Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony

We are sorry for the silence on the blog while we were prepping for last Friday's event. The 13th Annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award ceremony was a success in every sense of the word!

We had a record number of attendees (almost 500) to honor this year's winner, Francis A. Mancini. We also had a record number of signers for this year's Letter of Congratulations published in The Standard.

We are so proud of what this event represents and how much it has grown in the last 13 years. It is through the support of those in the industry that this event is so successful. We owe a debt of gratitude to each of the organizations and individuals who has sponsored, donated, and attended this event for the past thirteen years. Not to mention to the exemplary professionals who have accepted the award; thank you.

Finally, don't miss the interview with Frank Mancini in today's edition of Agency Checklists.

Unmasking the 2014 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony

Insurance Professional of the Year Award Winners, Richard Brewer, John Golembeski, Michael Sabbagh, Francis Bellotti, Hope Aldrich, John Conners and Daniel Johnston at the 2013 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony

 

This year the Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony will coincide with Halloween. It's no trick, mark your calendars now for, October 31, 2014, when we'll be celebrating more than just All-Hallows'-Eve, as we honor a hallowed member of the Insurance Industry. 

The Insurance Professional of the Year is selected by a committee comprised of a cross-section of the industry. We value your input greatly as it helps the committee in their decision process. Please send in your nominations for the 2014 Insurance Professional of the Year as soon as possible.

As a reminder, the individual selected to be professional of the year shall be someone who: has earned the respect and affection of the insurance community and is recognized as hardworking, public-spirited, and trustworthy. 

The award is meant to honor outstanding citizens who have distinguished themselves through service to their industry and the community at large. If you know of a worthy candidate who fits these criteria, we'd love to hear about them. 

 
For a full list of the past winners, you can visit our website, here. Please forward any nominations for a 2014 winner that you might have to shart@insurancelibrary.org by April 1, 2014.

Onward & Upward

Sandra Glaser Parrillo, 2011 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Winner

Donald F. Vose, President of the Board of Trustees for The Insurance Library Association of Boston

I'm afraid this blog languished while we worked on the Education Fair in September and the Insurance Professional of the Year Event in October. November is suddenly upon us and we're shocked at how quickly our annual meeting is approaching.

I mentioned last year that after The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony it often feels like a new year around here (perhaps it's no coincidence that our event occurs in the same season as Rosh Hashanah). So I'm sure you'll pardon us as we reflect a little.

A lot has happened in the last year:

1. We've worked harder on maintaining our website and blog. We've started a LinkedIn profile for the library and we're exploring ways to make our library even more available electronically.

2. We've added more items to our adopt a book program, and to our wishlist (and we finally got the laptop we'd put on there several years ago!).

3. We held our first ever Education Fair (with a lot of support), and had our 10th Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony (which included a lot of firsts as well).

4. We put on our first ever (though, not last) silent auction during the social hour at The Award Ceremony -- thanks to a lot of support for that, we raised about $6,300 for the library!

Some staff changes include:

1. Our Director, Jean Lucey, changing her schedule to working three days a week.

2. Our "other" Jean, Jean Osborne, increasing her hours to three days a week (we don't ever want to be short a Jean).

3. Meagan completing another two CPCU tests on her way toward earning the designation.

It really does feel like a whirlwind, but we are glad that you were here for the ride!

Board?

We're overwhelmed with preparations for two big events this fall. The first is our Education Fair,scheduled for Thursday September 8th. We'd love it if you stopped by the Library to explore some of our course offerings, get education counseling or just to take a look at some of our spruced up classrooms. We'll have refreshments and drawings for some great prizes as well as insurance-related items free for the taking!

We're also working on preparing printed invitations for The 10th Annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony printed this week so that we can mail them out next week. We have 26 tables already reserved, leaving 9 still available (if you're interested, you should probably act soon!).

Since we’re so busy and I’m finally making a blog entry, you might think I would be popping in to discuss hurricane-related subjects-- a lively wind vs. water debate, perhaps. You'd be wrong though. I saw something interesting on the web and thought I would share it here for those who are interested. This spring, I wrote on earthquakes and one of the earthquakes mentioned was the one in New Zealand which damaged Christchurch Cathedral.

