Looking Forward to Meaningful Involvement

By Matt Speight, AIC, AIP
President, MAIA

First of all, thank you to everyone for trusting me to be president of MAIA for the upcoming year. It is an honor that I do not take lightly.

MAC Summit seemed to be a huge success again this year. April and MAIA staff did a fantastic job preparing for and running the event! Kudos to them! From the golf tournament and WEWIN Brunch, to the Young Agent Event, the interesting classes and the banquet, everything seemed to run very smoothly. If you didn’t attend, please consider doing so next year. The networking that is done at these events is invaluable. The banquet seemed to be one of the best that I have attended. Congrats to everyone that received awards! All are well-deserved!

I had the pleasure of having my father, Brent, (as past president) swear in the new board of directors. Having the event in Branson was very special to him, as my grandfather was an integral part of the dam being built in Branson, which then brought all the tourism that has made Branson what it is today.

For those who were unable to attend MAC Summit, below is my speech, including my goals for the next 12 months. I look forward to working for you all! First, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the board of directors, MAIA staff and each one of you for your trust and confidence in me. I won’t take this responsibility lightly, and I recognize the weight of the decisions we make and the lives we impact, and I look forward to the duties ahead of me.

I would also like to thank my family: my wife Sara, kids Brandon, Lauren, Tyler and Brandon’s girlfriend Hannah, and my mom and dad. This is a family business and the agency now has four generations working there, as Brandon, Lauren and Hannah have all spent time working there. I would also like to thank our great group of employees, as I could not do my job without each and every one of them. I would also like to thank my grandfather, Keith Duren, for joining Scott Agency over 75 years ago, and laying the path for me to follow in his footsteps. I have great memories of my first few years when he would come in the office with his walking stick and discuss “what I was working on that day.”

I would like to thank the association. Matt and staff do a great job representing us…and April and her team do a great job preparing this fantastic conference. I want to thank all my insurance family. You know who you are! Some of us have a group text that we send ideas out to occasionally and I of course have my Keystone family that we lean on frequently to run things by. Before we look forward, it is important to acknowledge the leadership that has preceded me. Dennis, thank you for your vision and guidance over the last year. Under your leadership, we continue to lay the foundation for continued successes. You have become a friend and I have learned a lot from you, and hope I can continue to lean on you over the next year. I expect Deena and I will work together the same way for the next 12 months. I’d like to share with you my vision for the future of our great association, and our industry as a whole. It has been a tough five years or so in the insurance industry. The hard market has brought many challenges, many of which are still active. Over the next year, there are some key areas where I think the board and I can help MAIA have an even more meaningful impact: First, very frequently MAIA employees and we board members hear, “What does the association do for me?” very similar to what I hear being involved in our local Chamber of Commerce, when we hear, “What does the Chamber do for me?” I want to emphasize the benefits that the association offers to all of us. Many of us take advantage of a multitude of offerings, but many agents only join MAIA for E&O coverage, or other insurance offerings. We recently took a survey of board members on what offerings they use and we also discussed other ideas to offer to our membership, so hopefully more to come on that over the next few months.

Secondly, the legal climate in Missouri has made it a struggle for some insurance carriers to continue to do business in the state. Matt Barton, Chris Leise and Larry Case work very hard in discussions at the Capitol on a regular basis. Tort reform is going to be a very big topic for all of us in this room over the next year. Matt, Chris, Larry and the board are going to work very hard to keep things moving in the right direction for us in Jefferson City (and D.C. as well).

I would like to end with asking each of you to make a difference in the association. Attend an event that you haven’t attended before, especially Day at the Capitol in Jefferson City, or even better, the IIABA Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. I have been to D.C. several times and have even taken each of my children. If you can’t make it to D.C., reach out to your senator or representative, and discuss the insurance issues that are important to you. Contributing to InsurPac and MAPAC is very important, but so is letting the legislature know what is important to you and why.