Podcast Episode 72: Episode 45: Special Edition Robbin Dinbokowitz

Description

Few people understand how important Robbin is to the health of the Spark organization and to the health of our sweet tooth. Join us this week to discover how many hats Robbin wears.

Transcribed Content

This episode of Rockcast is brought to you by Rock partner Triumph Tech, a full service specialist partner. Rock partners provide crucial support for Spark Development Network and important services for the Rock community. Connect with Triumph Tech today at rockrms.com/partners. Welcome to this special edition of the ROTCast podcast, where we are going behind the scenes with a person to learn more about someone on the Spark team and what they do. And this is an excellent time for us to introduce Robin, who many of you will have just met at the conference and who has put a lot of effort into that one time event. So I think this time of year is the perfect time to have a conversation with Robin. If this is Robin, does that make you Batman? I've never been compared to Batman in my life. Batwoman? Also, no. Okay. A superhero though. That, she does have a cape. I don't wear it very often. She kind of trips on it. That's an excellent point. It's the clumsy cape. Welcome, Robin. Hi. We see Robin's chipper face in the office every day. In fact, Robin is the one who takes such good care of us that we can do things go to a conference and talk to people and not just fall apart here in the Phoenix area on a daily basis. She puts a lot of effort into keeping us sane and fed and supplied. Sugared up. Sugared up. Lots of candy. Yes. Yes, that's right. Robin, why don't you tell us a little bit about the many, many hats you wear here? Okay. Well, I do a lot of the office stuff, just keeping everything running, the accounting, the purchasing, the data integrity, keeping the kitchen stocked so you all have plenty to eat and drink, some of the events, just a taste of everything, I think. I think taste is the right word too. If you've come to a masterclass and the spread that is put out at the masterclass, that's a % Robin. If it were up to just John and I, we'd be , sit down, be quiet, get some water. What do you mean you want something to drink? It's a drinking fountain outside. That's right. So you can thank Robin for that. Also, you coordinate a lot of things at the conference. So the conference that we all just attended, for instance, the food, that was quite a project. Yes. It's a lot of work, but it gets done every year. Every year is different. Yes. We thought we were gonna start off with some food trucks and that changed midway and you just go with what you got and what you can do and You roll with that. Make sure everybody's fed. As long as they're fed, they're happy. That's right. And the shipping, you coordinated a lot of shipping for us to get things in and coordinated with the sponsors so their items would arrive in the right locations at the right times. Yes. Travel arrangements. Yes. Making sure everybody gets there. Yeah. It's a long list. There is a long list. It's a little bit of everything. I get to touch a lot of things. That's right. So you've been on staff for almost a year and a half now, right? Yes. And when you were hired here, were you anticipating on doing everything that you actually are doing today? Well, I had hoped that I would have more to do as time went on. And I think that has I've succeeded at that. Yes. No regrets. No regrets. Nope. Definitely stay I'm not bored. And yeah. You helped us realize that we needed to take some things to the next level, growth wise, when you came in and started working in our accounting process, we needed to change some things there that accommodated our current size and the types of transactions that we did and some other things that. So I think that helped. Yeah, the growth. Yes, there's always change. Always change. Yeah, you have to adjust. So what were you doing before you discovered Rock? I was actually in the accounting department at Acura. Yes. So just happened to although I liked the job, didn't the hours. I was working late hours and happened to run into a mutual friend of Emily and I's at the grocery store one night about 07:30. And she said, Are you just now getting home from work? And I said, Yes. And she says, You need to call Emily. I think they're looking for somebody. And we had just opened a position. Yes. So I did. And here we are a year and a half later. And coincidentally, previous job location was just down the street from us. Yes. Yep. Just a couple miles. And ironically, the lady that you're talking to is the person who introduced Emily to us way Oh, right. Yes. She's the connector. She is, yes, she knows everybody and everything. And yeah, she manages to do that very well. Yeah. Yep, that few degrees of separation or whatever, I think Laura Moeller is positioned firmly in the middle of most people's connections here in the Phoenix area. Yes, everybody knows her. That's right. So tell us about an average day in Robin's work life. Well, that would include lots of communications, data integrity, paying bills, making sure everybody, again, everybody is fed and everybody has what they need. And that we've entered our hours. That you've entered your hours. Yes, I have taken on a lot of payroll responsibilities since I started. So yes, now I get to kind of harass the staff about their hours. She's the nicest harasser ever. I try to do it with a smile on my face so that I don't make anybody