At a Town Hall meeting hosted during NAPSLO's Mid-Year Leadership Forum at the Marriott Resort in Harbor Beach in March, leaders representing the two largest professional surplus lines organizations spent 90 minutes laying out their strategy for the coming months — including the timeline for the approval vote, details on which annual events would still take place (and when) should the merger come to pass, and a long list of additional details sorted out after months of due diligence by the Merger Committee.

NAPSLO President Dave Leonard; AAMGA President Ed Levy; Hank Haldeman, NAPSLO past president and chairman of the AAMGA-NAPSLO Merger Committee; AAMGA Treasurer Bobby Owens, vice chairman of the AAMGA-NAPSLO Merger Committee; and NAPSLO Executive Director Brady Kelley took the dais to outline the greater purpose and finer points of the proposed new organization, which, if AAMGA and NAPSLO members were to vote to join forces, would create WSIA — the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association.

Among the benefits outlined to members: a single, rebranded organization with renewed energy and purpose; a simplified menu of programs and services; a larger, unified voice in its legislative and regulatory advocacy; cost savings gained by combining the management of the two separate organizations; synergy in committee and volunteer work; and refinement of existing networking events.