges, though.
She also has children and grand
children of her own. Roofismomto
Joshua Baker, 26, who is a dealer
at the casino, and grandmom to
Jonathan 9, Sasheene, 7, and Ka
leaha Simi, one month (Joshua's
children).
Rick Courter, Cherokee, has
worked almost five years for the
Tribe and the previous five at Spirit
Mountain Casino.
"I worked the first five years with
the casino. I was part of grand
opening," said Courter. He worked
there in the Food and Beverage
department.
He started in Tribal government
in Shipping and Receiving, moved
over to mail delivery for three
years, and now is back at Shipping
and Receiving.
The difference in the two posi
tions is that Shipping and Receiv
ing deals with packages and the
package delivery companies, and
the mail position picks up and de
livers regular mail, interoffice mail,
magazines and the like throughout
the Tribe's government.
ShippingReceiving also
handles all of the mainte
nance for the Tribe's ve
hicles. "I was always routine,"
said Courter of his Mail de
partment days. "You could
always depend on my com
ing by."
Tribal Director of Internal
Audits, Trudi Yoshikawa,
used to call him "Two-A-Day"
because he came by
once in the morning to de
liver stuff from the post of
fice, and pick up the mail in
the afternoon.
"He's regular as clock
work," said Yoshikawa. "You
can tell the time of day by
when he picks up the mail at
your department. He takes
his schedule seriously and he
gets it done."
There's always at least
500 pieces of mail to delivere, but
there could be 200-1000, depending
on the day, exclusive of the bulk
mailings.
ShippingReceiving work loads
vary, too, said Courter. "Some days
there's not much; some days the
whole room could be full."
"You never know until the truck
gets there how much there will be
to do. And you never know when
there's a mass mailing coming."
Courter was born and
raised in Dallas and
has lived in the area
in recent years while
working for the casino
and the Tribe.
Courter spent 10
years in the Navy. He
was based in San Diego
and Norfolk, VA.
"My travels took me
to many different coun
tries and cultures, he
said. "It was a very
educational experience.
In the Navy, we went
to the Mediterranean,
to Asia and Australia.
The Caribbean islands
were my favorites.
But all were a new and
different experience
from living here in the
states."
"I know just about
everybody here and
really like it here a lot.
Just really enjoy doing
what I do to help the Tribe in any
way I can."
His interests include pro and
college football, as well as hunt
ing and fishing and other outdoors
activities.
His only relative
among Tribal mem
bers is his nephew,
Gibson Mercier, 3.
The instigator of
all these moves is
Tribal member Jeff
Mercier, who first
took the leap from
the Governance side
of the Tribe to the
Casino side.
"It's culture shock,"
said Mercier, after a
month and a half as
a dealer at the casino,
"just because of the
enormity of the whole
thing. The vastness
of the types of people
and the types of jobs.
I found adjusting to
working at the casino
as challenging as the
job itself."
Mercier's new work
includes dealing
blackjack, Spanish,
21, Single 21, 4-card poker, 3-card
poker, and Let 'er Ride. "In school,"
he said, "those are the ones you
learn."
"I didn't take the job right out
of class. I had so much invested
working (on the government side)."
He had spent 15 plus years on the
government side. "Those that are
not family to me are like family.
It was two months before I took
the job, and now, I'm relearning
everything."
It was "time to make a change,"
he said, "to try something new."
Mercier started working for the
Tribe in the summer youth pro
grams of 1990, when he was junior
in high school.
"When I started, we were still
in the Depot Building. The pro
gram moved down to the old Ma
hurin Building for at least a couple
years.
"In high school," he said, "I was
a floater for probably five to seven
years. I spent time in just about
every office. Then, right out of high
school, going to college part time,
I was answering phones. I was a
secretary in every office. I put to
gether flyers. You paid your dues
doing every little grunt job."
For a year or two, he was in the
mail room off and on part time.
Then he took that position full-time
for four or five yeaxs. While he was
there, the department turned into
the Procurement Department, and
then he moved to the Shipping and
Receiving position for nearly three
years.
"As a Tribal member, opportu
nities are there, definitely," he
said. "I think more so than people
really know. It is different than
what I imagined. There are a lot
of opportunities for advancement
within that department and plenty
of other departments."
Tribal Elder Joseph (Sonny) Mer
cier (passed in 2003) was his dad,
and Tribal Elder Francis Mercier
is his mom.
"The Procurement Department
has been my family for 10 plus
X
Virgina Roof
MailPrinting Clerk
years. Going to work was like going
to work with my immediate family.
Not seeing them on a daily basis
(now) is one of the pains of having
this current job."
"I didn't get the opportunity to
thank the Tribe, past and present
councils, from its infancy to a multi
million dollar corporation," he said.
"I feel like I was part of this large
tree from you know, the seedling.
Anyone that's been here 10 plus
years, feel part of that investment.
Anyone that's been here 15 years
plus, this Tribe feels like a child to
you. You feel very protective of it.
"It's knowing we invested in some
thing we truly love. A job in something
you're a part of. The pains of growing
into a corporation can be challenging
for someone who was here when it
was a thrift store of sorts. It's hap
pened almost overnight." B