The new director of an educational program for surplus lines professionals won't be tossing out the old syllabus or tearing up existing study materials, but there are some positive changes coming this year, he promises.

Jeff Henry explained that when he took the job as director of education and professional development for AAMGA University last year, the charge he received was to take it “to the next level.”

The University–an educational program for members of the King of Prussia, Pa.-based American Association of Managing General Agents–is “already functioning well and has a good reputation,” he said during an interview at AAMGA University Weekend East in early March. “That's almost harder to do–to take a successful university to the next level,” rather than to rebuild one that hasn't met the needs of an association, he said.

Looking ahead, he said, “all the things people count on us for” will stay in place–noting, for example, that technical insurance courses, such as those on trucking and commercial underwriting that are the biggest draws, will continue to be offered.

Still, “we cannot keep doing everything the same way that it's always been done,” he said, describing his vision to introduce courses on emerging exposures and “cutting-edge” coverages.

The University will also continue offering agency management classes and courses geared to the needs of human resource professionals in an agency. Those are becoming increasingly popular, he said.

“If we're going to do something to take us to the next level, then a must-have is a learning management system,” he added, defining an LMS as an “elaborate software system that holds all of an entity's learning resources together in one spot.”

The software will provide a menu of AAMGA courses, which could be outlined in a variety of ways–by subject area, by state, or with indications of whether they can put on in agencies' offices, for example.

While AAMGA University doesn't offer any online courses today, if AAMGA goes ahead with plans to contract with an LMS provider called LearnShare, it will be able to provide access to “soft skills e-learning” that LearnShare delivers through partnerships online education vendors.

Mr. Henry also envisions being able to provide students with online ethics classes and flood classes. “There are new flood requirements that certain states are requiring for agency licenses,” he said, adding that “for strict office personnel, we'd like to offer courses in Word, Excel” and other basic computer programs.

“Our goal is to not only have all of our loyal members who always come to our classes directed [to the LMS],” he said. “We also want to give the rest of our members a reason to use it. With easy access available through the LMS, they might get jazzed up about using this if they need an Excel class.”

The LMS will allow students to self-register, and once they do, the system will create a learning plan that will send e-mail reminders for courses they signed up to take. In addition, the system will generate a learning history of completed courses, individually keeping track of each student's professional development progress.

Mr. Henry agreed that some large wholesalers and carriers already have their own LMS capabilities, but small MGAs are less likely to have them. They can use the development plan built into LearnShare and actually add their own items to AAMGA course offerings. “They can really use it as their internal in-house LMS,” he said.

Mr. Henry expects AAMGA's Education Foundation Trustees to give the green light to the LMS project. After that, implementation will likely take two or three months, he said.

THE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

After only four months on the job, Mr. Henry's success at balancing new ideas with old standbys was clearly evident at AAMGA University Weekend East in March.

In one conference room of the Philadelphia hotel where the event took place, Mark Bove, senior research meteorologist for Munich Re America, warned of the impacts of climate change and potential insurance implications. Showing geological maps revealing that half of the Arctic had become free of ice in 2007, he told the MGAs that “if the ice in Greenland melts, then that pretty much puts us under water where we're standing right now.”

In a neighboring conference room, students saw a more light-hearted video demonstrating poor public speaking habits such as over-gesturing or wearing distracting clothing that is inconsistent with the message being delivered–like a young man in biker clothing telling his audience to “buy stocks low and sell high.”

A bigger crowd of MGAs in a third room heard AAMGA Executive Director Bernie Heinze preach the gospel of a good ethical conduct, inviting them to write down the one thing they couldn't live without, and to hold that paper as a reminder of what a breach of ethics might take away.

In all, there were 17 four-hour courses presented in the three-day period, ranging from the basics of coverage (such as “Business Income and Extra Expense” and “Underwriting A Garage Risk”) to HR issues (such as “Employee Selection & Recruitment”).

“I think the University has always been good at offering what is needed out there [in terms of basic skills], but I'd like to offer at least one course on every weekend on something that is really cutting edge or dynamic,” Mr. Henry said, highlighting the climate change course as an example.

For AAMGA University Weekend West in August, an airborne virus coverage class has been proposed as the cutting-edge topic, he said, noting that ideas for topics come from brainstorming sessions with the association's education committee.

Mr. Henry said an exciting development for students interested in the HR track is the fact that AAMGA University recently became a provider of SHRM-accredited courses–courses required to achieve the two senior designations of the Society of Human Resource Management. Five Weekend East courses were SHRM-accredited, he noted.

In total, AAMGA University offers 70 courses, and 5,500 professionals attend them annually. In addition to University Weekends, courses are offered on the first day of the AAMGA annual meeting and through standalone workshops–like two days devoted to trucking risks or MGA Beginners School–throughout the year.

The University also co-sponsors events with carrier and MGA members. In fact, Mr. Henry was recruited for his job at AAMGA when he worked full time in corporate communications at American Modern Insurance Group and was asked to work on putting together a co-sponsored AAMGA/AMIG Personal Lines Weekend.

Mr. Henry, who now devotes 90 percent of his time to working for AAMGA and 10 percent to AMIG, said the experience allowed him to see all the administrative details that such a project involves from the company perspective.

Mr. Henry also explained that while the AAMGA events are open to AAMGA members and members of the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices, there is flexibility to allow retail agents and other nonmembers to the co-sponsored events. Some members view this as a way for members to strengthen partnerships with their customers, he said.

Special Reports /

AAMGA Education Director Aims To Take University To New Heights

Related Stories

Recommended For You