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President’s Message

    Welcome to the APIW website. 

This is my last message to you as APIW’s President. It has been a pleasure serving as your President. The past two years have been an incredible experience, both professionally and personally. In thinking about this column, I recalled the Buddhist statement that “the journey is the reward”. How true. 

Prior to being elected President of APIW, I served as First VP/Program Chair, Communications Officer, Chair of the Communications Committee and began my involvement with APIW as a member of the Communications Committee. I will still be involved with APIW as Immediate Past President and Chair of the Woman of the Year Committee, however, as Laurie Kamaiko, my predecessor has said to me, “Past Presidents are like your mother-in-law”. So, before I go off into the sunset, I want to remind you of the accomplishments of this Board, which are considerable.

Programs are the life-blood of APIW. They are the main focus for any President, First VP/Program Chair and the APIW Board. Successful programs build attendance at our monthly luncheons, which in turn, build awareness of APIW’s mission – to support, encourage and recognize the considerable achievements of women insurance professionals.

Over the past two years, attendance at our monthly luncheons went from a range of 45-60 to an average range of 75-90. This can be credited to the vision and connections of Cynthia Beveridge, APIW’s First VP/Program Chair, and our incoming President. She has been a pleasure to work with. Our program brainstorming sessions were a lot of fun. Because Cynthia knows everyone in the business, the speakers at our luncheons were superb. I can’t wait to see what she and Carol Ann O’Dea, our incoming First VP/Program Chair, come up with for the 2008 – 2010 Term!

During the 2006 – 2008 Term, APIW had several sold-out events – firsts in our history. The first was our January 2007 Joint APIW/CPCU CEO Luncheon featuring Hank Greenberg, Chairman of C.V.Starr & Co. Not only was it a sold-out event, but the event was covered widely by the insurance trade press. National Underwriter ran a cover story of the event under the banner headline “Hank is back!”

Our second sold-out event, held in March 2008 – women’s history month, was the brain-child of APIW Board Advisor, Lucille Sgaglione. The result was the first-ever Women’s Leadership Forum featuring Professor Linda H. Carli, co-author of Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership: the Truth about How Women Become Leaders. APIW co-hosted the event with 85 Broads, FWA (Financial Women’s Association), NAIW (National Association of Insurance Women) and NAWL (National Association of Women Lawyers). Hopefully, this will become an annual series of programs and the collaboration with other women professional organizations will continue to grow. Already, the Presidents of the co-hosting organizations have met for dinner twice to discuss women’s professional organizations, women and leadership, and how we can all work together to achieve our missions.

My passion – other than APIW – is communications. It’s what I do for a living. My company, Sherman Think Tank, provides advertising, marketing communications and public relations services to the insurance and reinsurance industries. Because of my professional expertise, I was able to help APIW focus on building awareness of our mission, luncheons and activities.

During the 2006 – 2008 Term, we launched a concerted media relations campaign surrounding our luncheons and events. I’m extremely pleased to announce that Tracy Buckholz has taken over this role as she, too, is a professional communicator and is eager to get APIW’s message out there.

We’ve completely re-vamped and freshened up the APIW Website. Through this venue, I’ve had the opportunity to reach out to the APIW community on a regular basis regarding topics and issues relevant to our members. During the 2006 – 2008 Term, I posted 11 messages and received numerous comments from members and non-members about these messages. Laura White, APIW’s Web Mistress, was instrumental in getting these messages posted monthly on the website and more importantly in making the APIW Website so attractive, user-friendly and information rich. I want to publicly thank her for her determination and dedication to APIW. Early in the term, Laura was transferred to Chicago and swiftly agreed to become Chicago Network Liaison to the APIW Board after Ann Murphy retired from the position. Laura is a phenomenal asset to APIW.

In another life, I helped re-design and freshen up the members-only newsletter – The Insider. Carol Ann O’Dea, Communications Officer, and Editor, Lisa Santasiero, have taken the newsletter to another level. It just gets better and better. Finally, during this term, APIW produced and distributed its first printed Annual Message to Members. It is my belief that these messages communicate what is being accomplished and this type of communication is critical to the success of any organization. For non-profits it’s even more important.

APIW’s Board serves as the executive management team, planning and implementing APIW’s activities. The Board meets monthly, requiring a substantial time commitment from Board members. I am extremely thankful for the support, advice and counsel of the APIW Board including Cynthia Beveridge, Bina Dagar, Angela Denny, June Dwyer, Laurie Kamaiko Carol Ann O’Dea, Denisa Sevastita, Lucille Sgaglione, Isabel Silvestri, Kathy Turck-Rose, Cheryl Vollweiler and Laura White. Without them, I could not have accomplished all that I did.

Another of my missions as APIW’s President was to provide the APIW Board with the tools to help individual members, and the Board entity itself, maximize effectiveness. To that end, I want to thank Linda Lamel, Esq., a former APIW Woman of the Year and a former APIW Board Member, for providing the APIW Board with a unique, hands-on training session describing the roles and responsibilities of a non-profit board member. Following this session, we developed a strategic plan based on APIW’s mission, outlined APIW’s goals, and established the framework under which APIW makes decisions about what activities APIW will support and implement.

In addition, I set up an informal group of advisors – Advisors Emeritus – to provide me with advice and counsel on how to build an effective Board. I want to thank Bill Fennell/AIG, Cathy Kalaydjian/Endurance Specialty Holdings, Linda Lamel, Esq., Maddy Lichtman/Arthur J. Gallagher and Cheryl Vollweiler/Traub Eglin Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry for their support, advice and counsel. They have been invaluable to me personally, to the APIW Board and to the organization.

Finally, the APIW Scholars Program has been dear to my heart as recruiting young people is important to the future of APIW and the insurance community. Kathy Turck-Rose made the APIW Scholars Program her personal mission. She set up a distinct and separate APIW Scholars Fund thanks to the assistance of Cheryl Vollweiler, Angela Denny and Linda Lamel. She also set standards for the selection of scholarship recipients and is building an alumni group of APIW Scholars going forward.

Last, but not least, I want to personally thank APIW’s Executive Administrator, Susan Barros, and her organization, The Beaumont Group. Without their help, advice and counsel, APIW could not do what it does. Sue provides the glue that holds it all together and her commitment to APIW and its mission ensures that we get things done. I am particularly amazed at her innate sense of how to run an event. Our events are successful because Sue and her organization ensure they are well run.

Thank you all. These past two years have been an incredible journey.  

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