BIP Spring 2025

Healthcare is Local

Louisiana NABIP sparks new energy in local chapter Through virtual meetings and a renewed focus on collaboration, Louisiana NABIP is breathing new life into its Red River chapter.

The Louisiana chapter of NABIP is taking a proactive approach to strengthen membership, starting with the struggling Red River chapter in Shreveport. After years of little activity, Louisiana President Wesley Watkins made it his mission to reenergize the chapter and keep it from shutting down. “This challenge isn’t unique to Louisiana,” Watkins says. “Chapters across the country are seeing declines, but that’s all the more reason to fight for them.” The Red River chapter had been inactive since COVID-19, and even after in-person meetings became possible again, interest remained low. Determined to turn things around, Watkins explored solutions from other states. “Texas created a virtual chapter, and at first, I thought that might be the answer,” he says. “But their model was entirely virtual, and I didn’t want to replace Red River — I wanted to revive it.” Instead, Watkins introduced virtual meetings as a way to rebuild engagement while keeping the chapter intact. Over the past six months, Red River has slowly come back to life. The first virtual meeting drew fewer than 10 members,

2024 Capitol Conference attendees from Louisiana visit Union Station in Washington, D.C., in between legislative appointments on Capitol Hill.

42 bip magazine Spring 2025