| PRESIDENT’ S PAGE |
Growing Together
W hat is the purpose of an association? I’ ve
reflected on that more recently that I can remember. As a group of insurance professionals, our association should be our platform to“ Do together what we cannot do alone.”
KAIA includes agencies of all sizes, markets, and locations. I believe there are five core common interests that we can all benefit from by being involved in our association.
1) Advocacy As we’ ve all been made painfully aware of in the last year, politics affects our businesses more each year. As a state regulated industry, we are fortunate to be able to deploy local resources in Topeka to advocate for our industry on a daily basis. Through KIAPAC, our staff, and our lobbyists, we have a strong voice at the Capit0l, and have been very successful in protecting our industry and our clients. We need to continue to place top priority on these efforts. However, we also need to continue to keep our Kansas eye on Washington as flood insurance, crop insurance, and health care continue to see increased federal regulation. Through my service on the IIABA National Crop Task Force, I’ ve seen first-hand how valuable direct interaction is with USDA / RMA. We must continue to support Insurpac and our National lobbying efforts if we hope to keep further federal regulation at bay.
2) Market Access Our agencies have differing needs for market access, but as I’ ve seen from a growing agency standpoint, we all still have risks that need specialized programs. Through AScK, we are providing access that all members can utilize. Throughout the coming year, we will be redoubling our efforts to make sure all members are aware of the market opportunities available to assist the growth of our members.
3) Learning As a professional insurance agent, we should look to education as more than fulfilling our CE requirements. In a constantly changing industry, our learning should be directed to the needs our agencies face. As a Diamond Award recipient, KAIA’ s education
LYLE DAVIDSON KAIA President
offerings are second to none. Our education committee will continue to evaluate our member’ s education needs, and provide high quality services to meet those needs.
4) Community As independent businesses, sometimes we can feel like we’ re on an island operating alone. KAIA provides multiple opportunities annually to connect with other members and companies to benefit from sharing information and learn from each other. Meeting agents from other parts of the state with common interests allows us to address our common difficulties and rely on each other’ s solutions.
5) Knowledge Our member force is full of experts in insurance lines, technology, policy forms, and agency management. Our committee members work diligently to bring those strengths as well as knowledge to KAIA. In the end, we can all benefit from the mobile apps, web development, social media content, policy form revision, and market needs that our committees generate for our association.
I’ m humbled to spend the next year as your KAIA President. Our staff, executive team, and board will continue to work to improve our industry on your behalf. As we communicate the benefits of your membership with you throughout the year, please share with us any additional items we can develop. Feel free to contact me any time at 785-392-4777 or lyledavidson @ thedavidsonagency. net.
2 KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER | November- December 2016 |