By THEA RUTHERFORD, FN Features Editor

thea@nasguard.com

When Malvise Bastian scrolls through her childhood, rummaging around for the signs that first pointed her into the field of hospitality, she chuckles at a particular memory; plaiting together the loose strands of her personality with her infatuation with the industry.

Whenever anyone knocked at the door of the home she grew up in, Bastian was always the one her sisters pushed forward to answer it. "I would go and shout 'who is it," she laughs. "I always had a bold spirit. I was never afraid of people."

As she grew, the layers of Bastian's fearlessness thawed to reveal a genuine love for dealing with people. She entered the hospitality industry shortly after high school, rising as steadily and as naturally as a fledgling whose wings gain strength with each flight. Now rooms director at West End's Old Bahama Bay, an added ingredient to the mélange of jobs that have exposed her to the industry at so many levels, Bastian, 46, has still never thought of working in any other field. "I always had a love for the industry. I knew once I entered the hospitality industry that was what I was going to do. I never thought about anything else over the years," she says. "I like to see people happy and getting quality service for their money. It's something that I think that I was just born with."

What Bastian thinks about most these days is parceling her ardor for the country's number one industry and sharing it out among its future leaders. Bastian dreams of opening a hospitality school where she can train young people who want to enter the industry even before they approach its doors. Immersed in the industry for almost 30 years, Bastian knows of the frightening effects that people who are not properly trained can have on the industry.

"I want to see people properly trained for the industry (because) it affects tourists and the Bahamian economy," says Bastian. "I think it feeds more people than any other industry in The Bahamas and I've seen so many people come into the industry unprepared," Bastian uncovers. "People say this lightly," she says of the industry's importance to the country, "but being in the industry drives it home." With her school, Bastian hopes to introduce young people, and to reintroduce older people who are interested, into an industry that craves hard workers with positive attitudes because its future depends on them. And her extensive training experience over the last 10 years or so equips her well for the gargantuan task. Bastian, a woman who has constantly up-graded her own education in the field through regular study at the Bahamas Hotel Training College, became a Certified Hospitality Educator through the Educational Institute of the American Hotel Motel Association during her decade long-stint in the late1980s and early 1990s at the resort first known as the Crystal Palace. A colleague, Valencia Saunders, she remembers, brought her into training. "I wasn't sure about it at first," Bastian admits of her initial thought about taking on the responsibility of training others in the field. "But after that first session I enjoyed it." While training others, Bastian worked as Front Office Supervisor, Front Office Manager and Assistant Manager at the hotel, where she was one of the first people to help organize its front office. When the Marriott chain took over, Bastian herself was able to benefit from training at locations all over the world. "That was really awesome for me," she recalls of the experience.

After her certification, her training sessions with the staff increased as she volunteered to take on more. She conducted sessions for the hotel's entire staff during its Service Excellence training programme.

Bastian found that she loved to witness the satisfied reactions of the staff, who were able to walk away from training with renewed vigour and passion for their work. Training "is fulfilling because. I have a passion for what I do and I want to see people have the same passion. And most of all I want to see them empowered to do their jobs and do them well, and I think the only way that they can do that well is if they're properly trained because training gives people confidence in themselves and their abilities," says Bastian. "I found that I really enjoyed empowering people," she adds, pointing out that sometimes a bad attitude on the job or an apparent lack of interest can stem from a worker's ignorance of what they should be doing. Bastian, a native of New Providence, who spent most of her hospitality career at hotels there, came to Grand Bahama in May to work at Old Bahama Bay after a successful interview in April.

She accepted a position as Front Office Manager at the Sheraton Grand in 1998 after being wooed by the hotel for her highly praised organizational skills. In 2001, she accepted another offer to return to the Marriott, which became

the Wyndham shortly afterward, as Rooms Director, an exciting promotion.

Bastian worked as Rooms Director at the hotel until her position, along with others, was made redundant in August of 2003. Bastian, mother of a 27 year-old son and a 28 year-old daughter, spent a few months traveling and resting before returning to Nassau. She took a job as Front Office Manager at the all-inclusive resort, Breezes, in early 2005.

"That was a good experience for me," she says of her first time working on an all-inclusive property. "I got the opportunity to see that concept in operation."

At Old Bahama Bay, Bastian is settled and excited about being a part of the resort's expansion. While the move to Grand Bahama was a major one for her, it was one she prayed about and felt confident about. "I really needed the experience and I was really impressed with Old Bahama Bay," she says. "Everything I saw was like paradise."

The hospitality school that Bastian plans to open is only a gateway to a future that exhilarates her. She operates Kingdom Global Leadership, a Nassau based organization that hosts motivational seminars and workshops on

leadership, with its founder and her cousin, Rev Christina Bethel, a youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church. The group held its first seminar in October 29 2005, where CEO Network founder, Debbie Bartlett was a guest speaker.

Bastian is also actively involved in Toastmasters, an organization that she has been a member of for about 13 years. She credits her involvement with the group, which has been a confidence builder for her, with helping her in training others. During her time at the Wyndham she even formed a club there called the Master Communicators.

Bastian, who is inspired by the strength of her own mother, the late Rosalee Rolle, wants to write books to further inspire others. She wants to pen a book of motivational poetry and in the distant future, a memoir on her time in the hospitality industry.

"I like life, I enjoy life (and) I get excited about just living," she bubbles. "Just seeing another day is exciting for me. At this point in my life I feel at peace with myself and I feel that that is so important. I reached a level in my faith that makes me feel at peace with the world."