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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE…….Jeannie Upright

Happy New Year!

So what’s in store for IPSV in 2007?

I would like to thank all of you for your support and encouragement as your new president! I had to follow in some very big” footsteps” after all of you but you made the “shoes” comfortable and the “walk” has been a great experience so far!

We have some projects in the works so if you can’t attend our meetings please stay informed through the newsletter! We got off to a good start this year, let’s keep the momentum going ! We need your help to stay strong!

Getting ready for Regional Conference in March, remember if you are eligible for an education scholarship, please apply. If you need help with the form, please contact Brenda Weaver. Education is an important part of your career!
Also each chairperson should get your information together for the Award forms.

“your future depends on many things, but mostly on you”

SECRETARY’S MINUTES……….Debbie Musgrave

The Insurance Professionals of Susquehanna Valley met at the Pine Barn Inn in Danville on Wed.Dec.13,2006 for their Christmas meeting.

President, Jeannie Upright called the meeting to order at 6:45PM.

The minutes were approved as printed in the newsletter.

The Treasurer's report was approved as printed and distributed to the members present and will be filed for audit.

Members present were Jeannie Upright, Gail Bradley, Pam Stetler, Brenda Weaver, Patsy Lachat, Barbara Kressler, Donna Coombs, and Christine Gordon. Pam's mother, Charlotte Stetler was our guest for the evening.

The Collect was read by Jeannie.

Christine asked us to correct the date of her birthday to Sept 9th as it is listed incorrectly on the birthday list.

Pam said that the $85 check was returned from York for Council Registration for Angela Horton as we had sent the check to Angela Tennis in error and she did not want to give it back to us. We had to pay for the correct person at the conference as Vince Phillips had given us the money for the drawing winner at our State Day last year. Brenda will contact Angela Horton to see if anyone had already paid her registration as we owe her that money since York returned it to us.

Patsy asked if everyone saw her legislative article relating to having the use of headlights be mandatory now whenever your windshield wipers are used.

Gail asked that everyone return all lottery tickets and money at the January meeting. If you are unable to sell all of your tickets by then, please return them so that we can try to get them all sold by the end of January. You can mail them to Gail at PO Box 215 Millville Pa 17846.

Barbara advised us that the CPCU, NAIW Wyoming Valley, Ins Women of Greater Scranton and our association is having a combined meeting again this year on January 9th, 2007 at the Victoria Inn in WIlkes Barre with H&R Block again presenting the program. Let Barb know if you are interested in attending.

Brenda reported that she has found round trip air fare from Newark NJ to San Juan for Nat'l conference for a price of $244 round trip. Pam will book the flight for us and we will leave Monday June 4th and return Sunday June 10th. We will go down to NJ the night before so that we can get the 9AM flight out on the 4th. Brenda will book the hotel room for the night before our flight.
Those planning on going will be Jeannie, Gail, Brenda, Pam, Barbara & Gary Kressler. Brenda will double check on the need for passports to go to San Juan.

Being no more businees the meeting was adjourned at 7:25 for dinner and games.

Respectfully submitted

Gail Bradley, Acting Sec'y

Since Pam will be in Antarctica in January she will email the Treasurers report to Jeannie for the next meeting.

EDUCATION…………….Brenda Weaver

How to Get the Inside Story- Asking the Right Questions to Get Past the Information Barriers.
Article by Dorothy Leeds

Ever hear of the answering reflex? The impulse to answer a question-any question-is an automatic as the “fight or flight” response. You need to ask questions to start a sale, but you need to ask the right questions to close one. Unless you learn to probe and clarify throughout the entire sales process, you’ll never uncover a prospect’s hidden objections.

Why is getting the inside story so hard? After all, didn’t I just say that the answering reflex guarantees that people will respond to your questions? The problem is that those responses won’t necessarily give you the whole story.

The Four Basic Barriers
To be a successful salesperson, you must thoroughly understand the four reasons why ordinary questioning skills aren’t enough, and why the ability to probe and clarify is the greatest determiner of success.

