Dec 4 2025 Eva Martinez interview.txt
English (US)

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Okay. I go by Eva S Martinez, spelled Eva middle initial s last name Martinez m a r t n easy. And I am one of the board members that's appointed. I'm an appointed one. Would you please go to your left? Just about two inches right. Left.


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Oh, okay. Do you want me to help you out? Yeah, it probably hurts. No no no no, there's no too far too far. Okay okay.


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That's good right there. Okay, okay. I'm not in pain. Okay. No. No. Good. Um, what brought you to. What? Brought you to Catholic life? Um, my father and my boss, which was the county clerk from Wilson County. Found a lot of importance in insurance. And, Um, they were the type of people that I looked up to, and they thought that it was important.

So the very first thing that we did, my husband and I, when we married in 1982, was to buy life insurance because we thought about our future, and we found that to be very important that you should


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be thinking about, not just for now, but what will happen in your future. Do you think young couples today share that,


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share that vision that it's important to save for the future, and it's important to forego consumption today to have security down the road? Do you think that that that no, no. The young people nowadays think about the moment and they don't think about the future. They are wrapped up in their jobs, their careers.

But insurance isn't something that they find as important as we did at our age. Does that represent a real challenge for the board? Yes, it does. Talk a little bit about it. Okay. For example, if you approach somebody and you want to sell them insurance, they find other things such as enjoyment more important.

And I'll give you an example. Somebody might decide that they and nothing against the Spurs. They might decide that season tickets to the Spurs is something more that the couple enjoy than thinking about what your future holds, and that how important it is to have insurance. So when you get to be my age, it's there for you.

It's an investment and the Spurs are an enjoyment for the moment. And a lot of young people think about the enjoyment of the moment.


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You mentioned the fact that you're appointed. What's the break up of a pointed versus elected on the board? Uh, there are two appointed members on the board, and I have to count to see right now how many board members there are. Uh, yes, I believe there's eight. Okay. So there are six elected by the fraternal.

Do you have a different charge being appointed, or were you appointed for a reason or, you know, bringing. I, I would think that I was appointed for the background that I bring and what I can bring to the table as far as how we should do things and the point of view that I saw through my career before I was before I was appointed to this position, I was county clerk for Wilson County for 34 years.

I worked there 14 years first before I was elected. So I served 48 years total unopposed. They felt, I'm sure, that my background in taking care of the records in Wilson County and the budgets and working with commissioners, court and court systems, brought something to the table that might be helpful.

My background might be helpful in bringing the point of view that I have. So you're the county clerk? Yes, sir. And I am retired now. That's. There's a lot of responsibility there. Yes. Yeah. Basically, I'm the records keeper for Wilson County during that period of time. And how has that translated to your board work?

Uh, for example, when I was there, I had to I had a staff, so I had to learn how to take care of making sure that the work got done that I kept within the budget. And those are the things that also the board members do is they look at a budget and they have to stay within the means of the budget. The same thing with employees, only we don't directly, uh, hire and fire.

I mean, you know, you have an HR department, but we do see how oversee any aspect of Catholic life in our positions.


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Let me ask you, when you talk about the benefits of life insurance and the and the benefits of reserving some something to put aside for the future versus spending it all now.


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That any insurance company could make that as part of their sales pitch. What's different about a fraternal organization? What's different about having insurance through Catholic life than In metropolitan life. I believe that it's more family orientated. And what I mean is the board and the CEO care about each individual person, and they always think about their future, and they invest the money properly so that the monies are there for the future.

I'm not so sure that other companies do that. They might look more at the profit, even though you do have to make a profit in order to run the company. Some of the other companies, I believe, look too much toward it being a money making organization, and Catholic life has a different point of view when it comes to that.

Well, the members are the owner. Yes they are. What implications does that have? I guess I guess in a way that is like county government. Yes it is. Yes. Can you. Oh, Well, let's say for example, we're going to go with county government. You live on taxpayer money. That's how you are paid. So you need to utilize that money the best way that you can.

That means staying within your budget, but getting the work done, making sure that the roads are fixed in the community, making sure that the services are there for the elderly. So those type of things you bring into the boards so that you utilize your background to make sound decisions when a situation occurs or how you manage the organization.


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I'm going to let CC take over, but let me just say that I think being a county clerk is a heck of a skill to bring to a board. I was I'm a center for some other kind of public. You know, president, I don't know. Should


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sign up for something else. Well, get her back. No, I mean, she actually understands the budget. Claire, you've been. You've been in the in the in the throes of politics, too. And I mean, being a county clerk is not. That's not an easy business.


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And of course, the cutthroat politics of Wilson.


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Um,


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what what do you think is one of the most important things that the board can do for the future? We've had such a 125 years. We've got been there, done it, continue to do it, all of that. What do you think is the next. You know, and I don't need specifics. I'm not asking you to reveal what you guys are going to talk about or anything, but what is your bit.

