CLAIMS CONVERSATIONS
Roger Howson
Claims Dispute Resolution
PSAA Newsletter Editor and Education Chair
If you’re reading this Claims Conversation column buried deep inside this month’s PSAA Newsletter I suspect that you’re (1) a vendor looking for your ad placement to make sure your PSAA advertising dollars are well-spent, (2) an adjuster on a telephone call half-listening to a claimant ramble on and on about why your settlement offer is so insultingly insufficient, (3) a claims manager on a subsequent telephone call half-listening to this same claimant rambling on and on about how your adjuster is an incompetent and insensitive moron for stonewalling them with this parsimonious settlement offer (not realizing that YOU’RE the “incompetent and insensitive moron” who authorized that settlement amount), (4) a PSAA member, vendor, or Board Member looking through the newsletter for your name in bold type, or (5) an SCAA or TCAA past president with nothing better to do.
If you’re (5) I need your help.
In the September PSAA Newsletter I mangled the history of the Tacoma Claims Adjusters Association by asserting that TCAA dates back only to 1991. My assumption for this was based on the extensive research I did wherein I read in the TCAA Newsletter the list of TCAA past presidents and saw that first TCAA president served in 1991. I assumed that the TCAA meetings had to be run by someone, and I assumed that this someone would be listed as president. Therefore, if there’s no president then there’s probably no TCAA. (Hey, I studied Logic as a UW undergraduate.)
Apparently, the Tacoma Claims Adjusters Association was an esteemed organization LONG before 1991. Unfortunately, no one has been able to tell me precisely HOW long TCAA has been in existence. (I am using the present tense because TCAA and SCAA both still exist in just slightly different manifestation; for crying out loud, we changed TWO letters in the acronym… ONE slightly scrambled if you’re SCAA.)
What was I writing about? See how easily I’m distracted? Oh yeah, someone needs to fill me in on the history of the Tacoma Claims Adjusters Association.
I know Jim Davis was TCAA president in 1989 (or thereabouts) because Jim told me so, and it’s not his fault he can’t remember the exact year he presided over this unruly group of claims iconoclasts because in those days several of the members were self-medicating. His experience was especially memorable for moving the TCAA meeting place from the Bavarian to the LaQuinta Inn, and ending the liquid lunches that were causing so much of the mayhem. “The Bavarian was too dark, so the drinkers could sit in the back and throw things at the guest speakers,” was all he would say about the need to move the meeting venue. (PSAA note: Billy Baroo’s is brightly illuminated with lots of natural light and wide open, so don’t EVEN think about pelting our guest speakers.)
Jim Davis was so traumatized by his initial tenure as TCAA president that years later he actually agreed to serve again; although he shortened that second presidential stint to undertake something far less stressful… missionary work in Rwanda.
Wendy Edmond was the one to call my attention to the fact that my history of the Tacoma Claims Adjusters Association was incredibly truncated and inaccurate, but being the kind soul that she is Wendy fell on her sword by taking responsibility for listing the TCAA presidents only back to 1991. She says Barb Tyler suggested listing all of the past presidents on the inside cover of the TCAA Newsletter like they do in the SCAA Newsletter, and Wendy says her memory only went back that far.
Of course, I’ve got no room to fault Wendy Edmond’s memory because I can’t even remember the name of my own sister-in-law when I bump into her at the Columbia Tower. In my own defense, I’ve got eleven sisters (and one brother) in-law.
Anyway, this TCAA history debacle isn’t the fault of Wendy Edmond’s long-term memory loss or my inexcusable lack of curiosity. NO! This is all Barb Tyler’s fault! It is Barb’s fault for suggesting the roster of past TCAA presidents. If Barb would quit helping TCAA, SCAA, OCAA, and now PSAA to become better organizations by cross-pollinating our respective groups with fresh ideas and innovative thinking we could just stumble along the path to irrelevance, and no one would even CARE whether or not TCAA has any history at all.
But we DO care, so I am asking you… begging you… bribing you (who knows, maybe I could rig the Blue Bucket drawing) to clue us in as to the history of the Tacoma Claims Adjusters Association. Please!
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