Nonprofit

While the library has always been a nonprofit organization, the last year or so has been non-profitable for many across all business sectors. At a national meeting of insurance educators, it was revealed that most of the schools experienced a 20% or more drop in enrollment. This was attributed to employers being less willing or able to pay for education and employees, unsure if they will still have a job, not being willing to pay for the education and hope for reimbursement when they've completed it.

We have had several individuals and firms drop their memberships, despite how much more cost-effective it is to leverage the library's many subscriptions instead of having to subscribe to them separately. One member told us that they had not renewed their membership "for budgetary reasons, i.e. the evil geniuses / scoundrels of Wall Street negatively affected our business."

The library, too, has directly felt the effects of the market decline. We rely on memberships, class enrollments, and endowments to fund the provision of our services. Those endowments are invested and when the market dipped, so did our accounts.

Despite the poor economic atmosphere, the library still manages to provide services at the same level to our students, members and to the public. We have maintained a full course schedule, giving member discounts to those who are unemployed and maintaining the high standards for which we're known.

In the face of budget constraints, the library still maintains subscriptions to most of the leading insurance publications, and we've continued our commitment to preserving our historical collection (this is especially assisted by generous donors who support our adopt a book program and amazon wish list)

Consumers are more hesitant than ever when choosing an insurance company and the library is more than happy to help them through the maze of available information. When appropriate, we point them in the direction of the Division of Insurance, and The NAIC consumer information source (which provides consumer complaint information) to help them make insurer choices. We also assist them with Financial Stability Ratings so they can gauge what companies are likely to stay in business in the future and be financially able to pay claims.

This week we've had several new people and organizations join the library; twelve class sessions have met; and the stock market has improved. Clearly, this is all great news for the library, and we like to think bodes well for the economy in general. As an organization that has weathered The Great Depression and now what could be referred to as a Dysthymic Economy, we plan to stick around, no matter what the outlook, for quite some time.

On a completely separate note, we wanted to include one last picture from our big event --it's my personal favorite from all eight years, we hope you enjoy it too.

In This Case, You'll Have to Settle for 1,000 Words

We're new to this blogging thing, and have only had a digital camera for the last six months. . . these are the excuses we're using for why we forgot to take pictures at Friday's wine and cheese reception for the Society of Risk Management Consultants. It may also be because we were too swept up in the fun; multiple tours were given of our facility, and there was plenty of lively discussion of insurance related issues, not to mention a fair amount of wine and cheese consumption.

We did promise pictures though, and we always deliver on our promises. We've managed to post the pictures for the Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony earlier than we planned. If you're interested in taking a look at all of the pictures, please just click over to our shutterfly site. The library will continue the tradition started last year and make a photo book that will be available for perusal at next year's event (we don't have an exact date yet, but it will be sometime next fall, stay tuned for more information).

The sponsor board which was located outside of the entrance to the event. These
generous sponsors help make the event possible.

The Award, it's hard to see the beautiful dupioni silk matting and the hand
lettering in this picture, but trust us, it's gorgeous.

The award winners past and present (not pictured are Ronald Mariano and John B. Conners).

The awarding of the award, by president of The Library's Board of Trustees, K. Douglas Briggs.

Each year, CAR has generously donated a portrait of the winner which is hung in the library for a year and then given to the award winner. Above, Ralph "Buddy" Iannaco, president of Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers and 2005 Insurance Professional of the Year Award winner is presenting Richard W. Brewer with his portrait.

Again, more pictures are available on the shutterfly site we've created.

A Whirlwind

Perhaps you've noticed the library hasn't posted lately? The annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony took up so much of our time it was hard to stay on top of our research requests etc. let alone keep up with the blog.

The event was great (if we do say so ourselves). The winner was a popular choice and the speeches given were heartfelt and inspiring. Today, we're still playing catch up with some of our requests from Friday, but over all the schedule is back to normal. We should be able to post a link to pictures of the event in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, we're looking at a lovely bouquet of flowers kindly sent to us from the award winner (thank you) and working on planning a tour of the library and reception for the Society of Risk Management Consultants on Friday (more pictures to follow from that next week).

Moving Right Along

As mentioned in our previous post, The Insurance Library Association of Boston's Insurance Person of the Year Award Ceremony is fast approaching. In the last couple of weeks, we've:

received the Award in the mail

and prepared it for framing

we've ordered tassels for the programs

and dusted off our seal

We've also started formatting the letter of congratulations to be published in the October 9, 2009 edition of The Standard. Starting in 2007, The Insurance Library and others in the industry published a letter of congratulations for the winner of the Insurance Professional of the Year Award in The Standard. While it is a fairly young tradition, we think it's a very visible demonstration of our pride that the winner is a member of our community. A copy of last year's letter can be seen on our website.

The letter is also a good way for individuals or companies who might not be able to attend the event to show their support for the winner. If you're interested in "signing" the letter of congratulations for Richard W. Brewer, either by having your logo included or your name printed under the letter, you can be added by clicking here. It is $125 and we must have all logo submissions by September 18, 2009 to ensure that our letter will make it in the October 9, 2009 edition of the standard.

Back to the Books

It's that time of year again, the library is abuzz with classes starting and we're busy preparing for our seventh annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony. As of today, the library has 30 tables spoken for, leaving only five up for grabs (you should definitely lay claim to a table soon if you're interested in attending). This Year's winner is a popular choice, Richard W. Brewer of Promutual Group.

