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Chairman's Letter - August 2017
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Chairman's Letter - August 2017

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“Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life” - Alvin Toffler (1928-2016) Alvin Toffler was an American writer and futurist best known for his works on modern technologies and the communication revolution. The above quote appeared in Future Shock, first published in 1970. Changes which will have a profound effect on our professional lives have happened this summer. On August 3, the U.S. Senate unanimously voted to confirm Chris Giancarlo as Chairman of the CFTC. Commissioner Giancarlo spoken many times about reviewing current regulation. His KISS initiative is an example. He has also discussed rewriting swaps trading rules to better reflect the Dodd-Frank Act saying that the rules are “highly over engineered, disproportionately modeled on U.S. futures markets and biased against both human discretion and technological innovation.” Under his leadership, the Commission has recently extended temporary relief for certain position aggregation requirements until August, 2019. This change is the CFTC’s response to industry groups calls for the Commission to strike a better balance when exercising their need to perform surveillance and monitor positions. The U.S. Senate also confirmed Brian Quintenz (R), formerly of Saeculum Capital Management and Russ Behnam (D), current senior counsel for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry. Changes at the NIBA will also have noticeable effects on the Association and our members. Shane Stiles, owner of Gate 39 Media, NIBA VP and John Jensen, President of Heritage West Financial, former NIBA President & membership chairman announced their resignations from the Board of Directors. Shane literally took our website and other communications from the Dark Ages to a much-used and respected industry tool. John tackled the enormous job of keeping membership rolls and spearheading membership campaigns for over 8 years. Both Shane and John are good friends and supporters of the NIBA, and will be much missed. No changes to the September 14 Annual Membership meeting--it is still a full-day of information, learning and networking. This year we do have two entirely new sessions - “Cryptocurrencies” narrated by Matt Kluchenek of Baker & McKenzie and the “Quant Corner,” a breakout session presented with participation of DePaul University, University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology and Northwestern University (invited.) Megan Glaros, meteorologist, CBS Chicago Morning News will present the final session of the day at 4pm at the CME Group Building, Chicago.  Please reserve now Kent Beck, software programmer writes in his “Planning Extreme Programming” published in 2000, “The business changes. The technology changes. The team changes...the problem is our inability to cope with change when it comes.” NIBA provides the support you need to cope -- join us September 14! Best, Melinda Melinda Schramm, Founder & Chairman melinda@futuresrep.com

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