“The Final Word”
By Mike Ryan
I find it hard to believe my year as President is up. Like many things in life the year goes by fast. Right when you figure things out it is time to move on. So let's recap the year and see what we have done!
Objective #1
Provide timely updates on Healthcare Reform in Washington, Texas and Dallas.
August- Town Hall Meeting with Congressman Pete Sessions
September- Update and Panel with John Stacy from ?Not in Texas?
October-Dr. Devon Herrick from the Goodman Foundation on solutions for
Healthcare costs
March-Texas Representative Carl Isett from Lubbock discussing his ideas on
HCR.
April- Author Dave Racer discussing the new law.
June-Janet Trautwein provide the latest from Washington on the progress of
detailing the bill.
Objective #2
We saw membership drop in the low 350 at the beginning of the year. Then as we
started 2010 things changed. Our dynamic membership team of Lisa Lilley and
Doris Waller hit their stride. We started to grow and when April came we were at
390 members! Our goal was 370 members and a retention level of 78%. We did
both and because of their hard work and dedication we were recognized as the
Large Chapter of the Year for Texas!
Objective #3
Provide a Strong Educational Focus (CE?s) dealing with Legislative issues and
Educate the Community on the HCR debate
Tamela Southan & Jacqueline St Hilaire lead the way for us in Texas with both
serving on the TAHU State Board in Legislative positions.
Attended the Washington DC Fly in July. (Tamela, Diane Vickers, Patrick Skinner
(Legislative team) and Donna McCright (trustee)
Organized Town Hall Meetings in Summer & Fall. Diane Vickers & Rosemary
Deininger lead the way including meetings in Rockwall, Arlington & Lewisville.
Cobra Seminar in January- 6 hours of CE provided by Ouida Peterson from Conexis.
SB 80 Panel in February-Carrier panel with representatives from BC, Humana and United.
SB 79 CE- 8 hours of CE provided under the watchful eyes of Patrick Skinner.
Objective #4
Represent our Chapter for all Health Underwriter functions throughout the year.
Attend Quarterly State Board Meetings for TAHU in Austin
January-Attended Day at the Capital Meeting in Austin. Patrick Skinner lead our team.
March-Attended Capital in Washington DC. Diane Vickers set the lobbying agenda.
June-NAHU Conference in Chicago. One of the largest Chapter?s for attendance.
Objective #5
Be good stewards of our Annual Budget, raise Funds for Charity, give time back to our Community.
We did better than our annual budget thanks to watchful eyes of Stu Dunkle our Treasurer.
Raised $8,000 for Jonathon?s Kid?s through our annual golf tournament under Mike Symons our
tournament director great effort.
Held Jingle Jam in December and raised $1,000 of toys and cash for Toys for Tots. Great job
Sandy Brown!
Special thanks to Carolyn Goodwin, Rosemary Deininger and others for their dedication to offering
CHIP enrollment at Mesquite and Arlington ISD to help provide insurance for about 1,000
uninsured children!
Thanks to others on the board for their ongoing help throughout the year. Chris Higman for keeping
our Education requirements for CE credits straight, Larry French spreading the word and pictures to
the media about what we were doing , and Taryn Starling for keeping us documented for record
keeping as our Secretary!
Finally please keep up the fight in the next year to ?Save our Private Healthcare System?! It is the
best in the World. Good luck to David Cheek and the new board! I hope that you will consider helping
out this year. It is a great way to give back to your industry and a chance to work with some
outstanding people! Thank You!!
