CIAB Pulls Annual Meeting From The Greenbrier

A long-held tradition will come to a temporary end this year as the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers said it will be forced to move its annual meeting at The Greenbrier resort elsewhere.

In a statement released yesterday, the Washington-based insurance broker association said that “due to ongoing labor problems at The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Spring, W.Va., The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers…is moving the 95th annual Insurance Leadership Forum to a different location.”

The CIAB has held its annual meeting, which draws 1,500 attendees, at The Greenbrier since 1913. The association said it is in the process of finding a new venue for the fall conference, which will be held Oct. 4-8, but no decision has been made.

Ken A. Crerar, president of the CIAB, said in a statement that employees at The Greenbrier have been working without a contract since the end of January and the employee unions have authorized a strike. He said he announced earlier that if the two sides did not reach a settlement by June 2 the association “would have no choice but to move the fall conference.”

In a letter to The Greenbrier management and union leaders, Mr. Crerar said, “We regret to announce that the Insurance Leadership Forum–which has been held at The Greenbrier Hotel for 94 years–will be moved to a new location in 2008 because of everyone's inability to resolve their differences.

“Your inertia in ending this dispute over the past several months has been agonizing to witness. With no signed contract in place, we are left with no choice but to move our meeting, which is only four short months away.

“To our many friends at the hotel and in the community who are severely impacted by this regrettable state of affairs, we send our thoughts and best wishes.”

The ongoing labor dispute, and fear of a work stoppage, already forced the CIAB to switch two meetings it held in May from The Greenbrier to The Homestead in nearby Hot Springs, Va.