Council Director's Message
Greetings Members of California.
I am excited to begin this journey as your Council Director (CD). The next two years will be action-packed with anticipated growth and development throughout the state. As your CD, it is important that members are invited to be involved, presented with educational and networking opportunities as well as having an extended leadership ladder should they want to move up in this organization. The Public Relations and Membership Chairs have formed strong teams that will bring experience, knowledge, excitement and new ideas to California Council of IAIP. Please check the “YOUR TEAM” page on this website.
One of the first programs that we are inviting members to be involved in is the Ca Members Leadership Summit being held on July 28th. This is the first project your Council Cabinet will be working on as a team. It is for all members and if you are new to IAIP, I encourage you to attend. You can find more information in the Calendar section of this website. The Insurance Associates of Fresno (IAOF) is also working hard to prepare for the CA Council Meeting that will be held October 12th and 13th at the Hotel Piccadilly in FresYes. More information regarding this will be coming from IAOF shortly.
Communication is the key to a successful team and the organization, so as your Council Cabinet we plan on communicating with members as frequently as we can to keep you apprised of upcoming events and or programs. For Associations, kindly forward your current President, membership and program chair’s contact information to Dawn Manzano, CISR the Public Relations Chair@ dmanzanoiaip@gmail.com and Jenny Schaeffler, the Membership Chair @jschaeffler@vericlaim.com. They will keep the Presidents and MAL’s of upcoming events. If you haven’t updated your personal profile on the IAIP website, please do as this is the way the Council Cabinet will be communicating with you.
If you have any ideas or would like to volunteer for a Chair or committee at the Council Meeting, please contact Laura Gutierrez, CIC, CPIW (NC Assistant) and Brooke Lesniak (SoCal Assistant) Helen Jang, CLP is still in the background assisting where and when I need it. You can also contact any member of the Council Cabinet.
Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride but well worth the thrill!
Remember, together we are L.I.N.K.E.D. to the past, present, and future of IAIP.
In fellowship,
Christine
Christine Chandler Tillett, PHR, CLP
Ca Council Director
Greetings,
Here we are a month and a half after the Council Meeting. It was a whirlwind of excitement and fun at the meeting. We started Friday with Education Day which included 2 continuing education classes, an ACR class and of course it would not have been complete without Regina Lemanowicz’s crafting class. The day finished with the Welcome Party filled with music, fun and laughter. A costume contest brought in Mark Coberly with a fantastic costume of which many did not recognize that gave him 3 rd place, Margaret Lamdagan came in with her costume in 2nd place and winning overall best costume was Dave and Laura Gutierrez.
Saturday was an exciting time for me with leading my first council meeting. Thank you to all those on the various committees who helped bring the meeting together. In attendance we had many VIPs, including current and past RVPs, past international officers and of course past Council directors. We also had members from Hawaii and Nevada who joined us. Our CWC contest was amazing. During our Leadership Luncheon, we were enlightened with a talk from our Community Service project, Hoving Home, raising awareness of women in need. We raised donations totaling the amount of $1,275.
After Lunch, we had a great Keynote speaker, Jaz Pinero, who gave us information regarding the possible disability tax that may be applied to payroll withholding if one does not have a disability policy in place. We then completed our various reports and collected donations for the Legacy Foundation raising more than $800. It was then time to call for bids to hold the 2025, 2026 and 2027 Council meetings. Thank you, Insurance Professionals of San Francisco who has agreed to host the 2025 meeting and to San Diego Association of Insurance Professionals who have agreed to host the 2026 meeting. At this time there were no bids for the 2027 meeting.
The evening brought with it our Awards Banquet, A September to Remember, with announcement of our various awards. CWC winner this year was Margaret Lamdagan of South Bay Association of Insurance Professionals, and the runner-up was Mark McDonald of San Diego Association of Insurance Professionals. Membership retention awards went to San Francisco Insurance Professionals for Northern California and a tie between SDAIP and IPOC.
Unfortunately, there were no submissions for Young & New Professional or Rookie of the Year. Member of the Year award went to Christina Hernandez of SDAIP and Mentor of the Year was awarded to Shideh Rad of SDAIP. The Gayle Reskin Angel Award this year was awarded to a very worthy recipient, Andrea Setterstrom whose tireless work behind the scenes has not gone unnoticed. Congratulations to all our recipients.
My Council Team and I will be contacting the presidents of the local associations and the MALs to work on setting up times to have zoom meeting so we can all keep in touch and up to date on things happening and assisting where needed. We look forward to continuing what we have started so far this year and hope to see everyone either in person or on zoom meeting.
Always remember to Imagine the Possibilities.
Jody Nishida, CLP - CA COUNCIL DIRECTOR
Email: ca.councildirector@outlook.com