EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

To the WCRP Board of Directors:

N FUTURE annual report messages from me, you will hear about all that we have

overcome, all that went into our achievements, and all that we have built over the past few

years. Until then, and for right now, we continue to overcome, to achieve, and to build.

At the time this report is being published, the COVID-19 Coronavirus is consuming our time

and our thoughts and is leaving us with many questions that only time will provide the

answers to. The actual ﬁnancial impact that the virus, and our Nation’s response to it, will

have on insurance rates and the WCRP, is very much unknown. What we do know, however,

is that we are a resilient, ﬂexible and ﬁnancially stable organization that will most certainly

weather this COVID-19 storm. The diligence we have shown these past few years, and will

continue to show for many more, in reducing risk, driving down costs and evolving into the

exceptional organization that we are, will only make our transition back to normal that much

easier. This virus will surely come and go, so let’s remain focused on the WCRP’s successes,

our future plans and maintain our forward direction.

N UNUSUAL wind blew over the entire country over the past several years. While

its impact didn’t happen overnight, it changed the way that people view their

government, the way insurers and members view risk pools, and in turn, the way risk

pools view themselves. There are various contributors to this change, including national

politics, the increased cost of litigation, the use (and sometimes the abuse) of the public

records act, and the immediate transmission of behaviors and opinions that smart phones

and social media give us. So, what is the real change then? The answer is expectations. The

expectations of businesses, individuals and the government have changed radically in a

very short amount of time. Everyone is expected to be perfect. Perfect in their speech and

behavior, perfect in their tweets, and perfect in their choices and decisions. There is no room

for error anymore. Perfection is now expected and anything short of that is going to cost you.

With this new change, or expectation, came our own need to look at how we do things. How

we manage risk, how we handle claims, how we are spending money. In order to rise to the

challenge of meeting these new expectations, we needed to improve our eﬃciency and our

processes which would, in turn, improve our ﬁnancial strength.

Last year we had a $1,000,000 Self-Insured Retention (SIR). As I write this now in the current

year, we have a $2,000,000 SIR. These are large SIRs that bring with them the need for

eﬃciencies, along with the need to increase our capital, or net position. How do we do that?

We focus on risk management at the macro level, searching for trends that can be traced to

root causes. We focus on member services, where educating our members isn’t about having

a few canned training sessions but is about using data analysis to dial in our focus and guide

the training we oﬀer. And ﬁnally, we focus on thorough, precise and cost-conscious claims

management, acknowledging our liability, resolving claims early, and preventing costly

litigation. The result of all these eﬀorts will be the perfect combination of reducing the

amounts paid in claims and reducing the premiums we pay to insurers. When less is paid in

claims and to insurers, our liabilities go down. When our liabilities go down, our capital and

interest earnings go up.

While we are moving forward fast, I would like to stop and take a moment to look back at

last year and say thank you to the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for your

support as we made diﬃcult changes and re-directed the organization. Thank you also to

our professional and hard-working staﬀ for your commitment and ﬂexibility this past year. I

can’t wait for the future.

Derek Bryan

WCRP Executive Director