URMIA Matters
URMIA Matters
Meet URMIA's Newest Staff Members
Join guest host Michelle Smith, URMIA’s Executive Director, as she interviews four of URMIA’s newest staff members: Carrie Burnett, Project Specialist; Bowen Murphy, IT Manager; Ruth Rauluk, Resource Manager; and Adam Sieracki, Marketing Specialist. Tune in as Michelle interviews URMIA’s four newest staffers about their journey with URMIA so far and what surprised them most about our association! Hear a little about their lives, how they came to work for URMIA, and their favorite thing about working for URMIA so far. Don’t miss out on meeting some of the newest staff who help make URMIA so great!
Show Notes
Guests
Carrie Burnett
Bowen Murphy
Ruth Rauluk
Adam Sieracki
Guest Host
Michelle Smith, Executive Director
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Thanks for listening to URMIA Matters!
Jenny Whittington: [00:00:00] Hey there. Thanks for tuning in to URMIA Matters, a podcast about higher education, risk management, and insurance. Let's get to it.
Michelle Smith: Hello, URMIA, and welcome to another episode of URMIA Matters. My name's Michelle Smith. And it's been a minute since I've been your host or guest host on the podcast, but I'm very excited to be representing the staff this week with a little introduction to our newest staff members. I'm gonna ask each of them to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about where they're from. And, and what they do for URMIA and serving the membership. So, we're gonna, I'll try to start in order of their tenure here at URMIA so far, although they're all short. So, I'm gonna start with Adam. Adam, say hello to the URMIA Matters audience.
Adam Sieracki: Hey everyone, my name is Adam Sieracki. I am [00:01:00] the marketing specialist here at URMIA. I handle all of our emails, social media, graphic design, and brand identity. All the good stuff.
Michelle Smith: That's awesome, Adam, how long have you been with URMIA now?
Adam Sieracki: Just over a year back in June.
Michelle Smith: Awesome. And tell us a little bit about your background.
Adam Sieracki: Yeah, so this is my first job outta college. I graduated last year from Butler University. Bounced around a couple different internships and other various jobs. And then ended up here. Bouncing between marketing and communication roles and then finally blending them all together here, where I can do a little bit of everything and get a nice mix of it all.
Michelle Smith: Awesome, thank you. Welcome, Adam. And Adam works remotely, but pretty close to the office, so we get to see Adam in the, the Bloomington headquarters once a month or so. And we get to travel to a conference together as well. So, that's always a good time to bring the staff together. And I'll [00:02:00] turn to Bowen. Bowen Murphy joins us here in the URMIA office in Bloomington most days. Bowen, say hello to everyone.
Bowen Murphy: Hello, everyone. My name's Bowen. I was born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana and I am URMIA's IT manager. So, as URMIA's IT manager, I oversee the technology that URMIA utilizes. My focus so far here has been on our association management software, assisting with our website updates. And then doing a little bit of reporting and looking at data. And then I also provide general IT support here at the Bloomington office for URMIA.
Michelle Smith: And boy, do we need that on a regular basis. We're so happy to have you, Bowen, and thanks for joining us. Next, I'll go to Carrie.
Carrie Burnett: Hey everybody. I am Carrie Burnett. I am our program specialist. I am [00:03:00] originally from Erie, Pennsylvania. I transplanted to Bloomington about 25 years ago when I was at IU for my undergrad and just never left. It was, uh, met my husband, while we were here and we decided it was a good place to raise a family. So, we stuck around. Out of school and prior to this I was working in insurance. I was doing personal auto claims for Progressive and then went to commercial trucking at Great West Casualty. And just decided I was a little bit ready for a change that was a little more in line with what I originally wanted to do several years ago.
And Michelle and I had, had met previously and she mentioned that this was an opening and. So, I'm happy to be here. I primarily am working on a little bit of everything really, but event registrations and set up, so all the registrations for conference, behind the scenes set up so that you can [00:04:00] register online for like the web events and Zoom events, as well as just the day-to-day things in the office that need to be done. Most recently I just took care of our office move and we're pretty much in our new space now, I think. And mostly unpacked a little bit of organizing to do still, but it's coming along. So, yeah, I am happy to pretty much jump in anywhere.
