Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...

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An Unsung Heroine
By Jim Fish
This story should have been written
long ago because it’s about
someone who has supported and
believed in NAPAA since before she
became an Allstate agent some 19 years
ago. She has served on the NAPAA
Board of Directors, and for the past eight
years, has worked for NAPAA as its Association
Manager. In addition, she has
bravely and confidently stood toe-to-toe
with Tom Wilson and Ed Liddy at Allstate
shareholder meetings, challenging
their decisions that have adversely affected
large majorities of Allstate agents.
Nancy Fish is a former award-winning
Allstate manager who has an exceptional
understanding of the agent contract and
good grasp of the inner workings of regional
management and the departments
they oversee.
NAPAA members who call headquarters
for help are in awe at the level of her
knowledge and expertise and oftentimes
express their gratitude by sending or
emailing notes of appreciation – some of
which appear in Exclusivefocus magazine
from time to time.
Background
Before I tell you how I first met Nancy
Broussard and how she became Nancy
Fish, I have to explain the circumstances
that led to our first meeting in an elevator
at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin on a frigid January morning
in 1990.
At that point in time, the National
Neighborhood Office Agents Club
(NNOAC) – which would later become
the National Association of Professional
Allstate Agents, Inc. (NAPAA) – was
just in its infancy, having been formed in
1989. In those days, email did not exist
and fax machines were a new technology.
The only method of mass communication
was the U.S. Mail. And since
Allstate had no website, approximately
14,000 agent mailing addresses had to be
painstakingly gleaned by hand from local
telephone directories from around the
country. As a result, not all agents, including
me, were aware of NAPAA’s existence.
NNOAC/NAPAA was founded
in response to problems associated with
Allstate’s Neighborhood Office Agent
(NOA) program. And while I was not
aware of the growing agent unrest around
the rest of the country, leadership in the
old Milwaukee Region – comprised of
Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas
– began to pressure agents by demanding
more from them.
In particular, Territory leadership
mandated that agents inspect, measure
and photograph every new property to
be insured, including brand-new homes
and homes under construction. This
mostly nonsensical chore added an hour
or more to each property sale. Before
then, Allstate paid outside vendors, such
as Hooper-Holmes, to perform the inspections.
In exchange for Allstate outfitting
us with Polaroid cameras, nifty
real estate-quality measuring wheels, and
an endless supply of film, we got to drive
far and wide to measure and photograph
each property we insured. There was no
compensation for our time and no mileage
reimbursement, which only incensed
us more, especially since at least 99% of
us were employees. Adding insult to injury,
the inspection program penalized
big property producers the most. At the
time, I was writing a lot of property insurance
throughout the state and it was
clear that the new requirement would
add several hours to an already long
workweek, which was averaging 60 to 70
hours a week.
Had I been an EA instead of an employee,
the dilemma, while still distaste-
44 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2013