In other words, partisanship has been with us since our formation, and it will continue to play pivotal roles in how our elected officials conduct the business of the people. (Well, except in the case of Gov. Charlie Crist, where party affiliation seems not to matter at all.) Due to deadline constraints, I write this before the final week of the 2010 session. The fate of various legislation has been changing hourly amid new amendments, threats of vetoes, and declarations that this bill or that one was dead. With so much undecided, I cannot applaud or berate our lawmakers' final actions. However, if past is prologue, no one will be entirely happy with the results, and important votes may be cast for reasons other than altruistic. On the positive side, no gunfire.

Moving onto a different but again positive topic, we are now fully into our Florida convention season. In our April 2010 issue, we gave you the run-down on what groups were going where and when. (Go to www.floridaunderwriter.com if you need a memory jog.)

Kicking off the festivities was an organization that has been off the convention circuit for some time. PIA of Florida, Inc., teamed up with the PIA Western Alliance to present Agent Expo 2010 on April 19-20 in Orlando, its first large conference in 14 years. I drove over to see what was happening, and found some 500 attendees and vendors chatting about "Innovations in Insurance," the conference's theme. CEO Mark O'Connell was a decidedly happy camper at the turnout. He told me that 90 to 95 percent of the attendees were agency principals, and credited an aggressive marketing campaign for getting the word out and promoting the event. Just another reminder that advertising and marketing do work.

I look forward to seeing many of you over the next few months. Next up for me, the Florida Association of Health Underwriters Symposium and Expo May 5-7 in Orlando, and a pit stop at the NCCI Annual Issues Symposium 2010 on May 6-7, also in Orlando.