Communications Committee

1. Increase social media presence - Shared content related to AASCIF Annual Conference on AASCIF's main Facebook page.
2. Administer 2015 Communication Awards - Award contest was judged by PRSA of Baton Rouge. Awards presented at AASCIF Annual Conference in San Francisco and shipped to winners.
3. Submit two newsletter articles - Contributed generational communication article for 2nd Quarter Newsletter and social media article on Yammer for 4th Quarter Newsletter.
4. Host Communications Committee Workshop - Held joint workshop with Safety & Health in Austin in October.

Finance & Investment Committee

1. Two (2) newsletter articles as follows:
   Pinnacol Assurance: Diversifying and Modernizing a State Fund’s Investment Portfolio – Dave Bomberger, CO published (Q3 2015)
   Debit Card Best Practices – Joseph Dorbad, PA (sent in 9/11/2015, not yet published)
2. Held Bi-weekly conference calls with Finance and Investment Committee Members and Advisor. Some minutes kept for meetings held July 2015 and forward. Change in Committee Chair from Dwight Pierce to Eileen Fongemie in July 2015. Departure of Jodi Heins from TX Mutual in August 2015. For November 5, 2015 bi-weekly meeting invited new 2016 Committee members to participate on the call and for introductions/smooth transition into 2016.
3. Update of Finance & Investment Contacts from all funds - latest updates in January 2016. AASCIF Finance & Investment Network Contacts.xlsx file attached for the benefit of future surveys and contacts listing. Encouraged fund members to utilize for further networking and information. Other surveys conducted during the year by committee and non-committee members.
4. Compilation of Finance and Investment functional areas and resources by fund – listing distributed to all members of the Finance & Investment Contacts from the September 2015 directory. Sent out July 30, 2015 and has been updated through January 2016 as other funds have responded. Encouraged other fund members to utilize listing for future information. Resource List Fin & Investment 2015.xlsx file attached.
5. Sent out email survey to all Finance & Investment Contacts in September 24, 2015 on Reinsurance and ACH/Check/Wire/Debit Card Payment options.  Results distributed to all contacts in October 2015.

HR Committee

1. A webinar was presented on each of the 2 articles which address the top 2 HR-related concerns of AASCIF executives as identified in the Christensen & Associates survey.  Sessions were open to the AASCIF membership. The Millennials webinar was marketed through the newsletter and direct email to AASCIF committee members.The Succession webinar invitation was marketed to all HR contacts in the membership directory.
2. HR Committee issued a Request for Proposal for a Compensation and Benefits Survey which will be conducted in 2016.RFP was created and issued to 5 vendors, and 4 vendors responded.  Responses were evaluated by the HR Committee.References were checked on the selected vendor, and the contract is being finalized.
3. Expertise Directory – the Committee gathered and submitted a list of HR experts from our represented companies in May 2015.
4. Conference Calls – Monthly HR Committee conference calls were conducted to discuss the projects of the group and HR Best Practices.

2015 AASCIF Articles:

• Issue Topic AuthorsJul-15 Working with Millennials – HR Trends & Best Practices Shonda BrownJan-16
• Succession Planning in an Aging Insurance Industry Cindy Mohler & Patrick Gage

Law Committee

Washington, DC Conference

The Law Committee combined with the National Issues Committee and the CEOs for a conference in Washington, DC April 29 – May 1. Presentation topics at the meeting included: cybersecurity, generational workforce issues, ethics, legal developments,legislation affecting state funds, and lobbying at the state and federal levels. ChuckTodd – host of “Meet the Press” – gave a keynote address and all attendees received a copy of one of his books. The conference was well-attended (about 56 attendees) and went smoothly, other than a riot in Baltimore that caused an Orioles game we planned to attend to be canceled.

Leading up to the conference, our committee held conference calls and corresponded by email to plan the presentations and the other conference details. All committeemembers contributed to make the conference a success.

Newsletter Articles

As has been our committee’s tradition, two of our new members “volunteered” to write newsletter articles. For the second-quarter newsletter, Holly O’Dell wrote an article on Part II (Employers Liability Insurance) of the workers’ compensation policy. Erin Farthing wrote an article for the fourth quarter about medical marijuana and the workers’compensation system. Holly and Erin both did an excellent job on their articles.

We had a great year and the committee members were all excellent. And, as always, Harry was a wonderful monitor. He was involved in our conference calls and emails and provided valuable guidance.

National Issues Committee

1. Joint conference with CEOs and Law Committee in Washington, D.C. (04/28/15 - 04/30/15) – Many CEO’s took the opportunity to lobby their elective officials on issues  significant to ASSCIF.
   Conference Topics Included:
   -How different state funds handle legislation and lobbying activities at the state and federal levels (panel)
   -Post-mortem on TRIA reauthorization
   -Report on significant legislation affecting state funds (Utah, Texas, Montana, Kentucky and Maryland all expect legislation in 2015)
   -Cyber security
   -CEO panel to discuss survey report
   -Board governance issues,
   -Corporate citizenship 
   -Trade association memberships
2. 2015 completed newsletter articles:
   -TRIA update (April)
   -Tax reform update (October)