The four reasons are:
People don’t volunteer information
People talk in generalities
People make wrong assumptions
People perceive things differently

These four communication problems make it necessary for every salesperson to develop the skills of a detective tackling a baffling case. Good salespeople get answers to their questions. Great ones probe and clarify each answer until they’ve solved the mystery. To get that order signed takes nothing less than detective work at every stage of the selling process.

Breaking Through the Barriers: Barrier #1
The first problem-people don’t volunteer information-comes up all the times you’re selling. A prospect might say, “we’re not ready to make a decision yet,” never volunteering that the “we” refers to a committee of six that must have proposals submitted in writing, and the “make a decision yet” refers to a meeting next month. Though these are crucial details, the prospect isn’t going to volunteer them. It’s up to you to probe and clarify to get a full understanding of the situation.

Breaking Through the Barriers: Barrier #2
People buy specifics, but often talk in generalities. Their reasons for agreeing or objecting to your sale can be very precise, but they’re unlikely to state them. Even when people think in specifics they are often too lazy, afraid or impatient to state their real feelings. And many times a prospect’s reasons for turning you down may be very vague: perhaps a feeling of distrust caused by your tone of voice or lack of eye contact. What is a salesperson to do with general answers like “I’ll think about it”? What will the prospect be thinking about? You don’t know what aspect of the sale he will be dwelling on. Find out, and if need be refocus his attention where you want it. Respond with, “That’s great. I’m glad you’re going to thinking about this. What exactly will you be focusing on?” It’s natural to enjoy hearing a prospect say “I liked your policy proposal:’ but this is one gift horse you have to in the mouth and ask, “What exactly did you like about it?” A standard objection like “I’m not ready yet” could mean anything from “I don’t like you” to “I’m considering two other insurance companies” to “I don’t have the money” to a dozen other concerns. Unless you probe and clarify you have no idea what to focus on to convince the person these concerns won’t affect the satisfaction or value of your product or service.

Breaking Through the Barriers: Barrier #3
Barrier #3 is that people make the wrong assumptions. I know from my own personal experience. Early on in my sales career I made an overly pessimistic assumption that cost me dearly. As an account executive for the catalog division of Grey Advertising, my job was to secure retailer and mail order companies to use our services. I never contacted the very large stores because I assumed they must already have an agency. It wasn’t until my boss pointed out my unfounded supposition that I started calling on the big guns. In no time my commissions doubled: it turned out that even the largest stores were interested in our services. You can’t assume anything. When a prospect says, “I’ll take it to my boss,” or “I’ll talk to my spouse about it,” most of us assume these are positive signs that the sale is progressing. But the prospect could be planning to tell his boss to hold off on the purchase. Unless you probe and clarify the statement you’ll never know where the sale really stands. Next time you hear, “I have to talk it over with my wife,” probe that answer by asking, “Do I understand you correctly that if your wife likes it you’ll be ready to proceed?”

Breaking through the Barriers: Barrier #4
The final obstacle to communication is the fact that people perceive things differently. How I perceive a situation will be quite different from how you perceive it. That’s because everyone’s perceptions are based on past experience and present desires. So if I say, “let’s go out to dinner,” the scene those words conjure up in my mind is probably very different than what you envision. Such differing perceptions can play havoc with a sale. When a prospect says “let’s close the deal,” you might take that to mean a signed contract with money up front, but to your prospect it means one more round of negotiations.

One area where perceptions always vary is people’s perception of their own importance. It’s natural for a person to have heightened sense of his or her own significance. However, prospects frequently perceive themselves as decision makers when they can’t really give the final okay. Be sure that when a prospect says, “I’m ready to close the deal,” he has the authority to do so.

Once you learn to recognize these four communication barriers, you can easily learn to probe and clarify your way right through them.

PROGRAM AND MENU………Gail Bradley

The January 17th meeting will be held at Portabella’s Catering in Lightstreet. Dinner will be shared at 6pm. Snow date is January 18th. .

Please RSVP by January 12th by emailing Gail Bradley at brado@ptd.net.

