Commercial Collection Agencies of America participated and exhibited at NACM’S Credit Congress, alongside certified agency members June 5-8, 2022. 

We enjoyed meeting credit practitioners and imparting the criticality of using an agency certified by CCA of A, as it offers the PREMIER certification program in the industry.

Our Semi-Annual Conference was held April 20-22 at the Charleston Marriott in Charleston, South Carolina.

Thank you to all who joined us!

Thank you to everyone who attended our 2022 Semi-Annual Conference in Phoenix!

CCA of A continued to “Raise the Bar” on certification at the Open Forum-the most collegial discussion in the industry.

Other highlights included Credit Research Foundation’s Bill Balduino and Matt Skudera educating our membership on the changing role of the credit practitioner, AR performance by industry segments, and the critical importance of technological advancements.

Commercial Collection Agencies of America has elected its new Board of Directors and has announced the slate of officers of the organization.
Board members include Pete Roth of CST Company, Fred Wasserspring of Lyon Collection Services, Inc., David Herer of ABC-Amega, Inc., Humberto Matz of Creditors Adjustment Bureau, Tom Claybaugh of Mountain States Commercial Credit Management, Inc., Jim McDermott of Altus Receivables Management and Steve Rauch of Rauch Milliken International.

Officers are Pete Roth, President; Humberto Matz, Vice President; David Herer, Secretary; and Fred Wasserspring, Treasurer.

The Board was recently chosen by its peers at the annual conference in Delray Beach, Florida where members and colleagues gathered for two and a half days of education and networking.

The CCA of A Board meets monthly to handle the business of the Association as well as strategically plan for organizational and industry-related needs.

The Board directs its multiple committees to create key programming and education, to evaluate legislative needs and identify regulatory changes, to market agency and affiliate member services, to attract new members, to introduce cutting-edge technologies and services to its members, and to meet the needs of future leaders in the collection field.

Every initiative put forth by the Board and its committees is developed with the mission of the Association at the forefront: to elevate the standards and uphold the professionalism in the commercial collection industry for the benefit of protecting the credit granting community.

“There are many issues facing this industry, both near and long-term. Commercial Collection Agencies of America will be well served by this notable group of individuals chosen to lead this important organization,” noted Pete Roth.

“Being chosen as the new President of this organization’s Board of Directors is both an honor and privilege. With the support of such distinguished agency representatives on the Board, I hope to carry on the kind of leadership and vision that my predecessors, Bruce Godwin and Meg Scotty displayed during their terms,” he added.

Commercial Collection Agencies of America is an organization of commercial collection agencies, creditors’ rights attorneys and law list publishers. The certification program, which is the platinum standard in the industry, is promulgated by an Independent Standards Board, which includes professionals from a cross-section of industries related to credit and collections.

Commercial Collection Agencies of America announced that through its initiative, Commercial Collection Agencies of America Gives Back, a portion of the proceeds of its annual conference in Delray Beach, along with substantial donations from individual members, and a fleet of bicycles has been given to 4KIDS of South Florida. 

At each CCA of A conference, members cap off two days of continuing education with a large networking event and participate in a novel team-building experience.  This year, attendees came together Friday afternoon to assemble bicycles for foster children served by 4KIDS.  Each team built a bicycle, creatively named its bike and nicknamed its team, as well as crafted cards for each recipient child. 

Teams then presented their bicycles to a judges' panel, in what turned out to be a “bring down the house” finale. The creativity and teamwork were impressive, and members had a lot of fun, but what happened earlier in the day, made the event even more meaningful. 

At Friday morning’s general membership meeting, CCA of A President, Bruce Godwin invited all attendees to participate in the charity event.  After he announced that 4KIDS of South Florida would be the recipient of the bicycles and the monetary donation from the Association, Godwin, a Boca Raton resident, offered to personally donate to 4KIDS, as well.  Immediately, members in the room enthusiastically offered their personal donations, to match Godwin’s, and within minutes, thousands of dollars were raised, to compliment the donation of eight bicycles.

“Watching this event develop during the day was exciting,” commented CCA of A’s Executive Director, Annette M. Waggoner.  “From the overwhelming generosity of members in the morning to the palpable anticipation for the event during the day, to the finale in the early evening, when over a hundred members took a group photo with Karen Granger of 4KIDS. These colleagues masterfully collaborate during the year on behalf of their clients and today, they came together in the same collegial fashion for a worthy cause…so inspiring.” furtheredWaggoner. 

