Na Leo Newsletter - January 2011

Na Leo O’ Atlas
Volume 7, Issue 1
January 2011
Happy New Year!
Annual Atlas Kick-Off coming
Historic Hawaii Theatre to serve as meeting venue
Our annual Atlas Kick-Off Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 20, 2011 at the historic Hawaii
Theatre. In looking for the kick-off venue for 2011, the executive team considered the usual suspect of
facilities, including Dole Cannery Ballroom and Waikiki hotels, but the close proximity and sheer beauty
of the Hawaii Theatre proved too tempting to pass up.
This year’s kick-off meeting will include a recap of last year, exciting goals for 2011, a special guest
speaker, fun (of course), and breakfast and lunch bookends. The theme for 2011 and the kick-off meeting is ‘One Atlas.’
The company will shut down for half a day so all can attend (approximately 8:00am to 1:00pm). Plan
accordingly and mark your calendar.
1132 Bishop Street
Suite 1600
Honolulu, HI 96813
808-533-3222
www.atlasinsurance.com
Inside this issue:
Top 5 Agents
2
Smart, eh!
2
Atlas Christmas Party
3
The Atlas Giving Corner
4
Atlas helps Easter Seals
4
IHS Gift
4
Steve Yamane
4
New Atlas Website
5
Connected to the Neighbor
Islands
5
Atlas Welcomes
6
Retirements galore
6
JTB, Atlas newest client
7
Bruddah Santa
7
January Calendar
8
The Hawaii Theatre, built by Consolidated Amusement Company, opened its doors in September 1922—
a full 7-years before National Mortgage (now Atlas) started up operations. The Theatre was recognized
as the ‘Outstanding Historic Theatre in America’ in 2005 and is listed on both the State and National
Registers of Historic Places.
Page 2
Na Leo O’ Atlas
Our Top 5 Agents for November 2010
Building a better business with their sales acumen!
Gerald Takeuchi
Gary Hashimoto
Mark Murayama
Rick A. Sakata
Darold E. Imanaka
Takeuchi Insurance
Associates, Inc.
Hashimoto
Corporation
MMM Insurance
Services, Inc.
Agent Extraordinaire
(Camera Shy)
Smart, eh!
Building a better team through learning & development
Matt Arine
Matt passed his seventh
CPCU course and is just one
class away from the prestigious Designation!
Marilyn
Languit
Marilyn took and passed her
CISR course, ‘Insuring Commercial Property!’
Chenise
Blalock
Chenise passed the inaugural
UH West Oahu course,
‘Principles of Risk Management!’
Leilani
Mariano
Lei took and passed all five
‘Construction Risk and Insurance
Specialist’ course, becoming only
the 3rd person at Atlas to hold
the CRIS Designation!
Liann
Ebesugawa
Liann took and passed the
Hawaii State ‘Accident &
Health License’ exam.
Tasha
Montero
Tasha passed the inaugural UH
West Oahu course, ‘Principles of
Risk Management!’
Richard
Fukeda
Richard knocked out two
more ‘Management Liability
Insurance Specialist’
courses—five down, two to go
to the Designation!
Nick Tan
Nick passed the inaugural UH
West Oahu course, ‘Principles of
Risk Management!’
Corina Hill
Corina passed the inaugural
UH West Oahu course,
‘Principles of Risk Management!’
Sharilyn
Tanaka
Sharilyn passed the inaugural UH
West Oahu course, ‘Principles of
Risk Management!’
Lance
Kawano
Lance, yes Lance, passed his
3rd CPCU course,
‘Foundations of Risk Management!’ No matter, he can’t
keep up with Arine!
Dana
Tokioka
Dana took and passed the Hawaii
State ‘Accident & Health License’
exam.
Na Leo O’ Atlas
Page 3
Atlas Christmas party bedazzles
Mardi Gras theme and décor give Atlas team unique Christmas experience
On December 10th, the Honolulu Atlas family of employees shut the doors early and headed over to the Ala Moana Hotel for a Christmas
luncheon and party that would have made New Orleans proud. Purple, green and gold décor adorned each table, and the sounds of jazz played
in the background. Beads, masks, and glass candy jars were takeaways, and magician Santos Kidd made people check for their wallets at every
table he entertained.
