2016 Changes

Happy New Year!!!   The Board of Governors and Initiative leads have been working on various updates since our fall meeting and wanted to provide you with some important changes to roles, membership fees/renewals, and bylaws.

Roles – Following the election of 2016/2017 Board of Governors, we have now appointed a Past Chair along with establishing a new Membership Initiative as well as a lead.

• Past Chair:  Kim Langstaff has agreed to assume this role.  With her extensive RAPA experience, familiarity with by-laws, and high energy, she will be a great addition to the board of governors.
• Membership Initiative:  Given the amount of work involved with fees, recruitment, retention, etc, we have created a new initiative which will be spearheaded by Susan Whitehead.

Summary RAPA positions for 2016/2017:

Board of Governors

Initiative Leads

Changes to annual Membership fees

Background: Currently, there are two member fee cost structures which require annual payment from Voting members of $100 and Non-Voting members of $50.  Every company is required to have at least one Voting member and for companies that only have one member, by default they are the voting member.  While the intent of this fee structure was to differentiate the membership status it has become a cumbersome administration process to distinguish the two fees as individuals changes roles and/or leave the organization.

2016 change:  For 2016, we have implemented a consistent fee of $75 for both Voting and Non-Voting members.  The Voting member will remain as it is recorded on the system today and in the event there is a change to the individual holding the Voting member role, we will approach the company for the new Voting member representation but with no additional fees required.   If you are the only representative of the company, then by default you will be the Voting member.  For those of you who were quick to renew (thank you!) and have already paid their renewal fee we will make the appropriate fee change reimburse/request for additional fee as soon as possible.

Important Note:  Please login to the website prior to renewing your membership online so that the system picks up your information and you will not be required to enter it and/or create a duplicate profile (unless you need to create one a profile for the first time).  Also, if possible please make the membership renewal payment by credit card, however, if you need to send a check, please complete the registration online and choose the “check” option with the mailing instructions provided online (c/o Garfield McIntyre, Munich American Reassurance Company 56 Perimeter Center East, NE Suite 500 Atlanta, GA 30346).

Changes to Associate Non-Voting Members roles i.e. vendors/solution providers

Background: There are three classifications of RAPA membership which include Voting and Non-Voting members who are employees of direct writers, reinsurers, and retrocessionaires.  Individuals holding these roles are eligible to be on the RAPA board, chair an initiative/committee, and/or vote on changes to RAPA bylaws.  The third classification is currently an Associate Non-Voting Members which are individuals working for vendors/solution providers such as LOGIC3 (TAI), ACORD, QUASAR, etc who were not permitted to chair an initiative/committee, vote, or have a role on the RAPA board.

2016 Changes:  Associate Members are a fundamental part of RAPA with members who are generally former employees of insurance companies with a reinsurance related role.  These members provide valuable input by contributing to the current initiatives as well as participating/presenting at our annual conference.  Following a vote from the members, we have changed the approach so that Associate Members can i) chair an initiative/committee and ii) have one voting member per company.  Associate Members are not permitted to hold a RAPA board position and cannot hold a majority of committee chair positions.   The bylaws have been updated on our website to reflect these changes.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,

Greg LaRochelle, RAPA Chair

905-816-2815