Lifelong connections matter

Members at the Quarter Century Club

MDRT members at the first Quarter Century Club at the 1985 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Belonging to MDRT means being a part of a tradition of excellence and lifelong connections. For example, take MDRT’s Quarter Century Club, which is more than a ribbon and now well past a quarter century old itself.

The inspiration for the group came in 1984 when a long-time member realized as the Annual Meeting grew in size, it became harder to find members that he had grown to know over the years. He was getting so lonely at the meetings that he considered not going anymore. MDRT Past Presidents Lester A. Rosen, CLU, and Donald Shepherd sympathized with his plight.

As a result, the Quarter Century Club was created as a special room at the Annual Meeting for older, long-time MDRT members to gather. Entry into the Quarter Century Club was granted to individuals age 65 or older, or those with 25 years of MDRT membership. It was a huge success when it debuted at the 1985 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, with 300 eligible attendees.

“It’s the greatest thing they have done for us older members,” one member said. “Consider that the first time I made the Round Table, there were only 939 members, and now you are talking about more than 21,000 members.”

Another member shared, “It’s the greatest thing MDRT ever put together. I started way back in 1946. I met everybody and developed some beautiful friendships with most of the people. To come back and see them recharges my batteries.”

Let us know in the comments section below how MDRT is a part of excellence and lifelong connections in your life. You also can read more about MDRT’s history in the “History” section of mdrt.org.

Written by Jenni Traverse Witkov, MDRT’s archivist

 

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