We were asked awhile ago what made the Insurance Professional of the Year Award special. While it states on our website:

Made possible by the establishment of the Richard B. Simches Fund in 2001,the Insurance Professional of the Year Award is presented each year to a person who demonstrates leadership and exemplifies those qualities that engender understanding of and respect for the insurance industry.

it may not be obvious what an honor this award is, nor from what tradition it stems.

The Insurance Professional of the Year Award was preceded by the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters Man of the Year Award, which started in the 1950s. In the History of the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters, published on their 90th anniversary in 1955, it cites:

Among the "firsts" pioneered by the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters or its members were: The Coinsurance Clause, The Demolition Clause, Use and Occupancy
Insurance, The Agreed Amount Clause for benefit of fiduciaries, and, in more
recent years, The Fire Marshall Plan, Insurance Producers Council, New Standard
Fire Policy, The Greater Boston Fire Show and The Man of the Year Award.

Clearly, they valued the award, putting it among some very impressive "firsts." The award was presented every year at the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters anniversary dinner. It was a black tie affair that garnered much publicity. Below is an announcement of the 99th anniversary dinner which ran in the Boston Globe:

As you can see, the winner of that year's award was Maurice H. Saval, a major supporter of The Insurance Library, for whom the education center was named. The Boston Board of Fire Underwriter's award was last given at the 133rd anniversary dinner in 1996 to Francis A. Mancini.

Richard B. Simches, founder of Safety Insurance Company, believed that it was important to recognize outstanding individuals in the Insurance Industry. He supported continuing the tradition started by the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters Man of the Year Award through The Insurance Library's Insurance Professional of the Year Award.

The Insurance Professional of the Year Award winners are chosen by a group of their peers. Members from a cross-section of the Insurance Industry meet to nominate the winner. Because of the selection process, award winners know they are being honored by men and women familiar with the industry and their work within it.

The Award was first given in 2002 to William F. Hofmann, III and has been awarded for the last seven years to professionals that have shown exemplary devotion to the insurance industry and to the betterment of their communities. You can visit our website to see a list of all of the award winners and read their contributions in their bios.

We are very proud of the award that has been established, but even more proud to acknowledge the incredible professionals in the insurance industry. Once a year, members of the industry come together to honor an individual "who demonstrates leadership and exemplifies those qualities that engender understanding of and respect for the insurance industry." We hope that you can be among those this year honoring Richard W. Brewer on this fine achievement.

Welcome to the Library

We thought it might be nice to start our first blog post ever with a virtual tour of the library. Because we're librarians though, and not videographers, this will be a low tech virtual tour. One of the membership benefits is acess to the library's conference and meeting rooms. While many members take advantage of this benefit, we wanted to be sure that all members were aware of it. This resource is especially useful for our members based outside of Boston who can use the library as a place to arrange meetings with clients and others when they are visting Boston.

The first stop on our tour is the Joseph Moore Room (it is sometimes also referred to as the A. M. Best Room Because of the number of Best publications housed there). The Joseph Moore Room is on the main floor of the library. Among other books, we keep in this room the NAIC Proceedings going back to the late 1800s, The Best Insurance Reports for Property Casualty and The Best Insurance Reports for Life Accident and Health both dating as far back as the early 1900s. This room also comfortably seats about six people at the table or ten including the surrounding area with a door that can be closed for more privacy.

Next up follow the beautiful spiral staircase down to the Board Room. This room has many of our historical publications including, Massachusetts Commissioners' Reports dating from the mid-1800's to the mid-1960's, bound journals, and other older reference materials. This room also has some beautiful fire insurance artifacts. On the walls are various fire marks (click here for more information on fire marks -- please note that this takes you away from our website and that we do not have a special relationship with/or necessarily endorse organizations that are linked to on this website) and we have plaques with firemen, along with a lovely three foot statue of a fireman. The board room sits twelve people around the large conference table very easily, but up to twenty people can be easily accomodated in this room including seating outside of the table.

Just off of the Board Room is the room often referred to as the Sanborn Map Room. The Library has a collection of Sanborn maps for all of New England. Our maps were last updated in the mid 1960's, but depending on the particular map they may be older or newer. Formerly, updates to the maps were done by gluing any changes over the older map. They are fascinating maps to examine and are used by fire insurers, architects, and surveyors, even today. The Sanborn Map Company is still in business, though they've updated their mapping techniques as technology has improved. The Map room can be used for small meetings: like the Joseph Moore Room above, it fits about six to ten people. Often, people will use the map room if they are having a catered lunch in the board room (though we do ask that people be extremely careful around the maps).

The Library occupies the basement, first and second floors at 156 State Street. The classrooms, where we offer our continuing education classes on site, are located across the hall, on the first floor, from the board room and in the basement. These rooms are also available for use by our membership if they are not already being used for classes. Below you can see two examples of the four rooms we have available. Each classroom has a white board, a screen for a projector and a podium. Depending on the classroom they can acommodate anywhere between fifteen and twenty people.

This concludes the tour of the library for today, but, hopefully, we will have many more posts in the future that will highlight what the library has to offer, both to the public and to the membership.