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May 2016 Meeting Registration 

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.

Kossuth County CARE Team Benefits From NCI-CPCU Change Jar.

The NCI-CPCU Subchapter collected loose change this past year with its “Change For A Change” program.  A jar is placed in the break room next to the vending machines at Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company.

Thanks to this program, the NCI-CPCU subchapter was able to donate $100.00 in personal hygiene items to the Kossuth County CARE team to help those in need.

Pharmacists Mutual employees and North Central Iowa CPCU chapter members partnered together to clean two miles of road ditch east of Algona, Iowa on March 14th, 2014. It was cloudy and windy, but the dedicated group of volunteers pressed forward to fill thirteen large orange bags with the litter collected. Thank you to all who participated in this worthwhile event.

NCI-CPCU Chapter and Pharmacists Mutual Employees cleanup two miles of Hwy 18.

The North Central Iowa CPCU sub-chapter (NCI-CPCU) members worked together with employees of Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company to pick up two miles of US Hwy 18 west of Algona, IA for an Adopt A Highway project on May 16th, 2013.

The weather was good and the group was fortunate to have a day when it was not raining.

A special thank you to Tom Goodrich for coordinating this project.  We appreciate all of the NCI-CPCU chapter members and the employees of Pharmacists Mutual who donated their time to make our world a little better.

Pharmacists Mutual employees and North Central Iowa CPCU chapter members partnered together to clean two miles of road ditch east of Algona on September 25th, 2012.

The North Central Iowa CPCU chapter has partnered with Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company to pickup two miles of ditch along highway 18 west of Algona, IA.   The last cleanup was done on April 4th.  We had ten participants in this event with six of them being members of the NCI-CPCU chapter.

Members of the NCI-CPCU subchapter provided a “Careers in Insurance” presentation on November 1^st for the students at Algona High School.   Thank you to Angie Gronbach, Justin Davis, and Chris Bronk for presenting this useful information to the group.

The NCI-CPCU subchapter members worked together with employees of Pharmacists Mutual Insurance to pick up two miles of US Hwy 18 just west of Algona, IA for an Adopt A Highway project on September 14, 2011. Thank you to Tom Goodrich for taking the lead on this project and to the many members of the subchapter that assisted with this project.

The North Central Iowa Sub-Chapter (NCI-CPCU Sub-Chapter) of the Iowa Chapter of the CPCU Society Society is centered in Kossuth County, Iowa and currently has 16 members. We work directly with and through the Iowa Chapter out of Des Moines.  This sub-chapter allows us to provide continuing education credits during the year in the northern part of the state.  We are actively involved in area community projects.  Our current one involves the adoption of a 2 mile stretch of Highway 18 for cleanup.  Unfortunately our first date was in July and too hot for work, but we anticipate a great day in September for our fall cleanup.  If you are interested in being involved with the Iowa Chapter but find it difficult to commute to Des Moines, please feel free to contact us and become an active part of the CPCU Society.