2010 Anuual Christmas Celebration

A time of year to celebrate. We celebrate the year gone past. We anticipate the year coming up. We take time to leave the work behind and just celebrate the friends, colleagues and partnerships we’ve made.

This is what the 2010 LAAIA Christmas Celebration was all about.

We enjoyed the cocktail hour with live music and lots of laughs.

The always elegant, Rudy Valdes-Diaz CPCU, emceed the dinner program, where we took time to present our annual Man of the Year and Woman of the Year awards.

For the Woman of the Year of award we recognized Marsha Watson. Marsha is Outreach Manager at Citizens and before that at FPRCJUA. For over 14 years she has been assisting over 8,000 agents with issues related to doing business with the largest insurer in the state of Florida. She helps provide training for agent across the state, assistance during the appointment process and help on a daily basis to agents with many questions and if she can’t help you she will go out of her way to find someone who can. She has worked very closely with the LAAIA all these years. Marsha’s favorite pass time lately is being a grandmother, the latest addition arrived just before Labor Day 2010.

For the Man of the Year award we recognized our very own Past President, Nestor Rivero, for his unfailing dedication to improving the insurance industry. He showed it be by teaching highschools students about insurance, to raise awareness of our industry through the InVest program. By his many trips to Tallahassee to sit with legislators to help them see the needs of the consumer, and how the independent agency system is the best way to educate consumers and help them reach their goals. Or by his dedication to the LAAIA and it’s message “United We Serve as a Voice for Independent Insurance Agents”. Nestor, exemplifies the true meaning of “Serve” in our motto.

The highlight of our event was the annual presentation to the Jackson Memorial Foundation of the check for $5,000 from our Toys For Children raffle campaign. Santa was their with the gift for the children. Thank you to our Gold Sponsor for the raffle, Fidelity National for helping us make some very special children smile.

We would also like to thank the sponsor without whom the Christmas Celebration would not be possible:

GOLD SPONSORS

AFCO Premium Finance



United Automobile Insurance Company

SILVER SPONSOR

Security Premium Finance Inc


BRONZE SPONSOR

AmTrust

Finally, we’d like to mention those associate members who went above and beyond and sent separate donations to the Jackson Memorial Foundation along side us QQ Solutions Inc and AccuAuto.

November 2010 Monthly Meeting

If value added customer service is your goal, I hope you were at our November Monthly Dinner meeting. Our speaker Gordon Ragan, President of Accu-Auto, spoke on the relationship between Agencies, Companies and Comparative Rater Companies. He reminded us that only through working together can we streamline the obstacles that so often get in our way of providing the level of customer service our clients have come to expect.

Javier Naranjo, our esteemed Board Member, also spent some time putting a call out to our membership for involvement in our committees. Though the Board of Directors is proud of all the member benefits created to provide, technology, education and cost savings to our members, they can all attest that the best way to get substantive benefits of being a member is by being involved. Call our office today or email info@laaia.com if you’re interested.

Thank you to all of our members present, for your votes and suggestions for Man and Woman of the Year. Which will be presented at our annual Holiday Celebration on Saturday, December 4th 2010 at the InterContinental Hotel in Doral, FL.

"Associates Night" October Monthly Meeting

It was a packed house at Shula’s in Miami Lakes, when we met for “Associations Night”. Once a year, at this special event , the LAAIA takes the opportunity to recognize our Associate Members for all their support.

In a year with serious economic challenges, our Associate Members have proven their resolve through their dedicated and active participation in our agnecies and assocation. On behalf of our Agency Members and the board of directors we would like to thank you. Your cooperation allows us to help give a voice to insurance agents from all walks of life and provide them with tools to meet the challenges we all face.

A special thanks goes out to Fidelity National for sponsoring our Annual Toys for Children Campain. We look forward to everyone selling LOTS of raffle tickets. Contact our office if you need any additional raffle tickets at 305-477-1442.

September 2010 Monthly Meeting

""I skate to where the puck is GOING to be, not where it has been." - Wayne Gretzky

What do Wayne Gretzky, technology and guerrilla marketing have in common? They were all part of the extremely informative presentation by Michael Stebel, the Chief Operating Officer of QQ Solutions, Inc.; an industry leader in insurance agency information technology.

Michael provided a comprehensive strategy to use of the strengths of the independent agent to compete against the almost one billion dollars in advertising spent by the direct writers.

He showed us that by taking advantage of affordable technologies, such as online live comparative quoting portals, and using innovative marketing techniques, such as search engine optimization and viral marketing, the independent agent can use their specialized knowledge of their local markets and demographics to level the playing field.

This presentation was so full of essential information, that this short blog post could barley do it justice. The Board of Directors of the LAAIA urges you to attend one of our monthly dinner meetings and take advantage of our networking hour to meet representatives from QQ Solutions and all of our Program Partners. Bring your questions and concerns. The one constant in our industry is change and together with some imagination and hard work we can push the independent agency system that our customers depend on into the future.

August 2010 Montly Meeting

What better way to get insurance agents attention than to drop a frying pan from the podium to the floor to make a point about "tile chip" claims. That is exactly what Tony McCarty, Senior Vice President of Claims for Florida Family Insurance, did in his informative presentation regarding the current state of claims in South Florida. He went further on to explain some of the most common non-catastrophe claims plaguing insurance companies today and provided good insight on simple questions agents could ask to become better "field underwriters".

Congratulations to Luis De Gongora in presiding over his first Monthly Dinner Meeting. In his words "I have big shoes to fill", but we all know that with his leadership the LAAIA will have it's strongest year ever.

June Monthly Meeting

We may have changed the date, but that did not dissuade us from have a GREAT monthly dinner networking event.

Our speaker Becky Lathrop CIC, Vice President of Optimum Performance Solutions LLC (http://www.optperform.com/), provided invaluable insight into changing our paradigms so that we can improve our businesses effectiveness and efficiencies to stimulate profitable growth.

We were also able to announce our BRAND NEW member benefit. The LAAIA Errors and Omissions programmed managed by Modern Insurance Consultants Inc. Response from our members in attendance was very positive. Check out our Members page of the website for additional details.

Finally, by unanimous vote, the slate of officers for 2010-2011 was approved by the membership. They are all very excited and are looking forward to a great 2010 Convention and have many things planned for the coming year!

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