The Scene

JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer

Il

(4 Making Time
For The Guys

e didn't want to do it at
first.
Like most recent college
grads, Andy Gutman
planned to spend his 20s focusing on
career and s6cial life. Five years later,
his social life has blossomed —
although not the way he had envi-
sioned.
One of B'nai B'rith Youth
Organization's (BBYO) most popular
chapter advisers, 28-year-old Gutman
— a busy financial analyst for a
Southfield real estate firm — devotes
more than 10 hours each week to his
"guys" in the Huntington Woods
Groucho Marx chapter.
Gutman, who started volunteering
for BBYO at the nudging of regional .
chair Paula Goldman Spinner, provides
the teens with guidance and makes sure
rules are followed. But he lets them run
the show.
"The last thing I want to do is step
in and say, 'You have to do this,"' he
said. "My goal from the beginning was
to let them do their own thing."
And they do a lot. The chapter plans
weekly events, with Gutman chaperon-
ing most of them and reserving two
weekends a year to accompany the guys
on out-of-town conferences.
Although single and not yet a father,
Gutman sounds like one when talking

tremendous man he's become in realiz-
ing his potential."
Of course, not every moment is so
rewarding. "We just had a meeting
where every one of them wanted to talk
at once for two hours. I went home
with a headache, but I know that by
the end of the year these kids will have
come around and honed their skills."
Finding time can also be challeng-
ing. Two years ago, job demands drove
Gutman to quit, but the chapter per-
suaded him to return when they could-
n't find another adviser.
"My president called me after the
first meeting to tell me how it went,
and then he called again after the sec-
ond meeting," said Gutman. "By the
end of their third meeting without an
adviser I said, 'Let me sit in until you
get one.'... I stuck it out, and then last
year we got a new group of kids.
"It's exciting for me as well as them.
I'll have trouble quitting again when
the time comes, because they're great
kids."
BBYO leaders are hoping Gutman
won't quit for a long time. Assistant
director Allison Buchman says she
wishes she could clone Gutman. "He
really cares about the welfare of the
kids in the chapter, and even though he
has limited time he's always there for
them."
David Beznos, a sophomore at
Berkley High School and Groucho
Marx chapter president, also raves

Andy
Gutman:
Catching
when they
fall.

Andy Gutman
balances career demands
with a BBYO advisership.

(3

about his guys.
"You share in their moments of joy,"
he said. "I had two kids who competed
with each other for the chapter presi-
dency and then the region presidency.
That was one of the most mixed emo-
tional evenings I've ever had watching
one of them win — and I was so
happy for him — and watching the
other one lose. Or watching a kid that
tells [you] he has no value and then
four years later, watching what a

about Gutman. "He is basically all I
could dream for in an adviser. In
BBYO, there's three types of advisers:
those that control, those that do noth-
ing and those in-between. Andy's defi-
nitely in-between. He always likes to
say he's there to let us make our own
mistakes but to catch us when we
fall." ❑