4KIDS brings hope to babies, kids, teens, and young adults by providing safe and secure environments for healing, equipped parents and caregivers who are trained to love kids from hard places, essential resources to meet their physical needs, nurturing counsel to help them thrive, and a renewed sense of value in their hearts.  For the thousands of children who are removed from their homes each year 4KIDS has hundreds of foster families across six (6) Florida counties to meet the need.  More information can be found at 4KIDS - 4KIDS, Inc. 

In addition to 4KIDS, Commercial Collection Agencies of America has also been fortunate to donate a portion of the profits from previous conferences to The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, Blessings in a Backpack, The ALS Association-Greater Chicago Chapter, The Red Cross, Mental Health Associates of Western New York, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, The Emily Stillman Foundation Ronald McDonald House – Atlanta and the American Diabetes Association. 

The Association is overjoyed to collaborate with NAPPS, the largest non-profit association for process servers in the US. We look forward to welcoming Gary A. Crowe, Eric Vennes and Clair Schull at the annual meeting and to hear about effective process serving at the upcoming annual conference!

The following is from their website:

WHO WE ARE

The National Association of Professional Process Servers (NAPPS) is the nation’s largest community of professional process servers and the first resource for credible information regarding the profession.

Founded in 1982 in Las Vegas NV, NAPPS today has well over 2,000 members representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, seven Canadian provinces and nearly two dozen foreign countries. It is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

NAPPS members assure a citizens right to due process and access to the legal system. To this end, a NAPPS member is committed to being accountable, reliable and valuable to their legal clients, the courts and the parties and witnesses they serve.

Membership is on an individual basis, and each member is expected to adhere to high ethical standards and have a thorough understanding of the NAPPS Code of Ethics on which NAPPS prides itself.

Commercial Collection Agencies of America collects and tracks the placement of commercial accounts with its member agencies by their clientele. Each agency member submits a report of its account placement on a quarterly basis. In aggregate, the report offers the number of accounts placed and the dollar value of said accounts. The submission of the reports is one of the requirements for an agency to maintain its Certificate of Accreditation and Compliance.

Why does Commercial Collection Agencies of America require this information? The Association’s mission includes being a premier industry resource to credit grantors. The aggregate report is a vehicle which offers an overview of placements so practitioners may have a scope into collection activity across the discipline. Feedback reveals that this information is used in a multitude of ways: from furnishing

C-level executives with reports to making a necessary case with the sales department for action….and everything in between.

Additionally, this data collection supplies our member agencies with a barometer - a wider lens into how like peers in the industry are faring.

Three indices are reviewed and compared by quarter and then compared to past years:

• The number of accounts placed for collection
• The dollar amount of accounts placed for collection
• The resulting average-sized account

It has been stated time and time again that 2020 created a “new normal”. Perhaps. Perhaps not. While all aspects of our day-to-day life, especially our work lives drastically changed like a tsunami, in the world of commercial collections, the waves were calmer.

The association studied each quarter of 2020 and made notations of historical statistics where applicable. It should be noted that since membership has changed, adjustments have been made to previous reports to reflect said additions and deletions of members to give an accurate comparison. Further, when historical numbers are quoted, only current members’ historical numbers are utilized when analyzing placements. Our analysis historically shows that any change over eight percent (8%) is considered significant.

Click Here to download the full article and analysis.

Commercial Collection Agencies of America is proud to announce the appointment of Mr. Kurt Albright to the Independent Standards Board effective immediately.

Albright was recently approved by his Standards Board peers. “We are grateful that Kurt has joined the Board, as he brings a depth of knowledge and expertise that can only enhance the organization” commented Manny Newburger, Barron & Newburger PC and Chair of the Independent Standards Board.

Albright, Senior Advisor of Credit & Collections at Uline, Inc. leads the Credit, Collection and Credit Application teams, consisting of 120 employees. His teams are responsible for Order to Cash and manage an accounts receivable portfolio of approximately $500MM for the privately held B2B distributor in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.

Prior to joining Uline, Albright held credit positions of increasing responsibility at RR Donnelley over an eighteen year period. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the Credit Research Foundation and has been on the Board of Directors of NACM Connect and is an active member of the ACE Group.

The Independent Standards Board is charged with the creation, review and amendment of certification requirements which are met by each member agency to earn and maintain Commercial Collection Agencies of America’s Certificate of Accreditation and Compliance. The rigor of the requirements set by the Board makes the certification unparalleled and regarded as the platinum standard by credit grantors worldwide.

