5 Hoosier Banker March 2016 Annual Washington Trip. This year the trip is scheduled for Sept. 25-27. Again, we will visit with the elected Indiana delegation and call on all of the regulators. At this event, we also will hear presentations from both the ICBA and the ABA, as well as the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, which represents all of the state financial institutions departments from across the country. Last year 57 IBA-member bankers participated in the IBA Annual Washington Trip, for a total delegation size of 88 people strong. Whether you travel to Washington to lobby on behalf of your industry with the ABA in March, the ICBA in April, or the IBA in September, we thank you. Many of you even take part in more than one trip. If you have not yet gone on any of the trips, I urge you to find a time in your schedule this year. You are needed to represent your industry, your bank, your shareholders and your community – and your voice is much stronger when added to a chorus. Just as it takes 50 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of syrup, it may take a roomful of bankers to make a message heard … but it’s worth it. March is an interesting month. It is a transitional time, leading us out of harsh winter weather to the gentleness of spring, the season of hope. As the saying goes, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The month of March has always been special for me. When I was growing up, my family had an annual tradition of making maple syrup. We tapped hundreds of maple trees each year to collect the sweet water, or sap, to boil down into syrup. It took about 50 gallons of sweet water to produce a single gallon of maple syrup. We usually started tapping the trees in mid-February. It was the seasonal nighttime freezes and daytime thaws that allowed the sweet water to flow. Tapping all those trees was hard work, but it was worth it. By the end of March, we would pull all of the taps from the trees, shut down operations for another year, and savor our mouthwatering maple syrup. Another fond March memory is that it’s the month of the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) basketball tournament and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament. Basketball alone would have made March important to a young Hoosier boy, but as a bonus, spring was in the air by the end of the month, with the thermometer on the rise. Today my only connection with maple syrup is the occasional pancake breakfast, but I still pay close attention to the basketball tournaments in March and the rising temperatures. Also in March, the Indiana Bankers Association steps up its federal advocacy, beginning with a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. The first of three DC trips starts this month, as the IBA Government Relations Team and Indiana bankers join with other bankers from throughout the country for the American Bankers Association Government Relations Summit, March 14-16. Next month the IBA and Indiana bankers will again join with bankers nationwide for the Independent Community Bankers of America Washington Policy Summit, April 24-27. These meetings are important opportunities for Hoosier bankers to join with the IBA and the national trade associations for up-to-the-minute information about the status of legislation important to the banking industry. On these trips, we always visit with our senators and representatives from Indiana to convey the importance of our positions and concerns, relative to our customers and communities. For our third yearly trip to DC, a much larger group of Indiana bankers will travel to Washington for the IBA FEATURE President’s Ponderings S. Joe DeHaven, President & Chief Executive Officer, Indiana Bankers Association Three bankers have completed the Indiana Bankers Association 2015-16 Branch Management Series. Shown are (left to right): Katie Lanham, BloomBank, Bloomfield;Tera Beverly, First Farmers Bank and Trust Company, Converse; and Misty Gano, MutualBank, Muncie. Graduates of the 2015-16 Branch Management Series
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