Two interactive games made the lunch more fun. The scavenger hunt got table teams up and about frantically searching for this’s and that’s,
including, unfortunately, one used Q-Tip. Can you say ehhwww!? The ‘Human Christmas Tree’ experience was a delight, as myriad decorations made their way from bag to arms, legs, chest, head, and other unmentionable areas. Congratulations to the team that decorated Chris
Dittmar—the winner of best human Christmas tree!
Thank you to the Atlas executive team for continuing a fun and long-standing tradition, and to the Office Activities Committee (David
Ching, Eunice Hirata, Gift Okai, Greg Chilson, Sharilyn Tanaka) for putting on the fun!
Page 4
Na Leo O’ Atlas
Building a better community through giving!
Atlas helps Easter Seals of Hawaii
Team of Atlas volunteers at annual gingerbread contest
In year’s past, Atlas would assemble a team to participate in the annual Easter Seals of Hawaii Gingerbread Building contest.
This year, Atlas chose to help sponsor the event with money and human hands at the December 5th Blaisdell event.
Project leader Carol Davis solicited and received help from several Atlas family members, including Tammy Burks, Liann
Ebesugawa, Sandy Ferreira, Chenise Blalock, Steven Pang, Kurt Sibayan and Myles Murakami. The team spent a
good chunk of their Sunday walking around, spreading cheer, and singing Christmas carols. Attendees appreciated the enthusiasm, and the
Aloha and Christmas spirit.
Thank you to all who volunteered and gave of their time and heart!
Institute for Human Services gift
Atlas gives to a very worthy cause, and partner
IHS is the only 24-hour walk-in, emergency shelter on
Oahu providing a full range of services to men, women
and families with children who are homeless and in
danger of becoming homeless. A worthy cause and
noble organization, IHS provided over 250,000-meals
and 113,000-bed nights in 2008 (most recent statistics
available—reference www.ihshawaii.org). Here are
two pictures of Atlas teammates and IHS personnel
when a check was gratefully passed along.
Steve Yamane, from Las Vegas to Boston
The ‘young man’ qualifies to run the Boston Marathon!
Judging by the second picture to the right, I’d run fast too!
Nah, seriously, you’ve seen him running around Honolulu,
and running around the office, now you’ll see him running in
the prestigious Boston Marathon! Back on December 5th,
Steve ran in the Las Vegas Marathon and did very well for
his gender and his age—well enough that he now qualifies to
run the Boston.
The Boston Marathon will be held on April 18, 2011 in of all
places, Boston.
We are proud of you Steven!
Page 5
Na Leo O’ Atlas
New Atlas Website is ‘Alive!’
Site went live December 8, 2010
The new Atlas website at www.atlasinsurance.com finally went live on December
8, 2010. The new site, in shades of blue and orange, is an upgrade from the previous site Atlas had in place for nearly 7-years, with much more content, userfriendly look and navigation, resources for prospects and clients, videos, testimonials, and the ability for site visitors to request a quote or a conversation.
Future phases will bring in social media and client tools.
In December Corina Hill and Matt Arine from Personal Lines were able to
close our first two leads that came in via the new website. Not bad, considering
you could have counted on one finger how many leads came in on the old site,
and considering the ‘search engine optimization’ phase didn’t even begin yet (oh,
that’s fancy talk for getting your site in front of lots of eyes).
Congratulations Atlas on a beautiful, ahead of the industry-curve website. Start
advertising our new website to all you know!
www.atlasinsurance.com
Connected to the Neighbor Islands
Our Atlas team extends throughout the State!
Maui
Hilo
Kona
Buzz’s Wharf in beautiful Maalaea was the
place to be for the Maui Office on December
17, 2010. They gathered together for their
annual Christmas luncheon and fellowship.
They didn’t take pictures, but that doesn’t
mean they didn’t have fun—actually, it
probably means they had too much fun!
Kona enjoyed Christmas in style, with the
entire staff and all the agents from the office
kicking-off their holiday season with a luncheon at Keei Café...great food! Nick Tan
joined the Kona team for the day to help
celebrate.
Yuletide
Joy
Prawns, Prime Rib, and fish and chips were a
hit that day as they sat and shared stories of
how the year came to a close so quickly. You
can see by their smiles that they enjoyed the
meal, the company and the location.
