2008 Outstanding Women in Banking: Marcia Honomichl

Attending a leadership conference as a board member of the South Dakota Bankers Association, Marcia Honomichl asked a hotel receptionist where her event was scheduled. The woman behind the desk politely steered Honomichl toward the spouses' program. "When I see my husband I will tell him," Honomichl said, indicating she was the banker, not the banker's spouse..Embarrassed, the attendant apologized and gave Honomichl the information she needed. Honomichl proceeded to the banquet room where, as she stood in a line for breakfast, a waiter came up to her to say again that the bankers' spouses were meeting in a different room. Again she quipped that she would tell her spouse if she saw him..The seminar speaker overheard the exchange and asked Honomichl whether she had heard those kinds of comments often..In fact she had..But then that went with the territory, Honomichl said in a recent interview. After joining The Commercial State Bank in Wagner, S.D., as an executive assistant 34 years ago, Honomichl accomplished a series of firsts: first woman from the bank to go to a graduate school of banking (in Madison, Wis.), first woman loan officer, and then, in 2006, the bank's first woman president and COO.."I think the banking industry is maybe one of the hardest ones for women to break through," Honomichl said. The leadership conference speaker had noted how frequently he heard women in bank management complain about the difficulty of finding acceptance among industry peers..The Commercial State Bank is a one-location, family-owned agricultural bank. It employs 26 people in a town of about 1,700. Honomichl joined after going to a vocational school to learn secretarial accounting. She assisted several of the bank's key executives, including the president, the senior vice president and two vice presidents. When secretarial work was light she helped out in other areas of the bank.."We're just a small community bank; we do many things. So, along with being executive assistant, I learned how to run the proof machine. I helped post. I helped file checks when we had to do that back then. Everybody helped out doing everything," she said..Even today, her tasks may include "making the coffee and ordering the rolls. I don't mind spending time in our drive-up area or teller windows waiting on customers," she said. "We work Saturday mornings here and it's nothing for me to go and do the mail.".Honomichl started attending the Graduate School of Banking in Madison in 1991. "That was the major turn for everything," she said. The bank promoted her to loan officer two years later. In 1998, she took over the bank's investment area. "My favorite area became investments, the buying of bonds, municipal bonds and Treasuries," she said..Senior investment officer is among Honomichl's current titles, as is bank director, IRA officer and loan officer. Honomichl handles all kinds of lending, including ag lending and mortgages, although the bank has lenders that specialize in each of those categories. Honomichl tends to focus more on consumer lending, especially car and installment loans..She also is very involved in association work. She is the 2008-2009 chair for SDBA, and her main interests have been in regulatory reform, credit union competition and keeping commerce and banking separate.."I want to see our main streets remain a vital part of our small communities. It is hard enough now to keep business doors open during this economy, let alone having to compete with the big-box stores," Honomichl said..Rewarding as association work may be, Honomichl also enjoys "the added pleasure of meeting so many bankers nationwide, being able to visit with them about their banks and what they have found — just being able to share experiences. Lifelong friendships have been developed," she said..That sense of friendly collegiality is evident even in a telephone interview, during which Honomichl advised: "You need to enjoy what you're doing. Have a little fun with your job. That's what we do here….you have to be able to smile and laugh at yourself and share joys with other people. That's the big thing, have a good sense of humor and enjoy what you're doing."Other 2008 Outstanding Women in Banking honorees include:Christine Hensley, Bank of the West, Des Moines, IowaShelley Steer, Grand Rapids State Bank, Grand Rapids, Minn.Vaune Cripe, American Bank Center, Dickinson, N.D.Gail Mikolich, Northeast Bank, Minneapolis, Minn.