Michelle Smith: Awesome. Thanks, Carrie. We're happy to have you. And, and for those of you who, who don't know, the URMIA office just relocated a few blocks from our previous office space, which we had for 10 years. And we are realizing we have a lot of stuff, so we're trying to squeeze all of our goods into smaller space. We've been very happy to donate some things locally in the community. And we are unpacking all the boxes, as Carrie said. So, thank you for championing the move. Bowen really helped secure our new IT hookups and [00:05:00] all of those good things that we needed to be functional, but it was pretty seamless. It was very interesting and a great opportunity for us to work as a team on a big project with some of our, our newer staff members. So, come visit the new office. If you haven't seen my post, welcome any time to come stop in. We love to serve as hosts, Carrie, as a champion at hosting folks in the community and showing off all things Bloomington. So, be sure to stop in and when you get a chance and we're happy to say hello and show you around. So, next up, Ruth, say hello to everyone.
Ruth Rauluk: Hi everyone. I'm Ruth Rauluk. I think probably a lot of the members know me because I've been a member of URMIA, I think from maybe 2007 or 2008. My first annual conference was in DC. I applied for a scholarship and, and received it. Currently, I'm the resources manager for URMIA, and what that means is I help members locate resources that we have in our very abundant library. [00:06:00] And I also respond to community posts asking for information and help. And then kind of thirdly, I'm working on updating the risk inventory for 2025 and scheduling all the community conversations for institution types, and I'm very happy to be here.
Michelle Smith: Well, we are so happy to have you, Ruth. We champion our risk management knowledge with two part-time retired risk managers on staff. And we're so happy to have Ruth behind the Ask Ruth button that you see on the URMIA website. And I think you've been a really great addition to the team, bringing not only your risk management knowledge, but also your knowledge and experience as a, a valued URMIA member. So, we're so happy to have you on this side of urmia.org and look forward to all the projects that you'll be working on with our volunteers as well, and updating our resources. So, thanks for being [00:07:00] here.
Ruth Rauluk: Thank you.
Michelle Smith: So, that is an introduction to our newer team members at URMIA. So, I'll throw out a couple of questions and, I don't mean to put you all on the spot, but feel free to, to share your best answers, I guess. So, for Carrie and Adam, I guess, what's been your impression of URMIA so far? Right? You've had a, an opportunity to meet with some of our members out in the field at some of our functions. So, tell us what you think of URMIA and its members.
Carrie Burnett: I think our members are incredibly kind and they're so nice and wonderful to each other. I think I talked with a couple people in Minneapolis when I was there, just how different the members of the URMIA has, how they treat each other and there's no gatekeeping. And they really are wanting to share information, situations that they've worked on or things they've dealt with, and to share that and help others that might be dealing with a similar thing. [00:08:00] Coming from the other side of insurance that I came from, any conferences or events that I was at, everyone was very closed off in their little group. So, if you were at one company, you really didn't share any of your, maybe you had attorneys that did a really good job for you and you didn't want anyone else to, to work with them, or information that you know, no one wanted to, to help each other out like they do with our group. It's really awesome to see.
Adam Sieracki: Yeah, going off of that, that was a big thing that stood out to me, 'cause I had always heard, you know what you were just saying, it's a community. Everyone is very outgoing, supportive of each other. And it was one of those, okay, you hear that. And you're, are they just saying that? Or do they actually mean it? But then you actually get out and you meet the members and it, it was kind of shocking really, 'cause then you start to, for me personally, it makes my job that much easier, 'cause now I'm feeding off of that. I've seen the, the dedication and the effort they're putting into not just their own work, but making, but helping someone else with their work, [00:09:00] makes my job a lot easier.
