Synergent’s mission is to ‘help credit unions succeed and improve the financial lives of their members.’ In our monthly Employee Spotlight series, we feature one of our dedicated staff members to help you get to know the people who are working as an extension of your credit union team.
Mike Brackett
Mike Brackett, Synergent’s Digital Pre-Press/Production Assistant, has been integral to the Marketing team’s operation and success for just over two decades. His responsibilities vary a bit throughout each month, but his primary focus is ensuring that printing and delivery services for the many credit unions Synergent serves—as well as Synergent itself—run smoothly.
“The beginning of the month is statement time,” explained Brackett. “After that, it is a daily process of cutting, folding, and shipping those statements, and answering the door for deliveries.”
Brackett will be celebrating 22 years with the organization on July 15, and he detailed how within those years his day-to-day role has not changed drastically; he’s had a few different responsibilities get added to his plate, and he learned the digital aspect of printing as technologies and processes changed. The printing and mailing of statements, however, is a major project on its own.
“Members want their statements for their banking records,” detailed Brackett. “My priority is to make sure the members get them in a timely manner. With over 650,000 statements on a quarter-end run and 450,000 on the monthly runs, it keeps me on my feet.”
In addition to mailing out statements that Synergent prints for credit union customers, Brackett also oversees mailing out any marketing materials ordered by credit unions from Synergent. This includes any brochures, printouts, mailers, and more. His assistance is not limited to credit unions, though, as Brackett happily offers a helping hand to his coworkers any time it is needed. He helps ensure all tradeshow booths and coordinating boxes full of materials are shipped to the tradeshow destination on time for the Synergent staff attending the show. This is along with completing a wide variety of other shipping and receiving tasks that assist multiple staff members and departments across the company.
“I enjoy helping people that come down to the shipping department,” shared Brackett. “I love when they ask, ‘Can you help me with this?’ or ‘Can you help me find that?’ or ‘Can you ship this out for me?’ It helps me get to know people.”
Brackett joined Synergent in 2002 through a service technician he knew that serviced the machine at his previous job.
“Word was passed that Synergent was looking for an Inserter Operator at the time, with other bindery operations involved in the role,” explained Brackett. “The phone rang and here I am now almost 22 years later.”
He enjoys that this job allows him to dive into something he has always been interested in.
“I can’t say I chose this field but more like it chose me,” reflected Brackett. “I’ve always been drawn to operating machinery in the mailing aspect: processing the statements, shipping out the necessary brochures that the credit unions use for their daily needs, and assisting with other shipping, printing, and receiving tasks.”
The department—and subsequently other departments within Synergent as well as the credit unions served—benefit greatly from the work done by Brackett, as he keeps all incoming and outgoing items, related storage spaces, and the printing area organized. This helps ensure projects continue moving along in their respective processes. He is proud that he has learned the ins and outs of the sorting machines and keeps them running, along with the other machines in the press room. That in itself is quite the project, and he tackles it efficiently and effortlessly.
“Back when I started here at Synergent, I had very little knowledge of the credit union process,” explained Brackett. “There are so many gears spinning within this company that are helping to spin the gears in various departments, which spin the gears in another department (and so on) that ultimately keep the Synergent machine running. Even after almost 22 years, I’m still learning how the spinning gears keep moving and changing.”
After working at Synergent for over 20 years, Brackett is fond of “working with so many great people.” He also likes seeing how the process is largely still the same even with changes in technology.
A native Mainer, Brackett lives in Hollis with his wife of 10 years, Jessica, his two kids, Heather and Eric, and his two stepdaughters, Kaitlyn and Kassidy, who currently both serve in the Army Reserve. He’s a huge New England sports fan, but proudly claims his love for the Bruins comes first. Brackett enjoys watching his son, Eric, play hockey and in his free time he unwinds with a good video game, television show, or movie.