Saskatchewan - Insurance Institute of Canada

PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2010-2011
2010 – 2011 was a year of change and growth for IIS.
It was a year of change as our manager, Joanne Duke, retired around this time last year.
We hired Maria Cowper and, even with a steep learning curve, she has done extremely
well learning the position and has continued the IIS tradition of providing great service to
our members.
This past year was a breakthrough year for the IIS; our numbers grew in all areas.
Membership hit an all time high of 1009.
The Institute saw an increase in membership this past year primarily due to retirements
within the industry as well as a more concentrated membership drive in cooperation with
IIC. Membership over the years is as follows:
2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011
854 904 938 893 1009
This year we had 330 students registered for classes in Regina and Saskatoon an
increase of 7.14% from last year. The compressed classes have been successful and well
attended, however due to the increase in workloads it has been difficult for managers to
have their staff gone for 6 consecutive days and IIS has been requested to offer C11 only
as a compressed class. As a result we ran our first ‘Weekend Warrior’ classes where the
class has been compressed into a couple of weekends. The response from the students
has been extremely positive and we look forward to continuing offering classes in this
format. Many thanks to the instructors who gave their time and expertise to help our
students succeed in their education.
Due to the growth of the institute, IIC agreed to provide a shared resource to assist Maria
allowing her to dedicate more time to marketing our program to various organizations.
Effective April 1, 2011, Carlie Noland has been working with Maria for one day a week out
of the Edmonton office.
Several Career Fairs were attended this past year. IIS had a booth at the University of
Regina career fair in September as well as the University of Saskatchewan. IIS also
attended a SIAST career fair in Moose Jaw in February.
We continue to have a close relationship with IBAS, this past year we sponsored their golf
tournament with a $10,000 Hole-in-One, and attended the IBAS Broker’s convention in
Regina. We have also worked to provide a number of seminars jointly to the industry this
past year – thus allowing us to service our membership jointly in a cooperative manner as
opposed to a competitive one.
We continued to support the Ross Barlow Memorial Blue Goose Curling Bonspiel for the
second year and look to make this an annual sponsorship.
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