Leadership Transition at NARCA Offers Insight on Association

Friday’s farewell from NARCA president Lou Freedman and welcome from new executive director Mark Dobosz at NARCA’s fall conference in Washington D.C. were highly positive, and offered some transparency about the association.

Freedman displayed a photo of a flip chart completed at a past strategic planning meeting with all of the things the group hoped to accomplish. Indeed, most of those things were checked off, including:

• Hosting a successful legal collection symposium (took place earlier this week)
• Profitable status for the association
• Filed legislation
• Hosted webinars
• Implemented a mentorship program
• Administered grievance procedures
• Filed amicus briefs
• Regulators know and reach out to us for input
• Hired new exec director
• Zero staff turnover at the NARCA headquarters office
• Replaced old database and website
• PAC raising money and spending it wisely

Lou thanked Eric Rosenkoetter, NARCA Director of Government Affairs – as well as many others – for keeping the considerable trains running during the period of search and transition to the new director.

Mark Dobosz (left) and Lou Freedman

As parting advice, he encouraged members to push back on clients who seek to reduce fees at the same time as compliance demands increase (and applaud those who actually have increased fees); he encouraged members to refuse McCollough era client contracts that shift risk for mistakes to the law firm; and he told the group to continue to deliver to clients and others the excellence they’ve come to expect from NARCA members.

He then welcomed Mark Dobosz, who joined NARCA as its new Executive Director in August.

Mark offered a quick state of the union:

• 761 members as of 9/30/13
• 697 renewals – a 90% retention rate
• 64 new members

He pledged that he will be traveling to areas with concentrations of members to meet, learn, and get feedback. And finally, he offered NARCA’s top four objectives for the next three years:

1. Establish NARCA as the most widely recognized leader in the debt collection industry
2. Be the valued trade association of industry leaders: strengthen and expand the value of the NARCA membership and experience
3. Make education the key to understanding the credit and financial ecosystem: establish NARCA as a context expert for the industry and the consumer.
4. Pursue organizational excellence and leadership for growth and expansion: establish a model of governance to effectively advance objectives

After the session, NARCA swore-in its newest member-elected President, Joann Needleman. She will serve as NARCA’s 11^th President for the next two years. Needleman has previously served as Board Member, Secretary, Chair of the Advocacy Pillar, and Chair of the NARCA Legal Symposium Task Force.