Call for Presentations - Meeting Policies

Terms of Speaking and Other Related Policies

CAS has specific policies and procedures for conference learning opportunities that you should review prior to submitting your proposal. They include information concerning copyright, restrictions on promotional content and disparagement of sponsors, limited rights and permissions you grant to CAS, and more.

Please email Nora Potter if you still have questions after reading this complete online Call for Presentations and Guidelines for Proposal Writers. However, most if not all your questions will be answered in these documents.

Terms of Speaking

If your submission is approved by the Planning Committee, you will be asked to review and sign the Terms of Speaking.

Please note these special considerations:

  • If you are using excerpts from others' work, including data from third party vendors, please be aware that advanced permission may be required to reproduce the work of the original author(s). It is your responsibility to secure all such written permission.
  • During your session you will not engage in any type of promotional marketing or selling of any product or service, and you will not disparage any of the sponsoring organizations.
  • You will notify CAS as soon as possible in the event that an emergency should prevent you from meeting your obligations as a speaker.
  • In agreeing to lead a session or workshop, you grant CAS a non-exclusive, royalty‐free license to use, reproduce, and distribute your session materials (including all handouts and slides) in any way now or in the future, with all appropriate attribution to you. You retain copyright ownership of your session materials and may use your session materials as you see fit, including allowing others to use it.
  • You authorize the CAS to record your presentation (audio and/or simultaneous slide presentation) and make it available for purchase through the UCAS website. If you do not want the CAS to publish your presentation (or make it available for sale) please opt out under the recording permission section of the online submission.
  • To the best of your knowledge, your presentation does not violate any proprietary or personal rights of others (including any copyright, trademark, and privacy rights), is factually accurate, and contains nothing defamatory or otherwise unlawful. You have the full authority to enter into a speaker agreement by clicking the appropriate box on the electronic agreement included in the online submission. You have obtained all necessary permissions and/or licenses from any individual or organizations whose material is included in your presentation.
  • You are responsible for all travel arrangements and expenses that you incur to participate in this meeting. Except by prior written approval by the chairperson of the seminar, you will not receive any royalties, honoraria, reimbursement of expenses, or other compensation from the sponsoring organizations for your participation in the program. Upon request and approved on a case-by-case basis, CAS may reimburse some travel expenses (such as airfare and one night at the hotel) for speak-and-leave speakers who are regulators, academics, or non-profit association employees.
  • You acknowledge that members of the press are invited to CAS events and may be present during your session or workshop.
Legal Considerations

The suggestions below are offered by the American Academy of Actuaries' General Counsel to alert speakers to certain areas of discussion that should be avoided to prevent charges of anti‐trust violations. Discussions along the following lines must be avoided:

  • Fees to be charged for particular services
  • Whether a fee should be charged for a particular activity or service (for example, fees for initial consultations or for time commuting to a meeting with a client)
  • Dividing up clients among competitors in a particular geographic area, or by area of actuarial expertise.
  • Specific suggestions about limiting the availability of services the actuary should agree to provide based on whether the client contracts for an additional level or type of service (for example, agreeing to provide a ratemaking product only if the client agrees to contract for other actuarial services).
  • Any suggestion that an actuary should refuse to provide a particular actuarial service, or to work for a particular employer or client.
  • Any suggestions about the appropriateness of actuaries undertaking work which is generally regarded to be within the providence of another profession (for example, accountants, auditors, or attorneys) or vice versa.
  • Any suggestions about what constitutes appropriate advertising by the actuary
  • Recommendations for, against, or endorsements of specific services or products which can be used by actuaries (for example, computer software). It is also recommended that speakers begin their remarks by stating that the speakers' views are not necessarily identical to the views of the co-sponsors of the program or the employers or clients of the speakers.
Number of Presenters

Generally, the number of content leaders/presenters listed in a proposal should reflect the needs of the format selected. Concurrent sessions will have one lead speaker/chair and a limited number of additional presenters. Workshops will have one lead speaker and a limited number of additional speakers. See descriptions below.

Concurrent sessions: concurrent sessions may include from one to four presenters/panelists. One presenter is generally an academic or regulator; two or more presenters are generally an insurance company actuary or consulting firm actuary plus one moderator. In the multiple-speaker format, speakers may deliver separate presentations grouped around the session topic. Or, the moderator may lead a panel of two to four speakers in a discussion of the session.

For concurrent session presentations with more than one speaker, the speakers must come from at least two different firms. We may not accept submissions if all the speakers are employed by a single firm. Please keep in mind that these sessions are just 75 minutes in length; too many speakers will reduce the amount of time the audience will be engaged and thus dilute the learning impact.

Responsibilities of session submitter: coordinates the participation and content of all session speakers to ensure the quality of the session. Each accepted proposal will be assigned a seminar planning committee volunteer to assist in development of the session and to work with the speaker(s) to ensure session development guidelines are followed and speaker resources are used.

Workshops: This learning format allows for a more in-depth look at the topic and should have no more than three to four speakers. Workshops should be highly interactive and focused on skill-building; therefore, they are not suited to the panel discussion approach. The exception would be limiting a panel to a portion of the overall workshop to introduce a variety of topic-focused viewpoints to the audience. There should be a high level of interaction between presenter(s) and participants regardless of the number of presenters.

Responsibilities of session submitter – oversees the workshop development and instructional process, managing a team of speakers to ensure the session is conducted in a professional manner. Each accepted proposal will be assigned a seminar planning committee volunteer to assist in development of the session and to work with the speaker(s) to ensure session development guidelines are followed and speaker resources are used.