When one decides to become a faculty member of the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors you get recommendations, you get approved and you write outlines. Your outlines are submitted to the Society and they are approved. The Society schedules faculty members a least a year in advance. So a new member to this group often waits a year or two to begin to get in the mix. Thus is is not uncommon for an outline to be a couple of years old before you have the opportunity to present it. Such was the case recently at an Agency Management Institute in Denver. I was scheduled to do present the Legal & Ethical Responsibilities portion of this institute.
My first thought was that I prefer to do the Agency Productivity & Effectiveness session. It is filled with technology information in relation to agency operations. The Legal & Ethical Responsibilities session was the last session of 2 1/2 days packed full of information. In Denver those taking the exam do so after lunch on Friday. So having their full attention and keeping them interested in the morning’s session is a challenge.
While updating and reviewing my PowerPoint presentation I saw this subject in a whole new light. I decided to look at each portion of my existing outline and not only address the typical legal and ethical issues, but to look outward to what technology brings to this subject. Consider the exposure of agency websites, advertising at quote aggregator sites, electronic transmission of client’s data via email, etc. We also discussed the brave new world that agencies might look at. Things such as Walk-on-Video at their website, YouTube videos, videos of client’s testimonials, corporate Facebook and Twitter accounts to name a few.
The lesson I learned here is to take a broader look at everything. Keep researching and thinking outside the box. You never know what you will find. I have to say I certainly stirred up a few questions and opened some minds to new possibilities in this session. I get to teach this again in a few weeks and I am looking forward to it.
