The Level I Surety School instructs students on the basics of the business. The Level I faculty—Matt Cashion, Earl Benton, Tom Padilla, and Dave Castillo—actively engage students by probing and questioning students in ways to make sure they understand the subject matter of the program and are able to fully participate in the industry as capable and competent surety professionals. In addition, Lordes Landa observes and assists the Level I instructors as she prepares to make the commitment to join the core faculty of the School.

The Level II is for the more experienced surety professional. The Level II faculty—Bob Shaw, Jim Lareau, Ed Heine, Ralph Pulver, and Jack Curtin—challenge these more experienced students to deepen their understanding of the business. They are joined by Paul Amstutz who shares his considerable insights and experience on Commercial Surety. I had the opportunity to share my thoughts about the importance of professional ethics. Other faculty Tom Padilla, Larry McMahon, Bud Herndon, Tom Durkin, Jack Curtin, and Dave Castillo lead the students through the capstone of the School—the Surety Case Study. As the chairman of the Professional Development Committee, Tom Padilla does a terrific job providing leadership to the faculty and keeping everyone rowing in the same direction. In accordance with the Schools’ custom, Jack Curtin holds court at the graduation dinner and captivates students with his colorful stories and historic perspective of the surety industry.

If you ask each of these faculty members why they contribute their time to this mission, each will quickly relate to you the tremendous amount of personal and professional satisfaction they reap from their participation. Helping students develop a better understanding of the fundamentals of our business and what it takes to be a successful surety professional in today’s business climate elevates the overall professionalism of our industry. They also reap the dividend of being part of a process where they help and witness the affirmation of career choice and the formation of collegial friendships. In my opinion, there is no higher calling than helping your industry by educating and mentoring the leaders of tomorrow.

However, in order for the NASBP William J. Angell Surety Schools to continue to deliver this unparalleled educational experience and to keep up with the considerable demand for it, we not only need to support the current faculty with our recognition, but consider encouraging those who indicate interest in becoming a future faculty member. If you have an interest in becoming a faculty member for the William J. Angell Surety Schools, please contact Ann Latham at alatham@nasbp.org for more information.

By finding and encouraging the next generation of educators, we will be prepared with the resources needed to shape tomorrow’s industry leaders, and keep alive the legacy of excellence set by the William J. Angell Schools.

Sarah Finn is National Surety Senior Vice President of IMA of Colorado, Inc. in Denver, Colorado. She can be reached at sarah.finn@imacorp.com.

To address concerns, NASBP has taken immediate action through education and advocacy efforts. Hopefully, you were able to listen to the recent NASBP teleconference with Ted Baum, an attorney with the Rochester, NY law firm of Ernstrom & Dreste LLP, who provided an excellent rundown of the legal decisions that have triggered this crisis. An audio recording of the teleconference is available to members and affiliates in the password-protected section of the NASBP web site. Click here  to listen to the audio recording of the NASBP teleconference.

Beyond educational efforts, NASBP has pursued a substantive dialogue with AIA, which, at the request of NASBP, convened an in-person meeting among myself, Edward Gallagher, General Counsel of The Surety & Fidelity Association of America, Suzanne Harness, Managing Director of the AIA Documents Program, and Howard Goldberg, an attorney in the Baltimore, MD law firm of Goldberg, Pike & Besche, PC and outside counsel to the AIA Documents Program, on February 27. The purpose of the meeting was to convey to AIA the import of the situation for producers and for sureties, to assess AIA’s ability to expedite its revision process for A312 and, if for political, practical, or other reasons AIA was not able to expedite revision of A312, to seek an interim or “stopgap” measure through the issuance by AIA of a standardized amendment to the A312 payment bond form.

From the outset of the meeting, AIA representatives made clear that they understood the gravity of the situation and wished to work productively with NASBP and SFAA in an effort to address concerns with the A312 payment bond. AIA representatives stated that working towards a “stopgap” amendment likely would be the most expeditious means to mitigate the immediate situation, and they would review proposed amendment language forwarded from SFAA that represents a consensus position among SFAA member companies and, in short order, would convene follow-up meetings toward the goal of developing the “stopgap” amendment. They also indicated that they believe that maintaining the original revision cycle for A312 is important and ultimately beneficial to the construction and surety communities as AIA intends to review the substance of both the payment and performance bonds contained in A312 as well as review the merits of other bond approaches, such as bonds predicated on the federal Miller Act.

My personal thanks to Suzanne Harness and Howard Goldberg for appreciating the concerns of the surety community and making a commitment to look for means to address them.

