Mayor internal problems…what does that mean??? How long have you been using this new fangled internet/email thingy. Quit yelling at everyone, i.e. that button that says caps lock…don’t push it. and then lern how 2 spel. For all the other folks complaining, why not get involved and make the changes you seek. So many of you sit on the sidelines and all you can do is complain. Get involved with your time or your checkbook, especially those of you that charge those high broker fees. This industry is changing, get with it, if your not paperless, not using a management system, the internet/email and all the other advanced IT capabilities, then you only have yourself to blame for your failure. The Alliance has done a lot to help you stay up with all these changes. How can someone complain about what some of the new members look like, what the heck does that have to do with yours or The Alliances success. There will always be complainers in every aspect of our lives, most of the time, their the ones sitting on the sidelines while the rest of us do all the work. Thank God, because you make my business success so much easier.
you wrong DRE..Jensen was cool and is the reason why the Alliance is growing so much…they hired Hispanics so they can better serve their ever increasing Hispanic membership, not just to party for no reason like them dudes at the LAAA…
Glad to see Joe become president, maybe now things will return to the way they were before. Gary ruined the whole alliance with his ego being bigger than himself.
The Alliance has done more since Gary became Pres. in the last 3 years than maybe it’s entire history. Yes he can be somewhat stiff at times, but he had to be to deal with all the “stuff” that happened before. As far as I know, only 2 associations have any pull in Sacramento, The Alliance being one. All the new resources for agents that Gary either directly or indirectly had a hand in that benefit the members, the countless hours he spent going to meetings with members and legislators, come on, you DRE must not be very invloved. Get off your lazy *** and do just 1/2 as much as he did and then maybe you can comment with some understanding of what it means to actually get involved. And for the other racially/bigotted comments, maybe if the LAAA wasn’t a for profit organization, they wouldn’t have to have latin in their name. The Alliance wants all members from the insurance community and if many happen to be Spanish, then so be it.
To: intheknow: I too was very much in the know. Gary failed to bring in the type of “agents” he and the executive board wanted. As it turned out, it backfired and he and the board got stuck with the non-standard agents after all. It’s very comendable that you have diversifed, but that was not Gary’s doing and you know it. That was the furtherst thing from their agenda. As far as Sacramento goes, the Alliance was always known and always got things done. What has the Alliance done about Infinity going direct? The same thing they did with Progressive, give me a little money and everything will be o.k. How hypocritical. The Alliance is there to protect the agents from direct writers as their mission statement says. Oh, well I guess money speaks louder than words. As far as the convention goes, 1700 agents, I don’t think so. I was there. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time.
The problem with the Alliance is not Gary Jensen’s leadership or the fact that there are Latinos. The problem with the Alliance is that many producer members ***** and complain but don’t offer any moral or financial support. Also, the problem is that most non-member producers won’t step up to the plate and organize into a meaningful voice that might have some inpact on their fate. I have been an Alliance member for over twenty years. I have seen the good and the bad. Right now there is more good going on, or at least efforts at doing good. Most of you don’t know it but the prior leadership was a self-serving and corrupt regime that was pretty much a shell organization for those on the payroll. Also, the Alliance use to be a laughing stock with little or no respect or recognition received from companies, politicians or competing trade organizations. In short, Gary Jensen cleaned house when the house cleaning was needed. The unfortunate result of cleaning house is that you end up with enemies who were part of the original problem. In spite of that grief, the new leadership has forged ahead in an effort to make the Alliance a focal point for preserving the future of agents. Not everyone will be happy with the leadership style. But if it helps preserve the agents existance and future than you can count me in. Oh by the way, I did attend the convention and it was packed. I question some of the responses made on this story on this website. I suspect that most of these comments are coming from a competing Latin association that is simply jealous about the Alliances successes and the fact that they welcome all comers.
A final word to this long winded response; like it or not, there are very real threats to the producers existance and livelihood in California. Unfortunately, most agents are too cheap and lazy to get involved and only complain. Just because insurance may be around forever doesn’t mean you’ll be around forever. We are already seeing evidence of that. The future is bleek if agents and broker in California don’t unite and start fighting back to save their livelihood and validate their worth. If they don’t the have nobody to blamne but themselves.
