Nathaniel Tagtow, Vice President City State Bank, and President of the Iowa Trust Association
With the calendar turning to August, we find ourselves in the waning weeks of summer. I know many employees at our bank are getting in some final summer vacations and I’m sure the same is true at your institutions. While it can be hard to let go of summer weather and vacations, I do look forward to the fall season as well. From an ITA perspective we are certainly looking forward to our annual conference this fall which will be held from September 28-30 at the West Des Moines Marriott Hotel.
The agenda for the fall conference is once again very strong, and I am looking forward to “sharpening the saw” by taking in the content from a lineup of excellent speakers. In my last newsletter article, I mentioned the ITA peer group meetings and suggested that as many members participate in those meetings as are able. The next peer group meeting will kick off the annual conference and will be held at noon on the September 28th. I truly thought last year’s peer group meeting at the conference had the most participation and the best discussion of any in which I had previously participated. I hope we can have more of the same this year. Our membership has a lot to offer one another in terms of knowledge and our organization only becomes stronger the more we tap into that knowledge base.
If you are able to attend the conference, please be sure to engage with the vendors and exhibitors when you have some free time. Vendor sponsorship is crucial to a success of the conference and the ITA. When I attended the MOKAN conference in the spring, I spoke with several vendors who were just now getting back into the swing of things with in-person travel and conference attendance. Many of these folks are anxious to talk and reconnect.
Finally, if I have not had a chance to meet you in person, please be sure to say hello. I very much enjoy interacting with my peers from other banks and learning more about how the various Trust departments throughout the state operate. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the ITA or the upcoming conference please don’t hesitate to reach out to Darcy Burnett, me, or one of the other board members. See you in September!