As president of the CPCU Society, a community of credentialed insurance professionals who promote excellence through ethical behavior and continuing education, I have seen what education means to our nearly 28,000 members. In fact, it is one of three most important CPCU values, which also include ethics and experience.

Professionals holding the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Professional Designation are known as top technicians in the property and casualty industry. For more than 60 years, the CPCU Society has helped CPCUs, as well as non-CPCUs, stay on top of their profession by providing continuing professional and technical education. The national CPCU Society helped local chapters present a record 61 programs on technical topics last year. Additionally, the society developed 48 educational seminars for its 2004 Annual Meeting and Seminars in Los Angeles last October.

The society's special-interest sections produce quarterly newsletters and symposia for their members in areas such as claims, loss control, reinsurance, and personal lines. One such section, the Consulting, Litigation, and Expert Witness Section, worked last year with the International Risk Management Institute to provide material for a new book that IRMI published about a highly litigated, one-page insurance endorsement known as the MCS-90, which is required by the Motor Carrier Act of 1980.