1700 attendees, not agents..who said agents fool. How can the Alliance stop Infinity from doing business the way they choose?? As far as I know, there are quite a few agents still using Infinity and for all the agents having a problem with their business model then don’t do business with them. I am a preferred/non std. agent and when I drive down the fwy and know that the companies I represent only write maybe 15% of all that business, I don’t get overly concerned with Infinity and Progressive and their business models, I get excited knowing that 85 out of every 100 cars is still available for us to write. Competition never scared me..but if your overly concerned about Infinity, I feel sorry for you and your buisness abilities. And for Chandra, we don’t have “MAYOR” problems, whatever that is. What association doesn’t have problems and disagrements, where do you live? a little place called UTOPIA?
Obviously you have a bone to pick with the Alliance by your anonymous misrepresentations. It would be more fitting that your posted name was Sour Grapes instead of the misspelled Exagerrated so that we could get a better sense of your true motives here. So we’re supposed to believe that vendors confided in you about being unhappy with the turnout and the presence of competing vendors? Gee, I saw vendors that I had never seen before at the convention. In fact, they ran out of room in the main hall and had to put some vendors in an overflow room. Does that sound like a failure in progress? It might have helped your cause if you had said that you took a survey after the convention and the vendors confided in little old you about how bad it was. But given the fact that the biggest turnout for the tradeshow is always the last half of Saturday, any sort of attendance measurement prior to that would be inaccurate and premature to say the least. But let’s be truthful, you really didn’t take a scientific survey did you? In fact I’ll bet you that more vendors show up next year and it will be because the Alliance convention is the only game in town when it comes to a broad cross section of auto insurance producers. Oh and did you miss the luncheon on Friday where a vampire lawyer was challenged? Apparently you did because it was packed, not to mention a complete success. You say, “We all know that there are fewer agencies and it is tougher and tougher to get them to attend these events”?!?!?!. Is that some futile statement to somehow make the Alliance look bad? It’s the law of the jungle that the weak won’t survive if they don’t start doing something that will save their hides. All I have seen the Alliance do is try to help all the agents save their hides. So your point on this one missed the intended target. Also, you singularly want an agency and company count instead of a body count when it comes to attendance. Is that your way of trying to drive the numbers down? Perhaps I’m wrong, but I thought it was the bodies, who comprise the companies and agencies, that are important ones? But silly me and silly Alliance. As for the AAA trying to look like the LAAA, I think you have it backwards since the AAA has been around more than 30 years and the LAAA has been around about 9 years. Oh but perhaps you are referring to the fact that the Alliance has open arms when it comes to welcoming Latino members. All I can say is get over it. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable as a member of the Aryan Agents Alliance. As for the PIA and the IBAWest being more professional, I’ve had the pleasure of attending their get-togethers and would have enjoyed it if I could have cut through the pompous, smug. Holier than thou we sell preferred and commercial attitude. And they write business on a larger scale? Gee, I guess Titan is in for a rude awakening for having bought Eastwood and NBI. As for AAA’s “lots of issues”, do they outnumber the issues you seem to have? And I’m puzzled about why paying for LEGAL DEFENSE is implied as being wrong? If it’s DEFENSE it means that the other party cast the first stone. Nice try but perhaps your energies would be better placed at selling more insurance, recruiting more members for your competing organization or whatever it is that you call your real job. Keep up your ramblings because it is having an opposite effect.
“Gee, I saw vendors that I had never seen before at the convention. In fact, they ran out of room in the main hall and had to put some vendors in an overflow room.”
And what happened to some of those attendees the next day did they magically dematerialize.
You know it’s funny, but the last posting that are so well written and long, all point to Mr. Jensen himself. I know his writing. I would suggest that whoever is so defending the Alliance so much let us know who YOU ARE. And yes, so much members money has been spent on legal issues regarding the former director that it’s hard to imagine there is any money left in the association. One other thing, I know many people who have asked to see the financials of the association and they have not been disclosed. Is this not illegal?
So in conclusion, due to Mr. Jensen’s ego being bigger than himself, I am sure, it’s either him or one of his “yes” men writing these comments.
