______October & November 2006
MS Council Officers
Council Director
Kimberly Shows, CIC, CISR, CPIW
P.O. Box 320973
Flowood, MS 39232
601-718-5320 W
601-321-5320 F
Membership Development Chairman
Keri Morrell, CIC, AAI, AIS, ASLI, CISR, CPSR, CPIW, DAE
P.O. Box 432
Magnolia, MS 39652
601-783-3301 W
601-783-3303 F
Public Relations/Program Chairman
Ruth E. Phillips, CISR, CPSR, CPIW
P.O. Box 432
Magnolia, MS 39652
601-783-3301 W
601-783-3303 F
Education Liaison
Mary Kirk King
3582B Grace Lane
Tupelo, MS38801
800-530-7037 ext 227 W
662-842-1321 W
662-842-0449 F
Legislative Liaison
Trissi Phillips Wilkinson
P.O. Box 98269
Jackson, MS 39298
800-248-9331 W
601-992-7751 F
COUNCIL DIRECTOR’S REPORT
We had a great Council Meeting on October 13-14th! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, met new friends, networked and had time for CE. I appreciate everyone who attended. I believe we had a time of learning, fun and fellowship. Thanks again to Insurance Women of Jackson for their hard work and everyone who helped make the meeting a success.
Congratulations to all the newly elected officers of the Council and the award winners. Great job! The newly elected officers are as follows:
Council Director Elect – Belinda Pinion, CIC, CPIW
Council Public Relations Chairman – Tanya Fritz
Council Membership Development Chairman –
Keri Morrell, CIC, AAI, AIS, ASLI, CISR, CPSR, CPIW, DAE
Delegate to the Regional Nominating Committee –
Kimberly Shows, CIC, CISR, CPIW, DAE
Alternate Delegate to the Regional Nominating Committee – Michelle
Bell, AAM, CPIW.
Award Winners are as follows:
AAMGA – Ann Tharp, CIC, ACSR, CISR, CPIW, DAE
Communicate with Confidence – Cindy Cole, APA, CPIW
Rookie of the Year – Kylene Moak
Insurance Professional of the Year – Kimberly Shows, CIC, CISR,
CPIW, DAE
First Timer’s Award – Laliah Valentine
Please don’t forget that Halloween is this month and there will be a lot of children on the road at this time. If you are out trick or treating this
DATES TO REMEMBER
October
29thDaylight Savings Time Ends
31stHalloween
November
1stAll Saints Day
1-2ndMarketing & Sales, New Orleans, LA
7thElection Day
7-9thPIA Agent’s License Review, Jackson MS
11thVeterans Day
15thDeadline for all Regional Award Applications to be Received by the Regional Awards Chairman
23rdThanksgiving
24thNAIW National Closed
29-1stPIA Agent’s License Review. Gulfport
December
1stDeadline to apply for ISFA Scholarship
(COUNCIL DIRECTOR’S REPORT CONTINUED)
year, please watch out for all the ghosts and goblins. Have a happy and safe Halloween.
The winner of the MS Council Fundraiser for the necklace raffle was Connie Moore of Hattiesburg. We raised over $500 with this fundraiser. Thank you to all the members who helped with the raffle and congratulations to Connie!
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns that you would like our Region III Vice President Deb McCurdy to take to the Board Meeting in January, please let me know before November 25, 2006.
If I can assist you in anyway, please do not hesitate to contact me. As always, I welcome all your questions, concerns and comments.
Yours in fellowship,
Kimberly
Kimberly Shows, CIC, CISR, CPIW
Council Director
“Future So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades with the MS Council and NAIW.”
American Arbitration Association Recognizes Southern Miss for Support of
Mississippi Hurricane Katrina Mediation Program
William K. Slate II, president and chief executive officer of the American Arbitration Association® (AAA) presented the AAA’s Distinguished Public Service Award to The University of Southern Mississippi for the donation of meeting space for use in the Mississippi Hurricane Katrina Mediation Program over the past eight months.
Facility space of ten rooms and parking at the Southern Miss’ Hattiesburg campus are being used by mediators, Mississippi insurance policyholders and insurance representatives. Of the 3,318 cases filed and scheduled, more than 2,100 mediations have already been resolved for an 83 percent program settlement rate.
On December 20, 2005, Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance George Dale signed an emergency regulation establishing a mediation program, administered by the AAA, for Mississippi victims of Hurricane Katrina. The program was designed to serve as a non-adversarial, non-binding
alternative to litigation, which would facilitate the resolution of homeowner insurance disputes as quickly and as fairly as possible. The first mediation conference was held at Southern Miss University on February 13, 2006.
Keri Morrell, CIC, AAI, AIS, ASLI, CISR CPSR, CPIW, DAE
MS Council Membership Development Chairman
Congratulations to the Insurance Women of Jackson for hosting such a fun and successful Council Meeting. It was especially good to see the large number of First Timers. That first Council Meeting is always a special time for new members to try out their “wings” and start up a new networking group from all the new contacts they can make. It can also be an inspiration to them to do more and attend other meetings such as Regional Conference or National Convention, join new committees and become further involved. I think that IWJ’s fun “team-building” efforts allowed for a lot of the First Timers to relax and have a great time and enjoy making those new connections.
