Recap of the MWCEA Conference

    My apologies to everyone for missing last week. As many of you know, the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Educational Association held its annual conference last week from April 19-21 in Biloxi, MS. This three day event is held annually and serves several purposes. There are speakers who present on a variety of topics and you are able to receive your continuing educational hours (if needed), while also having the opportunity to meet with those you work with in a much more casual atmosphere.

    The conference for me started with a round of golf at one of the nicest, if not the nicest, course in MS, Fallen Oak. I was paired with Bryan Bridges, Andrew Burkes, John Stomps and riders Barbie Correll and Josh Heffinger. We did not technically “win” according to the rules of “golf”, but we had the most fun.

    While teeing off on the 18th hole, we had the pleasure of having the new Chairman, Mark Formby, join us. Chairman Formby has now been formally introduced as the new Chairman of the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. He was decorated in Mississippi State attire, which drew ridicule from me from our first introduction. In his words, he “can’t wait to get a cowbell in his new office.” He was born in Starkville, so I will cut him some slack. Regardless of that, he was extremely personable and I very much look forward to working with him in the years to come.

    The following morning, the conference really kicked off with meetings and awards. A shout out to our very own Pepper Cossar for winning the Kenneth G. Perry Professionalism Award. The award goes to an attorney whose career is focused on workers’ compensation issues, and is a person who personifies civility, honesty, competence, and irreproachable ethics in his or her practice. A man who is never short on words was left speechless at his acceptance speech.

    I am from Belzoni, MS, where Pepper’s mother grew up. When interviewing with Markow Walker, Pepper was one of the attorneys willing to go to bat for this Delta boy. While I never worked directly under Pepper, our offices were conjoined and he always took an interest in my personal life, while also making sure I understood the law. We had several “workers’ compensation 101" meetings when I was first hired years ago, as he would say, which helped mold my career. Needless to say, we are all very proud of his accomplishment, which was well-earned.

    The remainder of the conference was certainly educational for anyone in the field. Most of my readers are in the field in some capacity. If you need educational hours, this is a great event to receive them, be it as an adjuster or attorney. However, networking as a nurse case manager, vendor and the like is also beneficial. The MS workers’ compensation field essentially shuts down for a few days while this goes on, and I would encourage you all to attend. I will give out a reminder beforehand next year in plenty of time to get registered. I will even link it into my website for easy access.

    Finally, I have recently increased my readership, so I wanted to take a brief moment to introduce my purpose here. This particular blog was more of a recap from last week since it is such a large conference for so many of us, but my typical blog is more content-related. I will provide easy-to-read blogs that are informative, while incorporating humor and guests along the way. However, I also have an open invitation to anyone that would like a full seminar, or possibly just a lunch-and-learn. I can open my calendar to anyone that needs me to educate insurance adjusters or employers at no cost to you. I enjoy any opportunity that I can be given to educate my readers on the laws in MS. As an added bonus, I can also offer educational hours to adjusters who work in MS, so please do not hesitate to email me if that is something I can ever help you with.