By the way, I too have spoken to many vendors and reps. and the answer is the same. NOT ENOUGH AGENTS.
Steven, I’ve been a member for quite some time and the CFO for the last few years, I have only received a handful of requests to see the financials and I have never denied letting a member see the financials. All members are allowed to go and sit in on our board meetings and ask me questions, so I’m not quite sure where or who you got your information from. If you are a member Steven and were at the member meeting, I was there to answer any questions for you or these “people” that you claim to have asked to see the financials. Yes there is money left, in fact quite a bit in our investment accounts. So now Steven if that’s your real name, please respond, but please give us your real name. I obviously will not go in to great detail about many of the other accusations, 1/2 truths and complete lies that some of you have written. However if anyone that is a member of the Alliance would like to sit down with me or in the future with the new CFO, we’re not hard to find.
Thank you for the compliment concerning my writing skills. But unfortunately Mr. Jensen cannot take credit for my creative prose. I didn’t even mention Mr. Jensen in my last response but you seem to conveniently associate him with my writings so that you can promptly throw him under the bus. I guess that shows where you’re coming from. It’s not that I’m defending the Alliance as much as I feel compelled to set the record straight based on my experience. You, on the other hand, are trying to make people think that there are some deep dark secrets by leveling unsubstantiated accusations. Oh and I like your comment, “one of his “yes” men writing these comments” line. Actually I’m a “no” man most of the time. But whose yes man are you? Reading your comments is like reading the National Enquirer, very entertaining but something that I would wrap a dead fish in when done reading it. It’s more important to know your identity and your hidden agenda. Or if you know something that is a smoking gun, why don’t you identify yourself and present your evidence. You could be a hero to the industry if you were the whistle blower that has all the dirt. But I suspect that isn’t the case, is it? And as for the NOT ENOUGH AGENTS complaint, I agree that it’s never enough. They could have 5,000 turn out and it still isn’t enough. But whose fault is that? The agents that didn’t hop in the car and drive to Palm Springs for a day or the Alliance who extended an invitation to members and non-members alike (including Latinos)? I trust that the other readers of our comments can draw their own intelligent conclusions for themselves.
Oops, another long winded comment. But it is warranted for clarification.
I spoke to some of the vendors at this event. The number of business cards collected was bad and there were too many vendors and not enough agents. Every year this group brags about attendance. We all know that there are fewer agencies and it is tougher and tougher to get them to attend these events. Dont lie just give the facts and break them down. How many agencies, not individuals attended and how many companies, not total number of attending reps, were in the house. AAA looks like they are trying to become LAAA both associations representing the nonstandard tier of brokers. The real associations to join are PIAWest or IBAWest…those are professionals who write real business on a much larger scale and yes, the also have divisions for nonstandard but they choose to deal only with Progressive, FIC or a few other direct appointment companies. Lot of issues with the AAA and they still continue. Wonder why the AAA never told you or the members that they have spend over 100K of member money on LEGAL DEFENSE in their ongoing lawsuit with Lorelle Kitzmiller. Just sweep it under the carpet
You got too much time to write and obviously not produce. The problem with that AAA show and why our company does not attend is that the group has really never become a group that attracts both nonstandard and mid-market and preferred agents…when I walk the show, I see a great deal of S Calif. auto brokers. As much as this group has tried to attract other types of agents, it still seems to be stuck in the bucket shop member category and after careful consideration we have found it is not a good fit for us. Maybe someday we will revisit your group as they evolve. I am sure their are some exceptions but for the most part, the agents/brokers I have seen have not impressed our marketing department. Hopefully your group can diversify somewhere between the johnny come latelies and the Intervest Financials of the industry. Good luck
If the shoe doesn’t fit you and your company, so be it. However, it does fit many others. I’m confused that your company doesn’t attend but you “walk the show”. I agree that there are many rookies in the industry who attend. But there are more established old-timers like me. As for your observation that “As much as this group has tried to attract other types of agents, it still seems to be stuck in the bucket shop member category”, at least they’re trying to catch fish using a net instead of using a rod and reel. In spite of the AAA faults, at least the door is open and the welcome mat is out and that isn’t a bad thing. Sorry to see you go. Hope your company and your unimpressed marketing department return some day.
