Rusty and Marie Goe presented a rosewood stained book-plaque-clock to Maya Jones on her fifth anniversary at Southgate Coins. The following words inscribed on the plaque express the Goes' feelings toward Maya on this special occasion:
Five - Year
Employee Service
Award
Presented to
Maya Jones
“In grateful appreciation for your five
years of dedication and service to the
mission of Southgate Coins”
March 7, 2012
Rusty Goe & Marie Goe
Rusty and Marie wrote the following tribute to Maya.
What a difference five years can make!
Maya began her career at Southgate Coins as a frontline assistant. She has progressed to being my store manager and to serving as an assistant to Rusty. She has become so involved in many different aspects of our business such as taking care of our two websites: Southgate Coins and the Carson City Coin Collectors of America. She takes directives from Rusty and negotiates with Web developers and advertising representatives. She fields many calls from customers and dealers who need knowledgeable answers about coins and bullion. We depend on her for so many things, not the least of which is moral support.
Maya has learned to work with Photoshop and InDesign, software programs we use to maintain our website and design our club journal, Curry’s Chronicle. She has typed many articles for Rusty in preparation for publication. She has honed her skills in the editing process, and getting the perfect- red “OK” from Rusty is an area in which she has made great improvements. In the early days, her typed documents would come back covered with Rusty’s red ink, but now she’s much better and often only receives minimal “OOPs-you-missed-that-one” messages from Rusty.
Last summer was the ultimate challenge when we celebrated our store’s 10th anniversary in September 2011. Rusty compiled ten years of company pictures and Maya and Nicole scanned them all. Then they laid everything out in pre-press format for our 10-Year Anniversary book, which includes stories and pictures about Southgate’s first 10 years in Reno. Both Maya and Nicole became familiar with the events that happened in the past and the employees who came before them. They began to recognize the former girls by name as they viewed pictures of them. It was a monumental task, which led up to a memorable celebration, and I was so glad to have these two girls to share it with.
Maya is so integrated into everything that goes on at Southgate Coins and I would be lost without her. She’s my “techno-link” to the world, she knows all of our customers and friends, and she knows most of our history. Maya cares about Southgate Coins as if it were her own business. That means so much to me because you can’t teach a person to feel that way; it must come from the heart. I know with confidence, that she is representing our company professionally to customers and business contacts.
Maya has a sharp wit and a clever sense of humor, which adds to my loving to be around her. She has become quite observant as she has matured and can size up a person or situation quickly. She often translates her observations with quips that cause me to break out in laughter.
Maya was 18 years old when I first met her and her main interests were school and her boyfriend. Now, her husband and daughter take center stage, and she displays a professional devotion to her job. On many days, Maya delights in the new things her little daughter Embry learns, and she delights me by sharing them with me. We laugh over her stories about Embry’s discovery of the world around her. Maya loves her role as a mom, and she and Matt are wonderful parents.
Maya and Matt became foster parents last year to Matt’s two teenage sisters. They unselfishly opened their home to these young girls when the need arose. I respect this type of unselfishness that Maya embraces. Over the years, I have seen her mature into being a generous, consistent, and trustworthy adult.
Maya and her husband Matt are looking forward to buying their first home sometime in the next year, and I enjoy hearing about this exciting new adventure. Recently, Maya and I were talking about self-sufficiency. She said she felt good about having bought a car on her own instead of having one given to her by her parents. She knows that developing such independence will increase her confidence to accomplish anything she sets out to do.
Maya and I have five years of history together etched in the record book; and along the way, we have supported each other and have been friends as life has given us challenges and blessings. We work together as a team to give the best to our customers and to each other.
Thank you Maya, for these last five years of friendship and joy; I hope you and I will have many more together.
With much love,
Marie
And now here’s Rusty to pay his tribute to Maya:
Thanks Marie.
For Marie and me it’s a rewarding experience to see the passages of life each of the young women move through who fill positions on our staff of dedicated employees. Since Maya is the longest-serving girl who has ever worked for us, we have had the pleasure to see her pass through many important phases in her life.
Getting married and changing her last name from Roberts to Jones ranks at the top of the list of memorable events she has experienced over the past five years. The birth of her daughter Embry, a little over two years ago, has brought Maya joy unspeakable. Another personal fulfillment came when Maya bought her first brand new four-wheel-drive vehicle, a 2011 Suburu Forrester.
In the workplace, Maya has many unforgettable memories to reflect back on. She attended her first national rare coin convention; she had her first article published in a national journal; and in 2011, she gave her first public lecture on coin collecting in tandem with Nicole at Southgate’s 10-year open-house happening.
Besides the more noticeable personal and professional achievements attained by Maya, have been the often inconspicuous—never to Marie and me—deeds performed and attitudes displayed by Maya day in and day out.
Maya arrives early for every scheduled shift, and we’ve never heard her complain about staying late when projects necessitated it. I have always appreciated Maya’s willingness, and I might add eagerness, to pump up her portfolio of job knowledge.
In five years, she has received crash courses in how to work with online employment search companies, in-print advertizing departments, television and newspaper directors, public relations people, and our perennial thorns in the flesh, Web developers.
I would be remiss if I failed to recognize Maya as being my chief typist for the past few years. We haven’t kept a running tally of the word-count in all of my articles, letters, and other writings, but I’m sure Maya has transferred hundreds of thousands of my words from handwritten form on yellow notebook paper to neatly typed Word documents. In the process, she’s learned more than she could have dreamed of about the art of editing.
Marie has already shared what Maya means to her, but I know that words alone are inadequate to express her true feelings about her “right-hand assistant.” It really touches my heart to hear Marie tell me “Maya is the best girl we’ve ever had,” or “I love Maya so much, she’s always there for us.”
Marie has always been my right-hand assistant, and I’m so grateful that she can have one of her own in Maya. The double-bonus is, with Maya I have an assistant for my left hand, too.
Maya, we’ll keep giving you treats and Free-Lunch-Fridays and raises and bonuses and anniversary and birthday celebrations and praise. But most important of all, we hope you know deep down inside how much we have loved and appreciated you these past five years.
With all our hearts Dear Maya, we wish you congratulations on your fifth anniversary at Southgate Coins. Thank you for providing us with right- and left-hand assistance all these years.
Marie and Rusty