TAHU Update November 2005 Next Meeting Tuesday, December 13, 2005 Brier Creek Country Club Main Clubhouse 11:45 am, Luncheon Meeting Please RSVP before Friday, December 9, 2005 Register Online Guest Speaker Mel Schlesinger, RHU, REBC NAHU Region 5 Vice President and National Speaker Life As a Permanent Vacation Simple Steps to Achieving the Life of Your Dreams In this brief and entertaining talk you will learn how to make 2006 your best year ever without working yourself to death. You will also learn the following: Why trying to have balance in your life can be hazardous to your health Why everything that you have heard about goal setting is wrong The Powerlessness of a Positive Mental Attitude And more if time allows. Mel has over 30 years of commission-only sales experience. In 1983 Mel entered the insurance industry selling life insurance across the kitchen table. By 1985 Mel was making more money selling life insurance Monday through Thursday evenings than most of the people he knew that had real full-time jobs. Mel was hooked for life! 1987 saw Mel transition to the selling of employee benefit plans. While enjoying a successful insurance sales career, Mel was repeatedly asked why it seemed that he never really worked very hard. After analyzing his own career he discovered that his effortless success could be attributed to three key ideas: forget about needs and discover what someone wants, find high quality prospects and be passionately committed to being a salesperson. These concepts became the basis for Effortless Selling. With a desire to help other salespeople achieve their dreams Mel began a new business as a sales and business coach. To that end Mel graduated from Coach University in 2002, achieved the Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach designation that same year and ultimately became a Certified MasterStream Instructor in 2004. Today Mel is known throughout the country as the Effortless Selling Coach. Plan to bring your staff to this educational, entertaining, and motivating talk and get ready for a GREAT 2006! Lunch is $12 for members and $16 for Guests. Register Online Sponsored by: TBA President's Message: David Smith FROM THE TOP - News from your Association. We had a great meeting in November where we discussed the recent NCDOI rebating decision and the impact it will have on our community. We are fortunate in December to have Mel Schlesinger, our Regional Vice President and former NCAHU President, at our meeting to discuss sales tactics for agents. This is an exciting time for the Triangle Association and your Board is working hard on making great opportunities for our members to learn, share and improve our industry and relationships. For example, in November, December and January, we will be offering nine hours of continuing education for our members for the cost of the hours (and guests at a slightly higher price) on topics which impact your daily business. We need to continue to take responsibility for meeting our association's goals for the year: 10% membership growth, $5000 in contributions to HUPAC and winning the Pacesetter for our chapter for the first time in a number of years. I need your help to go out and recruit new members to join the Triangle Association of Health Underwriters - go to our website for information about joining TAHU. Also, I encourage you to visit our website regularly. With the great foundation laid by Michele Gregory, our website has been spruced up by Tony Gutierrez and has lots of great information about our upcoming events and other association business. Thank you for your commitment to our industry and this Association. David C. Smith David Curtis Smith & Associates, PLLC The Benefits & Insurance Law Center PO Box 13505 1218 Broad Street (27705) Durham, NC 27709 919-680-3300 919-882-9745 Fax President-Elect, Membership: Teresa Gutierrez Currently NAHU has over 20,000 members across the country, while we have 182 in our local chapter; you are the reason we exist. Your participation in lobbying and advocacy is the reason we've become a force in Washington and in Raleigh. Your recruitment efforts are why membership is up 33% over the past five years. Your contributions of your time and talent is why we have over 200 chapters across the country. Our association never wants to take these efforts for granted because, without all of you, we would suffer a fate experienced by countless other professional associations: declining members, shaky finances and a demoralized membership. One way to keep this from happening is by recognizing our members who go above and beyond by simply writing that check one time per year. NAHU created the President's Triple Crown Program to recognize those members whose individual contributions to