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Actuaries Abroad
International Issues Committee—
Working Towards the Centennial Goal
by Karen E. Schmitt, Chairperson, International Issues CommitteeWith the CAS actively expanding its reach outside North America, the International Issues Committee (IIC) has been quite busy, and has evolved to meet the challenge. The IIC spawned three regional committees in 2003 to address the issues on the ground in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. These committees work together on many projects to assure a coordinated effort.
The first assignment for the IIC and the regional committees was to put together a communication plan. Aided by the External Communications Committee, we developed key messages based on markets, metrics for success, and action plans that help guide us in how we connect with actuaries in various countries around the world. The process of creating the messages and thinking through the impact we would like to have was an important step in shaping the work of the regional committees.
The CAS Centennial Goal has created more challenges for the IIC. Projects for 2004 included developing the Ambassador Program and adding an international section to the CAS Web Site. Actually, these two projects have been on the docket for several years. Only now has the momentum and interest of the CAS been strong enough to have these projects realized. It was the CAS Leadership Meeting in March 2003 that created the momentum, by putting forward the Centennial Goal to “be globally recognized as the preeminent resource in educating casualty actuaries and conducting research in casualty actuarial science.”
Many ideas were generated about how the CAS could reach this goal. A constant theme was that our Web site could be a powerful enabler for the desired outreach. We all know how valuable the Web site is for the typical CAS actuary. Our challenge was to add content that would speak to an actuary outside North America by offering pertinent research and educational opportunities as well as pointing to local resources such as our CAS affiliates abroad. To some degree, the job is one of reorganizing existing material as much as creating new information.
The Global Resources section is now complete. The section consolidates the international information, making it much easier to find.
Another project on the “to-do” list for several years is the Ambassador Program. The CAS has long sought a more personal outreach to individual countries, similar to what the Society of Actuaries has in place. Ideally, our ambassadors are CAS actuaries on the ground in the given country, who are regular contacts for the local actuaries and universities. Their job is to promote property/casualty actuarial science in the way that suits local needs best. For example, ambassadors might organize the local CAS exam sites, speak to university students or local societies, or identify issues to take back to the CAS for review. The ambassador role will augment the current regional committees and each ambassador will become a member of the regional committee that covers the particular country. Because this program was just approved for implementation, it was unable to be included on the Participation Survey. See the “Help Wanted” page or join a regional committee, if this role sounds like it is for you.
More challenges will surely be coming to the IIC, regional committees, and future ambassadors as the CAS thinks of more ways to promote global outreach. Aside from awarding the Hachemeister Prize each year to an ASTIN paper, there is no “business as usual.” The majority of the work of the IIC involves keeping an eye on issues, recommending positions and policy and, more recently, creating structures and tools for even better outreach and communication. Given the CAS Centennial Goal, there are bound to be more interesting developments just around the corner.
