​In this week, Speaker Kevin McCarthy surprised Washington in getting most of his caucus to vote for a debt ceiling bill, but a the same time he weakened his position by wheeling and dealing to get it passed, making additional sign ons almost impossible.  This bill is dead in the Senate, but it shows that McCarthy needs to be dealt with in this debt ceiling.  President Biden doesn’t know what country he is in and requires the hep of an eight year to let him know he recently visited Ireland.  In addition, further proof media is coalescing with President Biden is providing him cheat sheets on questions, and doing cut jobs on his opponents including RFK Jr.  RFK Jr announcing his candidacy immediately gets 20% of the democratic vote with Marianne Williamson getting an additional 10%, opening up the opportunity for a more mainstream candidate to enter the race. 
Hearings on Capitol Hill provided a lot of interesting topics, including a former Social Worker calling the United States a middle man in sex trafficking and child slave trade.  Randy Weingarten said she had nothing to do with the closing of schools during the pandemic contrary to the evidence provided.  

​We are a quarter of the way through the year. We are leaving the colder months of the year and entering the budding of the rest of the year. In the first four months we have had some amazing accomplishments:

1. Record number of Attendees to our State Conference
2. Over one hundred legislative interactions at our Day at the hill, and more after that
3. Several testimonies already at the state house in defense and in support of bills we are watching – Thank you to all who have led this.
4. Over forty-five new members joined NAIFA Texas
5. Great activity within NAIFA Texas with some great programs from Harbor Life, NAIFA Fort Worth, NAIFA Dallas, NAIFA San Antonio and more to come.

We have also been very busy making minor tweaks to the organization to make NAIFA Texas even stronger for you and protect our rights as part of the National organization.  This culminated in a successful vote for bylaw changes that will make us stronger and help us grow faster.
We are still having issues with the back door though. As we enter Spring going into Summer everyone is engaged in their practices, in outside activities, and wanting to be a part of something. I would like to have one ask, anyone with a conference room and video connection, please host a NAIFA Live event on the third Thursday of every month. Invite prospective members, invite current members, let us go to the micro level here and go back to our roots as an organization growing from the bottom up.  I am hoping for past leaders and future leaders will invite just 2 people each month (1 prospective and 1 existing member) think about how that might grow.  Let us know you are interested in attending and hosting and we will advertise and support.
Who wants to lead this effort? We can all do it. I’m inviting 4 people to my office for a viewing in May, can you match me?
Lastly, may bring us Congressional Conference in DC, with a huge attendance already occurring. This is an opportunity to grow and bring more people into the fold about what NAIFA does.  If you cannot make it, then discuss and engage with other members about attending.
As we move out of April showers and into May flowers think about what you can do to further blossom your practice, your industry, and others. 

​As we conclude March and head into April, we leave March like a Lion having walked in with excitement from our conference.
March also brings us the March Madness tournaments for men and women, and is a great month to further launch the year. There is still a lot of work to do though but we are in the right position to have a successful year and win our “championship” this year between us and Florida and the rest of the association.
As I mentioned at the conference there are 3 strategic priorities for NAIFA Texas this year: Membership, Membership Engagement, and Advocacy.  Advocacy is our strongest leg so far this year as we just completed our state advocacy day and on the way to our Congressional Conference in May.
Membership engagement, thanks to the strong work of our committee led By Rick Demko, is hitting its stride with programs, meetings, and engagement.  We have several meetings scheduled to support your practice and help you grow further, an advantage of being with NAIFA Texas.  Also, if you haven’t already check out the multitude of benefits that are available to you as a member of NAIFA. 
Another part of membership engagement is making sure we have the right governance to thrive as an organization.  NAIFA national has asked us to change our bylaws and they provided us with a model.  Your state board has been very diligent and has worked with NAIFA National to come up with wording and a document that helps us better serve you and meet the needs of all members and the objectives of NAIFA.  There will be a vote at the end of the month, we will be hosting 2 town halls regarding these changes on April 11 and April 13.
Growing our membership is where we need to focus the team.  We have the right team leaders in place, including Jay Moyer our state membership chair and great things are happening.  Let’s talk up NAIFA Texas and how we can continue to win.
There are three simple things we all can do to be the leaders we know we are and win that championship for 2023.

1. Recruit 180 new members, that is 15 a month, we are currently on pace for 15 a month, so let’s keep it going.
2. Re-Engage 150 past members.  Our industry needs everyone of us to work together and be apart of this association.  There are state challenges and federal challenges, we win in numbers.  If we all reach out to one past member and encourage them to rejoin, and then ask them the same, we become a stronger organization.  Let’s grow back to 1,400 by mid-year, so we can grow from there.
3. Be a Pac Defender at $8 a month or increase your monthly contribution, we need to all work together and help grow the association in all parts.

As we enter April we are firing on all cylinders as a team looking to bring to you a top-notch organization.  As we work together as a team to engage, advocate, and grow, we will be stronger and will march our way to the championship at the end of this year.  We are well on the way to winning the championship this year.

Mike Lindell needs to hock more pillows, slippers, sheets and towels to pay off someone that proved him wrong proving business and politics don't matter, hope he can do it after being cancelled in the retail world.

Elon Musk and SPace X launched a new rocket, nd were ectstaic as it only lasted 4 minutes, more than most lanuches in the male dominated room, and got some fantastic data from it, proving we all can get excited on a failure to launch making all men very happy as long as we get good data

Fox News saved their brand names by settling a lawsuit with DOminion at 5 times Dominiions actual business value, but depriving the AMerican Public the comic relief of a trial and the taking down of some thier profitable personalities.

Supreme COurt allows abortion Pill to continue until it can be heard in the fifth circuit appeallate court .  WHistle blowers are yelling loudly that the Bidens are corrupt and that they lied in 2020, will this be much ado about nothing or will there be some awakenings in Washington.  Proving to me at least, We the People, is no longer true but has been revised to We the People as long as we in power agree.