September 2016 Meeting Registration
Records were meant to be broken and the Iowa CPCU Chapter broke a record this year for the number of new designees. No doubt, breaking the record was due to the annual meeting and commencement ceremony in Honolulu, Hawaii. Our chapter will be celebrating with 181 new designees in Hawaii from September 16 – 20. We are looking forward to keynote speaker, John Quinones, co-anchor of ABC Primetime, as well as hearing from Dewitt Jones, a professional photographer, film director and writer. In addition to the great speakers there will be classes on underwriting, claims, future of our industry, and career building to fill our days in Hawaii.
Back home in Iowa, we honor our new designees with a reception in Des Moines and at I-Day in November. Our reception was very well attended at Wellman’s on August 8 and we gave away a $50.00 gift card to Marcus Treimer based on participation in a networking activity during the reception. We had a good time meeting each other and we will hope to see everyone at the reception in Hawaii on Sunday, September 18 at the Hawaii Convention Center from 3 – 4:30. An email was sent inviting new designees to the reception in Hawaii in mid-August. Please let us know whether you will be in attendance.
Even though we have not had chapter meetings since May, the CPCU chapter has been active with several different activities this summer. The continuing education classes on Emerging Issues were well attended on July 13 and I’ve heard great feedback about the event. Thank you to the Professional Development committee for providing a great experience. The Charity Golf event raised approximately $1,600 at Legacy Golf Course on July 21 and will help fund our future Good Works project to give smoke detectors to local families through the Des Moines Fire Department on October 8, 2016. We also had a great networking event at Chocolaterie Stam on August 16 where we learned more about the history of the chocolatier and why they chose to open their store in Iowa. We all ate too much chocolate.
We have 3 more monthly meetings, our Good Works projects, social outings and I-Day coming to complete our 2016 year. Be sure to clear your calendars for the next meetings. In September, Terri Vaughan, one of our members, will be speaking about Insurance Risk Management. You won’t want to miss Terri speak. In October, Pinnacle Actuarial Services will be speaking about claims. I-Day will be held November 10, 2016 at Prairie Meadows starting at 8:30 AM. Joel Silverthorn from AM Best and Kim Hazelbaker from the Highway Loss Data Institute will be speaking about Personal Lines. The invitation will be electronic this year like our monthly meetings. Our last meeting of the year will be held at Wakonda Club and Alison Cate from EMC Insurance Companies will be speaking about Generations in the Workplace.
If you would like to honor an individual for contributing to the Iowa insurance industry, check out page 5 in this Chaptergram for details on the Burkhalter award and nomination process.
Even over the busy summer I continued to learn from webinars, presentations, conferences and interaction with you. I attended a class to learn more about dealing with difficult situations. I have taken this class in many forms but I knew I could take something new away to apply to my professional development. When I am having a difficult conversation with a fellow employee, I picture myself on the same side of the table as the person I am having the difficult conversation with and the issue is on the other side of the table.
