www.siia.org         July 2011

For nearly three decades, SIIA has had great success in representing the interests of our members in Washington, DC, but as challenges and opportunities continue to mount, the association is now mobilizing our members to get involved from the Grassroots level to support SIIA’s direct lobbying efforts.This grassroots initiative is now up and running, so we want to keep you updated on a regular basis by sharing the latest updates.

What is the Grassroots Project?

We are currently off to a great start! We have had more than 65 SIIA members express interest in participating. In just a short amount of time, we have secured almost a dozen meetings between our members and their representatives on Capitol Hill and are in the process of securing dozens more in the coming months.

Because we know each of our members have different interests and capabilities, we have constructed eight different ways our members can become involved. Members have the opportunity to choose to participate in any and all options, which include meeting with elected officials in Washington or their states and Congressional districts, attending or hosting political fundraising events in Washington or locally, or by directly contributing to SIIA’s PAC.

Who’s On The Hill?

This month, Beata Madey, Senior Vice President of Underwriting for HM Insurance Group, met with Senior Health Staffers from Senator Pat Toomey and Rep. Mike Doyle’s offices in Washington to discuss issues related to health care reform.

“SIIA’s Grassroots and Political Action Network is a great way for me to become actively engaged in the political process. By participating, I meet with my elected-officials in Washington to discuss important issues that matter to me, my company and SIIA. I appreciate SIIA’s efforts to get our members more involved to help defend and protect the self-insurance and alternative risk-transfer industry.”–Beata Madey

Also this month, Chris Kramer, Director of Marketing/Captives for ULLICO Casualty Group, Inc., met with Senator Rob Portman, (pictured above), and members of his Legislative staff in Washington to discuss issues pertaining to risk retention and SIIA’s newly proposed H.R. 2126, The Risk Retention Modernization Act of 2011.

“Involvement in the legislative process at the Grassroots level is essential to making positive changes to benefit all those who participate in the self-insurance/risk-transfer industry. SIIA’s efforts to extend an open invitation to allow myself and other members the opportunity to participate in such an initiative is both appreciated and a noteworthy benefit of being a member of SIIA.”–Chris Kramer

Getting Involved is Easy

For members interested in meeting with their elected-representatives either in Washington, DC or in your home area, SIIA makes it easy to do so. We coordinate the scheduling, provide you with talking points, and can even have one of our lobbyists join you for your meetings. Literally all you have to do is show up.

Because we know each of our members has different interests and capabilities, we have created multiple ways for members to get politically involved. In addition to meeting with the elected representatives, you can also assist with our Political Action Committee and/or recruit other employers to participate.

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This entry was posted by cmonfils on Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at 10:40 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.