CAS Conducts Annual Leadership Meeting

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—CAS President-Elect Alice H. Gannon welcomed 55 CAS leaders to the 1999 CAS Leadership Meeting in Philadelphia on March 25. Conferees addressed a set of issues drawn from the 1998 Long Range Planning Committee Report, the 1999 CAS Strategic Plan, and CAS Board of Directors' direction. These issues included mutual recognition, research process, future of the actuarial profession, and general committee management issues. Status reports were also provided in general sessions on international issues and the ongoing work of the Committee on Volunteer Resources and Task Force on Nontraditional Practice Areas.

Mary Frances Miller presented the current status of her Task Force on Mutual Recognition as a preliminary to a breakout session for smaller groups to address the issues. Suggestions were developed for how the CAS should respond to a proposal from the English-speaking, examination-giving societies outside the U.S. to grant mutual recognition of Fellows.

In a similar format, Robert S. Miccolis, vice president-research and development, described the process for reviewing and evaluating CAS research efforts. Feedback from this meeting will be incorporated with the results of a CAS membership survey on research initiated immediately following the Leadership Meeting. A report to the Board of Directors is planned for September 1999.

C.K. "Stan" Khury, past president of the CAS, addressed the meeting over lunch on "CAS Reorganization of 1984—A Retrospective." Khury drew parallels and differences between the Society today and 15 years ago, pronouncing the CAS to be a healthy, vigorous and well-organized society serving its members very well.

The most controversial session ensued following a presentation by Society of Actuaries President Howard Bolnick, who spoke on the SOA strategic vision for the future of the actuarial profession. This vision, referred to as the "Big Tent," is for actuaries to be recognized as the leading professionals in modeling and management of financial risk and contingent events. Commitments to achieve this vision include developing a new definition of actuary and inviting qualified practitioners in nontraditional jobs into the ranks of the profession and SOA membership. A new professional practice area in evolving financial services institutions would be a result. Stronger ties to the academic community and movement towards university-trained actuaries are included in the SOA vision.

In the final session, CAS leaders were arranged in functional groups to address a series of committee management issues. How to sustain and further encourage the spirit of CAS volunteerism as a unique organizational attribute in a growing society was a special focus.

Summaries of these sessions will be reviewed by the Long Range Planning Committee, Executive Council and Board of Directors. Specific suggestions will be assigned for review and recommendation by the relevant CAS organization, and a report back will be made at the Leadership Meeting in 2000.