The menu is as follows:
Salads: Broccoli salad, mandarin orange salad and pasta salad
Entrée: Poached fish in white wine sauce and chicken breast in a
mushroom sauce
Vegetables: Sweet potatoes and steamed vegetables

SAFETY…….Barbara Kressler

Now that the Holidays are over, I thought the you might find the article
beneficial. I found that before the Holidays I did not have time to
read and digest the information, but now that I have had an opportunity
to read it, I have found it to be very beneficial. The article came from the
CPCU Society web page, www.cpcusociety.com.

Stress: It's a Killer!
by David G. Javitch, Ph.D., President of Javitch Associates

Does this sound like you? "I know, I know, everyone else has stress, but not me! I can handle pressure just as well as the next person." As I travel around the country, speaking with people at all levels of the hierarchy and in most industries, when I bring up the issue of stress, too many people feel respond the same way by ignoring or minimizing their stress.

But can you? Really? Just stop and think about it for a few minutes. If you can say no to most of the following short questions, then you are either are managing your stress, haven't recognized it yet, or are in denial. Do you: Often feel tense? Have trouble relaxing? Have trouble getting or staying asleep? Grind your teeth? Have troubling dreams? Easily and frequently misplace things? Forget some deadlines, appointments, or meetings? Short or curt with other people? Think about business even when you are trying to relax or are involved in non-work activities? Find it difficult beginning, concentrating, or staying on a task? Experience frequent muscle tightness?

Come on now, let's admit it. Almost everyone, including you have some amount of stress in your life. If you did not, you would be comatose. It may be a surprise to you, but there is nothing wrong with having stress. The real issue is not whether or not you have it, but how much and how well you are dealing with it.

First, you need to recognize the signs, many of which are stated in the first paragraph of this article. Then, you need to ask yourself the very powerful question: "Why do I have this stress in my life?" Chances are, you are stuffing too many activities in your life. Or, stress is there but you are not responding to it in an efficient way. For fun, make a list of all of the activities and the time required to complete each one in a given three to four day period. Now, analyze that list and honestly evaluate just how many you accomplished or at least set in to motion. How many overlap and/or are left undone or only partially completed? Finally, list your reaction to each item, accomplished, begun, or left pending. Do you feel proud of your accomplishments? Glad to have one or two off your shoulders because there are so many more to replace it? Overwhelmed because you haven't been able to move ahead as fast as you would like or as fast as you and/or your boss believe you should? Paralyzed or at least procrastinating?

Now tell me that you don't feel stress.

Dr. Hans Selye, the father of stress, defined it as "the body's reaction to the demands placed on it." That's it: no positives or negatives. Stress just "is." But when stress begins to seep into your life and becomes "distress," your physical, emotional, and cognitive responses to that stress hint or shout out to you to do something about it. The usual price for not paying attention to those signals is emotional or physical pain, burnout, or illness. The ultimate price is death.

Therefore, the ultimate answer and way of addressing your stress is to deal with it. It's called "balance." You've heard it many times, and that age old remedy is as valuable today as it was decades ago when your parents were trying to deal with their stress. Take a look at your work vs. non-work time, activities, and emotions. How many of them are over-weighted toward the work side of the scale? The answer to that little, but powerful question should thrust you into reducing stress through a combination of these three approaches: Thinking (cognitive), Feeling (Affective), and Doing (Physical).

Thinking: Stop and consider how much of an optimist or pessimist you are. When you think negative thoughts, you see the world in a negative, and often more serious light. Challenge yourself to take another look at your world, this time from a more positive stance. Catch yourself doing something right and stop being so critical. Evaluate the stressors in your work life. Can they be managed more effectively? Reduced? Can you incorporate the input of others to assist you in being more effective in the workplace? Do you frequently over-challenge yourself such that you end up losing out, only to be challenged to do more? How do your own activities increase the negative flow of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Analyze that!