Holiday
Grinds
The Hilo Atlas office had their Christmas
gathering on December 22nd at Restaurant
Miwa, and was attended by all staff and
agents. They enjoyed the sushi and a variety
of entrees of shrimp and vegetable tempura,
sweet and sour spareribs, chicken tofu, seafood curry, grilled ahi and other delicious
side dishes. According to Sheryl Kawamura, ‘we were so excited to eat, we forgot
to take pictures!’
That’s OK Hilo—we ‘get the picture!’ Thanks
from the Hilo office to the executive team for
sponsoring their local kine grinds!
Christmas
Fun
Everyone enjoyed the food and had a great
time. Mahalo from the Kona team to the
executive team for sponsoring their fun!
Page 6
Na Leo O’ Atlas
Atlas welcomes Kimberly Nasu
‘Kimi’ the newest addition to our Personal Lines team
Kimberly Nasu is our newest family member here at Atlas, a new Account Administrator in Personal Lines. Kim has a variety of work experience in the medical field, but has several family members in the insurance industry that have poked and prodded for years to join the insurance ranks.
Most notably was Kim’s father, Frayne Furuta at First Insurance, who many around the Atlas organization have worked with in the past.
Kim spends most of her free time with her 5-year-old son, Rylan, and working toward completing
her degree at the University of Phoenix. She now enjoys getting to know all her new friends in Personal Lines. Please stop by and visit Kim and help welcome her to our Atlas Ohana!
Retirements galore on December 30th
Atlas says goodbye to Diana, Don, Charlene, Susan,
Evelyn and Betty
In an organization with only 115-employees, having five (plus one agent) retire all in one day is pretty significant. We lost five great employees
and one great agent, and many, many years of insurance experience.
On December 30th, the half dozen gratefully retired from their Atlas organization and said tearful farewells to their coworkers. Diana Hood
from AOAO, Don Ito from Maui, Charlene Fujimoto from Personal Lines, Evelyn Cummings from Maui, Susan Fontillas from the
mail room (Personal Lines), and Betty Viernes from CCG all packed up their belongings, shut off their computers, ate a little cake, and departed with heavy hearts, and hopefully airplane tickets in hand (for much deserved travel).
From the entire Atlas family, we say congratulations, bon voyage, good luck, and Aloha! We miss all of you already!
Page 7
Na Leo O’ Atlas
JTB our newest Atlas client
One Hawaiian meets one Japanese meets one Korean...
When Atlas (the Hawaii company) met with JTB (the Japanese company) and set them up with
Dongbu (the Korean company), a match was made in insurance heaven. JTB Hawaii, Inc. is a subsidiary of JTB Group, which is the leading travel agency in Japan, that offers Hawaii
tourists a comprehensive array of golf tours, bus and rent-a-car services, and
more.
According to Myles, ‘this is a great story as to why it is so important to create
relationships and deliver on our services with as many people as possible. [A] relationship created the
opportunity.’ Atlas team members Ron Tsukamaki, Russ Park, Bobbie Erickson, and Carol
Davis quickly took an opportunity from prospect to client included. Myles, Vince Miyoi, Mike Kinoshita and Russ Park (the ‘handsome guys’) sealed the deal with a strong presentation to the JTB
Hawaii team, closing the presentation with two client testimonial videos of Japanese run companies,
Haseko and Halekulani.
JTB Hawaii had been a 30-year client of a competing agency which makes this win more amazing for
Atlas. ‘It also serves as a good reminder to never let your guard down with our clients,’ Myles reminds
us.
Bruddah Santa visits 1132 Bishop...
...and he came bearing gifts in slippahs, sans reindeer and sleigh
Is there anything this writer can say that can’t be told visually? I think not. Simply, enjoy the pictures below:
Atlas Insurance
Agency
Atlas Vision Statement
1132 Bishop Street
Suite 1600
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
P:
F:
W:
We will be the dominant insurance agency in Hawaii
by having the reputation of having the best team of
professionals. We will earn this reputation by having
professionals who focus on our clients’ needs and who
deliver results that meet or exceed their expectations.
808-533-3222
808-533-8777
www.atlasinsurance.com
Hawaii is not just a place we do business. Hawaii is our home.
January 2011 Atlas Calendar
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
January 3
4
5
6
7
10
11
12
13
14
17
18
19
20
21
Martin Luther King
Jr. Day (Floating
Holiday)
24
31
Atlas annual kick-off
meeting (Hawaii
Theatre)
25
26
27
28