NAHU help advance our association's mission. Like horse racing's Triple Crown recognizes the horse that can win three specific races. The President's Triple Crown recognizes people that help NAHU win in three key areas - HUPAC, Membership, and Advocacy. However, while racing's Triple Crown hasn't been won since Affirmed did in 1978, NAHU's Triple Crown can be won every year by hundreds of our members. Here's what you need to qualify for the Triple Crown. Within the calendar year, a member must: HUPAC: Participate in $10 x 12 draft program or contribute $150 total Membership: Recruit two or more new members Advocacy: Use Operation Shout to send three or more messages Members who achieve Triple Crown will be recognized in a variety of ways, including a unique "President's Triple Crown" lapel pin, special ribbons at Capitol Conference and Annual Convention, recognition in HIU magazine and on NAHU's website, and through press releases sent to a qualifiers' local newspapers. Each requirement by it's self is not difficult, but together they help reinforce NAHU's position as America's premier association for health and employee benefits professionals. Many of our members qualified in 2004, will we be recognizing you in 2005? Teresa C. Gutierrez, LUTCF Integrated Benefit Solutions, Inc. PO Box 638 Cary, NC 27512 919-880-5151 919-882-9091 Fax Law and Legislation: Antonio Gutierrez HOUSE SPEAKER JIM BLACK ANNOUNCES HEALTH CARE STUDY COMMITTEE RALEIGH - N.C. House Speaker Jim Black (D-Mecklenburg) announced a new health care study committee, which will meet during the next seven months prior to the start of the 2006 short session in May. The House Select Committee on Health Care will be chaired by Reps. Edd Nye (D-Bladen), Thomas Wright (D-New Hanover) and Bob England (D-Rutherford). Nye is a chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and vice-chairman of the Insurance Committee and owns an insurance agency, Wright is the chairman of the Health Committee and a former Emergency Medical Services instructor, and England is vice-chairman of the Health Committee and a doctor. The House Select Committee on Health Care will study issues such as the rising cost of health care, access and affordability in communities across the state, the rising number of uninsured and underinsured North Carolinians, accountability and patient safety, North Carolina's State Health Plan, the state's Medicaid program, and the increasing cost on our state budget. The committee will also make recommendations on how the state can better educate people about the importance of primary care, prevention and health education. For more information and updates, please visit nctahu.org Antonio Gutierrez Integrated Benefit Solutions, Inc., Cary PO Box 638 Cary, NC 27512 919-345-7957 919-882-9091 Fax Continuing Education: Hannah B. Baggett We are working hard to provide continuing education thoughout the year. Here's a list of upcomming courses. 12/5/05 "Self-Funded Health Plans" Course #17389, Tom Snell, 3 hours. 1/10/06 "Medicare Part-D" Teri Pritchard, No course # as of yet, 2 hours. 2/14/06 "Trends and Changes in LTD" Course # 17195, Dean Holmes, 3 hours. 3/1/06-3/3/06 NCAHU Symposium. 4/11/06 Health Savings Accounts, United Healthcare, tentative. 6/13/06 "How Does a Drug Card Really Work" Course #17417, Michael R. Webb. Hannah B. Baggett Progressive Benefit Solutions, LLC 100 St. Albans Drive, Suite 202 Raleigh, NC 27609 919-781-4004 919-781-4487 Fax Website: Antonio Gutierrez We continue to make enhancements to the nctahu.org website including: Enhanced security of member's email addresses by encoding them to prevent spam software from gathering email addresses. Adding a "Register Online" link to enable members and guests to register for monthly lunches. Monthly membership page updates to keep member information current. CE Survey tool to help identify continuing education needs of our members CE Register Online to register for upcomming CE courses. "Write Your Legislator" web sticker to enable members to write their representative by ZIP code. All enhancements are designed to meet the needs of our association and its members. Antonio Gutierrez Integrated Benefit Solutions, Inc., Cary PO Box 638 Cary, NC 27512 919-345-7957 919-882-9091 Fax As the success of the Triangle Association of Health Underwriters largely depends upon the benevolence of corporate contributors, we are proud to honor the following organizations for their continued support of our many programs and activities: Diamond Sponsors 2005-2006 Please extend your appreciation to the Triangle members representing these organizations and remember their generosity when placing coverages. Triangle Association of Health Underwriters P.O. Box 19177 Raleigh, NC 27619-9177