Messengers

California Council of NAIW

Messengers

Welcome to the "Messengers" Page!

We will fill this with such items as:

"Member Spotlight", allowing us some room to boast about outstanding individuals in our association

"Best Practices" area, where we can discuss what chapters are doing to make our members, associations, communities and industry a better place.Plus much, much more! Contributions to this page will be edited by Regina G. Lemanowicz regina_lemanowicz@sbcglobal.net so please send information you'd like to see here to her. Enjoy!

Rae Lynn Zachary

Meet Member Rae Lynn Zachary of The San Francisco Chapter of NAIW

I’m a Navy Brat, and proud of it! I attended 7 or 8 different schools in Okinawa; West Pittsburg (aka Bay Point), CA; Yokosuka and Yokohama, Japan; and Pittsburg, CA where I graduated from Pittsburg High (Go Pirates!).

I am currently employed at Lockton Insurance Brokers in San Francisco as a Sr. Account Manager and have been since 2003. Like many people in the insurance industry, I didn’t’ wake up one morning and say “I’m going to be an insurance broker!”, instead, I got in the business when a friend suggested that I interview for an open position at her company. So in 1987, after a short interview and a typing test (yes, they used to make you type a letter, with carbon paper, to see how many mistakes you made), I was hired at a small, family owned brokerage, Everett W. Stark & Co., as a administrative assistant – basically I kept the binder log, issued (aka typed) certificates and backed up the receptionist. I worked my way up to “Bond Gal” and spent the first 6 years of my career working on the Surety side, primarily with contractors. In the early 1990’s I switched from Surety to Insurance and the rest as they say is history.

I joined NAIW and the San Francisco Chapter of NAIW in 1998, and for the first 4 years, I didn’t do much, other than attend lunch meetings and some educational offerings – I tended to be a wall flower, hanging out in the background. Then in 2003 everything changed, I started to get involved in the association – signed up for CWC and served on the nominating committee for our chapter. My fate was sealed when I volunteered to help on the 2004 May Lunch committee, which was chaired by Martha Loezius. Anyone who knows Martha knows how persuasive she can be, and somehow I found myself agreeing to co-chair the May Lunch committee for 2005, what an experience that was! Next it was helping with the CA Council meeting our chapter hosted in 2006 where I really got to know Sandy Dameron (another very persuasive lady) and everything has kind of snowballed from there. I am proud to be serving as President of my chapter for my second term, building on the great work of the presidents who have served before me.It has been a fun ride so far, and I’ve so learned many new skill sets along the way and hope to learn more. The good friends I’ve made along the way have only made the experience that much better.

In my “spare time”, I make jewelry, volunteer, read, take photos and play on the computer. The 6 “kids” in my life, they all have four legs and tails (3 cats and 3 dogs), and my husband & best friend Steven keep me balanced.

. Association in the News
The Insurance Professionals of Oakland

The Insurance Professionals of Oakland is a small association but works very hard to give back to our community in any way that we can. Every year we hold a raffle fundraising event to help support a local organization by donating 50% of the proceeds. This year it was decided that we support our local food bank, The County of Alameda Food Bank, since the need is so very great due to the economy and donations are low. We called the raffle “Christmas in July” because it is usually around the Christmas holiday season that many of us support food drives for our local food banks.

We sold tickets for $2 each or 3 for $5. A small contribution for a chance to win some great prizes. The raffle prizes were as follows:

1^st Prize - $100 American Express Gift Card

2^nd Prize - $50 Safeway Gift Card

3^rd Prize - $25 Chevron Gas Card

Our members reached out to family members, friends, co-workers, and sister associations for their continued support. Word traveled to a company who donated $100 towards our cause!!!! Thank you very much State Compensation Insurance Fund for your support. In all, we raised just under $1,200 and presented The Alameda County Food Bank with a check for $600! The remaining monies raised go towards costs associated with the fundraiser (tickets & prizes) and to support our local NAIW association.

Congratulations to our prize winners listed below:

3^rd prize winner - L. Smiley of C.P. Bannon Mortuary, Inc.

2^nd prize winner - Scott Kerns of Bay Risk Insurance Brokers

1^st prize winner - Susan Driscoll of AmWins Insurance Brokerage of California

Pictured in photo – starting from your left: Jessica Nesamony, Food Drive Coordinator; Deborah Blake, IPO Member; Stephanie Lymore, IPO Secretary/Treasurer; and Sue Roselius, Alameda County Community Food Bank Administrative Assistant. (Our Joint Presidents – Tonya Baker & Ruby Joyner were unavailable for check presentation.)

"Make us to act as Thy messengers for peace and contentment, for harmony and understanding."

Collect for Insurance Women