By: Jim Moody, CSA President
We all have limited resources, and one of the significant challenges of our economic environment is the need to get more done with less. In that regard, CSA’s business is no different than your own.
We’ve taken a close look at the needs of our members and of the association and compared that to the work that is being conducted. The work that needed to be done in times past is not necessarily the work that needs to be done today or in the future.
For many years, we’ve had two very competent guys on staff whose primary responsibility was to serve as field agents for our Self Insured Worker’s Compensation Fund. Larry Marler and Kevin Rodgers have served ably and done good things for members and for the Fund. They’ve provided lots of insight on regulatory issues and also helped members improve safety conditions. When necessary, they’ve conducted claim investigations and they’ve both conducted more payroll audits than they care to admit. They’ve been our “relationship guys” out there keeping abreast of what’s going on.
While I would never discount the value of maintaining relationships, I also have to recognize that devoting two people full time to maintaining relationships may not be the best way for us to spend staff time. Additionally, there are important things I see going undone, and devoting more staff time to those will ultimately serve members better.
For those reasons, both Kevin and Larry will be beginning significantly different jobs by the end of this year.
Kevin’s changes are most dramatic. Kevin’s lived in Perry and served middle and south Georgia for some time. Kevin is relocating to Atlanta and will be based in the new CSA office. While he can still do safety and Fund work in a pinch, the bulk of his time will be developing, rolling out, and maintaining new programs and services. By that, I mean new products that will help you run your business better. It might be leveraging the buying power of our membership to create a discount for you on something many of you use. It might be developing a manual on how to operate more efficiently. It could be creating partnerships with similar groups to do things neither of us could do alone. The possibilities are endless. It’s very clear to the Board and to me that the association must continue to expand the things you receive in exchange for the dues you pay to CSA if we are to achieve our mission of building stronger independent dealers. Our strategic plan outlines many of those things. Kevin will be the guy to make them happen.
Larry will continue to live in Gainesville and be focused on the Fund, with some fundamental changes. Instead of serving just north Georgia, he’ll serve the entire state. While his focus in the past has been visiting every member in his territory multiple times per year, that won’t be physically possible any longer. His goal is to see every member at least once per year. Other contact will be by phone and e-mail. He’ll still do some payroll audits in person, but we’ll be doing more by mail. The bulk of his time will be spent working with the Fund members who historically have the highest losses. We have a responsibility to do all we can to educate owners about safety, help them develop adequate safety programs and ensure that those programs roll out to their employees. We know that Fund members who make safety a priority have fewer claims and smaller losses, yet there are some members who have not been as focused on it as they should be. Larry’s job is to help them achieve that focus and create safer work environments. The result will be safer workers, lower cost insurance, and an even stronger Self Insured Fund.
Do we lose some of the personal relationship with these changes? Perhaps. I’m sure many of you have struggled with the best way to get the important work done and still maintain relationships with your customers during these trying times. There are always trade-offs. On the other hand, I also recognize that relationships only get you so far if you don’t have the service to back it up. Relationships matter less than tangible value today. What are you getting in exchange for your dues? Are your worker’s comp rates as low as they can possibly be? We believe these are relevant questions for you to ask, and we want to do everything possible to ensure the answers are positive.
We’ve arrived at this decision by being honest about our resources, our needs, and our current weaknesses. The goal is to help the association and the Fund do more for you, our members.
I hope you would agree that CSA and the Fund have provided good value in the past, but we understand that what was good enough in the past won’t always cut it in today’s harsh business climate. We will continue striving to do more for you to ensure that independent dealers not only survive but thrive again.
