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AAMGA Special Section Committee mentors membership By Phil Zinkewicz
The AAMGA Membership Committee is charged with keeping association members—especially new members—abreast of the benefits and special services that the AAMGA has to offer. This committee has evolved into a sort of “mentor” for AAMGA membership, offering assistance and guidance in dealing with the technical aspects of running an MGA as well as providing materials for MGA members to assess on their own and to put themselves into perspective vis a vis other participants in the MGA arena. Committee chair is Daisy Lasky, of the Green Mountain Agency in Rutland, Vermont. The agency is a family-run business, bought by her father when it was only an accident medical company that was started a hundred years earlier. Lasky says her father took the agency and changed its focus to trucking exposures and commercial lines. Today, Lasky and her brothers as well as her husband are also a part of the agency. “I chose to be a part of this family business while I was still in college,” says Lasky. “Being involved in a family business makes it easier to achieve success, and I had tremendous respect for my father and what he was doing,” she says. “My father was and still is my mentor. I’ve been attending AAMGA conventions since I was in high school.” In addition to keeping members up to date on the benefits offered by the AAMGA, the membership committee is also charged with updating and maintaining the AAMGA’s archives of its rich and proud history, says Lasky. In 2002, more than 70 years of the AAMGA’s accomplishments, events and reports were all scanned and moved onto the association’s Web site (www.aamga.org) and are available for examination and enjoyment online, according to Lasky. “Our committee also works hand-in-hand with the AAMGA University to provide discount coupons for first-time University attendees and new members of the AAMGA, and produces an orientation packet for new members to introduce them to the benefits of membership,” she notes. “Committee members act as ‘mentors’ to new members to assure they are able to make the most of their participation in the AAMGA.” Says Lasky: “We perform services at annual meetings for members and new members as well as first-time attendees to answer any questions that are asked. We host a ‘first time’ reception so that new members can network with seasoned members. Networking is very important to the AAMGA,” she says. The Membership Committee also continues to update its income and expense survey, Lasky says. “The survey was completed last year, but the response wasn’t as heavy as we expected it would be. So, we’re doing it again this year and we hope to get at least 100 responses. We believe the survey is extremely important because it shows the financial breakdown of AAMGA membership. By using this information, an MGA can measure its own performance against other members. Of course, it all depends on participation, so we hope this year will result in more responses.” In addition, Lasky says that the Membership Committee has a new project underway. It is called The Heritage Book: Eighty Years of Heritage and Integrity. “It’s in the works right now,” says Lasky. “It won’t be ready for the annual meeting, but a few months later we plan to send the book out to all our members. It will contain a short history of all AAMGA members with their logos. It will be a piece of history our members can keep forever.” Finally, the Membership Committee provides its MGAs with a draft of a model broker-agent agreement and a draft of an employee handbook. “These are useful tools for our members, but I emphasize that they are drafts, a starting point for agents to work from,” Lasky points out. “Every MGA is different and will need to adapt these drafts to suit their own purposes. And, they must be adapted to the state laws that are applicable.” * |
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