David and Gary hijacked this organization a few years ago and the direction they have taken it is not the way I’d wish for the group. Several long time members of the Alliance in my area have dropped out, the only reason I have kept my membership is because I have belonged for over 20 years. The members just don’t seem the be as important to these people as they use to be and the power of this orginazation in Sacramento was formed before David and Gary took control. I know we can’t live in the past but I joined because they were geared to helped the small agent with info to help us run our agencies. We now seem to be only a lobbing orginazation. That may not be bad but is is not why I joined.
I’m not convinced that David and Gary have hijacked anything since David could have retired from the sale of NBI and Gary could have had an easier existance by simply running his own agency. As for the Sacramento politicians, it doesn’t matter to me who gets the credit. I’m just sick of the fact that anybody in any industry has to kiss these so-called servants rumps to get on their blessing and approval. Unfortunately, that is the rules of the game these days. Regardless, I hear a lot of complaining but don’t see any arm chair quarterbacks stepping up to the plate to help out with the Alliance. I, for one, would like to see it work. So if there is anyone out there who can do a better job, please step forward.
So what is the status of the lawsuit with Lorelle Kitzmiller. Was all the money spent for no reason????? Inquiring minds want to know. As it appears somebody in this loop must know.
It is interesting that the BOD of this group avoids speaking on this subject whenever faced with it. Bud Dandurand has stated that over $100K has been spent to defend this group with their ongoing suit with LK. They never write about it nor comment and it is kept swept under the rug. You would think that members have a right to know the status.
I know that there has been talk here and there about some lawsuit. But to my knowledge there isn’t any. Lawsuits are usually listed and available to see online under the court where they are being fought. Maybe the first place to look would be a Google search for the court where this lawsuit is supposedly being litigated. If none can be found, it would seem to explain that there is nothing for the Alliance to comment about.
Hispanic parties and staff. Looks more like the LAAA than ever. Good to see Jenson go….what a pompous stiff that guy was
Mayor internal problems…what does that mean??? How long have you been using this new fangled internet/email thingy. Quit yelling at everyone, i.e. that button that says caps lock…don’t push it. and then lern how 2 spel. For all the other folks complaining, why not get involved and make the changes you seek. So many of you sit on the sidelines and all you can do is complain. Get involved with your time or your checkbook, especially those of you that charge those high broker fees. This industry is changing, get with it, if your not paperless, not using a management system, the internet/email and all the other advanced IT capabilities, then you only have yourself to blame for your failure. The Alliance has done a lot to help you stay up with all these changes. How can someone complain about what some of the new members look like, what the heck does that have to do with yours or The Alliances success. There will always be complainers in every aspect of our lives, most of the time, their the ones sitting on the sidelines while the rest of us do all the work. Thank God, because you make my business success so much easier.
you wrong DRE..Jensen was cool and is the reason why the Alliance is growing so much…they hired Hispanics so they can better serve their ever increasing Hispanic membership, not just to party for no reason like them dudes at the LAAA…
Glad to see Joe become president, maybe now things will return to the way they were before. Gary ruined the whole alliance with his ego being bigger than himself.
ST
The Alliance has done more since Gary became Pres. in the last 3 years than maybe it’s entire history. Yes he can be somewhat stiff at times, but he had to be to deal with all the “stuff” that happened before. As far as I know, only 2 associations have any pull in Sacramento, The Alliance being one. All the new resources for agents that Gary either directly or indirectly had a hand in that benefit the members, the countless hours he spent going to meetings with members and legislators, come on, you DRE must not be very invloved. Get off your lazy *** and do just 1/2 as much as he did and then maybe you can comment with some understanding of what it means to actually get involved. And for the other racially/bigotted comments, maybe if the LAAA wasn’t a for profit organization, they wouldn’t have to have latin in their name. The Alliance wants all members from the insurance community and if many happen to be Spanish, then so be it.
