NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2015 - (Page 7)

chairman's corner Control, Alt, Delete... W DAVID LONG NAILBA CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD ell, the kids and I had our first camp out in the backyard, so it must be summer-I hope everybody has some fun plans on the horizon if you can muster the strength to pull away from your desk for a few days over the next couple months. Technology? Really? I normally don't like to give away any of my proprietary secrets, but the above headline is pretty much how I fix anything on my computer. Feel free to try it, just don't tell your IT guy where I live. With that, it's safe to say I never thought I'd find myself writing a column about technology. My technology experience began in the fall of 1982. I was in seventh grade and I was in one of the first Computer Science courses offered in junior highs anywhere. The computer was a Timex Sinclair, with a gas bubble keyboard and total memory of 2k. 2k?? I think the bowl of Cheerios I had for breakfast this morning had more memory than that! It was groundbreaking enough that local media came out and did several stories on this course being offered. Around the same time, my father was working as a regional for a carrier that had just bought all the reps PCs. They flew everybody out to the home office for two weeks of training. He converted the conference room into the "Computer Room"- after all, with 128k to work with, you had to spread out! And my dad would literally have me go down to the office to help him because I knew more about computers than most adults. Unfortunately, that was about the last time I had an edge on technology. Now MY kids have to help ME. Today it's about social media, smart phones, search engine optimization, etc. Like many fellow NAILBA members, I can use most of these things, but optimizing their capabilities can be quite challenging. Since this is a common issue amongst NAILBA membership, we have engaged in a few major initiatives to help members get the most out of the latest technologies that can help our business. In the early days of NAILBA, members were pretty much on their own for their technology needs. The Technology Committee was our largest committee, and the spring Focus meeting was essentially all about tech related topics. Insurance guys, my dad included, had to figure out how to get things done without the benefit of the vendors that are now in this space. My dad even wrote a term comparison program himself believe it or not! However, as this part of our business has matured, these tasks are primarily handled by companies in the technology business. This has had a positive impact on innovation and our ability to respond to advances. This change also morphed the NAILBA Technology Committee into the independent Life Brokerage Technology Committee (LBTC). Now it's time to strengthen and optimize the working relationship between NAILBA members and the LBTC. We have formed a board subcommittee to accomplish this task. They will obtain a list of key questions for our members from the LBTC, NAILBA staff will get the questions out to the membership and return the results to the sub-committee. The sub-committee will then develop recommendations based on the answers. Lastly, we'll get together with LBTC to review recommendations to help shape future action plans. This will be an ongoing process and should really benefit all those involved with technology to focus efforts on the most current needs. I hope I'm not alone in my struggle to get on board the social media phenomenon. I may never get a personal Facebook page, but that doesn't mean I can't use social media to help market the agency. We've had several successful calls this year with the Agency Successor Networking Group on this very topic. We were advised that the first step is a strong website, which is something we understand, so that was a relief. More relief came when I came to understand my engagement level was about average-we all know misery loves company. Our sister organization, Life Happens, is launching a new program called Life Happens Pro. This is a self-service, online platform that, among other things, offers brokers and advisors a simple and costeffective way to up their social media game. Instead of spending money and time trying to conjure up the next great post to your Twitter feed-Life Happens Pro can provide those posts for you. That's just one example. Later in this issue, you'll find my interview with Life Happens Chair Marc Schwartz where we get into the details of this exciting new initiative. When it comes to technology, NAILBA is here to help. I hope you find this issue of Perspectives informative and come away with some ideas that will help increase your production and/or efficiency. And remember, if you're backed into a corner...Control, Alt, Delete... Happy Summer! www.nailba.org 7 http://www.nailba.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2015

NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2015
Contents
Chairman’s Corner
CEO Insights
What is the Future of Straight Through Processing?
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Member Profiles
Mooers Award Nominations
Agency Successor Networking Group
Life Happens
NAILBA 34 Program Preview
Reading Ahead
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers

NAILBA Perspectives - July/August 2015