What's the vision? The vision, I think, is to be inclusive and to include not only young people, but also, uh, different ethnic groups, that you don't have to be a Catholic to buy Catholic insurance. It is for everyone and they try or they're they've always tried to be inclusive.


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That's true. That's one of my big things, right. That's what I'm working on. At least we serve all people. Yes we do. And we don't. I always say our tagline should be, if you got a soul, we can sell you something. You know, I mean, right. Right. Right. That is correct. So


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in your opinion, I mean, you've obviously a professional woman, you've had this background and you probably see opportunities from your perspective of things that you know, hey, where's the competition? Maybe beating us where we need to. What are the things we should be focusing in on or that are, you know, things that we need to kind of take care of now?

It's going to get us to the next 125 years.


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We we have to find a way to include the little, the, the new generation. And I'm talking about the young families that have little children, let's say, in our socials. Uh, have something for them that will appeal to them. The same thing as when we have our convention. Something that will appeal to families, that will just brighten their eyes and say, you know what?

I want to be part of that organization. I need to be part of that organization.


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When you think about, um, if you had to describe the people that work in this building, if you had to, if you had to just describe them, all the hard working people in the home office, how would you describe them? I would describe them as family, extended family. We look out for each other. They look out for me and I look out for them.


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As as how many years have you been on the board appointed? I came in July of 2022. Okay. And how long do you think, uh, you can serve up to a total of eight years if the board sees fit, because the board can decide, you know. Yes. And it were. I'm appointed to a two year term. Okay. And when will that be decided? At the at the convention.

At the convention will be my. Yes.


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What's a convention like? Why why do we even have a convention? I think I've always enjoyed the convention, and one of the reasons that I do is become you become more informed of what's going on. You also get to interact with the people that have policies, and they can voice their opinion, whether they do it in a small group or whether they directly tell us somebody on the board or the CEO, but they have a way to connect with them at that time and have their voice heard.


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And I don't think a lot of people, when they think of a convention, they think you can just anybody can sign up. It's not just anyone that can go to the convention, is it? No, ma'am. You have to be, uh uh,


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you have to have an insurance policy. And then when you go to your annual meeting, the when they have the annual meetings, they go ahead and appoint the people that will represent that branch at the convention.


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So when it's member owned, it truly is member owned. Yes. It is a lot of power, don't they? Yes they do. Um hmm.


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That's interesting. I it's a it's an interesting. Most people don't understand that Catholic life is a fraternal right. That is correct. And it's one of our biggest assets. Yes. And not for profit status. Right.


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Good. And one word. You said family, right? Yes. Question. So many times I'm forgetting who I talked with. Is there anything else you want to share about Catholic life? That an experience you had or just something you would, you know, just would want people to know? I would wish that this organization.


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I wish that government in general could see how this organization runs, and government would be run more like Catholic life. What is it about that? Is it


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I think that people have a voice and people like that in Catholic life, and they would like that in government. They would like to be heard. And then in Catholic life they follow through. And in county government sometimes they don't. And they should use an organization like this as an example.


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Nice. Okay. Can I ask you one more thing, Eva? Yes, sir. What kind of stuff in the past year have you done in Floresville? What kind of events as Catholic Life worked on or have they done any public service? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We have given what you do. Yes. In in Floresville we've given to the Saint Vincent de Paul society, which is part of the Catholic Church in Floresville.

We've also interacted with the faith formation students, and they have participated and had, um, drives where they have donated, uh, cereal, uh, peanut butter, uh, different types of food products. They've also helped with Casa, the faith formation. We have interacted with them, and they have collected this year for Christmas blankets and journals and stuffed animals for the less fortunate children that go into that type of system.

Uh, we also do things such as, uh, present an American flag to county government wherever they needed to make sure that those flags are flown throughout our county. Um, we have had a social where people we have given back to them so that they can have an enjoyable meal and been able to interact not only with the boards, but they can interact with somebody from the home office.

And we do donate like two acts this year we've donated to the Acts retreat and we've donated to the local. Um, I do, I can't remember. Um, I think it's called a wise up. They're a youth organization that puts. Uh, I think that they do, uh, baseball, and we help them out.


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It's helped a lot of people. Yes. And we tried to also have a little pizza party for the faith formation students. Whenever we can, we have given to the Wilson County livestock so that they can present a belt to one of its recipients and have been there for them whenever they needed us. And our door is always open for suggestions.

We also gave out two scholarships for local students at the high school,


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for college, for college? Yes, sir. For college. Yes, sir.


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Let me ask you, were they attached to anything? When I say that, I mean, was it a for, you know, stam or religious or anything? No, I do with what? The students were going to study in school. No, sir. No, sir. You applied for it, and then we went through and then chose a recipient.


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Hmm.


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I think I think you did beautifully. Great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Watch your head when you stand up. Okay. And your.