On Thursday, February 27th, the FPA of MA in conjunction with a large group of other interested organizations, participated in a large event at the State House. Thanks a million to Erica Feldblum for all of her organization and communication. It made the difference. Thanks also to Barrett Costello, John McAvoy, Dick Powers, Marybeth Breed, Colleen Turner, Steve Stanganelli, George Noyes and of course Kristin Beane for participating. The morning simply couldn't have been more successful. Stay with me while I try to relate the structure here. The day was organized by MassSaves a non-profit dedicated to providing financial literacy to MA residents. They are connected with the Massachusetts Financial Education Collaborative (MFEC) which is part of the Midas Collaborative. The purpose of the day was to promote a financial literacy bill to those in power at the state house. There are a number of organizations and companies that support these groups. We are a founding member of the MFEC and John Napolitano represents the FPA on the MFEC Steering Committee. (Note, we are currently interviewing members to replace John, who has served for several years as our representative on the MFEC. If you have any interest, please contact me)
Dick and John tracked down several reps and had good conversations with them as well as a substantial meeting with Senator Jim Timilty from Walpole. George and I met with the Legislative Director for Representative Denise Garlick. We were able to talk with a number of other staff people and reps. They are all impressed with the FPA story and appear eager to learn more about who is a financial planner as well as the value of the CFP mark.
For me, the highlight of the morning came as each organization was given two minutes to present to all present in the hearing room a synopsis of who they are and what they have done in MA to help promote financial literacy. Each group had a representative come up and do their two minutes. In a brilliant suggestion from our Public Relations Guru, Colleen Turner, when it came time for me to go up to talk about the FPA of MA, our entire delegation walked up with me. We stood in front of this group and frankly, blew them away. Our participation in the event, our accomplishments with Dana Farber and the National Guard as well as our new initiative with the Lawrence Community Center was pretty impressive. Seconds afterwards, the Junior Achievement Coordinator approached us, very excited about setting up some projects. The rep from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston also wants to talk about some joint work. Marybeth was able to connect with the Lawrence and Allston Brighton staffers and also connected with Juan Bonilla of the Lawrence Community Works. They are our newest project. Marybeth also has a conference call scheduled with JA and I will be reaching out to the Fed person next week to explore that option.
We had an impact. They are starting to know who we are and what we represent. The others who were there can share conversations that they had regarding the CFP mark, the FPA and the lack of regulation of financial planners.
Our goal this year is to raise public awareness of the role of a financial planner, the meaning of the CFP mark and value of the Financial Planning Association of MA. This was a large step towards achieving those goals. If you are interested in becoming involved, we are always in need of help. Contact Kristin Beane or me. We'll be excited and happy to talk with you.