Batavia Chamber Member Insider – Meet Roman Seckel

Welcome to our feature – the Member Insider! We are excited for you to learn more about your fellow Batavia Chamber members. We are beginning the series with our hard-working Board of Directors. To gain insight into our esteemed members, we are asking them to answer a total of 20 questions.

This week, we’ll learn a bit more about Roman Seckel, a partner with Drendel & Jansons Law Group. Roman practices in various areas of the law, including family law, contract disputes and municipal work since joining the firm in 2005. Drendel & Jansons Law Group has been a member of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce for more than 25 years. He came onto the board of directors in 2016, serving multiple years on the executive board and one year as the board's chair.



First up, we will explore Roman’s thoughts on the Chamber. Here are his responses:

Question: Why did you join the Chamber’s board?
Answer: There was an opening on the Board, and I wanted to become more active in the Batavia business community. The Batavia business community is so diverse and active, I felt I wanted to not only be a part of it, but also active in it.

Q: What is your favorite Chamber event to participate in and why?
A: I enjoy the golf outing as people are more relaxed on the golf course. It could be the fact we are outside and not in the office, but it is good to see people outside of the business environment.

Q: If you had unlimited resources, what is the one thing you as a board member would like to do for our business community? 
A: If we had unlimited resources, one thing I would love to provide for the business community would be to provide grants and loans to businesses who are starting out, struggling or simply wish to expand and grow.

Q: What does the Batavia Chamber do better than anyone else? 
A: We work with and assist all types of businesses and organizations. Some Chambers work great with retail or industry but not on the other. The Batavia Chamber has worked to help not only retail businesses, but non-profits, counseling services, industry, etc. We have assisted individual businesses or business groups on a whole.

Q: How do you think that the Batavia Chamber impacts the community? 
A: We promote local businesses, advocate for them and have maintained excellent relationships with all stakeholders in the community.
 
Work life and motivation for Roman is the next subject that we explored. His five questions with answers follow:

Q: What motivates you to work hard?
A: I am motivated by my family to work hard for them, but also by the people that rely on me to provide for their well-being in all various aspects of their legal lives.

Q: What is your favorite thing about your career?
A: I love the variety of the cases and types of work I perform. Every day is a bit different.

Q: What job would you be terrible at?
A: Woodworking.

Q: What's the best career advice you've ever heard? 
A: Do what you enjoy and make it a career, and not work.

Q: What is your superpower?
A: Listening.

Finally, Roman chose the following five hard-hitting questions to give us even more insider information about this Chamber member:

Q: If money were no object, how would you spend the rest of your life? 
A: Spend time with my family, travel and read.

Q: Would you rather win the lottery or work at the perfect job? And why? 
A: Win the lottery because you can then work at the perfect job of your choosing.

Q: What are two of your pet peeves?
A:  People who react or comment without thinking or knowing the whole story and people that do not pick up after their dogs.

Q: Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
A: Introvert

Q: What animal do you think most closely matches your personality?
A: Cats