Spring has sprung! April has had its share of showers. The late April thunderstorm with weather warnings across the Midwest was a sign the storm season is upon us. I pray “Mayday” is not the distress signal we will think of this storm season.
Ted Lussem, Jeff Jeffus, Kevin Seward and I recently went to Algona to see our fellow CPCUs and new designees in the North Central Iowa sub-chapter, which will celebrate their 10 year anniversary in 2017. I haven’t heard the words “Mayday, Mayday” in a long time but when I heard Lisa Molsberry, Vice President of the sub-chapter, use this, I enjoyed their creativity and desire to promote education in their workplace. They will be promoting continuing education for all staff with the theme Mayday! The North Central sub-chapter, although small, also continues to support their community by Adopting a Highway.
2016 is the largest new designee class we have ever had in the Iowa chapter, including 5 new designees in the North Central sub-chapter and 2 new designees in the Grinnell sub-chapter for an Iowa total of 125. The last window for test taking ends June 15 and the number of new designees keeps increasing daily. Get ready to see Out of Office Messages from many of our fellow new designees in September as we head to Honolulu, Hawaii for the annual conferment ceremony.
The Iowa Chapter anticipates honoring our new designees many times throughout this year. Later this summer we will be announcing a social gathering for new designees to meet each other and meet the board. We will also invite you to a reception in Honolulu and will also honor our new designees on November 10, 2016 at I-Day. Our theme this year at I-Day will be about personal lines and its importance to you personally and to our industry.
May 19th has two great opportunities to gather. The chapter will be hosting a tour of the Capitol starting at 3:00 pm. We will also be attending the Iowa Insurance Hall of Fame ceremony. Five new inductees will be honored for their contributions to our industry. Be sure to check out http://iihof.org/history-of-theiowa-insurance-hall-of-fame/ to find out more about this organization and the impact it has on our industry. We are fortunate in Iowa to have support from our many companies.
We will take a break from monthly meetings over the summer but don’t forget our 2016 CPCU Charity Golf Outing. We will start at 11:30 am, July 21, 2016 at Legacy Golf Course in Norwalk. We anticipate donating dual sensor smoke detectors with a carbon monoxide detector to the Des Moines Fire Department to distribute to households in need.
We also look forward to our September meeting on risk management at one of our favorite venues, Des Moines Embassy Club. In October, we will learn about claims from Pinnacle Actuarial Services at the Botanical Center.
Dean Brooks spoke at our April meeting about certificates of insurance. He gave some statistics on certificates of insurance that helped me understand what an issue this is for our industry:
- Insurance commissioners from 43 states have submitted bulletins on certificates of insurance.
- In the last 5 years, errors and omission claims from certificate of insurance are up 28%.
- 15% of all commercial lines errors and omission claims involve a certificate of insurance.
I am looking forward to learning more at our future meetings and meeting our new designees in the next few months.
