Crop Insurance Today February 2018 - 12

in Des Moines, Iowa to discuss crop insurance.
The group also visited a hybrid seed company,
several farms, and the Chicago Board of Trade.
The tour was led by Dr. Kurt Weinberger who, in
addition to his corporate responsibilities, serves
on the Board of Directors of the International
Association of Agricultural Production Insurers
(AIAG).

Northeastern Association of
State Departments of Agriculture
Annual Meeting

Adjusters spent time assessing rice losses at the Crop-Hail Rice school in Mississippi.

Tom Zacharias and Dean Strasser attended
the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) spring meeting held in Denver,
Colo., April 8-11. Dean provided an informational update on the Crop Adjuster Proficiency
Program (CAPP) to the Crop Insurance Working
Group. Tom and Dean also met with the NAIC
Advisory Organization Examination and Oversight Working Group.

Symposium, organized by AIR Worldwide. This
annual event, held in Boston, Mass., May 18-19,
provides a forum for its international audience to
gather information from the insurance industry,
academia and the U.S. government. Other guest
speakers included Dr. Robert Johansson, chief
economist at USDA; Dr. Keith Coble, Mississippi State University; Dr. Bruce Sherrick, University of Illinois; Rémi Villeneuve, Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada; Chris Aulbur, USDA,
Risk Management Agency; and Barry Goodwin,
North Carolina State University.

2017 AIR Worldwide
Presentation

NCIS Meets with Austrian
Agricultural Study Group

Tom Zacharias presented a Crop Insurance
Industry Update at the AIR Crop Insurance

Tom Zacharias and Sherri Scharff met with
members of the Austrian Agricultural Study Tour

National Association of
Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
Spring Meeting

Laurence Crane attended the Northeastern
Association of State Departments of Agriculture
(NEASDA) annual meeting in Cooperstown,
N.Y., June 12-15. Their annual meeting provided
an opportunity to discuss current trends and issues in agriculture in the region and review new
policy solutions and regulations in the respective
states. More than 120 agriculture policy professionals at the state and federal level attended
and provided input. The NEASDA states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island and Vermont) are classified as Targeted States by RMA for special emphasis in risk
management education.

2017 AgGateway Mid-Year
Meeting
Jessica Trites Rolle participated in the 2017
AgGateway Mid-Year Meeting in Altoona, Iowa,
June 12-14, including leading the Data Privacy
and Security Committee session. The mid-year
meeting consists of a series of committee and
task team meetings that provide project updates
and face-to-face work time on in-process projects. Nearly 200 attendees took part in council
and committee sessions related to seed, grain
and feed, specialty chemicals, crop nutrition,
crop protection, data privacy, precision agriculture, allied providers, standards and guidelines,
education and communications. AgGateway is a
non-profit consortium of more than 180 member businesses serving the agriculture industry,
with a mission to promote, enable and expand
eAgriculture.

National County Agent
Professional Improvement
Conference

Members of the Crop-Hail Actuarial and Statistics Committee gathered for the fall meeting at the
NCIS office in October.

FEBRUARY2018

NCIS participated in the 2017 National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NAACA)
Professional Improvement Conference, in Salt
Lake City, Utah, July 11. NCIS sponsored a three-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today February 2018