SAM CARES

SAM Employees recognized National Volunteer Month by participating in our annual Community Roots initiative in April. The initiative challenged everyone to volunteer their time between April 1st and 27th. For every volunteer hour worked and reported during that time, SAM planted a tree through the National Forest Foundation. We were excited to announce that our employees volunteered 888 hours which means 888 trees were planted.

Several SAM offices organized group volunteer events for their employees which included:

• Austin office picked up trash at the TxDOT Roadside Cleanup

• Charlotte office made signs and cheered on the participants of Girls on the Run

• Chicago office packed meals for Feed My Starving Children

• Cincinnati office did creek and trail maintenance at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site

• Columbus office did park clean-up and beautification for the City of Columbus

• Dallas office provided breakfast and served families at the Ronald McDonald House Dallas

• Denver office prepped food bags for refugees through Project Worthmore

• Houston office did beach cleanup through Texas AdoptA-Beach 2023 Coastwide Spring Cleanup

• Knoxville office wrote letters to seniors in nursing homes through the Greater Nashville Regional Council

• New Carlisle and Elkhart offices prepped a community garden through New Carlisle Community Food Pantry

• Raleigh office sorted clothing for Note in the Pocket

• Salt Lake City office filled sandbags for potential flooding through Cottonwood Heights Public Works

• St. Louis office packaged food for the St. Louis Food Bank

• Tyler office packed food for the Senior Box Program at the East Texas Food Bank

• Youngstown office landscaped for the City of Hubbard

In addition to group volunteer events, SAM employees also volunteered individually. These individual volunteer events benefitted 55 different organizations! We encourage our SAM team members to continue to support their local communities through volunteerism and to report any volunteer hours via our Community Volunteer Tracking Form

As we approach mid-year, we are looking forward to our 7th Annual “SAM Cans Hunger” canned food drive in the fall. We will be sharing more about that drive later in the year.

The scene was set. The time for talk was over. The anticipation that had been building for months had turned into excitement as gameday arrived. It was Slugfest time once again.

The smell of morning dew on the fresh cut grass set the scene on Saturday, May 6, as dozens of SAM employees and their family members made their way out to the Slugfest Softball Tournament in Buda, Texas to finally settle the months-long debate that had been running through the SAM Austin office.

WHICH DEPARTMENT/TEAM WOULD BE THE 2023 SLUGFEST SOFTBALL CHAMPION?!?!

And that’s exactly what happened for 4 games during the double-elimination tournament that pitted several Austin departments against each other. It was Geospatial vs. Survey vs. Corporate Services in a battle royale that ended with the Corporate Services team taking home the new and improved SAM Slugfest trophy and title of Slugfest Champions for 2023!

The SAM Slugfest Softball Tournament had coworkers against coworkers (and even father against son). The Survey team included employees from the Survey, Fiber Engineering, and Construction Services Departments. The Corporate Services team included Austin employees from IT, Communications, Accounting, HR, and others and even included one IT member, Ryan Koliba, who drove in from Dallas just for the event. The Geospatial team was comprised of all Austin Aerial/ GIS employees.

When speaking about the tournament, Don Zdancewicz, Austin Survey Department Manager, said, “For the players, this was the epitome of a team-building event. We had to set a batting order, assign fielding positions, and trust the input from our teammates on how their abilities would best serve the team’s goal. It was a great opportunity to interact with SAM employees from other departments and their families, especially those we would not spend time with otherwise.”

The Geospatial team and Survey team led the way in a great Game One with Survey winning by a single point. In Game Two, Survey played Corporate, which took down the Game One champs in a nail-biting win in the final inning. It was a back-andforth exciting game that even had everybody in the bleachers on their feet, cheering.

All three teams, and the full-time umpires, Dwayne Williamson and Travis Nelson, needed a breather after Game Two.

Oliver “Ollie” Pollard opened the lunch line with some of his home-cooked BBQ and got the teams re-energized and ready to play the second half of the bracket. Alice Crain brought several delicious home-made sides and the players, and their families, had a mid-tourney feast.

Re-fueled and ready to play, the players took the field for Game Three.

The third game was the first elimination game with a re-match for Geospatial and Survey. The sun was high in the sky and the heat was up in the 90’s as the Geospatial bats stayed red-hot. The Survey group gave it all they had, but it was Geospatial that rose to the occasion, knocking the Survey group from the tournament.

So, the title game was set. Four hours into the tournament, the Geospatial team faced the Corporate Services.

The Corporate Services team came ready to fight in the final game and didn’t flinch as they jumped out to an early lead. A late Geospatial comeback was thwarted as the Corporate Services team claimed the victory and the trophy in a hardfought final battle, with Sarah Brown catching the final, winning ball of the day.

Don Z. was named tourney MVP!

If you’d like to be a part of a future Slugfest Tournament, reach out to John Braden, jbraden@sam.biz and let him know!

Five Steps to Help You Stay On-Track for Retirement

While we enjoy working and collaborating with the great people at SAM, accomplishing the goals put before us, and being on the cutting edge of new and innovative survey technology, we also look forward to the day when we can have that big retirement party and ride off into the sunset.

To make that dream happen, however, we must have a plan in place which includes saving for retirement. At SAM, we provide a vehicle, through our 401k Retirement Savings Plan, to help you on this journey. It can be easy to get off track on your way to retirement because of college debt, a health issue, or even the loss of a loved one. Thankfully, there are ways to keep your savings plan moving in the right direction.

These 5 steps can help you stay on track to retirement:

1 – Check the roadmap to see if you are on the right road

If you have not thought about your retirement savings lately, you should first check your balance. Login to your SAM Retirement Savings Plan, administered by Fidelity, at www.NetBenefits.com . You can also check your contribution rate, goals, and milestones, complete a financial wellness assessment, and access a wealth of knowledge to enhance your financial education.

2 – Update your profile and beneficiaries

Check your profile and make sure your information is up to date including your beneficiaries and security features. Protect this very important asset by enabling added security features such as a strong password and 2-factor authentication.

Often, we fail to enter a beneficiary when we initially enroll in the savings plan because we may not have all the beneficiary’s information readily available. It is important to enter this information into your profile and make sure that if your situation changes, your profile reflects your wishes for the proceeds in the account.

3 – Give your retirement savings account the fuel it needs to reach your destination

The SAM Retirement Savings Plan matches 5%, a tremendous benefit made to help you reach your retirement goal. If you are not contributing enough to get the maximum amount of matching contribution you should consider increasing your savings rate to reach the full match amount. If you need to take it slower, you can start by increasing your contribution rate by 1% each year. Over the course of your career, you should aim to save an average of 15% of your pay, including any employer contributions. Even small increases can have a powerful impact on your retirement income.

4 – Check where you are invested

If you have not looked at your funds, you may want to confirm that your investment choices still align with your long-term goals. If this is not something that you have the skill, will, or time to do on a regular basis, you may want to consider a target date fund or seeking assistance from one of the professionals at Fidelity. You can reach them at www. NetBenefits.com.

5 – Ask for directions

The SAM Savings and Retirement Plan has many features. Most of us are not experts on all of the features and capabilities of the plan. Every question is a good question, no matter how basic you may think it is. Even if you don’t know where to start there is help available online or by phone at 800 835-5097.

a happy retirement.