To: intheknow: I too was very much in the know. Gary failed to bring in the type of “agents” he and the executive board wanted. As it turned out, it backfired and he and the board got stuck with the non-standard agents after all. It’s very comendable that you have diversifed, but that was not Gary’s doing and you know it. That was the furtherst thing from their agenda. As far as Sacramento goes, the Alliance was always known and always got things done. What has the Alliance done about Infinity going direct? The same thing they did with Progressive, give me a little money and everything will be o.k. How hypocritical. The Alliance is there to protect the agents from direct writers as their mission statement says. Oh, well I guess money speaks louder than words. As far as the convention goes, 1700 agents, I don’t think so. I was there. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time.
The problem with the Alliance is not Gary Jensen’s leadership or the fact that there are Latinos. The problem with the Alliance is that many producer members ***** and complain but don’t offer any moral or financial support. Also, the problem is that most non-member producers won’t step up to the plate and organize into a meaningful voice that might have some inpact on their fate. I have been an Alliance member for over twenty years. I have seen the good and the bad. Right now there is more good going on, or at least efforts at doing good. Most of you don’t know it but the prior leadership was a self-serving and corrupt regime that was pretty much a shell organization for those on the payroll. Also, the Alliance use to be a laughing stock with little or no respect or recognition received from companies, politicians or competing trade organizations. In short, Gary Jensen cleaned house when the house cleaning was needed. The unfortunate result of cleaning house is that you end up with enemies who were part of the original problem. In spite of that grief, the new leadership has forged ahead in an effort to make the Alliance a focal point for preserving the future of agents. Not everyone will be happy with the leadership style. But if it helps preserve the agents existance and future than you can count me in. Oh by the way, I did attend the convention and it was packed. I question some of the responses made on this story on this website. I suspect that most of these comments are coming from a competing Latin association that is simply jealous about the Alliances successes and the fact that they welcome all comers.
A final word to this long winded response; like it or not, there are very real threats to the producers existance and livelihood in California. Unfortunately, most agents are too cheap and lazy to get involved and only complain. Just because insurance may be around forever doesn’t mean you’ll be around forever. We are already seeing evidence of that. The future is bleek if agents and broker in California don’t unite and start fighting back to save their livelihood and validate their worth. If they don’t the have nobody to blamne but themselves.
That’s the truth in a nutshell.
1700 attendees, not agents..who said agents fool. How can the Alliance stop Infinity from doing business the way they choose?? As far as I know, there are quite a few agents still using Infinity and for all the agents having a problem with their business model then don’t do business with them. I am a preferred/non std. agent and when I drive down the fwy and know that the companies I represent only write maybe 15% of all that business, I don’t get overly concerned with Infinity and Progressive and their business models, I get excited knowing that 85 out of every 100 cars is still available for us to write. Competition never scared me..but if your overly concerned about Infinity, I feel sorry for you and your buisness abilities. And for Chandra, we don’t have “MAYOR” problems, whatever that is. What association doesn’t have problems and disagrements, where do you live? a little place called UTOPIA?