Operating for only three months, the NASBP Career Center is already making a difference for employers. NASBP members and affiliates who post their positions to the NASBP Career Center are finding that the Career Center is an effective recruiting tool.

North American Specialty Insurance Company’s Vice President of Commercial Surety, Kay Hull stated, “The Career Center was incredibly easy to use.” Hull related, “We have a new Commercial Surety Underwriter that saw our job posting and contacted us; I’m happy to say Teri started in our Cedar Rapids office in February.”

Today’s workforce demographic increasingly uses job boards like the NASBP Career Center in their job searches. A well-known human resources consultant, Peter Weddle, in a recent article, talks about why today’s job boards are appropriate in attracting job seekers. According to Weddle, if you put 100 recruiters in a room and ask them to identify the best talent in the workforce, 99 will point to passive job seekers. Weddle says: “The problem, of course, is that passive job seekers aren’t job seekers at all. At best, they are prospects. They don’t act like active job seekers, nor are they motivated in the same way. More often than not, they have to be dragged…into [the] recruiting processes. Then, they have to be persuaded and cajoled into even considering [the positions]. In short, they are [hard to recruit]. So, it’s appropriate to ask why even bother with them? Why not focus on people who really do want to come to work for our employers?”

Acknowledging just how difficult passive prospects can be, Weddle thinks we must not only recruit them, we must make them our priority. Why? Click here for Weddle’s four reasons.

To view a list of benefits members and affiliates receive when they utilize the NASBP Career Center, click here. For information about member and affiliate rates to post positions on the Career Center, click here.

NASBP President Sarah Finn said, “This easy access to the samples helps us and our contractor and subcontractor clients to quickly become familiar with the risk allocation and insurance provisions in the ConsensusDOCS™ documents. With a greater understanding of the ConsensusDOCS™ forms, our clients can make more informed decisions and choose the appropriate documents for their projects,” Finn added.

Recently, NASBP members and affiliates have had interest in the following ConsensusDOCS™ documents:

1. tri-party collaborative agreement (ConsensusDOCS 300),
2. owner/contractor agreement and general conditions – lump sum (ConsensusDOCS 200),
3. electronic communication protocol addendum (ConsensusDOCS 200.2), and
4. the 11 bond forms that include performance and payment bond forms coordinated with agreements between: contractor and owner (260 and 261), design-builder and owner (470, 471, 472, and 473), and general contractor and subcontractor (706, 707). These 11 bond forms also include prime (262) and subcontractor (760) bid bond forms for agreements, and a warranty bond (263) coordinated for the agreements between contractor and owner.

Click here for a brief summary of the rest of the library of ConsensusDOCS forms, or download a list of the documents titles by clicking here.

ConsensusDOCS™ forms can be purchased in electronic format at www.ConsensusDOCS.org  through a subscription or a la carte system, called Meter Mode. NASBP members and affiliates can receive a discount of up to 20% when they enter the code NASBP400 when prompted during the purchasing process from the ConsensusDOCS™ web site.

Instructions how to access the free samples of the ConsensusDOCs documents are provided below.

Directions how to download free ConsensusDOCS™ samples:

Jan/Feb 2008 NASBP Surety School Faculty (not pictured: Ed Heine, Ralph Pulver, Tom Durkin and Sarah Finn)

For the first time, the Level I Red Team had two recipients of the Most Outstanding Student award. The football went to Jimbo Ramsay of The Cashion Company in Little Rock, AK and Ebony Johnson of the Insco/Dico Group in Greenwood, CO. The Level I Yellow Team’s Most Outstanding Student was Idan Gadidi of First Sealord Surety in Villanova, PA.

Level II Blue Team’s Outstanding Student was Christopher Rea of Six & Geving in Colorado Springs, CO. The Green Team’s Outstanding Student was Will Mingram of Bond Services of California in Los Angeles, CA.

Photos of award recipients who were present are below.

Congratulations to all graduating students and our thanks to an outstanding faculty for sharing their time and talents!

Level I – Red Team’s Most Outstanding Students Jimbo Ramsay (second from left) and Ebony Johnson (third from left) with faculty (from left) Tom Padilla, Paul Amstutz and Dave Castillo

Level I – Yellow Team’s Most Outstanding Student Idan Gadidi (second from left) with faculty (from left) Erle Benton, Matt Cashion and Paul Amstutz

Level II – Blue Team’s Most Outstanding Student Christopher Rea (second from left) with Faculty (from left) Paul Amstutz, Ed Heine and Jack Curtin

The PCFRC, formed by FASB and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, provides recommendations to the FASB. FASB sets accounting standards for privately-held enterprises.
The FASB recently voted to defer the effective date of FIN 48 for nonpublic entities to periods beginning after December 15, 2007.