Michelle Smith: Absolutely agree. Agree with those statements. What a community URMIA is, and for many years and welcome the opportunity to continue to build community with the, our current members as we grow. Some of the growing pains are exciting to, to work through, and we're happy to have a few more staff members to help us do those things as they come up, as well as working on our strategic plan to grow the membership and provide services and resources that they need to do their job better. So, appreciate that impressions that you've had and shared. And would love to, to hear more about what has been memorable to you so far at URMIA, whether that something you're proud of or something that, that caught you off guard or was funny for you to see for the first time. Do, does anyone have any story, stories they'd like to share?
Bowen Murphy: Can go ahead and say Our move was pretty memorable, just having everybody come together and work [00:10:00] together, kind of get everything over here. It was nice having the whole URMIA staff here on move in day and kind of just work together and get that move kind of all moved in and ready to go. And just the way that we all work together and kind of had everything set up ready to go. I thought it was a pretty smooth move in day, especially with Carrie's help with all the things that she did behind the scenes, getting everything scheduled. It was just nice to have everybody together.
Michelle Smith: Those are good days. Those are good URMIA days for sure.
Adam Sieracki: For me personally, I had a, it was always really cool the first day walking around the annual conference, 'cause I had spent months like planning out the visual aesthetic for the conference. And, you know, you're planning it out and you're seeing it in bits and pieces, but to actually go around and see everything all put together was one thing, but then to just hear what everyone else was saying about it and how awesome it was, it was a pretty surreal experience [00:11:00] for me personally.
Michelle Smith: Yeah, that's one of my favorite moments in time, in any given year, is to see all the work that the volunteers and the staff and our, our vendor partners have done. The hotel and, and our graphics printers and those sort of things, to see everything in place is just sort of, it's a miracle all the pieces come together. And to hear the accolades that come in and, and see our members coming together and greeting each other, maybe haven't seen each other for a whole year since the previous conference. It's always a, a great moment throughout the year. Ruth, anything that surprised you being on this side with the staff?
Ruth Rauluk: No, not really. I had really always known since my first conference that URMIA was a, a special place. And in terms of conferences, I, I consider the conferences a gold standard, and I had the opportunity to be behind the scenes. When the conference was in Pittsburgh, I was the chair of the gala and [00:12:00] I had a really great group, a group of institutional and affiliate members who helped me plan the gala, and I was also co-chair of the URMIA Cares project or projects that year, we did multiple. But I got a really good look at how hard everyone in the URMIA office worked on the conference and how diligent they were and making sure that all, even the tiniest details were attended to. So, that the conference participants, it was just so transparent and the conference participant, conference participants all had a great time, but I think they weren't, I don't know that they were all aware of how much effort went behind that at the planning and the logistics getting us from point A to point B. So, it was a really great experience.
Michelle Smith: I agree with you. I think a conference program team experience at least once in your professional career is something where you're able to give back [00:13:00] and build something and see it all come together and really get close with some of the other volunteers and have time to spend, you know, over meals and planning and conference calls and those sort of things and, and get to know ins and outs of operations of the association as well. It's one of those sort of pinnacle volunteer experiences outside of the board, I feel that folks can sign up for. So, we're always planning ahead. So, conferences, four years in the future are, are on the books and we welcome anybody's volunteerism, whether it's something specific in that city, like Ruth had expertise at Pittsburgh, or gen, more general, just put me anywhere sort of opportunity, we, we welcome as many volunteers as possible in those, in those experiences. So, before I move on, anyone else wanna share anything surprising or otherwise. I guess that's you, Carrie.
Carrie Burnett: I mean, I'll just share a little like, haha story, but when I was in Minneapolis for the regional [00:14:00] conference, I was the person who had been putting all the name badges and, and ribbons for designations together. And since I got to actually be there for that one, I was like, well, I'm gonna add my own ribbons. And there really weren't many I could put on besides like first time attendee. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna be a yo pro, 'cause I like to think that I'm still that young at heart and it's okay. And so, because I had a regular name badge, since someone didn't order me a staff badge yet, and I had yo pro, I had a yo pro ribbon on. Everyone that I met just walking through, aside from separate introductions to people, all thought that I was just a new URMIA member. And then when everyone realized that I was actually the new staff, they were like, oh my gosh, I had no idea you had these ribbons. So, I learned my lesson not to wear ribbons because it definitely let everyone kind of get the wrong idea, but it was also a good icebreaker. So, it gave me a chance to [00:15:00] chat with and meet some people that. Maybe otherwise would've not approached me or said anything. So, it's kind of funny.
