Adam Parks (00:01)
Hello everybody, Adam Parks here. Welcome to the Why We Go series. Today I'm here with two very good friends, Jennifer Whipple and Tim Collins representing ACA. They're here to talk to us about the ACA Washington Insights event happening in May. Fantastic event. I went for the first time last year, really enjoyed everything about it, but I'm going to let them talk a little bit about it as well. So Jennifer, Tim, thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate you joining and sharing your insights. Tell me all about the Washington Insights. What's going on at the event this year?

Jennifer Whipple (00:38)
Well, Adam, I'm excited about the event. This year is going to be May 19th to May 21st in Washington, D.C. The Nats are playing the Mets. So if you're interested in baseball, we've got that going on. And this year, you know, we're going to have our standard conference where we're going to have conference time in the morning and in the afternoon. We'll have scheduled time. If you want to do Hill visits, go visit your legislators. We'll have that ready for you as well.

Tim Collins (01:04)
Yeah, Adam, I'm just super excited you were there last year and you got to see what that was like. So first timers, you know, that have never been there. If you maybe want to share a few thoughts on that piece, but again, hearing you're coming back this year is awesome. think once you come to this event, you're always going to want to come back to it because of the networking and it's not all just go meet legislators, but there's this opportunity to really, the board will be there to really meet with key people in the industry have conversations you might not be able to have. At annual, there's so many people at some of the other events not everybody comes to, but the Washington Fly-In is one of those key events that people come to. So if you're looking to meet movers and shakers in the industry like Jenn, then be sure to come to the Washington Fly-In.

Adam Parks (01:53)
It is an interesting opportunity because it's a smaller event and it makes everybody very accessible. I went for the first time last year thinking that I knew everybody and I clearly did not. I knew far less people in the room than I would have expected, but I definitely walked out of the event knowing significantly more people and building those relationships through the shared experiences. We went through. We went to a baseball game. We went to go lobby the hill together. We all got to spend time together in dinners and events and the reception. So there was a lot of really interesting opportunities to engage with folks that I had never met with before, learn a lot about how they were approaching their business, what was different. And I really enjoyed that type of an opportunity as a first timer. And I'm flying back from Brazil to go and attend again this year because it was so important.

And as someone who's been active in the lobbying space in our industry for many years, this is a great consistent way to build relationships and consistency helps to build those relationships. This was far less of a, you can see the nerves when people are going to meet with Congress, right? You can see them tightening them up their tie and getting their, you know, their suit ready. But it made it far more approachable. think the relationships and the way that the meetings are set. It was a very approachable situation and we were able to provide real information, data and support to these leaders and to the staff of those congressional leaders, which helps to paint the right picture for our industry. We're an essential part of the credit ecosystem. And I think that the consistency of that communication across Washington has started to bear fruit.

I think we're starting to really be heard. But it's important that we continue to band together and continue to take these efforts and coordinate our ability to bring these communications. And I really liked the approach to the timing of things. So we go through all of these updates, we talk about what's happening in the industry, what's going on in Washington, and then we're coming together to go bring that message to Congress. And that for me is a really exciting opportunity.

Jennifer Whipple (04:14)
It is, Adam, and I really love having members from all different walks of life. People who are here to share data points and very specific statistics like you. And then we also have members who are here to share their story. Maybe they work on the collection floor. Maybe they're interacting with consumers every day. And they have stories that they can share with the members of Congress about their experiences, what consumers want when we're talking to them on the phone. I think that's so important to get multiple messages to Congress in different ways.