Users and prepares may complete the survey by clicking on one of the surveys below by Tuesday, March 18th.

1) “Users” of private company financial statements, click here.
OR
2) “Preparers” of private company financial statements and “CPA practitioners,” click here.

Questions, contact Robert Durak, Private Company Financial Reporting, AICPA – (212) 596-6170,1211 Avenue of the Americas, Floor 19,New York, NY 10036. http://www.aicpa.org

SuretyPAC disbursements are made based on the NASBP SuretyPAC bylaws. Click here for more information about the SuretyPAC.

Even a small percentage makes a difference. Do you think that a 2% increase in votes doesn’t sound like much? With 2% more votes, Bush would have won Wisconsin, New Mexico, Iowa and Oregon in 2000. With 2% more votes, Gore would have won Florida and New Hampshire. 2% also would have made a big difference in these key battleground states, producing the following outcomes:

Missouri
• In the 2000 Gubernatorial Race, Talent (R) would have beaten Holden (D).
• In 2002, Talent (R) won the Senate seat. With 2% more votes for Carnahan (D), he would have lost that seat as well.

Michigan
• In the 2000 Senate race, Abraham (R) would have won over Stabenow (D).

Wisconsin
• In the 1998 Senate race, Neumann (R) would have beaten Feingold (D).

Arizona
• In the 2002 Gubernatorial race, Salmon (R) would have won over Napolitano (D).

Nevada
• In the 1998 Senate race, Ensign (R) would have won over Reid (D).

Washington
• In the 2000 Senate race, Gorton (R) would have beaten Cantwell (D).

• ULLICO Casualty Company (NAIC #37893), has been certified and added to the Treasury‘s Listing of Approved Sureties effective 12/21/07.
• Rockwood Casualty Insurance Company (NAIC #35505), has been certified and added to the Treasury’s Listing of Approved Sureties effective 02/21/08.

The Department of Treasury’s List of Accredited/Trusteed Reinsurers as of October 30, 2007 has been updated to reflect:

• Mapfre Re, Compania De Reaseguros S.A., (NAIC #12324), has been added to the Treasury’s Listing of Accredited/Trusteed Reinsurers effective 01/22/08.

For a complete listing of all states where these companies are licensed to transact surety business, please refer to the Circular 570 and its supplements at:

http://fms.treas.gov/c570/c570.html
http://fms.treas.gov/c570/supplements.html
 

C&H Agency
http://www.chagency.com
Totowa, NJ
Key Contact: Michael Culnen

CL Frates and Company
http://www.clfrates.com/
Oklahoma City, OK
Key Contact: Keith Shideler

Crichton Brandon Jackson & Ward
http://www.cbjw.net/
Nashville, TN
Key Contact: Charles Royse

HRH Metro Northeast, LLC
http://www.hrh.com/
Cranford, NJ
Key Contact: Harry Dinger, Jr.

JM Strange & Company
http://www.suretybondservices.com/
Houston, TX
Key Contact: John Mark Strange

JP West Inc.
http://www.jpwest.com/
New York, NY
Key Contact: Eileen Frank

Sterling Risk Advisors
http://www.sterlingriskadvisors.com/
Marietta, GA
Key Contact: Douglas Rieder

Affiliates

Financial Pacific Insurance Co.
http://www.financialpacific.com/
Rocklin, CA
Key Contact: Linda Becchetti

Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
http://www.trisura.com/
Toronto, ON
Key Contact: Glen Shaw
 

Whereas: Construction lenders may not be aware of how surety bonds can benefit and protect their lending capital;

Whereas: Private project owners and lenders may not fully understand how bank letters of credit or subcontractor default insurance differ from surety bonds;

Whereas: Private project owners and lenders may not be aware of the surety’s rigorous prequalification process, that contractors are unwilling to divulge confidential financial details to owners and lenders, and the time and expense associated with prequalifying contractors on their own;

Whereas: Private project owners may believe that working with the same contractor for many years provides all the protection they need;

Whereas: Contractors fail or go out of business at a rate of 23.6% and that financial issues, management issues, unrealistic growth/overexpansion, and uncontrollable issues are factors that contribute to contractor failure;

Whereas: The private construction sector offers the most potential for growth in surety bond premium written;

Therefore be it resolved: The Surety Information Office (SIO) makes promoting contract surety bonds to private owners and lenders easy by offering free PowerPoint® presentations, brochures, and CDs via www.sio.org, or by contacting SIO at (202) 686-7463 or sio@sio.org.