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On Friday our guest speaker was Michael Bourque, the current Senior Vice President of External Affairs at Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company (MEMIC Group). Earlier this year MEMIC’s founding CEO, John Leonard, announced his intention to retire. With the announcement, the Board of Directors commenced a nationwide search to find his successor, but after months of reviews and interviews, they decided the best candidate resided within the home office on Commercial Street and named Mike Bourque as the next CEO of MEMIC. Mr. Bourque took us through a brief history of the advent of workers’ compensation insurance in Maine and the creation of MEMIC. He recalled that Maine formulated the state’s initial workers’ compensation (WC) law in 1916, in an effort to protect employees and employers from the vagaries of the legal system. The early law was quite limited in terms of the types of workplace injuries covered and the benefits offered. Mike told us that the old laws were forced to be reconsidered and brought up to the modern work world by the Federal government during the administration of President Richard Nixon. The early seventies saw WC laws nationwide liberally reformed under the guidance of a conservative President, underscoring just how inadequate the laws had been. Maine took to the reform with gusto and adopted almost all of the federal recommendations and created a very generous protection system for the workers employed within the state, but an untenable burden for employers. By the end of the 1980’s, the system was starting to show signs of impending collapse. The collapse was imminent by 1991 and it was down to but a handful of carriers when Governor McKernan looked to a Blue Ribbon Commission of stake holders to formulate a turnaround plan for the system. The number of work related injuries in the state far exceeded the national average and the benefit payout was staggering in comparison. The need for reform was obvious, but not easy. By the time McKernan become Governor, the squabbling was incessant with resolution remote so he took bold action and refused to sign the state budget unless a solution to the Maine WC debacle was found and endorsed. When the second week of shut down hit, including the state liquor stores and parks, the pain was intense and a determined effort at reform took place. The reforms of 1992 had 3 major principals offering relief: A reduction of benefits, a reduction of the friction cost of the legal system, and the creation of a “not for profit,” independent, mutual insurance company called Maine Employers’ Mutual Insurance Company (MEMIC). The creation of MEMIC was a great idea, but it came without any state funding, which required the new company go begging for a loan from the banking community. On January 1, 1993 the company began to write policies and was known as the “guaranteed market,” (aka assigned risk) for the employers having business within the state. In order to gain the capital needed to pay claims over the long run, MEMIC was allowed to collect a surcharge of 15% from every policy written and was offered to do so for the next 10 years in order to pay claims. The company decided that in order to survive it had to help employees avoid getting hurt at work and concentrated on offering loss control and safety services to policy holders. The commitment to workplace safety paid off and the system began to turn around. Much to the amazement of the employer and carrier community, the company not only stopped collecting the surcharge in five years, but began to repay the money to policyholders of record. The success of the system by 1999 brought with it new competition of embolden carriers and the market share that MEMIC enjoyed had evaporated by virtue of their success. MEMIC decided to move into other states and has become a nationwide WC carrier with numerous offices east of the Mississippi. According to Mike, the company has assets in excess of 1 billion dollars! The company that had to beg for a loan and hit every policyholder with a surcharge has repaid all the debt. MEMIC is now the writer of more than 2/3 of the premiums in Maine and is growing outside its borders. The Maine experiment has proven to be a success and the growth is the ongoing challenge for Mike and his team, which has grown to 400 employees, with the concentration on Commercial Street and growing. Mike is proud to be the new CEO of this “Maine Miracle” and ready to keep the company moving forward.
.JPG) (Photo L-R: Mike Bourque, Past President John Marr and President Don Zillman.)
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On this bright summer day at the Holiday Inn By-the-Bay, President Don Zillman opened the meeting by welcoming 55 members, 2 visiting Rotarians and 6 guests. Kathy Grammer (at left) offered us the invocation by recommending that we accomplish our mission by helping others meet their goals. Bob Martin led us in the pledge to the flag and we sang “America The Beautiful,” with Kathy Grammer accompanying us on the keyboard.
Talking about our Club’s resources, Dick Giles announced that when he previously called upon the membership to help with solar lights for the Dominican Republic, members contributed over $1200, including a generous $500 donation from member, Mark Millar. Thanks to Mark and all who are helping on this worthy project..JPG)
President Don called upon Amy Chipman to lead our song, who was assisted by Gracie Johnston, accompanied on the keyboard by Kathy Grammer. We sang “Side by Side” and absolutely nailed the key change. Way to go!
Past President Kris Rosado appealed for bequests and for employer-matching grants for the Rotary Foundation. Kris gave us a history of the “Happy Dollars” segment that really never developed in our Club because of time constraints. Kris proposed a new initiative.....”Happy Hundred Dollars.” If you have a reason why you’re overjoyed, then ask President Don for a moment at the podium, share your joy and donate to the Portland Rotary Charitable Fund, RI Foundation or Polio Plus. Kris then provided us with exemplary modeling behavior. Since the college education for both of his sons will be largely paid by the US government, with one son at West Point and the other a Navy ROTC, Kris then pledged $1000....$500 to our charitable fund, $400 to the RI Foundation and $100 to Polio Plus. Kris concluded by asking, “Why do we give?......to feel good and know that our donations are definitely going to a worthy cause."