Tim Collins (04:46)
Yeah, I think the big difference over the years, you came last year. What you saw was we had people from the Senate and people from the House who were there that were excited to see us and that who knew us. And in the past, we've, you know, we've had that in various degrees, but nothing like I've seen before in all my years of coming to the Washington fly in. They actually are excited to be at our events. They're asked to come to our events. We have a limited number of space. And so what you start to see as somebody who's attending this event, maybe even for the first time, is that these are just people. And they've got all their own issues and everything else that they're trying to go through and all their demands. And you create that common ground, right? Where you can start to say, hey, look it, you've got constituents, we have consumers you know, how do we work together to make sure that they're both taken care of and everybody can find that common ground. Whether it's a Republican or Democrat, it doesn't necessarily matter. Everybody has, you know, those same desires. I do think though, since you're flying in from Brazil, anybody who has an excuse that it's too far to travel, that just got shot down. Unless you're currently on the moon or Mars, you have an excuse not to be here, but everybody else, you have to attend because if Adams could be flying in from Brazil, you can fly in. There's three great airports you can fly into. got, know, National, which is right there, DCA. You got Dulles. And then for those folks who live on Southwest, you can fly into Baltimore. It's a short little train ride into the city. So plenty of options to be able to get there. So please, please get here.

Adam Parks (06:23)
I really liked the facility. I liked the way that, where it's located, really everything about the way that the event was run last year was really interesting for me. And I'm looking forward to getting back to that engagement, seeing who else comes to the forefront to come participate and to represent our industry. And it's important that we represent ourselves because if we don't, the representation will never be accurate. No one's ever gonna say who we really are and what we really do because outside of the walls of our businesses, it's difficult for people to understand the real value that we bring. And when we can have those discussions and we can prime everybody and get everybody comfortable. Another thing I should point out about the nerves of going to talk to Congress is that nobody's alone. Nobody's just sent out on an iceberg to go do something by themselves. And we're going out as groups and we're working together and it's groups of different perspectives. For me, some of the deepest relationships that I built at the event last year were the people that I went out to go lobby with. And we, you know, now we're Instagram friends and we're talking on LinkedIn. And when I see them at the conferences, it's high fives and conversations, but we've been able to develop that relationship through the shared experience. So not just developing the relationships with the government officials, but developing those relationships amongst ourselves and finding more people that we can use to support ourselves.

It takes a village to raise a child and it takes a village to build a business too. And when we can come together as that village and speak with a unified voice in front of the government and to unify that voice in the way in which we're speaking in our local states as we do our grassroots efforts or in our local communities, right? It's the foundation of those grassroots efforts and the coordination and collaboration across all these great minds.

Jennifer Whipple (08:14)
I agree, Adam. I think some of my best speaking points that I've used at our state legislative meetings have been things I've heard other people say or people that I've talked to at the DC Fly In. So it really is useful. It also gives you members who you can call when your state has a legislative item that you know they've dealt with already. It really does give you those great connections to use locally.

Tim Collins (08:39)
Yeah, you're right about you never be not alone. This is an event where you may not know people like you talked about with your experience last year. You knew some of the people that were there. But when you leave there, you have like this family, you know, hey, we survived the hill. We should have survived the hill t-shirts drawn up. And so we can use those as kind of a because you do you go through this kind of experience and it can be nerve wracking for some for the folks that really know.

You know, the representative, they, I mean, they just go right in there and it's like, you get to see how, hey, they know this person and now you know this person because you know them and you've got had that networking experience. And so that's the piece that's really super exciting to be able to see. then relationships you didn't have before you're going to have, whether it's on the Hill or whether it's in our industry or whether it's with the board or with whether it's with you, Adam, you're going to have those just by coming. And that's, I mean, that's the price of admission right there. So. Again, I can't emphasize enough. I can't wait to see you all there in DC.

Adam Parks (09:41)
Well, I can't thank you guys enough for coming on, sharing your insights and helping to bring more people to such a great event. I really look forward to seeing everybody there in early May. What a great time of the year to be in Washington, DC. And if you're going to be there, bring some family, go around, see the monuments. If you've never done the DC tours, take this as an incredible opportunity to go grow yourself, to engage in our industry, and to further the message that is so important to the core of who we are as a group. But for everybody watching, thank you so much.

Jennifer Whipple (10:14)
Absolutely.

Adam Parks (10:17)
Please be sure to go online. I'll put the link below so that you can go register for the ACA Washington Insights in 2026 and we'll see you all again soon. Thank you everybody.

Jennifer Whipple (10:28)
Thanks Adam.

Tim Collins (10:28)
Thanks very much. Thanks Adam.