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Greetings to the New Year, from the New Chairman
 Jim Schipper IBA Chairman
American State Bank, Osceola
After months of planning and preparation, the annual convention of the Iowa Bankers Association is suddenly behind us, leaving all who attended with memories of a good time with old friends and new ones. As I mentioned in my opening comments at the convention, participation in the IBA is much like being in a giant peer group. It is an opportunity to interact with our peers to share our successes, assist each other with common challenges, and mainly, to have fun together. It was certainly obvious to anyone watching the “Banker Bikers” slideshow that Iowa bankers know how to have fun!
I want to start my year as your IBA Chair by saying “thank you” for allowing me the opportunity. What an honor and privilege it is to be in a position of leadership for our industry. As anyone in a leadership position knows, the only way to be successful is to be surrounded with quality people. I’m confident of having a successful year because you have surrounded me with so many quality people on the IBA staff and board. The challenge will be to maintain the high standard and level of performance that has been set by my predecessors, Dan Kreiger, Nancy Dunkel, and the many other outstanding bankers that have been here before me.
Throughout my career, the challenge of our industry has been dealing with change, change in technology, changing political and regulatory climate, changing economic conditions, and a constantly changing competitive environment. How could our banks possibly cope without the resources provided to us by the IBA. The education division keeps our staffs current in skills and training to be able to adapt to change, and our government relations division does an outstanding job in promoting our causes with legislators and regulators to an extent that each of us could not possibly do individually. The marketing and public affairs division helps us position ourselves positively in our communities and throughout the state. The IT, HR, and compliance specialists here at IBA are additional resources to all of us as needed.
During the convention, we recognized our “Legislator of the Year,” Representative Brian Quirk. In his acceptance remarks, Rep. Quirk referred to our legislative executives, Sharon Presnall and Bob Hartwig, as “Rock Star Caliber” lobbyists at the Capitol. What a compliment to them, to their leader John Sorensen, and to our association. In watching them in action, there is no doubt in my mind that they are that good. Yet they cannot do it all alone. We bankers all need to do more to back them up and reinforce our message every chance we get, and we need to create those chances by staying in close communications with our members of Congress and the legislature.
I want to encourage all IBA members to become more involved in “grassroots” because it does make an impact. We can have dozens or hundreds of contacts, but if our opponent on an issue brings thousands of e-mails and postcards, we will not succeed. Also, most bank CEO’s and executive officers are in mentoring roles with younger bankers. Carry that mentoring leadership into legislative activities. Help us get more bankers involved and comfortable with the legislative process. We all will benefit.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you in the coming months. I’ll be attending some of the legislative meetings in November, the Midwinter Conference in January, the Bank Management Conference in February, and the Group Meetings in May. If we miss each other, contact me any time at 641.342.2175 or jschipper@americanstatebank.com. Before we know it the 2008 IBA Convention will be upon us, bringing another opportunity to make friends and have fun.
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