June 2010
President's Message
We are halfway through 2010, and we have seen some significant activity from a Risk Management perspective, including: How Facebook is Redefining Privacy; Toyota’s Recall Nightmare; Haiti’s 7.0 Earthquake; the Recovery of our US Economic Environment; and, of course, The Catastrophic Oil Spill in the Gulf;. As we head into Hurricane season, the clean up crews struggle to understand the impact to the wetlands and coast lines should a sizable hurricane strike while the waters are covered in oil.
Whatever industry you represent, this year so far has provided unique challenges to keep most Risk Management professionals closely tuned into these news events. Our recent educational seminar on planning for “Black Swan” events, which are events that are unlikely to occur but if they occur can be devastating, leaves us wondering if Toyota could possibly have anticipated back to back recalls on their automobiles. As a restaurant Risk Manager, I find myself thinking of the obvious risks against our brand, but find myself more anxious about the risks I have not yet thought of that could strike our industry. The emerging risks we have seen this year obviously do not help my anxiety level, but networking with professionals in the Risk Management community offers comfort that I am not in this alone.
On a more positive note, in the last newsletter, we promised to enhance the annual golf tournament, hold a Day at the Races event, modify our educational luncheon series, and do more to support the Risk Management community in the Southern California area.
As many of you know, we moved the annual golf tournament to Brookside Golf Course on May 12th in Pasadena and allowed our sponsors to “own a hole” as part of their sponsorship. The tournament was a sell out, and the hole sponsorship was a huge success. We will continue to build upon this new foundation and “raise the bar” in 2011.
On March 21st, we held our Day at the Races event at the Santa Anita Race Track in support of the Spencer Foundation. Attendance was double what we anticipated and exceeded 400 risk professionals and their families. The weather was fantastic and, of course, the horse racing was spectacular. Feedback on this event was extremely positive and we will look to hold our next Day at the Races in the Fall of 2011.
Finally, the educational luncheon meetings were moved to the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood this year. Our thought process was simple: if the Risk Managers were not willing to come to the meetings downtown, then we would bring the meetings to them. Every meeting has been sold out and we are encouraged by the new faces that are making it to these meetings. We are constantly looking for dynamic speakers so please let us know if you have a speaker recommendation that you would like us to consider.
On a closing note, I want to thank all of those that have supported the Los Angeles RIMS Chapter this year. Your generous support of our events allows us to continue the educational, networking events and scholarship grants that we provide throughout the year. We build these programs in a way that provides a mutual benefit between the Risk Managers and those companies that support the risk and insurance industry. Without everyone’s participation, our chapter would not be able to provide the programs you have seen so far this year.
