Administrative assistants keep the office humming

Kimberley McGee

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 | 8:58 a.m.

Secretaries Day has been a tradition since 1952 as a reminder to the higher-ups to recognize their note-taking, memo-writing support staff.

Today secretaries fetch facts -- not coffee -- and larger salaries, and have become an integral part of corporate management teams as administrators who supervise staff, maintain computer databases, manage multiple projects and organize dizzying schedules.

This year the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) officially recognized the position's shift and changed the name of the observance (formerly National Secretaries Week) to Administrative Professional's Week, which began Sunday and goes through Saturday.

(The official Administrative Professional's Day is Wednesday.)

This is the third name change for the 48-year-old tradition, originally titled National Secretaries Day ("Professional" was added in 1981). This year "Secretaries" was taken completely out of the title to reflect the evolution of secretaries into today's multi-tasked uber-assistants.

All secretaries are administrators these days, but not all administrators are called secretaries, according to Rick Stroud, communications manager with the IAAP.

"What has happened is the public's perception of what a secretary is and does is behind the times," Stroud said.

One quarter of the 5 million members of the IAAP in the United States and Canada are titled as secretaries. Most use titles -- such as coordinator, manager, assistant -- and other more defining labels.

"This is a person who takes on a valued role in the organization (by) handling vendors, working with sophisticated technical programs and dealing with outside clients and the general public," Stroud said.

Within a year flower and greeting card companies plan to come online with merchandise to reflect the change in the name -- and attitude, he said. "We never wanted it to be just about (gifts)," Stroud said. "We don't want (staff) to just get flowers."

The IAAP suggests updating the staff's software and planning seminars or class courses in subjects that will help make their jobs easier. "Recognize the staff as a part of what makes the whole organization run," Stroud said.

The Sun recently discussed the evolution of the secretary's role with three administrative professionals who assist and organize Nevada's movers and shakers.

Getting to the top

Fran Macias is the woman behind Gov. Kenny Guinn. She organizes his elaborate schedule of political meetings and community events, and keeps the "home base" in Carson City running at top performance.

"The thing that always used to stick in my craw is this attitude that, 'Oh, I'm just a secretary,' " she said. "Everybody is an important part of the team and the team doesn't function unless all the members are there.

"In my dealings with younger people wanting to enter this field, I want to say, 'Don't ever feel that you are not worthy or less a part of the organization.' "

Macias had a mentor who found the career choice fulfilling.

"My grandmother was a secretary and she had always worked for either a senator or congressman in the '30s," she said. "She was single and a young girl. To be working in Washington (D.C.) at that time, she had a full dance card."

The independence and good times her grandmother experienced as a government agency secretary intrigued Macias at the time. "She was always planting little bugs in my mind about the lifestyle," Macias said. "She met ambassadors and foreign dignitaries and went to a lot of parties."

A high school shorthand class brought Macias up to speed on the opportunities available to a secretary in the business world. "I realized I had the ability to build and develop a skill that was truly needed and necessary in the workplace," she said. "I told myself I was going to be a great secretary and assist an executive."

With her trademark efficiency, Macias signed up for every related class she could and attended a two-year course at Weaver State in Utah to further prepare her for the business world.

Macias has been an assistant in municipal government since 1978. Moving up through the ranks, Macias said she has become an integral part of Guinn's political posse. She orchestrates the governor's day with a deft hand.

"I'm the eyes and ears of the executive and I see things he may not be aware of," she said. "I've been referred to as the air-traffic controller."

Her day begins at 8 a.m. when she updates the governor on his hectic schedule and goings-on around the Carson City office, and speaks with state cabinet members and agency managers.

"It's a lot of years of just doing it and knowing the players, the different personalities and what they anticipate," Macias said. "You have to be able to remember names and who they are with and what they do and how they fit into the big picture."

Macias still gets a thrill when someone asks her what she does, "I say ... 'I'm the governor's assistant.' They say (impressed), 'Oh my gosh!'

"To me, I have reached the top of the totem pole," she said. "Years ago when I said to myself, 'I'm going to be a secretary and I'm going to be a good one' ... I've made it."

Degrees of separation

Having gone from college graduate to college administrator, Betty Hanseen, executive assistant to UNLV President Carol Harter, said that there are some leftover stereotypes from the steno days.

