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In My Opinion

Semper Fidelis

by James H. "Tim" Tinsley, CAS Executive Director, 1991-2001

The Actuarial Review's Editor in Chief, Walt Wright, has kindly provided this special space for me to say farewell to the CAS membership, and to offer some reflections on my tenure as CAS Executive Director. I will have retired on December 31 as you read this in February 2002.

My memories are fond, and my reflections are many. At the recent Annual Meeting in Atlanta I expressed my gratitude as best I could for the opportunity to serve as your first executive director. I have since enjoyed serving twelve presidents as the membership almost doubled (from 1,800 to over 3,500), as the number of committees and task forces increased significantly from 27 to 60, and as the opportunities for continuing education offerings nearly doubled. While these and other growth metrics are impressive, the single result during this period of which I am most proud, is the role of the CAS Office in supporting the vitality of the exceptional CAS volunteer spirit. My task was to develop an office to relieve the volunteers of the nonactuarial "administrative" tasks, thereby leveraging the volunteers' contributions and encouraging continuing meaningful contributions. I am very proud of my contribution on this!

When I started in 1991, CAS committees produced The Actuarial Review, Yearbook, Proceedings, and all the other CAS publications. The president personally prepared and assembled agenda material for the board meetings; the vice president-administration maintained the various manuals, prepared elections documents, and organized the Participation Survey; the treasurer paid all the bills; and so on. Today, with the support of the leadership and the resources provided by the board, a competent and responsive office staff is in place to serve an ever more active, volunteer-driven Society. Compared to the other actuarial organizations in North America, the CAS enjoys the lowest dues, the lowest exam fees, and the lowest fees for meetings and seminars—more bang for the buck.

We hit our first home run in 1992-93 when we installed customized software to help manage office functions and to create a management information system for the Society. This included replacing the old Rolodex membership directory with an electronic database for member and candidate records. The Rolodex was updated manually, at intervals, whereas the electronic database is updated almost automatically. This software gave us tremendous reporting capabilities, for example, to study statistics on travel time among exams and to monitor members' participation on committees. Today, that custom software has been upgraded with an even more robust system, and the membership directory is now also available on the CAS Web Site.

Another major accomplishment was creating the CAS Web Site. President Al Beer gave us marching orders in August 1996 to demonstrate a Web site to the board the following month, which we did. As they say, the rest is history. The site is now well designed, easy to navigate, and an excellent resource for CAS and ASTIN papers. It sets the standard that actuarial organizations in the U.S. and abroad seek to emulate.

Lastly, I cite the quality of the CAS Office staff that I leave behind. Our office culture has been built around an attitude of "we are here to help" and your feedback over the years has been very positive on that score. Looking forward, the outlook for the staff is bright. Longevity now averages nearly seven years among my direct team: Kathy Spicer, Jane Brooke, Todd Rogers, Mike Boa, Tom Downey, Elizabeth Smith, and Kathleen Dean (in order of years of service).

So the state of the office and its relationship to the core values of the CAS are strong. And your new executive director, Cynthia Ziegler, brings fresh ideas and will build on this foundation. My best wishes to her and the CAS staff for the future.

I have been blessed to serve with the prestigious CAS and to leave with so many close friendships among its members. It's been a great trip in this last phase of my working life. With a look back to my earlier career as a Marine, I close with a heartfelt "Semper Fidelis."