The last three months have been very exciting, to say the least! We went dark in August but we were ever so busy preparing and planning for the CA Council which was held here in San Diego. Council information and pictures are below...

At our most September dinner meeting, we had a great speaker, Matthew Glovinsky, who gave us a Safety/Loss Prevention Presentation. He spoke on "A Conversation about Decision Driving" which definitely made us all think before we got back in our cars. He was informative and entertaining.

October's meeting is SDIW's Birthday and this year is our 75th Anniversary!!! Wow! 75 years of fellowship, friendship, leadership, education and the list goes on....We invite all of our Past Presidents to come celebrate with us because without them, we could not have succeeded for so many years. We invite you to come join us in our celebration. This is such a festive occasion for us.

There is so much going on. We have some great dinner meetings planned and tons of community action happening in the next few months. Our website is kept up to date with all that we have to offer but there are plenty of ways to stay informed of what's in store...

Check out our website at: San Diego Insurance Women. Like us on Facebook as 'San Diego Insurance Women'.On linked in, in groups, we are 'San Diego Chapter of NAIW'.

And of course, if you have any questions, you can contact me directly.

In fellowship,

Gia Blanco

San Diego Insurance Women got to host this year's CA Council. It was held at the Doubletree in Hazard Center. And what a great success it was. It was wonderful to see so many of our own members attend, participate and volunteer, including a number of our NEW members. We were a full house. So exciting!!!

Our first evening brought us all together due to the major power outage we had in San Diego and outlying areas. We were supposed to be taking the trolley downtown for a Mystery Dinner but thank goodness the power went out before we had 50 women trapped on a trolley. The Doubletree did such a great job of pulling together a dinner for all of us at the last minute and made sure that everyone had glow sticks so we could get around in our rooms.

Friday brought light (literally) and we were able to get moving with our Council Meeting. There were great classes to attend throughout the day, during our business session we voted on and installed our officers for CA Council, and the CWC (communicating with confidence) speakoff competition was amazing. Teresa Harrison represented SDIW and she did a great job as did all the contestants.

In addition, click here for a list of all the California Council Award Winners. 

Who can forget our keynote speaker, Monique Marvez? She was funny, frank, inspiring and came from such a real place. Right after that, we moved into the awards luncheon. One of our members, Ruth Hinckfuss, won the Young Professional of the Year Award. We are so proud of her. And the Gayle Reskin Angel Award was won by Kelly Hanley, a member of the Insurance Women of North San Diego County. Congrats to you both!

We had some wonderful dinners. It was so much fun to see so many members get dressed up and into the spirit of the events. Friday's Bollywood party was filled with color, jewels, beautiful scarves, sarees and kurtas. Then everyone sleeked out for Saturday's James Bond theme with the women dressed to the nines and the men in tuxes. The California Council Team was escorted in by these men in tuxes to their favorite Bond song. What a great party to end the Council Meeting with. And thank you Nancy Ladd for such a great job on the decorations. Wow!

Sunday morning, before heading home, we had a September 11th Remembrance Ceremony for those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Boyd Long, Assistant Police Chief of the San Diego Police Department led us in the ceremony and one of our Members at Large of NAIW/IAIP, Tina Lee, sang the National Anthem. We had a moment of silence and got a chance to reflect on all those we lost.

I would like to thank all the members from San Diego Insurance Women and Insurance Women of North San Diego who helped to make this event such a huge success. And thank you Dani, for being such a great Chair for this event. Please see the attached for  all of the Host Association Committees. Click here for the list. This could not have happened without the participation of everyone involved!!! 

In the final week of California's 2010-2011 legislative session, a number of employment bills have been passed by the legislature and have been signed by Governor Brown or await his signature:

AB 240 (Liquidated Damages):  This bill, which has now been signed into law, permits an employee to recover liquidated damages of twice the amount of wages improperly withheld plus interest in proceedings before the Labor Commissioner involving claims for underpayment of minimum wage.  Basically, adds an additional incentive and affords workers an alternative administrative remedy through the Labor Commissioner to recover unpaid wages.

SB 559 (Genetic Information Discrimination):  This bill, which has now been signed into law, prohibits discrimination in employment (among other areas) on the basis of genetic characteristics.  This is California's version of the recently enacted federal law known as GINA (the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act).  However, the California bill offers broader protection than GINA by prohibiting discrimination based on genetic information in the additional areas of housing, business services, emergency medical services, licensing qualifications, life insurance coverage, mortgage lending, and participation in state-funded or state-administered programs.

AB 267 (Forum Selection Clauses):  This bill has been passed by the legislature but not yet signed into law by Governor Brown. If signed, it will prohibit forum selection or choice of law clauses in employment contracts or similar documents where an employee would be required to agree to a forum or law of a state other than California for resolution of disputes arising in California.  Agreement to such clauses will not be permitted to be required as a condition of employment.  However, an employee will be able to agree to such a clause if not a condition of employment and if independent consideration is provided to the employee.

AB 325 (Bereavement Leave):  This bill is still being considered by the legislature in the final days of session.  If passed, it will require employers to provide up to 3 days of unpaid bereavement leave to employees upon the death of specified family members.

AB 22 (Use of Credit Reports):  This bill is still being considered by the legislature in the final days of session.  If passed, the bill will prohibit the use of credit reports for employment purposes, except in limited circumstances.

In Fellowship,

or  call 888-528-8367

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Gay Rowan                              12-26-96