Surge Plain City became our third chapter on July 16, when 14 founding members signed the charter in the back room of a restaurant on Main Street. Luke Brandt opened the evening with a few bars of his auction chant. Nobody has worked out how to stop him.
How it started
In the spring we held an interest breakfast in Plain City to see whether the village could support a chapter. Four people came back the next week and became the first members: Luke Brandt (land and farm real estate), Shannon Kerr (construction and rural lending), Nathan Beiler (custom homes) and Kelsey Wright (The Hayloft on Darby). They met every week from early April, often with more guests at the table than members, and filled the chapter one category at a time.
By charter night there were 14:
| Member | Business | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Luke Brandt | Brandt Land & Home | Land & farm real estate |
| Shannon Kerr | Big Darby Mortgage | Construction & rural lending |
| Nathan Beiler | Beiler Craftsman Homes | Custom home building |
| Kelsey Wright | The Hayloft on Darby | Event venue |
| Rhonda Tate | Tate Retirement Advisors | Retirement planning |
| Gene Holtz | Holtz Farm & Home Insurance | Farm & rural insurance |
| Tess Villanueva | Kalinga Home Care | In-home senior care |
| Maya Robinson | Fieldnote Social | Social media marketing |
| Roy Castañeda | Castañeda Excavating | Excavation & drainage |
| Vikram Shah | Shah Physical Therapy | Physical therapy |
| Mariana Flores | Darby Dog Lodge | Dog boarding & grooming |
| Tim Schirtzinger | Schirtzinger Tax & Accounting | Tax & accounting |
| Travis Neff | Neff Ag & Diesel | Farm equipment repair |
| Renee Holloway | Holloway Journeys | Travel planning |
The first fifteen weeks
Between the first meeting and charter night, Plain City members logged:
- 104 one-to-ones, 17 of them with members of Polaris or Marysville
- 76 referrals, 19 of them already marked won
- about $340,000 in closed business
- 31 testimonials
Rhonda Tate logged the most 1:1s of anyone in the chapter, with 22. She says it's because retirement planning touches every other business in the room. Everyone else says it's because she's impossible to say no to.
What makes Plain City different
Polaris is suburban and busy. Marysville is a small city with big employers. Plain City sits where Dublin's growth runs into working farmland, and the chapter reflects both. Half of the founding members serve farms, land or new construction.
That has produced the tightest referral loop in Surge. A family buys acreage through Luke, finances the build with Shannon, hires Roy for site work and a septic system, builds with Nathan and insures the whole thing with Gene. Four of the chapter's won referrals so far have followed some version of that path. Luke calls it the dirt-to-doorknob team.
The rest of the chapter fills in around it. Tess and Rhonda share a lot of clients in their sixties and seventies. Vikram sees farm and trade injuries that Gene's policyholders would rather not talk about. Maya has already rebuilt the Instagram accounts of three fellow members, including a dog lodge that now gets more likes than most of us combined.
What's next
The chapter still has open seats in several categories, including moving and storage, pest control, electrical, plumbing, dentistry and law. If you run one of those businesses in or around Plain City, come to a meeting as a guest and see how it works.
Plain City members also had the highest Surge Score of any chapter in June, which Polaris has taken personally.
Congratulations to the founding 14. Luke has promised no more auction chants until the first anniversary. Nobody believes him.