mad, but I annoy them just enough to make sure it gets done. That is one thing I don't think people know, that we have to track our time every day so we can build to the right place. It's quite annoying, but it is needed. It definitely is. It's one of those things that goes along with our status of having a nonprofit and doing additional other consulting work for churches. And we just have to make sure everything goes to the right place. It keeps the IRS happy, it keeps billing easy, and it's very important. So Robin definitely helps keep us on track with that. Yeah. Okay, so Robin, I have to know, what is your favorite part about the conference? Meeting the people. The people that we talk to every day for a year, actually being able to meet them and put a face to the name. And then it's easier to build that relationship too once you've met face to face and you can continue it from there. It is fun to connect with people on email, Slack. We have quite a few ways we talk to people and about a lot of things. It becomes more personal, I guess, when you've met somebody face to face, I think. I think that's one of my favorites too. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your after hours? My after hours, well, I'm married with four children and a grandbaby who just turned a month old today. Oh, that's exciting. So, yes. So he's taking up some time. Soccer, both my youngest plays soccer, my son plays club, which is, he trains five nights a week, even through the summer. So there's really never a break there. It's all year long. So that takes up a lot of time. That's a ton of time. It is. And how do you find time for your Instant Pots? Well, the Instant Pot helps us stay fed when we have such little time. Because there's no time to cook. Yes. Dinner in an instant. But I do know this about Robin. Somehow you've squeezed time into entertainment, right? Movies? Oh, yes. We do see a lot of movies. That is something that we enjoy. You're our local movie I wouldn't call myself a buff, but we do take the time to see those. Yes. You always know which ones to recommend. I'll come check with Robin first, see if it's worth it. Yeah, it's a family thing where we, I don't know, the kids and the husband always have the next couple months planned out based on movies and releases. Yes. That's why you've always seen the movie that week that it came out. If we haven't seen it, we can almost rest assured that you have. Yes. It used to be when the kids weren't in school that we were there on Friday morning. My husband would take the day off. It was a tradition, and we were the first ones there. Now that they're all in school, that's a little bit harder. But we're usually the first one there on Friday night. Wow. That's cool. And none of us buy any equipment for our kitchen without checking with you first. I don't know if you're aware of this. But Well, I didn't know that was on the job description when I started, but it yes. I do my gadgets. You have to make life easier for yourself. That's true. So What's next on the kitchen equipment purchase list? I that. Do get yes. John knows that one. It's an air fryer. Yes. Because he's waiting to get the rundown in the recommendation. Yeah. I've been researching, I'm holding out. Do you have a list of recipes waiting to go once you get one in hand? No, but there are times where I just think, This would be so much easier, and it wouldn't heat up my house in an air fryer. True. Right down to simple things chicken nuggets or yeah, just things that you can throw in there and not have to turn on the oven. I'm all about And that's a big deal in Phoenix. It is a big deal. Especially in the summertime. Now Go ahead. I swear my electric bill last summer went down about $30 a month because I was using my Instant Pot and not my oven. That thing's only on 10 amazing. Yeah, was just that. Yeah, that's right. You're a recent convert, aren't you? Well, exactly. Was just about to say, if you follow Robin on Facebook, which I think my wife did, she got connected and then all of a sudden I said, Yeah, I want an Instant Pot. Robin says it's awesome. And then Liz got one for me, so it's been great. She always finds the sale on whatever the gadget is that we all need. How many of us have gotten Instant Pots since you discovered them here? Here? Oh gosh. I did. John did, Nick did, Emily did. Wow. Amy did. David did Garrett has one. I think he came with his. So we're just working on Mike and Ethan and Garrett. Does Ethan have one? I don't know if Ethan has one. I know that he did purchase a food saver based on some of my recommendations. I have two Instant Pots. That's our confession. I have two as well. Only one. We're not high Instant Pot users yet. No. It's very convenient. It is. It's a little intimidating until you get in the hang of it, I think. I must maybe I'm doing something wrong because I just throw it all in there, close it, hit the go button, ten minutes later, it's done. That's so nice. There you go. Yeah. It's crazy. Define all. Throw it all in there? Well Or you throw all in? I mean, if you if you do a little prep work in advance, cut up some onions, some garlic, peppers, you have that kind of stuff ready to go for the next couple days, you you just dump it in and chop up the meat and throw it in and some broth and boom, you've got an instant meal. I saw what you brought in for lunch the other day. It looked really good. Yes, it was yummy. It was very good. And it took ten minutes. Instant. I think this might be a