A Message from the President
Gregory Marquardt, CLU, ChFC, CASL, CLTC
Incoming President, 2012 - 2013

Thank you for the privilege of being your President for the year.  It truly is a great honor to follow in the footsteps of so many individuals who have made our Chapter one of the largest and most respected in the country.  The ability to build on what we have accomplished is certainly exciting.  Our Chapter has benefited greatly by the willingness of individuals to come together and working as a group to accomplish great things.

We cannot rest on the successes of the past.  The need to continue to move forward, looking for was to bring value to our members will be a continued effort for your Board, this year and for years to come. 

Our local dues will not increase this year and as an improved member benefit we will now offer all of our Educational Meetings free of charge to members.  Where available continuing education credits will also be available free of charge.  All of the educational meetings will be held on the third Thursday of the month starting at 7:30 A.M. at the beautiful Villanova Conference Center.  The goal is to make every meeting an event where you will receive top quality educational information and the opportunity for face to face networking with your interdisciplinary peers.

There is continued progress being made on our University Partners program with several new Colleges and University’s being approached.  This program provides local college students the opportunity to be part of our Chapter and expose them to opportunities within the Financial Services field.

 

Our Community Services Committee is putting together a fantastic new outreach program that will allow our Members to give back to the community and continue to provide a positive image for our membership.  More on this coming soon.

 

As with any organization our strength is our membership.  Our dedicated membership committee continues to do a wonderful job promoting the values of our Chapter. There is no other place to get the levels of educational and promotional values.  Take a look at our website and let me know if you do not agree. We need everyone’s help to turn around the steady reduction of our membership.  If each member would ask one coworker or business associate to join we can stop this trend.

 

In closing, I ask that each of you attend one of our upcoming events be it educational or social, check the website for upcoming opportunities or watch your e-mail.  If you like what you see tell a friend if you do not please tell me.  I am available at 610-935-0173 or by e-mail at greg@premierinsuranceresources.com.

 

Thank you once again for this honor; I look forward to serving each of you and the pleasure of seeing you at an event this year.

** To continue reading Connections, please click HERE.

---

A Message from the Outgoing President
Trisha Hall, Esq.
Year in Review, 2011 - 2012

As a Chapter, we faced a number of challenges over the past year, but I believe the Chapter will be a stronger organization for having experienced those challenges.  Chief among them, which also served as a wonderful opportunity, was our move from an executive director with twenty years of institutional memory to Maguire Hegarty.  There were plenty of firsts to be worked through by our new executive director team because of the lack of “memory,” but this also meant operations were being looked on with fresh eyes.

 

For example, early in the year we discovered that our Constant Contact email blasts were not being received by many of our members because of the change in executive directors and the resulting change in emails behind the blasts.  Because of this, many people were not made aware of our September educational event nor our 80^th anniversary celebration in early October.  However, as a direct result of this communication hurdle, we started using a new email blast service to reach our members, and we discovered a voice mail blast service to reach our members in a new way.

 

We also have re-formatted financial statements, a new and free website service through National SFSP, a new method for registering and ticketing attendees for events, D & O insurance and fidelity bond.  We also have a re-emphasis on maintaining a Chapter brand that carries through all Chapter communications.

 

As a Chapter, we continue to evolve from being thought of as the American College alumni society to a multidisciplinary financial services organization.  Five or six years ago, we began questioning nearly everything we did as a Chapter and many things have changed.  However, I do believe we are at a point where we can stop questioning and focus on building on what we already have in place.  I am optimistic for the future of the Chapter because I believe it has solid foundation on which to expand, despite facing industry changes (lack of company support for organizations like ours) and organization saturation. (How many emails do you get on a daily basis?)  This is especially so today as we formally begin to plan our next Chapter year with our new board.

 

Before I turn over the reins, I want to thank the board and committee chairs who worked hard between board meetings and committee meetings to add value to our Chapter.  I want to thank Alanna for patiently responding to sometimes frantic emails and for her efforts to learn and maintain our Chapter.  I want to thank past presidents Ron and Paul in particular for their support over the year.  Thank you to Kevin and Mike for agreeing to join the team mid-season and for your contributions in that abbreviated time.  Thank you to Glen for often going above and beyond the call of duty.  And thank you to Greg for taking on both VFT and Professionals Dinner in addition to preparing for your presidency.  Best of luck and sincere wishes for success.

** To continue reading Connections, please click HERE.