Thanks for the Memories

Dear Editor:

I would like to commend you for your November/December 40th anniversary edition. A lot of research and interviewing took place and you did a great job portraying the industry's milestones of 40 years. The pictures were an enjoyable addition; I'm not sure where — or how — you found them, but I'm glad you did.

Thank you for your years of covering our industry and our association. I look forward to the new look and the news from Financial & Insurance Meetings magazine.
Sharon P. Chapman, CMM, CMP
Berkshire Life Insurance
Company of America,
Pittsfield, Mass.
FICP president-elect, 2007

Reply: Thanks to all the planners and hospitality partners who posed for my camera during the past year, to FICP for letting me sort through archival materials, and to Lynn Averill, National Life Group, and Marilyn Brumbaugh, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, for sharing their photos of yesteryear. — RB

Dear Editor:

Thank you for bringing back wonderful memories. The 40th anniversary issue is great. I loved reading the comments from all the people whom I once knew, and I loved seeing Karen Hopkinson in the issue as well. They sure were a great group — I can understand why ICPA became such a success. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this issue. I will keep it forever.
Shirley Mertz, CMP
Retired
ICPA president, 2000
Columbus, Ohio

Dear Editor:

Congratulations to Financial & Insurance Meetings magazine. I really enjoyed reading your November/December issue. I've been dedicated to the insurance and financial services industry for over 30 years, and it was fun to look back with the timeline and the ICPA article — a walk down memory lane.

I served on the Hospitality Partner Committee in 1991 and 1992, when Patti Mottolese was Chair. That was an exciting time. Under Frank Anton's direction, the association saw many firsts — including the first ICPA policies and procedures manual — and membership climbed to nearly 400! This was also the time that the HP Committee formalized its structure, allowing a wider range of suppliers the opportunity for representation. It is great to see the progress the HP Committee has made over the years.

We've come a long way as an industry. For me, it has been very rewarding, both professionally and personally, to have mentored many insurance sales professionals. I'm happy to see the association move forward with its name change to FICP, but hope they won't lose sight of the importance of the third parties who dedicate their efforts to the insurance and financial meetings market.

Thank you for an outstanding job.
Lynette F. Owens
President
Lynette Owens & Associates
Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

Dear Editor,

Congratulations on the material you put together on the Insurance Conference Planners Association (now FICP). It represented a lot of time and effort in doing all the necessary research.

Sooner or later someone's likely to call your attention to the fact that I was actually with Northwestern National Life, not Northwestern Mutual Life. The similarity of the two company names caused lots of confusion for many years, but Northwestern National Life was headquartered in Minneapolis and Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee. Northwestern National Life was renamed ReliaStar several years ago, partly because of the aforementioned confusion, and about three or four years ago it was bought by ING, a foreign company with international headquarters in Amsterdam and national U.S. headquarters in Atlanta. Jana Stern is the meeting planner for what is now the branch of ING, based in Minneapolis, with which I was formerly associated.
Frank Anton
Retired
ICPA President, 1991
Minneapolis, Minn.

Dear Editor:

I just took a quick trip to Florida, which allowed me to read the debut issue of Financial & Insurance Meetings from cover to cover (on the plane — our only moments of peace without e-mail or phone calls!). What a fantastic job you and your editorial and art team did putting this issue together. The industry timeline was great! I also thought that the article about FICP was very inspirational. I particularly enjoyed all the words of wisdom from our association members and hospitality partners. Thanks for a really terrific issue.
Jennifer C. Squeglia, CMP
Director, Meetings and Client Events
Fidelity Brokerage Co.
Boston, Mass

Financial & Insurance Meetings welcomes letters to the editor, which may be copy edited for length and clarity. Please e-mail your letter to regina.baraban@penton.com.