They've come up with a unique solution for an interim church. They're creating a cardboard cathedral. The architect has built similar structures in Japan, following their earthquake. You can read more about the solution here, here and here. I think (though I might be misunderstanding the model) that they'll even have stained glass windows. It's not a cheap solution, but it is supposed to last for a decade, at which point they hope to have a suitable replacement.

For those of you disappointed we didn't talk about hurricanes this time, I leave you with a link to this article. It reminds me of a scene from Low and Behold, an independent film dealing with claims adjusters in post-katrina New Orleans. There's a point in the movie where the main character attends a claims adjuster conference and the leader says:

I used to lay in bed at night and pray to God that he would bring a natural disaster on this country, a disaster so large as to bring massive property damage. No one would get hurt or die. But it would yield the largest claims the industry had ever seen.

The director said that he'd actually heard this speech given when he was training to be a claims adjuster but that no one believed him. Perhaps he wasn't making it up. . .

Still disappointed? How about this article from the New York Times which mentions:

While insurers have typically covered about half of the total losses in past storms, they might end up covering less than 40 percent of the costs associated with Hurricane Irene, according to an analysis by the Kinetic Analysis Corporation.

Tin, That's All?

The first year I started at the library was also the first year the library hosted The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony (for a history of the award please refer to this post). It's with much pride that we've reached the 10th anniversary of this award!

It turns out that classically 10th anniversaries aren't anything particularly special (they're not golden, or silver, just tin or aluminum). It is a notable achievement for the library, though. This year is the first year that a person from the greater New England area has been selected to receive the award. It is also the first year the award has been given to a woman.

The Library is happy to announce that this year's winner is Sandra G. Parrillo, CPCU, President and CEO of The Providence Mutual of Providence, Rhode Island and its subsidiary Providence Plantations Insurance Company. Ms. Parrillo is very active in the insurance industry nationally, including in her role as Director and Chairman of The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), as well as in her local community. A brief biography may be found on our website.

If you'd like to join the library in a letter of congratulations to Ms. Parillo, you're welcome to "sign" a letter which will be printed in the October 14th, 2011 edition of The Standard by going to our website. You can also register now for a seat or a table for the October 21, 2011 event at the same time, if you'd like. The options are listed on the left side of the ecommerce section of our website under the title: Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony Reservations. We will be sending out an official email announcement about the event next week followed by printed invitations sometime next month. We thank all of you for the continued support which has made the past ten years possible!

We'll Trade

We'd like to take this opportunity to share with you some teaser photos from The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony (all photographs courtesy of Emily Photography). In exchange for the pictures, we'd love to get 1,000 words (we'll settle for your two cents -- we are a non-profit after all).

As mentioned in our most recent newsletter, we're interested in people's memories and reactions to this year's event. Any suggestions for next year's event would also be welcome including recommendations for possible nominees (though we can't promise that they'll win). Please post your responses in the comments section below!

Michael J. Sabbagh, 2010 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Winner

Name Tags

Acceptance Speech

Presentation of the Portrait (provided each year by Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers)

Award Winners Past and Present

(from left to right)

Daniel J. Johnston, 2006 winner

William F. Hofmann, III, 2002 winner

David J. Lane, 2004 winner

Richard W. Brewer, 2009 winner

Michael J. Sabbagh, 2010 winner

John K. Golembeski, 2007 winner

Ralph "Buddy" Iannaco, 2005 winner

John B. Connors, 2003 winner

Not pictured: Ronald Mariano, 2008 winner

New Year's Resolution

When you're in school you follow the academic calendar, with the year starting in September. When you're in business your year starts with the new fiscal year. Here at the library, it's not official, but I feel like the year starts again after The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony is over (I might be the only one here who feels that way).

We just completed another busy start to our fall season and had a very successful (we think) event on Friday. So I feel it is time to make some new resolutions about our coming year. I vow that the library blog will no longer sit sadly neglected. We will attempt to post at least once a week, if not more.

While I cannot promise that each post will be long and descriptive, we would like to see this space be a place where we discuss current happenings at the library and in the insurance field as a whole. It might be that we just pop in and mention a great article in the New York Times that describes Insurance Exchanges (with a helpful image for clients); that we announce that the library has started an insurance fiction section (we have the entire set of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Mysteries); or we might ask you to respond with suggestions/comments on events and offerings from the library.

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.