IASA never has been afraid of tackling major initiatives, according to executive director Joe Pomilia. And in his annual "State of IASA" address this morning, Pomilia plans to detail some of the past successes and what the association is working to do to ensure future success.

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, IASA completed several objectives. "Each year we focus special attention on our annual conference, because it remains our primary education vehicle," he says. "The new schedule and tiered registration rate are just part of the work we have undertaken to make this event successful."

Most of the organization's efforts are built around the educational sessions, he continues. "In 2009, conference attendees rated the overall content of our education sessions higher than any conference in the prior five years," says Pomilia. "This year, our goal is to surpass even those outstanding results."

An additional element to improving the conference has been the integration of targeted educational offerings for senior insurance executives through the Executive Education Program (EEP). "This program has been an underpinning for advancing several of the key initiatives," says Pomilia.

The EEP was first started at the 2004 conference with a Chief Financial Officer Roundtable. Today, IASA offers roundtables for financial, technology, and investment officers.

"One year before the creation of the EEP, at the 2003 annual conference in Denver, 16 percent of all conference attendees were officers of their company," says Pomilia. "We have seen a steady growth in this ratio, and this year, advanced figures show 46 percent of conference attendees are officers of their company. When you also take into account the overall conference attendance this year is more than 10 percent greater than back in 2003, the increase in officer attendance has grown a staggering 323 percent in seven years."

The success of the roundtables led to the creation of a stand-alone EEP offering, and last fall IASA conducted its second Executive EDGE Conference, which Pomilia points out enjoyed a 50 percent growth in attendance from 2008.

"These EEP seminars augment our long-standing accounting seminars and new risk-focused examination seminar," he says. "Combined, these offerings represent the greatest suite of seminars we have ever been able to produce."

While IASA remains committed to these events because of the opportunity for learning and networking, Pomilia believes electronic educational and networking offerings also have benefits related to convenience and cost.

Social networking efforts using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter will be the focus of the future. "We are exploring ways we might be able to migrate the IASA Knowledge Exchange to a social networking platform," he says. "As we look for ways to increase the availability and functionality of the Knowledge Exchange, leveraging existing applications seems like a logical alternative."

IASA also has undertaken electronic projects in the form of Webinars and surveys. The organization adapted its annual statement and statutory reporting changes seminar into a two-hour Web seminar, which will be held in December. "The success of this Webinar will help shape future online offerings that are under evaluation," says Pomilia.

IASA also has completed a couple of electronic surveys that have been useful in shaping the education sessions for the conference. "Surveys, which really have been more in the form of a poll, are a great way to obtain quick feedback and provide timely data to our members," he says. "Our strategy with these surveys is to poll members and obtain timely information that can be used to augment educational content or simply to provide members with unique proprietary informational content."

Additionally, IASA completed two publications projects this year, including the first IASA annual report and a textbook on health insurance statutory accounting. "We always have prided ourselves on staying in touch with our members, but this annual report has established a more formal accountability and transparency with our membership," says Pomilia. "It also provides a fresh approach to some of the content we previously included in the IASA yearbook."

The textbook went through a lengthy gestation period. Connie Jasper Woodruff, Morty Mann, Bob Cawthon, and their team delivered the textbook, and Pomilia reports it already has more than doubled projected sales.

IASA can't deliver on its mission without a strong chapter network, continues Pomilia.

"During the past few years, we have increased our footprint significantly across the United States with active chapters," he says. "The chapters have shown a solid and consistent attendance record for several years in a row. This record clearly shows the value chapters have to offer."

Chapter events have grown steadily, and the average attendance per event has held strong despite the economic conditions, reports Pomilia.

"One reason for this success is the strong cohesive bond that has been forged between volunteers at the local level and the national office of IASA," he says. "The support the national office has provided has freed up chapter volunteers to focus on planning events and improving the educational content of those events."

Other initiative areas, such as marketing and communications, governance, and infrastructure, also made incremental improvements, notes Pomilia. "In many ways, however, we are just in the early stages of our strategy to maximize on the improved leadership structure, technology platform, branding, and other areas," he says. "That tough work was intended to position IASA to deliver even more value back to members and customers. I believe we are well positioned and motivated to deliver on that mission."

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