Doing: Go out and do something. That's the key; not just thinking about it, but doing about it. Find an activity or action that that makes you feel good. Sing, dance, laugh, and cry. Go for a walk. If the weather isn't nice, then take a walk inside your office building. Get up and move around, the hokey-pokey has several beneficial purposes to it. Exercise encourages those endorphins in our brain to make you feel good. The only way to get them flowing is by physical movement. You don't have to walk ten miles, or run the marathon, or even climb five flights of stairs. Just encourage your muscles to move more and more every day. Start with a one minute walk up and down the hallway or stairs. Then keep doubling it when you feel ready. Make it easy, fun, healthy, and effortless And above all, remember that even very moderate effort decreases tension and stress.

Feeling: Ask yourself "what makes you feel good?" Do you even know? If not, you are in serious need of finding out. So start discovering! Does your happiness come from being with likeminded people? Does it come from a hot shower? Does it come from being out in nature where you can admire and be part of the beauty and miracle of the outdoors, rain, snow, or sunshine? How do you feel when you see a beautiful painting? A simple, yet elegant flower? An architecturally pleasing building? A delicious ice-cream sundae or other delectable food? Do your warm feelings come from laughing? If so, try adding some humor to your life. Read something funny or heartwarming, or other wise intriguing. Talk with a good friend. Go to a movie, a play, a museum, or the local park. Try a massage, especially if you've never had one before. The relaxation and the releasing of muscle tension has enormous benefits on emotional and physical stress reduction.

These are only a few examples of the three basic means you have to reduce the stress in your life. Challenge yourself to figure out other means to feel good and decrease your stress. Your life depends on it!

MEMBERSHIP AND PUBLIC RELATIONS…Gail Bradley

A big THANKS to everyone for selling the daily number lottery tickets. This should be one of our biggest fund raisers if all tickets are sold. You still have a little time to sell the rest of your tickets if you have not already done so. They would make a great Valentines Day present for anyone's sweetheart!

Be sure to bring all tickets and money to the January meeting along with any tickets that you were unable to sell so that we can account for all the numbers.

Also remember that we will be having another new member orientation meeting in February describing what NAIW is all about so everyone should try to invite one guest for that meeting. We need to build our membership and that is a great time to do it. Remember that when you do invite a guest to a meeting, please give me their name & address so that I can follow up with them after the meeting and invite them to join us again.

As always, remember that your voice is important to the success of IPSV so share your ideas with us.

Gail Bradley
Membership & PR

LEGISLATIVE…………………Patsy Lachat

Legislative Report:

Effective January 29, 2007 all motorists MUST turn on
their headlights whenever they use their windshield wipers in inclement weather.  This new law applied when wipers are fully on or in intermittent mode.
Violators will be fined $25 but fees/other costs will increase the amount to $100!

Also, motorists will suffer substantial penalties if snow or ice on their vehicle injures or kills someone.  This is the first winter this law will be on the
books.  Spread this information to all PA drivers that you know.  Don't get a ticket because you were not knowledgeable about this new law.  (from
www.pendot.com - thanks Brenda!)

LEG REG REVIEW
2007, First Issue

HAPPY NEW YEAR
PHILLIPS ASSOCIATES would like to wish you a healthy, prosperous, and personally rewarding 2007.  2006 was good for our business and we have grown. If your schedule permits and you are in the Harrisburg area January 12 3:00-6:00 p.m., please drop in for our Open House. Our new Capitol Hill address (our second office) is 800 North Third Street, Suite 401-B.  RSVP
to joantroutman@verizon.net
.

CONGRESS ENACTS H S A LEGISLATION
Before adjourning, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation (HR 6111 The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006) designed to make Health Savings Accounts
even more attractive in 2007.  According to the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) trade association, there are these enhancements:
. Health Savings Accounts may be used to pay for Medigap premiums

. HSAs may be used to pay for preventive and maintenance drugs before the
deductible is met.

. Family H S A policies will have lower individual deductibles for each family member within their HSA plan

. Greater coordination between HSAs, HRAs and FSAs.

The National Association of Health Underwriters has prepared both a narrative and a chart listing changes. www.nahu.org  (703)276-0220 John Greene or Peter
Stein.  For text, refer to www.thomas.gov, using the bill number HR 6111 and specify the 2005-2006 session of Congress, not the new session.

