Douglas Barnes, executive director of NRRA, said the joint conference has been "a good idea that has served its purpose."

To best represent the interests of its members in the current alternative risk environment, however, NRRA is planning a conference with a different venue in 2004. Mr. Barnes said NRRA is working harder to address the needs of purchasing groups, which with risk retention groups make up its constituency. The current board, he said, better represents purchasing groups.

New officers for 2003, NRRA said, are board chair, Wendy Fisher, corporate secretary for the National Home Insurance Company, Aurora, Colo.; chair-elect and vice chair, Stephen R. Crim, vice president of American Safety Risk Retention Group Inc., Atlanta, Ga.; secretary, Kathleen H. Davis, Downs, Rachlin & Martin, PLLC, Burlington, Vt.; and treasurer, Janice Abraham, president and chief executive officer of United Educators Insurance Reciprocal RRG, Chevy Chase, Ma. Officers are elected annually by the board of directors according to NRRA.

New directors, elected by members of the association for a three-year term, are Brian Donovan, president of Steel Tank Insurance Company, Lake Zubich, Ill.; John Howard, principal of JH Howard Associates, LLC, Wilton, Conn.; Jim Leatzow, president of Compliance & Filing Solutions, Glen Ellyn, Ill.; Mark Wilson, chief financial officer and treasurer of Housing Authority Insurance Group, Cheshire, Conn.; and Marilyn Udis, vice president of the Mental Health RRG, Cedar Grove, N.J.