BUSINESS COUNCIL UPDATES Steering Committees Plan Ambitious Agenda E LFA’S BUSINESS COUNCIL STEERING COMMITTEES (BCSCs) have a busy year ahead representing your interests. Each committee analyzes the needs of companies in the segment it represents and recommends to the ELFA Board how to meet those needs. Th e BCSCs represent fi ve key business segments: Captive and Vendor Finance, Financial Institutions, Independent Middle Market, Service Providers and Small Ticket. Goals for 2017 Last fall the BCSC Chairs held a conference call to review their committees’ activities and to discuss their goals for the year ahead. Th e committees will pursue priorities related to their distinct memberships and integrate their work into the following overall goals of the association, including: ● ● Participate in association programs, such as membership recruitment and grassroots political activism, on behalf of the equipment fi nance industry. ● ● Identify, review and prioritize ELFA program initiatives. ● ● Contribute research ideas for consideration by the Equip-ment Leasing & Finance Foundation. ● ● Present the Guest Lecture Program to increase awareness of equipment fi nance and attract new talent to the industry. ● ● Contribute to industry research through 100% participa-tion in ELFA’s MLFI-25 quarterly Beige Book. ● ● Attend and contribute to the success of Capitol Connec-tions, May 17–18 in Washington, D.C., and the 56th An-nual Convention, Oct. 22–24 in Orlando. In addition, the Captive and Vendor Finance, Financial Institutions and Independent Middle Market BCSCs are plan-ning best practices roundtables, to be held April 4 in Chicago. Orientation New and returning BCSC members participated in a lead-ership orientation web seminar late last year to prepare for the year ahead. Th e one-hour seminar provided an overview of ELFA’s mission, goals and programs and underscored the critical role of the BCSCs in the association’s organizational structure. Attendees also reviewed the roles and responsibil-ities of BCSC membership in 2017. Leadership Matters Th e following members will serve as Chairs of the BCSCs in 2017, guiding the work of each committee: ● ● Captive and Vendor Finance BCSC: Michael Sweeney, EverBank Commercial Finance, Inc. Institutions BCSC: Michael Romanowski, Farm Credit Leasing Services Corporation Middle Market BCSC: Connie Eimers, Vision Financial Group, Inc. Provider BCSC: Jeff Dicosola, Great American Insurance Normandin, Hanmi Bank ● ● Financial ● ● Independent ● ● Service ● ● Small Ticket BCSC: David Join the Conversation Gather with senior indus-try executives to network, problem solve and share best practices at an ELFA Best Practices Roundtable this spring. Three roundtables will be held on April 4 at the Swissôtel Chicago, immedi-ately preceding the ELFA Na-tional Funding Conference: ●●● Bank Best Practices Roundtable ●●● Captive and Vendor Finance Best Practices Roundtable ●●● Independent Best Prac-tices Roundtable For more information, visit www.elfaonline.org/ events/. ■ Best practices roundtable 10 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE