Susan Arruda

Susan Arruda and Susan Fleming

Susan Fleming is retiring, and I'd like to introduce all of you to Susan Arruda, who will be taking her place here at Sequoia.

I've always had a philosophy that whenever someone leaves me, it's an opportunity to get someone better. Many of you felt like your world was coming to an end when Brenda Avery retired on me, but then along came Susan Fleming, who has been great. Susan has really made a difference here. She's got the warehouse in tip-top shape, doesn't hesitate to yell at me when needed, pushed me into the Internet, insisted that we get better Falco garments, and many, many other things. And I know all of you have come to understand that when you really want to get something done around here, talk to Susan and not me!

So if you're going into a 'what are we going to do without Susan' panic, don't worry. I've known Susan Arruda for 25 years or so, from when she worked for me as a manager of an apartment building I owned with a manic-depressive friend. She was easily the best manager we ever had, and we have kept in touch with each other over the years.

Susan Arruda is one of the most exceptional people I've ever worked with. She is extremely organized and highly productive, but the funny thing is that you can never catch her working. She just quietly gets things done.

My manic-depressive partner drove her to distraction, and when she left, I suggested to Susan that she talk to Joe Stettinius, a realtor friend and associate. She went to work at Joe's company, ended up staying for 15 years and was easily the most valuable employee they ever had outside of commission sales people. After ten years or so of working in the office handling property management, bookkeeping and eventually becoming comptroller of the company, she grew tired of it, left on good terms, and went off to do something completely different. After some time, Joe called Susan and asked her to come into his office. He had hired five people to replace her, and they weren't getting the job done. "Susan, name your price!" he said. She did and came back to work for another five years or so.

What's also great is that Susan Fleming and Susan Arruda lived one house apart for many years and their children went to the same schools together. So they've known each other for years, and Susan Fleming is thrilled to see Susan Arruda coming on board.

It's going to take some time for Susan to get fully up to speed, and in the meantime she has Susan Fleming to get her going and who will be on call when she needs help. And we'll be happy to pass along any well-wishes you may have for Susan Fleming.

The email address doesn't change, and you can use either support@seqair.com or susan@seqair.com -- two names for the same email-box.

We're also going to try something new and will have video-conferencing available at falcosupport@mac.com for Mac iChat users, or SequoiaAircraft at Skype. One of the great things about working here is getting to know all of the people out there building and flying the Falco. It's always easier working with someone when you've spent some time talking to them face to face. Susan would enjoy meeting you, but please don't over-use these methods of communications. It would probably be best to set things up by email ahead of time.

Alfred Scott