"We've all seen it -- I think 'I Love Lucy' did a (parody) on it -- where she is chewing gum, her hair's up and she's got a pencil stuck in the bun. I think there's some of that image that carries over today," she said. "But the position has evolved and we are really the executives' right hand in so many ways."

Hanseen moved to Las Vegas in March of 1979. She put her business management degree from the University of Utah to work right away as an executive secretary for Bill Bennett, then president of Circus Circus Enterprises (now Mandalay Bay Resorts).

"When I started at Circus they still had typewriters -- the dinosaur era," Hanseen said.

After three years Hanseen took six years off to be a stay-at-home mom because "that was the norm then," she said. The unexpected death of her husband in 1984 brought her back into the business world to support her two young children.

Bennett welcomed the single mother and polished professional back to Circus-Circus, this time as an executive assistant -- it was the '80s, after all.

Although Hanseen ditched the typewriters and notepads she had worked with when she'd started, she continued to carry out the same duties as before, with a few extra responsibilities because her time was freed up by computers.

"The biggest difference to me is the technology," she said. "You are able to do things more quickly if there are revisions or last-minute insertions (in a document). Back in the old days you used to have to re-type the whole thing."

She left again in 1995 to help her new husband, whom she married in '93, run a private business.

A little more than a year later Hanseen decided to get back into the business world. She became the special events coordinator for the Sunrise Children's Hospital Foundation, where she planned events and organized meetings.

"I did something fun, everybody needs that once in their life," she said.

The job ended in 1997 and Hanseen began working as an assistant in the provost's office at UNLV and has been with Harter since March of last year. Her day begins around 7:30 a.m. and lasts until well after 7 p.m.

"Sixty percent of my time is managing her calendar," Hanseen said, "as opposed to making appointments. When managing the calender you have to take into consideration what current demands there are on her time, either daily or within that week."

And the one who has to live that schedule is very appreciative of Hanseen's abilities.

"It's a very difficult job, and she does it so well -- she's everything you'd need in an executive secretary," Harter said. "I'd be totally paralyzed without her."

With her dedication and charm, Harter said that Hanseen makes for a competent co-worker.

"She's a great human being," Harter said. "She works 12 to 14 hours a day right beside me when she has to. She meets the public all the time and has to be extraordinarily diplomatic."

Sometimes last-minute appointments are needed and Hanseen allows small slots of time for juggling and re-scheduling.

"The other big advance I've seen is that in the old days there was much more letter writing and mailing and phone calling where now quite a bit of it is done via fax or e-mail," Hanseen said. "We have a much faster means of communication and more than one way to communicate, which makes our jobs a whole lot easier when we are trying to get answers to the questions we have." She has two full-time staff members and two students who help organize the large workload that comes with tending to a university president. "It enables us to do things more quickly and accurately and with fewer errors," she said.

Hanseen is proud of the contribution she said she makes to the university and, therefore, the community.

"My value system is in line with my job and that doesn't happen in a lot of instances where people work," she said. "There is a certain pride, but even more than that a sense of accomplishment because you are able to keep things running smoothly and efficiently so that other people are able to accomplish what they need to."

Open 24 hours

Eileen Freeman, executive administrator to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President Manny Cortez, said that the Secretaries Day name change is timely.

"I think that it's a good move because they are all a support staff, they all have critical functions," she said.

What was once a career stop is now a career move, Freeman said. "Today you can pretty much make the position what you want it to be if you have the skills, the intelligence, ambition and professionalism," she said. "There's no end to the possibilities."

Freeman graduated from Las Vegas High School, married and had two children before joining the work force in 1976. "Years ago women weren't in the work force, it was not the norm," she said. "Now we are compensated a little more liberally than we were many years ago because we are recognized as a key ingredient to the management level."

Freeman was hired at the Clark County Clerk's office as a secretary and moved up to executive secretary for the county commissioners. Then she met Cortez, with whom she formed a tight bond.

When Cortez went to the LVCVA in 1991 she went along as his competent cohort.

"A secretary acts as a receptionist and a typist," Freeman said. "An administrative assistant has more responsibilities and a wider range of responsibilities."

Freeman supervises three secretaries and the board of directors' office.

"I would not consider myself clerical," she said. "I'm much more professional in the profession itself."

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