Insurance industry event revitalized through nonprofit group

Topics for I-Day’s breakout sessions include loss mitigation, application fraud, no-call regulations, long-term care, claims bad faith and a legislative update, according to Konrad Hendrickson, associate general counsel at American National Property and Casualty.

Hendrickson is president of The Ozarks Insurance Day Committee, a nonprofit corporation formed by local insurance professionals to revitalize Ozarks I-Day. “Many of the local insurance agencies will get involved in terms of sponsorships, speaking and becoming involved in helping put this together,” Hendrickson said.

Re-establishing the event again after its two-year hiatus was a challenge, Hendrickson said. “It took us a little bit of time to get on our feet and basically reorganize, and we did it in time for the 25th year – it won’t be the 25th annual, but it will be the 25th year that we’ve had Insurance Day in Springfield.”

A nonprofit corporation, Ozarks Insurance Day Committee was formed to provide proper accounting for the funds coming in for the event, Hendrickson said. Affiliated groups include: Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Insurance Association of the Ozarks, Southwest Missouri State University Insurance Fraternity, Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc., Schoolnet Academy of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Management Development Institute, Springfield Claims Association and SMSU Baker Chair of Insurance.

The formation of the nonprofit organization “will also give us something looking forward, I think, that will really help solidify the organization,” Hendrickson said. “For us as members of the nonprofit, liability is obviously something of a concern when you’re throwing together something like this. Before, we fell under SMSU in terms of them doing all the administration. We felt like formalizing it would make it a little easier.”

Hendrickson said the nonprofit corporation was established with the intent of holding Ozarks Insurance Day for more than one year. “We have every intention of continuing this. Everybody that’s involved is very dedicated. We have a lot of folks from the local insurance organizations. In the past, we’ve all been committed to it, and SMSU and the Baker Chair always carried a lot of the load. We have every intention of continuing the tradition.”

Virginia Mee, former director of SMSU’s Management Development Institute, helped organize and conduct the event for about 20 years. Now retired, Mee said the event’s recent lapse was due to a variety of situations that prevented it from taking place, including a lack of interest from and changes within the insurance industry. “The insurance industry was going through revolutionary changes, particularly in the health insurance industry, and the changes were so great that people didn’t know quite where they belonged or what they were doing,” Mee said.

Past Insurance Days, Mee said, were sponsored by the insurance department and the Management Development Institute at SMSU, and by various professional organizations to provide a way for insurance professionals to network.

“They don’t usually get together because their interests are different and they have different professional organizations, so this was a day to get together, to learn a lot about what was happening at SMSU, because SMSU has the only insurance major for students in the state of Missouri,” Mee said.

The Management Development Institute has relinquished its past role of planning and conducting the event, and this year its only involvement will be indirectly, through the school’s Baker Chair of Insurance, according to Marilyn Martin, director of the Management Development Institute.

John Patton, SMSU instructor and Baker Chair of Insurance, has been involved with each Insurance Day event. Patton said other insurance industry events are held throughout the country, with many focusing on a single aspect of the industry.

“This one brings property and liability people, life insurance people and risk managers all into the same program, which is not typical. We did that to bring all the insurance community together for one meeting and it proved to be a good arrangement,” Patton said.

Speaking at this year’s event will be Mark Holmes of Nixa. Holmes is the author of “The People Keeper: How Managers Can Attract, Motivate and Retain Better Employees” and “Wooing Customers Back: How to Give Great Service and Increase Your Own Success.”

While Holmes is not in the insurance industry, Hendrickson said he feels the author’s presentation should be of interest to people from any industry.

“For anybody involved in performance management and that has to work with people, he has some great tips on retention, building loyalty, keeping employees motivated, keeping the better performers satisfied,” Hendrickson said. “That goes beyond insurance, and maybe there will be some interest outside the industry, from managers who would like to hear about performance management.”

A sponsorship drive is under way to fund various sessions throughout the event, with sponsorship levels ranging from $100 to $1,000. “Our hope is if our sponsors that have supported I-Day in the past will sponsor again, we can put on a similar program or a better program. We’re pretty confident just by looking at past numbers that we can put together a great program,” Hendrickson said.

A Web site is under construction for The Ozarks Insurance Day Committee at here, and Hendrickson anticipates having Ozarks Insurance Day registration forms available on the Web site within the next two weeks.