Of course, we can’t forget those Gold Timers. If the First Timers are our “life’s blood” then the Gold Timers are our “backbone”. It is always good to renew and strengthen relationships at any NAIW function. I’m one of those Gold Timers now, having attended 15 Council Meetings, but I am still learning new and amazing things from and about my NAIW friends and colleagues.
As many of you know, Council Director, Kimberly Shows, asked me if I would be interested in seeking election to the office of MS Council Membership Development Chairman for another year. I agreed because it would give me the opportunity to put more time into developing, testing and implementing our Employer Newsletter project. I described the project in detail in the last newsletter, but felt that it would be appropriate to remind the members again about what this project is about.
The plan is to develop a quarterly newsletter directed to the employers providing them with valuable information on the members activities within the state, describe membership benefits available, promote educational opportunities and the availability of scholarship resources, promote our leadership training opportunities and promote public relations opportunities though their employees (our members). Through this vehicle, we hope to attract more employers attention to our association and its benefits and grow support among current employers – be they company or agency.
Again, this project is not a plan that can come to fruition overnight. I will need a lot of support and information from the local presidents and the local membership chairpersons. I am sending each local president a request this month with the information that I would like to have gathered that will help us to proceed in building our list of employer/company contacts. We want to reach as many employers and companies as possible, so this will entail a lot of work on your part in researching the possibilities in your area such as agencies, companies, banks, adjusters, etc.
In an effort to help in accumulating those needed names, I have accessed the IIAM and PIA mailing lists and will be sending that information to the local presidents as well asking for them to be contacted and contact names and emails be collected.
The proposed newsletter will be a new and different way to approach the employers with our information. We hope that in the long and short run that it will show increasing benefit to the members in our state and help us to grow and sustain our numbers.
I am also in the process of updating the membership directory and ask that the local presidents send in their membership information so that the directory can be completed. We should all have our membership lists updated from National now, so this should be easy to mail or email to me so that I can complete the update.
Thank you for your help with both of these projects.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
Columbus Association of Insurance Women
We are working hard on trying to recruit new membership. A continuing education class “Executive Protection Insurance Solutions” is scheduled for November 14th at Galloway Chandler McKinney Insurance Agency (the old FirstFederalBuilding) beginning at 8:45 am-12:00 pm. Andrew Culhane with Chubb Specialty will present D & O Liability, Employment Practice Liability and Crime Insurance in the morning. The afternoon session “Helping Clients Understand Insurance” from 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm will be presented by Jack Campbell, CIC discussing the determination of property values and deductibles, benefits of sprinkler systems and claim prevention. Registration is $55 for both classes and $30 for one. Contact Deana Honeycutt at 662-328-0492 for registration.
Insurance Women of Hattiesburg
Three members of the Insurance Women of Hattiesburg attended the Council Meeting in Jackson: Ora Clark, Patsy Gladden and Gail Barrow. The meeting was great. A big thank you goes out to the members of IWJ for all of their hard work. We will be presenting our annual Firefighter of the Year Award this month.
On a sad note, Linda Nail’s father passed away on October 14, 2006.
Insurance Women of Jackson
The Insurance of Women of Jackson would like to thank each of you that attended the 2006 MS Council Meeting. We had a very good E&O class, a great speaker, and a wonderful time of fellowship and networking. For those of you that were unable to attend, you will want to make plans to attend next year in Hattiesburg.
Congratulations go out to our own Kimberly Shows, CIC, CISR, CPIW, DAE of obtaining her DAE designation and being selected Insurance Professional of the Year; Belinda Pinion, CIC, CPIW on being elected as MS Council Director Elect; Tanya Fritz on being selected MS Council Public Relations/ Program Chair; Helen Andrews, AIC, AIS, CPS, CPIW, DAE on obtaining her DAE designation and Angie Polk, CISR, CPIW on obtaining her CISR designation. Cindy Cole, APA, CPIW is to be congratulated on obtaining her CPIW designation and being the only CWC Speak-Off Contestant. She will represent the MS Council at the Regional Conference in Gatlinburg!
Insurance Women of Meridian
The Insurance Women of Meridian will be having a fundraiser next month. It will be a pancake breakfast at Applebee's Restaurant on November 11th. This has proved to be a good fundraiser in the past and we hope it will be again.
Five members of our association attended the Council Meeting in Jackson and had a great time. "Hats Off" to the Insurance Women of Jackson for a great meeting.
Insurance Women of Northeast MS
Insurance Women of Northeast Mississippi would like to take this opportunity to thank Insurance Women of Jackson for a wonderful time at Council Meeting. We appreciate all the hard work that went into making the meeting a success. The meeting place, guest speaker, food and entertainment were great.
Insurance Women of Southwest MS
The Insurance Women of Southwest Mississippi are extremely proud of all the award winners from the Council meeting, especially their own, Council Rookie of the Year Kylene Moak! In addition, we are excited that Keri Morrell was elected to another term as the Membership Chair.
In October the Insurance Women of Southwest MS honored the Progress Volunteer Fire Department as their VFD of the year. In November, the association plans to have a NAIW thirty minute program.