When asked about serving on the Board, Albright stated that he is looking forward to participating in and contributing to the group. He joins fellow credit practitioners, as well as the other board members, who represent all facets of the accounts receivable management arena: collection agency executives, creditors’ rights attorneys, business consultants, controllers, certified public accountants, industry trade group officers and chief financial officers.

Bill Balduino, President of the Credit Research Foundation and Vice Chair of the Independent Standards Board noted, “Kurt’s incredible background, knowledge and experiences across the discipline will simply add to the incredibly talented group that already comprises the Standards Board.”

The Independent Standards Board of Commercial Collection Agencies of America meets periodically throughout the year and will have its next meeting this autumn in Delray Beach, Florida.

We are honored to present Learnings from the Third Party Collection Perspective at the Credit Research Foundation’s March 2021 Forum. Commercial Collection Agencies of America is a CRF Platinum Partner and the only collection agency certifying body to have its certification program endorsed by CRF.

In an impressive collaboration between Credit Research Foundation Platinum Partners, Commercial Collection Agencies of America will be joined by ABC-Amega Inc. and AG Adjustments Ltd. to present Learnings from the Third Party Collection Perspective at CRF’s Accounts Receivable Forum, March 15-17, 2021.

Sam Fensterstock		Dom Di Loreto
AG Adjustments, Ltd.		ABC-Amega, Inc.

The powerhouse session will feature ABC’s Dom Di Loreto and AG’s Sam Fensterstock, who will examine the ARM landscape over the last year with CCA of A’s Executive Director, Annette M. Waggoner.  The veteran collection practitioners will come together to offer cogent insight on:

• Learnings from third party agencies how collections have changed since Covid19, with commentary on the WFH-work from home-environment.
• Practices commercial agencies can carry forward in a post-Covid19 world
• How and what process changes were made at the agency level
• Agencies’ effective connection with commercial debtors to maintain maximum recovery
• Regulatory compliance upkeep
• How best for a credit professional to discern if an account is truly commercial in nature or if it is consumer
• Insight on how agencies can best assist the credit grantor given transactions are being handled more on a “system to system” platform as opposed to “person to person”
• A first look at the Association’s analysis of account placement with third parties during the pandemic and what is expected in the next eighteen (18) months.

Commercial Collection Agencies of America recently announced that through its initiative, Commercial Collection Agencies of America Gives Back, a portion of the proceeds of its virtual annual meeting has been given to Mental Health Advocates of WNY, formerly known as the Mental Health Association of Erie, New York.

Since 1962, the Mental Health Advocates of WNY, Inc. has provided essential programs and services to seniors, adults, families and children in Erie County.  It also supports advocacy and intervention in schools, workplaces, treatment agencies, courts and homes. 

The nomination of Mental Health Advocates of WNY was made by Independent Standards Board Chair and Credit Research Foundation President, Bill Balduino in honor of Angelo Di Loreto, the son of one of our Association members. 

At the general membership meeting, the Board shared the nomination with the members who overwhelmingly supported the donation, some of whom contributed personally, as well. 

“I personally wish to thank all of you who participated in this worthwhile cause.  The Association has been a guiding light with its approach and execution of supporting worthwhile causes and in this unusual time there is no more situation that deserves our attention. Much appreciation to board members and the membership itself of Commercial Collection Agencies of America for its generous response,” stated Balduino.    

Mental Health Associates of WNY also offers school-based prevention and education programs to address the needs of students from Pre-K through 12th grade as well as collaborates with other agencies and organizations to provide innovative, creative and artistic programs to reach new audiences to promote mental health.  Donations can be made at www.mhawny.org.   An excellent resource guide can be found by clicking: MHA of WNY Community-Resource-Guide.pdf .

Commercial Collection Agencies of America President, Bruce Godwin commented, “Our industry deals with different adversities daily, some short-lived and others more long term. The chance to help, even if only in a small way in the field of mental health is something that our members felt was not only needed, but very important during these pandemic times.”

Commercial Collection Agencies of America has also been fortunate enough to donate a portion of the profits from previous meetings to The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, Blessings in a Backpack, The ALS Association-Greater Chicago Chapter, The Red Cross, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, The Emily Stillman Foundation and the American Diabetes Association. 

Commercial Collection Agencies of America is an organization of commercial collection agencies, creditors’ rights attorneys and law list publishers, many of whom have been certified for over four decades. It is the only Association in which all agency members must be certified and offers the superior certification program in the industry.