The Florida Surplus Lines Association (FSLA) returned to one ofits favorite locations for its 2009 convention — the Boca RatonResort & Club in Boca Raton. The annual gathering was held July30-Aug. 1, and was one of the best attended in recent years.

The activities began on Thursday afternoon with refreshmentsserved in the registration room, where in addition to theirwelcoming packets, attendees received several nice give-aways fromsome of our member sponsors.

Thursday evening a gala reception was held for all attendees.After dinner, the FSLA hospitality suite opened up and was wellattended by members and guests. Our incoming President Bruce Bowersand his wife Donna hosted this event on both Thursday and Fridaynights.

The first business session was held on Friday morning, ablypresided over by outgoing FSLA President Steven Finver. Ourbusiness sessions are always well attended, a reflection of thequality of our speakers and their presentations. In addition to theexcellent speakers, several members sponsored door prizes as wellas a coffee break at midmorning.

The first speaker on the program was Sen. Michael “Mike” Bennett(R-District 21). The senator talked about legislative issues in thelast session. The Essex v. Zota matter had been of great concern toour association and its members. Sen. Bennett was most helpful tous in supporting a bill that made corrections to an earlier courtdecision that critically affected surplus lines.

Incoming President Bowers presented Steve Finver with hisPresident's Plaque as the outgoing president. He thanked Finver forhis service in this position for the past two and one half years, aperiod of intense activity, particularly in the legislative arena.Finver was at the forefront in working on these issues both fromhis home base and in Tallahassee. In his closing remarks, Fiverthanked in particular the efforts of the insurance companies andassociations that helped us with contributions this past year thatmade possible our success in the legislative arenas.

The morning session included two other speakers — both fromFlorida — who also talked about the 2009 legislative session aswell as other issues.

Florida Association of Insurance Agents President and CEO JeffGrady spoke about his association's recent activities, futuregoals, and the state of the market today. We were very pleased tohave him as part of our program.

Each year we look forward to hearing from Gary Pullen, executivedirector of the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office, who brings usup to date on the activities and important changes that impact thesurplus lines agents and companies who report to the serviceoffice.

The meeting was adjourned at noon for afternoon socialactivities that included both a golf tournament and a fishingtournament. That evening, festivities included a reception andannual banquet.

On Saturday morning, new President Bowers called the secondbusiness session of the convention to order. The first speaker wasDouglas Mang, lobbyist and general counsel for FSLA. Mang spokeabout legislative activities that affected our association thispast year. His tireless efforts on our behalf regarding the Essexv. Zota legislation were successful, and our associationacknowledged his commitment.

The next speaker was David Leonard, president of RSUI Group,Inc. We always look forward to having a president of a surpluslines insurance group give us a perspective on our industry from acompany's point of view. Leonard's comments were mostinformative.

We were fortunate in having two speakers with us this year whorepresent large national associations in our industry. BernieHeinze, executive director of AAMGA, and Stephen Stephan, directorof government relations at NAPSLO, traveled to Boca to meet withour group. They both updated us on the activities of theirorganizations this past year, and discussed pending nationallegislation that will affect our industry. Both AAMGA and NAPSLOwere very supportive of our position regarding Essex v. Zota.

As the convention concluded, President Bowers thanked all of thespeakers, attendees, and sponsors for their commitment to theassociation and the conference. He also announced that our nextconvention will be held at Amelia Island Plantation on July 22-24,2010. We'll see you there!

Roger Gobler is executive director of the Florida Surplus LinesAssociation. He may be reached at 904-631-1322 [email protected].