Obviously you have a bone to pick with the Alliance by your anonymous misrepresentations. It would be more fitting that your posted name was Sour Grapes instead of the misspelled Exagerrated so that we could get a better sense of your true motives here. So we’re supposed to believe that vendors confided in you about being unhappy with the turnout and the presence of competing vendors? Gee, I saw vendors that I had never seen before at the convention. In fact, they ran out of room in the main hall and had to put some vendors in an overflow room. Does that sound like a failure in progress? It might have helped your cause if you had said that you took a survey after the convention and the vendors confided in little old you about how bad it was. But given the fact that the biggest turnout for the tradeshow is always the last half of Saturday, any sort of attendance measurement prior to that would be inaccurate and premature to say the least. But let’s be truthful, you really didn’t take a scientific survey did you? In fact I’ll bet you that more vendors show up next year and it will be because the Alliance convention is the only game in town when it comes to a broad cross section of auto insurance producers. Oh and did you miss the luncheon on Friday where a vampire lawyer was challenged? Apparently you did because it was packed, not to mention a complete success. You say, “We all know that there are fewer agencies and it is tougher and tougher to get them to attend these events”?!?!?!. Is that some futile statement to somehow make the Alliance look bad? It’s the law of the jungle that the weak won’t survive if they don’t start doing something that will save their hides. All I have seen the Alliance do is try to help all the agents save their hides. So your point on this one missed the intended target. Also, you singularly want an agency and company count instead of a body count when it comes to attendance. Is that your way of trying to drive the numbers down? Perhaps I’m wrong, but I thought it was the bodies, who comprise the companies and agencies, that are important ones? But silly me and silly Alliance. As for the AAA trying to look like the LAAA, I think you have it backwards since the AAA has been around more than 30 years and the LAAA has been around about 9 years. Oh but perhaps you are referring to the fact that the Alliance has open arms when it comes to welcoming Latino members. All I can say is get over it. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable as a member of the Aryan Agents Alliance. As for the PIA and the IBAWest being more professional, I’ve had the pleasure of attending their get-togethers and would have enjoyed it if I could have cut through the pompous, smug. Holier than thou we sell preferred and commercial attitude. And they write business on a larger scale? Gee, I guess Titan is in for a rude awakening for having bought Eastwood and NBI. As for AAA’s “lots of issues”, do they outnumber the issues you seem to have? And I’m puzzled about why paying for LEGAL DEFENSE is implied as being wrong? If it’s DEFENSE it means that the other party cast the first stone. Nice try but perhaps your energies would be better placed at selling more insurance, recruiting more members for your competing organization or whatever it is that you call your real job. Keep up your ramblings because it is having an opposite effect.
Sincerely,
The Messenger (of the truth)
“Gee, I saw vendors that I had never seen before at the convention. In fact, they ran out of room in the main hall and had to put some vendors in an overflow room.”
And what happened to some of those attendees the next day did they magically dematerialize.
You know it’s funny, but the last posting that are so well written and long, all point to Mr. Jensen himself. I know his writing. I would suggest that whoever is so defending the Alliance so much let us know who YOU ARE. And yes, so much members money has been spent on legal issues regarding the former director that it’s hard to imagine there is any money left in the association. One other thing, I know many people who have asked to see the financials of the association and they have not been disclosed. Is this not illegal?
So in conclusion, due to Mr. Jensen’s ego being bigger than himself, I am sure, it’s either him or one of his “yes” men writing these comments.
By the way, I too have spoken to many vendors and reps. and the answer is the same. NOT ENOUGH AGENTS.
Steven, I’ve been a member for quite some time and the CFO for the last few years, I have only received a handful of requests to see the financials and I have never denied letting a member see the financials. All members are allowed to go and sit in on our board meetings and ask me questions, so I’m not quite sure where or who you got your information from. If you are a member Steven and were at the member meeting, I was there to answer any questions for you or these “people” that you claim to have asked to see the financials. Yes there is money left, in fact quite a bit in our investment accounts. So now Steven if that’s your real name, please respond, but please give us your real name. I obviously will not go in to great detail about many of the other accusations, 1/2 truths and complete lies that some of you have written. However if anyone that is a member of the Alliance would like to sit down with me or in the future with the new CFO, we’re not hard to find.
Thank you for the compliment concerning my writing skills. But unfortunately Mr. Jensen cannot take credit for my creative prose. I didn’t even mention Mr. Jensen in my last response but you seem to conveniently associate him with my writings so that you can promptly throw him under the bus. I guess that shows where you’re coming from. It’s not that I’m defending the Alliance as much as I feel compelled to set the record straight based on my experience. You, on the other hand, are trying to make people think that there are some deep dark secrets by leveling unsubstantiated accusations. Oh and I like your comment, “one of his “yes” men writing these comments” line. Actually I’m a “no” man most of the time. But whose yes man are you? Reading your comments is like reading the National Enquirer, very entertaining but something that I would wrap a dead fish in when done reading it. It’s more important to know your identity and your hidden agenda. Or if you know something that is a smoking gun, why don’t you identify yourself and present your evidence. You could be a hero to the industry if you were the whistle blower that has all the dirt. But I suspect that isn’t the case, is it? And as for the NOT ENOUGH AGENTS complaint, I agree that it’s never enough. They could have 5,000 turn out and it still isn’t enough. But whose fault is that? The agents that didn’t hop in the car and drive to Palm Springs for a day or the Alliance who extended an invitation to members and non-members alike (including Latinos)? I trust that the other readers of our comments can draw their own intelligent conclusions for themselves.
