Whatever Suits...

CA ExCom Meets in La Quinta, CA

This past weekend, your Counselors Academy Executive Committee met to discuss new and old business for the year, as well as to put final plans in place for this year's Spring Conference in Naples, FL.

The normal format for these meetings is to meet at the facility which will host the Spring Conference the following year. In 2009, our conference will be at the La Quinta Inn and Resort in La Quinta, CA. By staying at the facility, we get a chance to experience first-hand what the resort and the host town have to offer, which, admittedly, isn't a bad way to spend a weekend. But despite the distractions of the golf course, the tennis courts, restaurants, beautiful scenery and the spa, we accomplished much and put some great plans and final touches in place for this year's conference.

Attached are a few photos from our executive session as we were discussing plans for the Naples conference, the organization's overall strategic plan and other business, both old and new.

Carolyn Marr (left) with PRSA and ExCom members Sydney Ayers and Ben Wheatley

ExCom members Elise Mitchell and Eric Morgenstern

The next meeting of the executive committee, apart from the monthly conference calls and daily contact for projects, will be in Naples at the Spring Conference. Go here for more information about the 2008 Spring Conference, including early-bird registration specials.

Individual Insurance Market Beginning to Emerge

No two ways about it. Either you have medical insurance and it costs too much or you don't have medical insurance because it costs too much. Its become a double-edged sword.

For those of us with medical coverage -- be we independent counselors or heads of small, medium or large firms -- medical insurance costs rank right up there with payroll and facilities costs as one of the top operating expenses. Add a handful of employees and their dependents into the mix and things can get downright scary.

For those without medical coverage, which is a growing percentage among entrepreneurs and managers of small firms, you find yourself ever-so-slightly tip-toeing through life hoping to avoid accidents, injuries and any unplanned hospital stay. One wrong move and you've got yourself a $100,000 expense.

Either way, you feel caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to something as basic as health coverage. With each election cycle come promises to overhaul a broken system, with both parties floating ideas that, given some tweaking, could work. Ultimately, though, these plans never seem to come to fruition.

Short of encasing yourself in bulletproof glass or winning the lottery, isn't there a better way?