December Luncheon A HUGE Success!

If you missed December’s luncheon, you missed out on some heartwarming seasonal cheer. For a number of little boys and girls Christmas came early thanks to your CCAHU. There were so many gifts (and smiles from the little ones) we thought we’d need a larger room. A SUV and another car was needed to transport the gifts after the meeting. But the highlight was when we were then treated to some holiday cheer from the first-graders at Lincoln Elementary who sang some beautiful carols for us.

Just as we all come from diverse insurance backgrounds to advance our industry, so too does this special time come with different ways of celebrating the warmth of the season, from Hanukkah and Christmas to Kwaanzaa and the Winter Solstice celebration. Although different, they all are a time when people get together to celebrate family, friends and neighbors, and to share our common humanity. Our emcee for this event, Ms. Natalie Knighton was superb in illustrating how we celebrate diversity. The kids, too, got a lesson in diversity and the true meaning of all we celebrate with holiday readings by Len Barend and Tom Lalley. Dwight Mazzone informed and entertained us with a Winter Solstice tale.

Some special guests also came to share in the festivities. Eileen Oser accepted a check from your CCAHU for $750 on behalf of Sheros Community Development. There’s something about this season that brings out the best in all of us. In addition to this donation, your CCAHU also donated books from Spread the Word Nevada for the Lincoln-Edison Elementary School. It is amazing how good deeds have a way of multiplying, and in true holiday spirit, Lisa Habighorst of Spread The Word Nevada provided a donation of 1 book per child at Lincoln-Edison Elementary. That was a donation of over 800 books to their school library.

All this was a little much for Keith France, Lincoln Elementary School’s Principal, who was at a loss for words as he accepted a check from our President, Joan McEntyre, for over $400.

The luncheon closed with the kids getting a hot lunch, toys and stockings for bringing us a little holiday cheer. For many of these kids, these would be the only gifts they would receive this time of year.

That is the true mark of any organization…the helping of someone in need, the lightening of a load, the breaking of bread with friends and neighbors…and your CCAHU did not fail in this regard. There are many ways of giving and receiving; be it a check, a toy, a song, a story or a smile. When we do, we make the world a little better place for a little while. Everyone that attended this holiday luncheon was treated to the true meaning of the season. I am proud to be a part of this wonderful organization.

-Dan Heffley

Can you believe how fast this year has gone? We have begun our new program year for CCAHU. And we have lots of interesting, educational and fun events planned.

This past summer we offered a 4 hour CE course for the NAHU CDHC Certification. Shelly Winson from OptumHealth did an outstanding job as the instructor. Over 40 individuals took the course and as of last week, most have already taken the on-line exam and received their certification. If you did pass the exam, remember – you can put ‘CDHC Certified’ on your website, business cards, etc.

We kicked off our new year with our September luncheon speaker, NAHU’s Michael Keegan. The meeting started with Ted DeCorte and Dwight Mazzone discussing the healthcare platforms for McCain and Obama. Then Mr. Keegan provided a power point presentation that went into additional detail on both platforms.

Coming up next month, we have our honorary member, Valerie Rosalin, and her associate, Charles Quintana. They will be discussing the State of NV information programs for un-insured, along with the new consumer education program. Also scheduled for October is our annual golf tournament. This year, Rebecca Purdy is the chair of that event. It is a charity golf tournament, benefiting the ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) foundation. The flyer for that event is posted on the website.

November, we have Jon Ralston coming to give us a “political wrap-up”. Based upon the winners of the election, he will be giving us his “prognostications”. Later in November, we will be hosting our 2nd annual Wine/Silent Auction Holiday Party. The proceeds of the silent auction will benefit the other charities that we adopted, SHEROS and Lincoln Elementary School. The flyer for this event is also posted on the website.

As stated in my prior message, we will have our challenges this year, but we will have fun along the way. Thank you for your support of CCAHU and look forward to seeing you at the upcoming events.

Taking Care of Business

Joan McEntyre
President

First, I want to say that I am really looking forward to this coming year. We are all facing many challenges, both economically and politically. And I am facing the challenge of keeping our board on task and doing the best we can to keep you informed of the issues that could affect our industry.

The theme that I selected for my term as your President is: Taking Care of Business. As I mentioned at our June luncheon, I picked this theme because I truly feel that if we don’t take care of our business, we may find ourselves Out of Business. There are many forces that would like to change our current health insurance system into a Universal Healthcare plan much like the one in Canada. So during the year ahead, we must all be vigilant to initiatives that would push us that direction. We must be prepared to educate our clients, our legislators and our community on why this option is not working and will not work here in our country.

A delegation representing our local chapter recently returned from attending NAHU’s Annual Conference in San Diego. The meetings were interesting, educational and motivating. And, of course, the political environment was a major issue. I will relay more details about this conference in our next issue.

On a lighter note, please make note of the following summer events:

August 8 - Baseball and Fireworks at Cashman Field.
We have reserved the outfield picnic area for a fun family outing. Ticket prices include the game, baseball hat, all the food and drink you can consume, a visit with Cosmo (the 51s’ mascot) and of course, spectacular fireworks following the game.

August 12 – NAHU’s CDHC (Consumer Driven Health Care) certification course
This is a 4 hr CE course. Following completion of the course, you will receive a link to go on-line and take the certification exam. Upon passing the exam, you will be mailed, from NAHU, a certificate of completion.

Additional details will be sent out shortly on both of these events. Also, August 21-23 is the NAHU Regions 7 & 8 joint conference in Phoenix, AZ. We will organize carpools to drive down for the meeting. If anyone is interested in attending, please let me know.

We will have our challenges this year, but we will have fun along the way. Thank you for your support of CCAHU and have a safe summer.

Rebecca Purdy

President

Visit Our New Education Page!

The past few months at Clark County Association Meetings have been brimming with valuable information and content. Our March CE Day presented four speakers on a variety of topics from HDHPS's & HSA's to EAP's.

Our most recent meeting in April featured NAHU President-Elect, Scott Leavitt who discussed the Role of the Agent. Therefore, in response to many of your requests we have created a new Education website page where the Power Point presentations of these recent two meetings are available as a resource for those of you who were unable to attend these meetings and a refresher for those of you who did!

We appreciate the speakers for allowing us to post these and hope that you find this information useful. We encourage you to become involved in the Clark County Association of Health Underwriters as these presentations are only a sample of what monthly meeting programs
can offer to and your business.