PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
This is my last President’s Message for the 2007-2008
year. Congratulations to the new PIWA officers and especially to
Charlotte Weddell, who will take over for me as president of PIWA.
Charlotte chose a Hawaiian theme for her installation banquet. Thank you
to everyone who donated baskets and auction items, to our own Judy LeBel
who served as Installing Officer, and to the banquet committee Karin
Kuester and Dale Baughman for their efforts and beautiful table
decorations. Congratulations are also in order for Kathy Smith, who
received the much-deserved Insurance Professional of the Year award. Out
two scholarship winners were in attendance at the banquet as well. You
can look for their essays on our web site under "Scholarship".
It seems I no sooner returned from the regional
conference then it was time to pack my bags for the National Convention
in Scottsdale. Highlights included an informal get-together around a
fire pit, telling stories and roasting s’mores, and of course being
installed as RVP of Region VIII and adorned with a flower lei for the
banquet, compliments of the Honolulu association. The delegates passed a
national dues increase for regular members to $86.50 a year,
representing an $11/year increase, to take effect 7-1-09. We were
reminded that there had not been an increase since before 1990. PIWA’s
own dues will not increase from $45/year.
The delegates voted DOWN eliminating the complimentary
registration to National for the RVP assistants.
We’ve been talking for some time about holding a CPR
class, and we’ve finally scheduled one for July 27th, at the
American Red Cross headquarters in Palo Alto. I hope you can join us,
and bring your family and friends. Remember to sign up early, due to a
limited number of openings.
If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to send in
your membership renewal. And save the dates of September 12 and 13 for
the CA state council meeting. This year it will be held at the
Doubletree in Sacramento. Let’s get some car pools together.
Finally, I’d like to say that this has been a year of
ups and downs for PIWA. We’ve had some outstanding educational meetings
and guest speakers, everything from arson investigation, to an unusual
property slide show, to electronic data liability legal issues, to
hearing from a former PIWA member turned police detective, to a
scheduled (finally!) CPR class. We’ve also lost some long time members
and had smaller than expected turnouts at our events. I have a simple
dream for PIWA that we grow our membership back, while holding on to our
core values of fellowship and education. Please help our new board by
continuing to bring guests in, and by thinking creatively of ways PIWA
can be relevant to today’s insurance professional.
With Warm Regards, Robin Fawkes, CCLA, CPIW, DAE