Michelle Smith: Yeah, that was fun. A good way to, to put yourself out there and meet new people at the same, same time. And plenty of name badges on order now for everyone, I apologize, they haven't been in place for your, per your first personal appearance in front of our members, so we'll get that remedied real quick. So, I just little get to know you section for members to understand what you do for fun, what you do outside of work. Anyone care to share and connect with some of our members over something you do for fun outside of work?
Carrie Burnett: I don't know that I get a whole lot of time for fun outside of work because I've got two very active athletes. I've got a 17-year-old daughter that runs track and cross country and plays softball. I've got an 11-year-old boy that plays hockey and baseball, both like in a travel capacity. [00:16:00] So, we are on the road just about every weekend starting in September through. mid-March for hockey, so I don't always get a ton of time, but when I do, I volunteer at our local Elks Lodge. I bartend once a week or once a month on a volunteer basis. And I'm currently managing or helping coordinate the volunteer group for the Taste of Bloomington, which is, has been a long time like Bloomington Staple. So, when I get a chance to not work here, I feel like I'm working other places or I'm sitting at a ballpark, or a rink, or a track to cheer on my kids. So.
Michelle Smith: Yes, if it's possible for anyone to have like three and a half full-time jobs, that's Carrie. How about anyone else? Care to share a hobby or fun thing to do outside of work?
Ruth Rauluk: I'll go. My husband and I, we have, our children are grown, but we like to travel. But one thing we do [00:17:00] like to do when we travel, we like to go to craft beer tours and visit different, the different breweries depending on where we are. And I have a son in Denver, and if anyone has been to Denver and likes craft beer, there are a lot of candidates there. My favorite is Left Hand Brewing. But we've even combined conference travel, my husband's accompanied me, and then we've taken a few extra days, and we've gone to different destinations, especially when we did San Diego. That was a beautiful place to have a conference. But we left shortly thereafter and traveled up the coast of California and had some really fun experiences in pursuit of craft beer. But we also went to wineries.
Michelle Smith: Perfect.
Carrie Burnett: You're in good company. We're a big craft beer people too, and I know Michelle as well, so that'll be fun. Maybe we can find a good place while we're out in Vegas.
Michelle Smith: Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Adam Sieracki: I do a lot of traveling back and forth between here and Chicago. That's my [00:18:00] big hobby right now. My girlfriend lives up in the city and my family is from the Chicagoland area. So, whether it's going up there for my niece and nephew's birthday or something there up to, or going to go hang out with my girlfriend, that's pretty much been my life for the, pretty much since graduating college. So.
Michelle Smith: Fun post-college life, rediscovering family roots, for sure.
Bowen Murphy: I'll say in my free time, I have a 12 week old baby girl at home with my wife, so it's, we spend a lot of time together, a lot of family time. When I'm not spending time with family, I like to go play golf. And then we go on a lot of outdoor hikes, so a lot of hiking trails in Bloomington or Brown County, and that way we get to spend quality family time together and just be outside. So, we really like doing that.
Michelle Smith: That's awesome. Well, there's gonna be something for everyone in Las Vegas with each of those things as hobbies and fun things to do. So, we'll definitely give you some [00:19:00] downtime. The conference is pretty intense, which you'll find out. But we'll have some downtime to be able to explore and do some fun stuff as well. So, I appreciate each one of you sharing a little bit of information and getting, having our members get to know you before we get to see many of them at the annual conference. I appreciate the work that you do on a daily basis to serve the membership and be available for questions and support when, whenever they, they need it. So, if there's nothing else, we'll go ahead and close out this episode of URMIA Matters. We appreciate you.
Narrator: You've been listening to URMIA Matters. You can find more information about URMIA at www.urmia.org. For more information about this episode, check out the show notes available to URMIA members in the URMIA Network library.