commercial. Can we get some advertising credits for this? We really should. We should. Next podcast is gonna be brought to you by Instapod. Maybe. Give me a couple weeks on that. You have any embarrassing stories you wanted to tell? Seemed you had one that you're dying to say. Well, your most embarrassing moment triggered the memory of my most embarrassing moment, and that was when I was on staff at CCB and I was working in the children's ministry in the two year old building, we would get a lot of littles that just cried and cried. So, I would try to take those under my wing and stick with them while and I would text pictures to the parents, letting them know, look how wonderful she's doing. She stopped crying right away. She's having fun. Well, I had one whose daughter was named Bella. Well, I had sent text messages throughout the service with pictures. So the next day, I went to text my husband and ask him what kind of dog food Bella prefers, because I have a dog named Bella. It went to the mom of this child named Bella that I had had in the classes the previous day. So I sent mom a text and said, what kind of dog food does Bella prefer for next Sunday? Wow. Oh my god. How did she say that? I pretty quickly realized, oh my goodness. That was to the wrong person, and what are the odds that her daughter's name was Bella? And there's no delete or recall? No. You got it. I immediately texted her back and was laughing and explained, and we became friends. That was pretty embarrassing. Yes. It just goes to that whole sending the text or the email to the wrong person. Yeah. I've done the same thing. When I was on staff at CCV, actually, I sent a text to one of the security guys when I was working on a large funeral service that was coming in. And so I had to be in contact with them about different things. And I sent a voice text and I said the right thing and it auto corrected as I was sending. And he was over six feet tall, really serious former military, , intimidating, wore his sunglasses inside kind of person. His name was Cody. And it auto corrected. I'm watching as it goes out, and it says, hi, Cozy. And he's, , the least cozy person on the planet. I was mortified. I'm , oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. And he I got one line straight lace text back, and it said, only my wife can call me that. At least he had a sense of humor about At least he did. When I was at CCV, had an event that I was hosting, so I had to open and unlock the bathrooms for the event. And at the end, I was supposed to unlock the bathrooms, but they were already open. So I'm , that's weird. So I didn't know if I was supposed to lock them. So I decided to text the person back, Is it okay to lock the bathrooms? But it auto corrected lock to lick. Is it okay to lick the bathrooms? It is never okay. I think we're just losing our train of thought here. I'll answer that. That's a no. That's a That's a no. Will be the most interesting podcast we've ever done. Thanks for kicking that one off, Robyn. I think Nick's the only one who hasn't shared his. I don't think they're safe for podcast audiences. Do we have a little bleeper? No, we don't. Have those kind of I'll remember one for next time and queue it up. Tee that up for you. All right, well, Robin, are there any parting thoughts you need to share with us? I don't believe so. Do you want to sing us out? No. We always end with a song. No. That's all right. The guest usually sings us out. Do they? Yeah. Oh, well, this guest can't carry a tune in a bucket. That's right, none of ushers could either. I do remember John has a background in singing from his boys' choir do, boys' choir days. Wow. Thanks for putting that out there too. I didn't know that. It's now out in cyberspace and our community has access to that. Have plenty stories. Maybe you should just plan something at the conference and then they'll just put it to rest right away. See, something happens though, in every boy's life, their voice changes. Oh, that's true. It wasn't the same after. Well, we'll be satisfied with a Twitter released video at some point in the future. Yeah, but because of that little known facts, and I've been tested on this and proved it right, is I can sing the Russian national anthem, actually the Soviet national anthem and the Chinese national anthem. Wow. Yeah. Someone had better listen all the way to the end of this podcast to get that little nugget of information right there. Yeah, and I feel if I ever got stuck in a gulag, I could sing my way out. Oh, you'd be set. Bring tears. I'll tell you that story sometime. What a perfect way to end the podcast. It really is. We've never ended in a gulag before. So I appreciate that. You, John. Thanks, Robin, for joining us. Look forward to sharing a little more about our team with you the next time around. Today's show was produced by Emily Forman. Nick was our recording engineer who turned the dials and pushed the buttons. Jim Michael handled all the audio post production mixing. There are amazing show notes, which you can find at rockrms.com/connect, were transcribed and written up by Michael Garrison. And technology hassle free. With just one click, Rock's managed hosting removes the roadblocks that might stop a church from switching to Rock by making the process simple. Churches get the ease of a SaaS church management system without losing any of Rock's powerful features. Are you ready to take the next step or share with another local church? Visit rockrms.com/hosting today.