Campaign 21 boosts fund raising initiative in 2000

Thee message this year must center on Campaign 21. Early in the year 2000, the fund raising co-chairs, Max Williamson and Marcus Payne conceived a fund raising effort for the Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation and named it Campaign 21. The Foundation entered 2000 with $2.1 million in funds and pledges.

Campaign 21 seeks to add an additional $1 million by the end of the year 2002 bringing the total capital to $3 million. This level of funding was felt to be sufficient to generate the investment income necessary to sustain our current and targeted programs and leave some income each year for future growth. A major push was made just prior to the NAPSLO Annual Convention in Chicago and the co-chairs announced a significant gain of pledges of just under $500,000. We were well underway to achieving our goal.

Golf Tournament

The Foundation’s annual golf tournament raised $40,000 last February and the majority of those receipts were earmarked for the Kevin McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship Fund. With those additional funds the Scholarship Committee was able to grant the first scholarship in Kevin McLaughlin’s name. Additionally, the Roland L. Weigers Scholarship Fund expanded to a total of nine scholarships for the 2000/2001 school year thus rounding out the total number of scholarships to 10. We are quite pleased to be able to help a number of college undergraduate and graduate students in their academic endeavors.

Scholarships

The Scholarship activities are perhaps the most heartening for the Board of Directors because we are putting some returns back into the students pursuing an insurance related education. Hopefully these students will pursue a career in the insurance field and more specifically, the Excess and Surplus lines side of the business.

Another area that had activity over the past year was in the Grant Committee. The Foundation has underwritten the cost of the A.M. Best Company’s Annual Review of the Excess & Surplus Lines Industry study for the past seven years. The Foundation also has underwritten several research projects done at the university graduate level. The Grant Committee, having developed a brochure describing our commitment to underwriting such projects, made a solicitation of colleges and universities last fall. The Foundation is very interested in underwriting additional projects of merit dealing with the Excess and Surplus Lines Industry.

Lecture Series

One of the highlights of the year was hearing the third annual Foundation Lecture Series speaker, former Senator and 1996 Presidential nominee, Robert Dole. Sen. Dole has a very sharp wit and did a great job to open the NAPSLO convention in Chicago. This joint venture with NAPSLO has been a resounding success and will continue.

ASLI

The Associate in Surplus Lines Insurance (ASLI) designation program continues to provide a professional outlet for practitioners and students of the surplus lines insurance industry. This project was the first endeavor undertaken by the Foundation and remains one of its top priorities. The 1999/2000 class of completers was comprised of 52 individuals bringing the total number of designees to 402 since the first course was introduced in 1996.

We appreciate the support of the Insurance Institute of America in administering this program. I would encourage anyone interested in working in the surplus lines industry to pursue this designation. Education and Professionalism, promoted by the designation program, will help us all to achieve better understanding of our business and professional recognition in the insurance industry.

I want to thank everyone that has shown their generous support through their financial support and especially to those on the Board that have not only stepped up financially but also support me and the Foundation with their generous time commitment.

The conclusion of the Foundation’s ninth year is very exciting because we are drawing near our funding goal with Campaign 21, we are open for business in the Scholarship and Grant arena and we have a professional designation program for the industry. The Foundation has made a significant difference in how the Excess and Surplus Lines Industry is viewed by the overall industry and the regulators. But the job is not done yet.

As we embark on the 21st century we see definite signs of a market turn that calls on the surplus lines industry to answer. With better understanding of how the surplus lines industry works and provides a viable answer to the numerous problems that confront many insureds and many insurance producers, we can all benefit. Please support your Foundation by putting something back into the industry that has supported you so well. A contribution to the Foundation will help us to attain our goals and to assist us to address your education needs.

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph D. Timmons, CPCU, ASLI

President

Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation, Ltd.