(Millionaire Club) many times. I have always qualified for conventions both state and national. I am Bronze Tablet currently and will be Silver Scroll next year. I have served on several other boards and have also taught classes in insurance and business at two universities in my area.

I am looking forward to working with NASFA's current board and all our members. It has always been my goal since joining the board seven years ago to continue to help grow NASFA as a professional organization to provide help and services to our members with their agency operations. In the last few years we have expanded services of the board to our members by adding a VP of Member Services and VP of Technology. If you go to www.nasfa.com, you will see new categories for both of these VP positions. You will also see many topics of interest to help agents run their agencies more efficiently and grow with new tools for marketing using current methods such as Internet leads, e-mail marketing, better direct mail programs and systems to manage the daily office challenges.

I know how much time and effort it takes to run your agencies. We are looking for ways to provide agents with alternatives to train you and your staff without taking time out of your office. We are currently ready to start “virtual training” that you can access on a computer right in your office. The first of a series that we hope to have is for Microsoft Office. We have a Microsoft person who will provide the training for Office 2010. We are working to provide many other programs similar to this and are looking for agent input as to what type of training you would like for you the agent and your staff.

There is a lot of conversation by State Farm as to other on line ways to get in front of clients and prospects. Twitter and Facebook are two State Farm is currently encouraging agents to consider. There are many good features of these two program as well as many pitfalls. Our VP of Technology is on top of all this and would be the person to contact with questions or help.

One of the other great benefits of being a member is our quarterly publication, The Mirror. Our VP of Publications has been the editor of this fine publications for many years, but two years ago was asked to be VP of Membership. He is now back as VP of Publications and he has The Mirror again full of interesting and helpful articles from board members and outside sources as well. This is another area in which I would like to see our members get more involved and contact this VP with articles they would like to see in The Mirror. As members, you can submit articles for consideration. We are always looking for ideas to research and publish articles about.

We have one VP of Membership now for the whole country. Recently we have had an increase in members, both current agents and retired agents. One of my goals for the next two years is to increase our membership by big numbers. Agents realize the need for a professional organization such as NASFA today more than ever with all the changes in their zones and company wide .
NASFA is there to support our members. Whenever they have questions or concerns about these changes, NASFA is the place to go. I ask each member to get at least one fellow agent to join and use all the benefits NASFA has to offer.

We just started a program to offer TICA agents a FREE one year membership. We realize how difficult it is for many to make money in the first five years of their agency careers. We know they are watching their dollars and dues to a professional organization would be toward the bottom of their list of things to do. For those who do not want to be known as a member, we have anonymous memberships as well.

Another benefit NASFA offers is our legal services. Bob O’Connor has served NASFA for more than 12 years as legal counsel and is very well versed on the State Farm system, agency contracts and agency operations. He is ready and willing to help you with your questions and he is just a phone call away. For members of NASFA, this is a free service that many members have used over the years and are using today.

We have many retired agents as members. Though many former agents feel there is no longer a need to be a member, our VP of Retired Agents has been providing help to answer questions former agents have as well as questions from those who are ready to retire. He is one of the founding members of NASFA and has a wealth of knowledge to offer from his outstanding career as agent and for the years he has been retire and served in his current VP position. He has helped many agents up to now and loves to work with help members today. I encourage agents ready to retire or currently retired to use his expertise.

All agents should visit NASFA's web site from time to time. There a many topics open to all agents member or not. Then there are areas for members only. We have two open forums for agent use. NASFA’s Round Table is for members only that is password protected . It is a good place to ask questions of your fellow agents to discuss any agency matters in private with member agents. There is also another forum, TICA Agent issues. This is open to anyone and does not have any privacy protection. For non TICA agents, I would suggest that you read this from time to time which will help you understand the issues our new TICA agents are having.