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BORROW SMART SPONSORS THE ALABAMA BLACK CAUCUS
AGAIN IN 2008
What a great event -- second year in a
row!
October 2, 2008
THE
EVENT
The Alabama Black Caucus held their annual meeting on October
2nd at the Grand Hotel in beautiful Point Clear, Alabama.
Caucus members are black legislators from both
houses of the Alabama Legislature. The event was, for the
most part, a two day event and we sponsored the dinner this year on the first day of the event. So, we
had top billing.
WHO ATTENDED
All but a handful of the caucus members made the trip. It
turns out there were over 25 legislators who attended. With spouses,
friends and others there were close to 100 in attendance.
Those from Borrow Smart were Jaime and Michael Sullivan with the
Lobbyist Group, Robin Oliver, Big Communications, Roy Hutcheson Sr. and Roy Jr. with Title Cash,
Frank Evans, Bill Ritter, Jackie Smith and Heather Sellers with The Money
Store, Manny Arisso with Advance America and Max Wood with Title Loan Express.
Attending from Borrow
Smart Mississippi were Meredith Broyles and Kristi Stout,
both with Check Into Cash.
WHAT WE DID
Much like the event last year, words can not describe how much we enjoyed this event and how
 successful it was.
This year we sponsored the dinner and made
two presentations during the dinner. First, and the most
significant, was the Ipods given away as door prizes. Each Ipod included our Borrow
Smart video for their new owners to see and hear.
So, the stories we want to tell are always with them! Our Ipod
giveaway was clearly one of the "highlights" of the dinner.
Second, we presented a new Borrow Smart video that described who
we are and what we do -- and what we have done in the community.
This is the same video that was placed on the Ipods.
If we did not accomplish anything else (which is certainly not
the case) these two events alone would have been worth the entire
effort.
Everyone in the room got to know the name Borrow Smart Alabama
up close and personal,
in a fun and positive way!
During the meeting each of us spent a great deal of time with
a particular caucus member just "mixing it up" either on the golf
course, at the dinner and at the lounge -- and in some cases
well into the evening. During all of this we renewed
some good friendships with people, who in some cases, may not
be supporters of our industry. Like last year, we most likely did not change
many minds at this meeting (that was not the intent here), but
we did get to know one another much better and made some special friends in the process.
And, we communicated to them the initiatives that we had launched
in support of their communities. Those initiatives included
a full page ad in the Community ReInvestment magazine,
sponsorship of the first annual Alabama Black Achievers Award
and the launch of a highly successful financial literacy program. Clearly, the caucus members
are a great bunch of folks and they
now know our members and, more important, what we have
accomplished in their community.
WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED
Now that we have gotten to know many of the caucus members, we feel we can work with
them to further forge
programs that will help them and their constituents in the use
of our services. It is so much more fruitful to work with
people you know and respect. We believe we have taken a
step in the right direction by hosting and attending this
meeting.
As you know, one of the primary reasons we exist is to develop
programs that will improve the use of our services by our
customers. And many of our customers are constituents of
the caucus members. It will take time, but this event will make that task much easier and
so much more
productive.
WE OWE
Certainly, we owe Michael Sullivan, Big Communications and
Heather Sellers (The Money Store) a very big "THANK
YOU" for helping us to pull this off so successfully again
this year.
This was Michael's idea from from the beginning and he
made all the right contacts to make it happen. Big provided us with
professionally prepared materials for handouts, presentations
and helped us pull the Ipod giveaway off with great success and
Heather helped in the planning and on the ground coordination.
CONCLUSION
So, all-in-all, we were well received by the caucus members
again this year. They were genuinely
 appreciative of our
sponsorship and told us so on many occasions throughout the
meeting.
Needless to say, this is probably one of most significant events
any of our associations (Modern Financial, TPCA and CFL) hosts. We know from
reports from other states that we must seal the
relationships at the grass-roots with those who could easily become our
adversaries. We can't wait until the next Black Caucus
meeting!
The Alabama Black Caucus members now
know our members by name and they know us on a personal basis.
That can only help our industry, and in particular, our Borrow Smart members!
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