September Already

Goucho Marx may well be correct but I can assure you that Council and the Institute staff aren’t aiming to implement the second sentence.

At the time of writing there has not been a Council meeting since the information update sent following our June meeting. This article provides a brief update on some of the events that have taken place recently plus some of the future plans.

David Bell and I visited New Zealand in August as part of the CPD tour. We had not originally planned to take the CPD tour to New Zealand but there was significant interest, particularly among our members who work in NZ, and a tour was subsequently organised. The tour was very well received and I would expect that we will see even greater attendance if similar events are run in future. Sessions were held in Auckland and Wellington with a meeting with YAPs at lunch, the CPD session in the afternoon and the NZ winter dinners in the evening.

Meeting the YAPs was quite interesting. They demonstrated a high level of engagement and interest in the profession, and the future plans of the Institute. The typical path in New Zealand is the ‘old’ way – i.e. a non-actuarial university degree and then actuarial studies via correspondence. There are clearly pros and cons but we do need to ensure we provide support to our young actuaries as they develop and gain experience.

NEWS FROM COUNCIL

There are three taskforces whose work is progressing and Council will receive recommendations and/or updates at its September meeting. The Asian strategy is progressing but there is still a fair bit more to do. The issue for Council to wrestle with is what our long-term ambitions should be in Asia, apart from providing the best possible service to our Members (given that 13% of the Membership base is located in the region).

The Mission Statement Review and Governance Taskforces are progressing well and members have had numerous opportunities to contribute. Council will have considered the proposed mission statement at its September meeting with final approval planned at the December meeting following the development of the 2015-17 strategy. The Governance Taskforce will also have provided its recommendations to Council and similarly, Council will consider recommendations to be put to the membership at its December meeting.

All of this will provide input into Council’s review of the Institute’s strategy at the end of the year. A broad range of information is being gathered to assist Council with their deliberations and many members will be involved in the collation of that data. Importantly, we want to get your input, and to this end we are planning a strategy focused survey for Members to respond to prior to the meetings of Council.

When you read this I will have recently attended the IAA meetings in London. Key issues that we wish to address while we are there are the progress of the development of a banking subject by the South African society, signing of the updated mutual recognition agreement (MRA) with the Institute and Faculty, progress update on R&D sharing with the Casualty Actuarial Society, discussions regarding the developments in actuarial education which the IAA is also looking into, an update on our revised MRA with the Canadian Institute, and developments in the Society of Actuaries education strategy in Asia and globally. Finally, we will be advertising the ASTIN/AFIR/ERM/IACA joint colloquia to be held in Sydney in August 2015.

Members will hopefully have noticed that positions on committees and taskforces are advertised through the weekly Institute Bulletin – part of making sure that we follow a transparent process for appointing new members.

If you have any comments or questions regarding the various items discussed above then please let me know.

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