President’s Message: NASBP Regional Meetings Captivate Local, Passionate Surety Advocates

Regional Meetings. What a great way for local, passionate advocates to get together for a few days of camaraderie, networking, discussion of local issues, education and a little fun! From Charleston to Mashantucket, St. Louis to San Diego, over 600 members, affiliates, associates and spouses met over the last three months to hear presentations on issues as current as the FASB Revenue Recognition proposed standard, opportunities and compliance in the federal work arena, ownership transition, the current lending environment, and economic and construction outlooks for 2011. Presentations as varied as using laughter to relieve stress, to extremely moving, edge of the seat comments by Navy Captain Bill Wilson, Commander of the Coronado Island SEALs BUDs Facility. All these were wrapped around presentations by our own CEO, Mark McCallum, and Director of Government Relations, Larry LeClair, on the “State of NASBP, Maximizing Value, Building Community and Advocating Surety.” Where else can you get this type of current information, contributed by and shared with others in our industry? You can’t. If you didn’t attend your regional meeting, you missed out. (See the related article on the Regional Meetings in this issue for some pictures and handouts.)

And that was only the business side. Golf on a Naval base, casinos, dinner on the U.S.S. Yorktown Aircraft Carrier, two beach party afternoons, cocktail cruises, great receptions and dinners. Fun ways to spend time together, make new friends, refresh old acquaintances, cement relationships and say thank you to those of us who have provided long term, dedicated service to NASBP. To our host Regional Directors, C. Wayne McCartha, Kevin Garrity, Kevin Kalish and Jim Schabarum, on behalf of our attending members, the NASBP staff, and myself, thank you so much for your time, effort, passion and hospitality. Whether I was with my family, or alone, I was made to feel right at home at every meeting, even getting a surprise gift from our members up north at the San Diego meeting. I was also honored to be able to recognize one of our own for a dedicated 30-year surety carrier. Carl Newman of Parker, Smith, Feek, I cannot thank you enough for your passion and involvement in NASBP. You will be missed.

Those that attended the St. Louis meeting of Regions 4, 5, 6 and 7 may have noticed that the meeting format was altered. In an attempt to evaluate our ability to provide cost effective meetings and value to our members and its effect on attendance, this meeting was structured differently than the others. It started as a Thursday reception, then all presentations and business meetings were scheduled on Friday, followed by a heavy hors d’oeuvres reception and golf on Saturday. This format gave attendees the option to either stay or leave on Saturday, thereby saving a night of hotel and preserving part of their weekend. This meeting was well attended and did not suffer a drop off for a late Friday night departure. It also kept intact the ability for affiliates to have two nights of entertaining. We are analyzing the survey responses to this format and will share them with the Regional Directors moving forward, as they start planning next year’s meetings.

As I said earlier, thank you to those involved in planning and hosting these meetings. Thank you to Mark and Larry, who attended and presented at each, and were away from family often. Thank you to Bethany Jones for making sure that each meeting was properly set up, golfers left and were picked up on time, and all the other things that we have come to expect and take for granted as a result of her efforts. Attending each of these meetings has given me an awareness of what it takes, from both members and staff, to put these on. I have made new friends and have very fond memories of these past months.

Please consider attending the 2011 Regional Meetings. They will be at excellent venues, with fantastic content. You can’t afford not to.

In closing, I wish Captain Wilson and his Navy SEALs, Godspeed and a safe return home to your families and loved ones. Thank you for your service to our country.

Thank you.

J. Spencer Miller
NASBP President

J. Spencer Miller, President, Schwartz Brothers Insurance Agency, Inc. in Chicago, IL. Spence can be reached at smiller@schwartzbrothers.com.