Now is the time to be thankful. Thankful for our staffs, thankful for our clients, thankful for our industry associates. Before we get too wrapped up in the holiday crush, take a few minutes to outline the reasons we have to truly be thankful.
I am thankful for having the honor of working with a highly professional and truly amazing staff. YOUR professional staff here at IIAV. To a person, they are absolutely dedicated to the success of our member agents and their agencies. I’ve worked for a fair number of trade and professional associations in my career—my dad once accused me of not being able to hold down a job after working for one association for over 8 years—and our staff right now is truly one of the very best I’ve been associated with in close to 40 years.
And your IIAV Board of Directors—past and present. What wonderful people dedicated to their industry and profession. Selfless “activists” working for the betterment of our industry. To a person, they have worked to represent our members well and with honor. I would recommend to any IIAV member to seek and become engaged by providing service to the IIAV/VFSC/VAIA Boards of Directors.
And for our legal counsel, Doug Palais. Our members are well served by his thoughtful representation. Doug once told me that “I may be a bull dog ... but I’m YOUR bull dog,” and he was absolutely right. He is the right person in the right place in service to our membership. Virginia is very lucky to have Doug as our counsel.
And of course, I’m lucky to have YOU as a member of IIAV. I have always recieved high praise for independent insurance agents, even when I worked for other trade associations. I frequently remember telling members that they needed to see their local independent insurance agent. I guess these days I’m supposed to say, your local Trusted Choice independent insurance agent.
Our members are truly some of the best of the best and indeed it has been my honor to represent you before the Virginia General Assembly and the Bureau of Insurance. Many of you have become more than members and are friends and, again, for this I am deeply thankful.
I encourage you to let your clients know how much you appreciate them. That’s one way to distinguish your agency from the automated ".com agencies."
Thank you for being a “Big I” member and on behalf of the entire IIAV staff, we hope you have a GREAT Thanksgiving!
Robert N. Bradshaw, Jr., MAM
IIAV President & CEO
Independent Insurance Agents of Virginia