A Robust Year for NASBP

As I reflect on the past 11 months, I am pleased to have witnessed such a great year for our Association. The efforts of many NASBP volunteers and our amazing staff to further NASBP objectives continue to astound me. As an Association, we are stronger today than a year ago.

When I came up with the theme for this year of “Raising the Bar,” I based it on how we, as an Association, had been doing just that–improving the value of NASBP membership and our contributions to the industry every year over the past five plus years. When you consider what you get for your NASBP membership today, you quickly realize that you receive great value for your dollar and that take-away continues to grow each year.

One of the main functions of this Association is government relations. Lead by Mark McCallum and Larry LeClair, our efforts are effective, revitalized and obtaining results. During the past year, those combined efforts have helped bring about these events: the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Security in Bonding Act of 2012, H.R.3534; NASBP testified before the U.S. Congress three times; the U.S. Small Business Administration Bond Guarantee Program contract threshold amount increased to $6.5 million; NASBP thwarted an attempt to eliminate the use of bonds on public work in New Mexico; NASBP introduced a Maryland bill that became law and addresses certain individual surety problems; the NASBP Fly-in recorded 91 members and affiliates meeting with 50 members of Congress and their staff; the House re-introduced the Security in Bonding Act as H.R. 776 in this year’s Congress; and NASBP fought a legislative effort that would have allowed individual surety on subcontracts on public works in Maryland. I am confident that those efforts will increase, because, just recently, NASBP hired Shannon Crawford to join the staff to manage state legislative and regulatory issues that impact the surety product.

Education of surety professionals is another priority for NASBP as is witnessed by the new NASBP educational opportunities that include two on-line courses in commercial and contract surety and 24 Virtual Seminars on important surety issues producers face daily. In addition, this summer, NASBP will launch its new advanced surety school, the NASBP Angell-Curtin Advanced Surety School Level III. Other indicators of this being a robust year are that we have seen an uptick in membership and that we have been financially successful– turning a negative budget into a small profit and making a healthy addition to the long-term surplus.

The continued growth of NASBP SmartBrief is a great sign that we are distributing information valued by those in and impacted by the surety industry. The e-newsletter has the highest click rate of all public SmartBrief briefs. Every company that we met with for the state-of-the-industry interviews mentioned how much they have used the NASBP SmartBrief, how useful they felt the articles were, and that they look forward to receiving the e-newsletter each week.

Speaking of company visits, one of the benefits of being a NASBP officer is that you are part of a team who has an opportunity to visit with affiliate company leaders. Executives of these companies are glad to meet with us in person, discuss what is going on in their companies, and express their views on the industry. The visit is a very candid and open look at the company’s results and offers NASBP officers insight into what that company’s executives see as the opportunities and obstacles that our industry faces today. These company executives all seem to truly appreciate and value the effort that we as an Association expend on behalf of the industry to protect and defend the product and enhance the general public’s understanding of our business.Each company executive complimented NASBP on the efforts the Association has made to broaden our outreach with the NASBP SmartBrief and Pipeline e-newsletters.

I enjoyed hearing about how well we are doing as an Association from the executives we met with during these interviews. For example, one executive said, “I hate to think what the surety world would be like today without NASBP. NASBP creates the model of behavior that we want as an industry standard.” That made my day! It was satisfying to hear first-hand that our efforts to do things the right way are being recognized and truly appreciated. Let’s make sure we keep it up and keep “Raising the Bar.”

One of the last trips that you make during your term as NASBP President is traveling to Puerto Rico for the NASBP Region 12 Annual Meeting. Regional Director Emilio Saldana organized an interesting and educational meeting. The next day Karen and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with Emilio and his lovely wife, Lizette, in Palmas Del Mar. They are two of the nicest people in the world.

I would be remiss if I did not thank the members of the NASBP Executive Committee for their support this year. They willingly agreed to do everything that I asked of them. Thanks to Past Presidents Spence Miller and Todd Loehnert for agreeing to help on the company visits. In addition, the committee chairmen and vice chairmen and their committee members have contributed thousands of hours to accomplish NASBP goals this past year. We all benefit from their efforts, so please thank them for their dedication when you see them.

Then, there is the NASBP staff. They were the core of the inspiration of the theme, “Raising the Bar.” As members, we cannot thank them enough. They are a group of hard-working professionals that, justifiably, take great pride in their work product. We, especially me this year, are lucky to have them.

In closing, thanks to all of you for this wonderful opportunity. Serving my term as NASBP President has been a great experience, and I have made many new friends in the process. There are just days until I turn over the reins, but there is still time to “Raise the Bar.” See you in San Francisco!

Sincerely,

Carl E. Dohn, Jr.
NASBP President

Carl E. Dohn, Jr. is President of Dohn & Maher Associates in Palatine, IL. He can be reached at carldohn@dohn.com.