Oops, another long winded comment. But it is warranted for clarification.
I spoke to some of the vendors at this event. The number of business cards collected was bad and there were too many vendors and not enough agents. Every year this group brags about attendance. We all know that there are fewer agencies and it is tougher and tougher to get them to attend these events. Dont lie just give the facts and break them down. How many agencies, not individuals attended and how many companies, not total number of attending reps, were in the house. AAA looks like they are trying to become LAAA both associations representing the nonstandard tier of brokers. The real associations to join are PIAWest or IBAWest…those are professionals who write real business on a much larger scale and yes, the also have divisions for nonstandard but they choose to deal only with Progressive, FIC or a few other direct appointment companies. Lot of issues with the AAA and they still continue. Wonder why the AAA never told you or the members that they have spend over 100K of member money on LEGAL DEFENSE in their ongoing lawsuit with Lorelle Kitzmiller. Just sweep it under the carpet
You got too much time to write and obviously not produce. The problem with that AAA show and why our company does not attend is that the group has really never become a group that attracts both nonstandard and mid-market and preferred agents…when I walk the show, I see a great deal of S Calif. auto brokers. As much as this group has tried to attract other types of agents, it still seems to be stuck in the bucket shop member category and after careful consideration we have found it is not a good fit for us. Maybe someday we will revisit your group as they evolve. I am sure their are some exceptions but for the most part, the agents/brokers I have seen have not impressed our marketing department. Hopefully your group can diversify somewhere between the johnny come latelies and the Intervest Financials of the industry. Good luck
If the shoe doesn’t fit you and your company, so be it. However, it does fit many others. I’m confused that your company doesn’t attend but you “walk the show”. I agree that there are many rookies in the industry who attend. But there are more established old-timers like me. As for your observation that “As much as this group has tried to attract other types of agents, it still seems to be stuck in the bucket shop member category”, at least they’re trying to catch fish using a net instead of using a rod and reel. In spite of the AAA faults, at least the door is open and the welcome mat is out and that isn’t a bad thing. Sorry to see you go. Hope your company and your unimpressed marketing department return some day.
David and Gary hijacked this organization a few years ago and the direction they have taken it is not the way I’d wish for the group. Several long time members of the Alliance in my area have dropped out, the only reason I have kept my membership is because I have belonged for over 20 years. The members just don’t seem the be as important to these people as they use to be and the power of this orginazation in Sacramento was formed before David and Gary took control. I know we can’t live in the past but I joined because they were geared to helped the small agent with info to help us run our agencies. We now seem to be only a lobbing orginazation. That may not be bad but is is not why I joined.
I’m not convinced that David and Gary have hijacked anything since David could have retired from the sale of NBI and Gary could have had an easier existance by simply running his own agency. As for the Sacramento politicians, it doesn’t matter to me who gets the credit. I’m just sick of the fact that anybody in any industry has to kiss these so-called servants rumps to get on their blessing and approval. Unfortunately, that is the rules of the game these days. Regardless, I hear a lot of complaining but don’t see any arm chair quarterbacks stepping up to the plate to help out with the Alliance. I, for one, would like to see it work. So if there is anyone out there who can do a better job, please step forward.
So what is the status of the lawsuit with Lorelle Kitzmiller. Was all the money spent for no reason????? Inquiring minds want to know. As it appears somebody in this loop must know.
It is interesting that the BOD of this group avoids speaking on this subject whenever faced with it. Bud Dandurand has stated that over $100K has been spent to defend this group with their ongoing suit with LK. They never write about it nor comment and it is kept swept under the rug. You would think that members have a right to know the status.
I know that there has been talk here and there about some lawsuit. But to my knowledge there isn’t any. Lawsuits are usually listed and available to see online under the court where they are being fought. Maybe the first place to look would be a Google search for the court where this lawsuit is supposedly being litigated. If none can be found, it would seem to explain that there is nothing for the Alliance to comment about.