IRS NOTES
. The mileage rate for 2007 is 48.5 cents per mile, 14 cents for charitable and 20 cents for medical mileage. (www.irs.gov/taxpros)

. The Internal Revenue Service has issued details on how individuals and businesses can claim a refund of long distance taxes charged on phone bills for a 41-month period ending in 2006.  Individuals may deduct a standardized amount depending on the number of tax deductions up to about $60.00. Businesses need to use form 8913 Credit for Federal Excise Tax Paid as
do charitable organizations and individuals wishing to itemize the phone excise taxes. Details: www.irs.gov/newsroom

AUTO INSURANCE THEMED BY INSURANCE CONSUMER LIAISON
The December PA Insurance Consumer Liaison newsletter focused on auto insurance, urging driving consumers to be mindful of their legal obligation to purchase this insurance and understanding coverage.  Also discussed
was rate evasion, a practice where drivers living in a high insurance premium area 'hide' their true address so as to secure a better rate.  Consumers are asked to report rate evasion by calling the Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority (800) 565-IFPA. Other articles included reminders to consider securing coverage if a
valuable personal item was received as a Christmas gift.  In order to subscribe to this free e-mail newsletter, contact ra-ins-consumerliaison@state.pa.us. 

RENDELL CREDITS ADMINISTRATION FOR CHIP INCREASE
In a December 21 press release, Governor Rendell credited his Administration's efforts in increasing CHIP enrollment in 2006 by 12,600 or twenty percent
more than their goal.  The release also set forth the new eligibility criteria for the Cover All Kids initiative going into effect in 2007.  CHIP is fully
paid for by taxpayers if the family makes under $40,000 a year (family of four at 200% poverty level).

Partially subsidized by the taxpayers are families up to 300 of the poverty level with some contribution required from the families as follows:
- $38 a month per child from families at 200-250% poverty level or under $50,000 for a family of four

- $53 a month per child for families at 250-275% poverty level or under $55,000 for a family of four

- $60 a month per child for families at 275-300% poverty level or under $60,000 for a family of four

The Governor also specified that families making over that amount can still enroll in CHIP based on certain conditions such as coverage being denied because of an existing pre-condition or if health insurance costs exceeds ten percent of the family's income, or that the cost of private insurance is 1 ½ times the cost of
the taxpayer-subsidized state rate.  The expanded eligibility applies to families without health insurance for six months unless the child is two or less or if there is a parent's job loss.

The CHIP web site is www.coverallkids.com.

STATE NEWS
. The PA Securities Commission reports that enforcement actions increased 10.2 percent in FY 2005 resulting in $1.9 million in restitution to investors
and $1.3 million in fines. . Insurance Department reported two company petitions.
One was a request for approval to redomesticate from Ohio to PA for Personal Service Insurance Company (stock casualty) and an application to approve a
merger of Medco Containment Life Insurance Co. (life) and Medco Containment Insurance Co. of New Jersey (health).

. Voluntarily surrendering its Certificate of Authority to do business in PA is Clarion County Mutual Insurance Company.

. General Fund state tax revenues came in $56.4 million over estimate in November resulting in a surplus of $8.7 million so far in this FY.  Non-tax
revenue did somewhat better, increasing the year-to-date surplus to approximately $20 million in that category. . A report issued by the State Budget Office estimated the future retiree health care obligation of the Commonwealth to be $33.8 billion over the next 30 years.

. The PA Bulletin reported that a memo was sent to Workers Compensation insurers from the Department of Labor & Industry requiring data on past claims 1993 and before so as to implement Act 147 of 2006's minimum claim payment of $100 per week.

. The loss-cost Workers' Compensation filing to be effective April 1, 2007 if approved by the Insurance Department is 2.95% per a request by the PA
Compensation Rating Bureau.  The loss-cost filing from the Coal Compensation Rating Bureau was 8.8%.

MISCELLANEOUS……..

BIRTHDAYS…

January 13………..Brenda Weaver
January 30………..Kathryn Caputo

Reminder from Gail

Please remember to bring in the fronts of your Christmas and/or greeting cards to send to St Jude's Children’s hospital for recycling. They should given to Gail who has volunteered to get them to St Judes.