In attendance: D&O's: President Sandra Loebs, First VP Pete Palestina, Second VP Val Ullman Katz, Treasurer Rick Lee,  Directors Jim Jones, Rina Williams.   Committee Chairs and others: Clint Gilespie, Art Hanebury, TC McDonnell

The meeting was opened by President Sandra Loebs at 10:13 AM.

Clint Gilespie, Personal Lines Section Chair, volunteered to bring Section information to each Breakfast Meeting. On behalf of the Society, Clint will try to encourage intersections within our Chapter. He advised that there may be additional redesign around the Sections within the Society. Two other member of the Personal Lines Section Board of Directors are Philadelphia Chapter members. They are Charles Butler, CPCU and Kathleen M. Frenzel, CPCU.  Clint spoke on the video produced by Keystone, Take Five, Stay Alive. The video is intended to explain the purpose of a new educational "club" for young drivers aged 14 –20. The intent of Keystone is to obtain corporate sponsors and teach young drivers about ownership, maintenance and operation of a vehicle. Structured similarly to a 4H club, Clint is hopeful that the state Virginia will accept this program which would be one hour a week in lieu of their current driver education program. Keystone would give a premium discount to participants.  The program has been endorsed by the Pennsylvania State Police Department.

Pete asked Clint to update his web page to include this news.

The approval of December’s minutes was postponed as the draft minutes were not distributed.

The Treasurer’s report was approved as submitted. Rick advised that the Income Tax form 990 would be filed late. Due to accounting style differences, Rick was not able to balance the previous return filed by Ray Lindsey to our current information. The Board authorized Rick, by unanimous vote, to purchase Quicken and Turbo-Tax software to facilitate the conversion from accrual to cash accounting.

Sandra advised the Board of Directors that all committee-chairs must submit a report of their committees activities no earlier than April 1, 1999 and no later than May 1, 1999 to be included in the President’s Chapter Report.

Sandra announced that the Eastern COLC would be held in Providence, Rhode Island May 6-8. The Western COLC will be held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma April 22-24. It is preferable that the First Vice Chair and President Elect attend a COLC.

Sandra appointed the Nominating Committee for 1999-2000. The Chair is Art Hanebury. TC McDonnell and Frank Mason are members. The Nominating Committee must make a selection to be included in the March mailing meeting notice for voting at the April Annual Meeting.

Due to the unavailability of the I-Day Chairs, Sandra reported that 323 tickets were sold for the December 4^th event. Thirty-three new designees attended. The exhibitors were well received. Terry Macko of the Insurance Society of Philadelphia advised that each of the participating organizations would receive $1000 of the profit. Terry Macko was questioning why the new designee attendance was so poor.

Sandra was to contact the I-Day Chairs for a report to be included in the next Chaptergram.

Sandra advised that Ron Arthur will attend the Chapter Breakfast Meeting and Board Meeting on February 18^th to comply with the OSCAR requirement for submission for the President’s Award.

Sandra reported that she received a request from a non Chapter member to be included on our meeting notice list. Sandra proposed an idea that we keep a "VIP" list on non Chapter members that express an interest in attending the monthly meetings. Val will contact Peggy Dence with names and addresses. We will monitor the list and remove an individual’s name if they do not attend within a six month period of time. We hope to encourage additional participation at our meetings. Sandra will forward by e-mail the names she would like included on the list.

The Insurance Data Management Association asked that the Chapter include a flyer for their April Annual meeting in Philadelphia. The Board voted that the flyer could piggy back with our March mailing provided that the Association provide us with the flyers, printed and folded and no additional mailing costs would be incurred.

Pete stated that we must make an attempt to communicate more by e-mail to remind people of meetings, including Board meetings. He suggested that the monthly minutes be distributed by e-mail as well as regular mail.

Sandra was to call the Public Relations Chair as two people volunteered to work on the Committee. The Board recognizes the need to be more proactive in getting our name and events publicized.

Pete brought up the need to work on the Chapter’s by-laws. This item has languished and fallen off the agenda of the Board of Directors. It was agreed that the proposed changes would be reviewed by the Board and discussed at our next meeting.

Pete advised that the rules for using the CPCU initials on an e-mail address were changed effective January 1, 1999. One of our members uses the initials in her e-mail address. Sandra will contact her as soon as possible to advise that a change must be made. Pete disconnected the web page link in order to comply with the new regulations.

Pete advised that he is always in need of material for the Chaptergram. The information should be forwarded to him as quickly as possible. Membership and the Candidate Recruitment and Development Committee make it a point to submit information for each edition of the Chaptergram.

Pete also advised that each Committee Chair should view the website and if needed advise him of updates to the site.