In brief

ASSOCIATION NEWS Moving forward together

At the same time that a pandemic is causing businesses across the country to seek out new and better ways to do business, an exciting transformation is underway at PIA of Tennessee. PIA’s transition will produce an association that is better equipped to handle the needs of independent agents throughout the state of Tennessee. I think this pandemic will continue to push us in new ways to operate our businesses. Here is the agenda that I would like to focus on as we move forward together: • We will better focus on the needs and daily challenges of independent agents of Tennessee. We need to concentrate PIA’s efforts on what is most important, and not try to do everything. • We will rework the PIA of Tennessee website to create a more user-friendly experience and provide the best, most useful agent information. • We need to grow our membership and our advantage services income through errors-andomissions sales. We have a tremendous opportunity in the new independent Nationwide Insurance professionals who joined the independent agency system in the past year. I want to welcome all the Nationwide insurance agents to the independent channel. I would like to thank those who have joined PIA of Tennessee, and I encourage all new Nationwide independent agents to join PIA of Tennessee. While we manage the uncertainty of a pandemic, we are evaluating how we will present our conferences, and how we can bring education and networking events to our members. Lastly, our headquarters in Franklin, Tenn., is a major asset, and we will review how best to utilized it. The PIA of Tennessee board of directors is busy working on implementing these goals so we can spend more time on our members, and less time on trivial matters. I want to thank my board and the PIA of Tennessee membership and all the people behind the scenes for support and help over the last several months. I also want to give a special thank you to PIA National and PIA Nebraska/Iowa for all your help and support as we begin this transition. And last, but not least, we want to welcome back Sandy Clive as a PIA of Tennessee employee who already is doing great work for our members. As one of the group of volunteer leaders, I am excited about the rebirth of our association. PIA of Tennessee has a very bright future. We still have much work to do, and I ask for everyone’s support as we serve the needs of our members.—Neal McConnico, president, PIA of Tennessee