Top Team Member – Rhoda Landry, Staff Accountant, VSA Resorts
For more than 18 years, Rhoda Landry has served in various accounting positions with VSA Resorts. She admits that she truly enjoys the structure of an accounting position but also the flexibility to learn new things. With her extensive experience, she takes pleasure in interacting with fellow team members and helping them grow in their own positions.
“I really like working with numbers,” she says. “I also love conducting the investigative process when the numbers don’t precisely jive. When this happens, finding the right answers is something like reading a good mystery book.”
Rhoda started her VSA career in 2000 at the company’s headquarters in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Since then, she has served in accounts payable, accounts receivable and bookkeeping. Working with about ten team members in VSA’s accounting department, she supports Resort Operations, Collections, Marketing and Administration.
As Staff Accountant, her primary role is to handle monthly bank reconciliations for 16 accounts, verify various accounts for receivables and payables as well as fixed assets. This supremely efficient lady of numbers also verifies and reconciles mortgage receivable balances, records interest and income and verifies timeshare sales by property and month-end accruals.
Adds Rhoda, “Since I’m something of a perfectionist, it is often challenging to ensure that everything is ‘perfect,’ but I really like the challenge of making everything come out right at the end. Sometimes communications with team members on the properties may be difficult due to varying schedules, but we can always work this out, since I am here to support them.”
Several years ago, when the accounting department had several new team members in training at the end of the year, Rhoda stepped up and completed year-end financials while simultaneously preparing for the upcoming audit in March. While it was a rough three-month time period, she felt great at the end because she had managed to complete the task almost single handedly, giving her great personal satisfaction. Although she is extremely humble about the important role she plays within the accounting department, her co-workers applaud her for the many times she provides them with assistance.
“Rhoda has been a great teacher for me,” says colleague Jamie Peachock, “She always makes herself available to assist anytime I ask, no matter how inconvenient it may be for her.
She is always willing to explain how to complete a task and the process and reasoning behind it, which makes learning much easier. She really is the definition of someone going the extra mile.”
Adds Lori Overholt, President, CFO of VSA resorts, “Rhoda was recently honored for her outstanding team work with our Employee Making Me Empowered Award, given for her can-do attitude, qualities of self-motivation, supreme organization and her ability to meet every deadline and consistently go the extra mile.”
VSA Controller Dana McManus agrees with Lori. “I have been with VSA since August 2018. It did not take me long to realize how valuable Rhoda is to our company. She is the type of worker every employer dreams of having. Her long tenure here has enabled her to learn many aspects of our department while becoming extremely proficient in various software systems. It is quite refreshing to know that if you give Rhoda a task, she is going to dig in and get it done timely and accurately.”
Originally from Biloxi, Mississippi, she has lived in Virginia Beach most of her adult life and enjoys roller skating with her grandchildren and spending time with her family. Her favorite holiday is Halloween, and she often decorates her office and hallways with spooky decorations, making a visit to her office during this time a true adventure. She has also been known to climb a ladder to replace a light bulb or pull out her handy tool kit when a need arises and a maintenance person isn’t immediately available.
She participates in company fundraisers for local charities, such as Samaritan House, which provides support and emergency shelter for women and families of violence and abuse. She also works with PIN Ministries, which provides clothing, food and shelter for the homeless in the Hampton Roads area. On the weekends, she may be “chilling” with her favorite brew … a Kona beer … after spending time with the grandchildren.
Founded in 1986, VSA Resorts is a family of three family vacation ownership (timeshare)resorts encompassing 336 units which span across the heart of the Virginia Beach oceanfront. From their southern beach resort – with access to fishing, surfing, and quality family time – to the centrally located oceanfront property in the middle of all the action – to their “gateway to the beach” property with the most convenient access and largest suites for any size group, VSA provides the perfect destination for every traveler.
Currently, more than 13,000 families have become members of VSA Resorts and we are growing daily. We continually strive to offer our members new and exciting ways to vacation, as well as expand our first-class amenities.
Marge Lennon is owner of Lennon Communications Group, Inc., in Fort Myers, Florida. She can be contacted for more information at 239-841-0553 or by e-mail at Marge@LennonCommunications.com. www.lennoncommunications.com
