"An important milestone for the future of the Profession was reached in early February 2009 with the registration of the 20,000th member."
The past year has produced profound challenges for all involved with financial services and actuaries were
no exception.
The Profession remains firmly committed to supporting our members and helping them
meet the increasing challenges they face in their working lives.
Structures and governance
The Profession introduced new structures for volunteer activity and staff organisation in March 2008 to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of support provided to all members. The new volunteer structure facilitates 'top down' decision-making within the Professional Administration areas of Professional Regulation, Qualifications and Member Support.
Professional
Community activities have been designed to encourage and facilitate 'bottom up' activity and initiatives.
It has never been easier for a group of members with a common interest to network, to share
information or work together to increase awareness of a topic, or to promote the development of new
knowledge. The high level of participation in and flourishing activity of Member Interest Groups
demonstrates that this is a service which members at all stages of their careers value greatly.
Suggestions for new interest groups are encouraged to ensure they continue to reflect the interests
and needs of a broad range of members.
Parallel revisions to the staff structure meant that many staff started the past year in newly created
positions or with significantly altered responsibilities.
Caroline Instance
Chief Executive
In addition to enhancing support to members, these changes will ensure that the members of the executive with responsibility for delivering services directly to members are an integral part of the decision and policy-making process. Centres of expertise and excellence will be developed amongst the staff, adding value to the Profession's work and aiding the development of world class services for members.
Enhanced knowledge-sharing and CPD
Facilitating more knowledge-sharing and increasing opportunities both for informal networking and obtaining verifiable CPD remain central to supporting members throughout their careers and in their personal professional development.
Discussion boards have already been established to permit an exchange of ideas on topics as diverse
as the proposed merger and the global financial crisis; the level of activity indicates that members
welcome this new means of interaction. Additional, topic-specific boards, including ones for
pensions, general insurance and life insurance, are in the development stage and will be launched
early in the 2009/10 financial year.
Following the success of the Profession's first webinar, which was held in September on cash equivalent
transfer values, this format will be extended to other topics. This will allow members to receive verifiable
CPD from the comfort and convenience of their own offices.
Caroline Instance
Chief Executive
Face-to-face opportunities for CPD have also increased, with 78 events offered in 2008/09 compared to
44 in the previous year. Residential practice-specific conferences continue to achieve record attendance
levels while new style events, such as open fora and networking evenings, are becoming increasing popular
and frequently provide opportunities for networking with members across the range of practice areas.
The Profession's website, relaunched in April 2008, provides a modern, fresh look and feel along with enhanced
functionality, although work remains in progress to simplify navigation and resolve persistent issues
with the search function.
Broadening opportunities for actuaries
The establishment of enterprise risk management as a separate practice area reinforces the Profession's ongoing commitment to developing actuarial influence in this key area. The syllabus for the new enterprise risk management (ST9) exam is being introduced next year. This will not only prepare the actuaries of tomorrow for increasing involvement in risk management but also make the knowledge easily accessible to existing practitioners who are seeking to enhance their credentials and skills in this increasingly important area.
Responding to member's needs
Two-way dialogue with members is vital to identifying which services members value most and what additional support they would welcome from their professional body.
Caroline Instance
Chief Executive
A comprehensive membership survey was sent to all members early in March 2009 and the feedback will be
used to inform the development of future member service priorities throughout the organisation.
The Profession
also responds to less formal feedback. When a number of members indicated that they did not appreciate the new style
e-newsletters automatically addressing them by their first name, the Profession responded quickly to address this.
Members can now log onto the website and specify their preferred form of address - whatever that may be! - and also
update their job details and primary area of work. The more up-to-date and comprehensive the information provided,
the better the Profession will be able to provide the services all members need and desire while also ensuring individual
members receive information of interest and relevance to them. An extensive refurbishment of the main meeting rooms at Staple Inn was completed in February 2009. The concurrent introduction of video conferencing facilities in both London and Edinburgh will facilitate volunteer participation in the work of the Profession by ensuring that location is neither a deterrent nor a barrier to active involvement.
Merger project
In addition to normal business activity we have been heavily involved in conducting a project looking at the how best to set up a merged body - if the memberships of the Faculty and the Institute were to decide this was the way they wanted their professional body to develop.
Caroline Instance
Chief Executive
Eight work strands have been looking at a range of issues, including the development of an identity and name, the legal and tax structure of a merged body, and how best to build on our history. Work has been conducted so that wherever possible the outputs can be put to good use even if a formal vote of eligible members were not to result in a merger between the Faculty and the Institute. In the financial year ending February 2009 we spent £96,258 on merger project related costs. If we proceed to a merger we envisage a further £150,000 could be spent.
Milestones/notable achievements
- The April and September 2008 examination sessions saw the highest number of exams taken under the new syllabus.
Despite having over 21,000 individual exam scripts to process, receiving them from exam centres and distributing them to first and second markers, not a single unmarked script went astray in 2008.
- Non-members have become increasingly involved in the Profession's activities and governance over the past few years; from the start of the new sessional year the Chairman of the Professional Regulation Executive Committee will, for the first time, be a lay member.
- An important milestone for the future of the Profession was reached in early February 2009 with the registration of the 20,000th member; numbers continued to climb and stood at 20,256 at the end of the 2008/09 financial year.
Caroline Instance
Chief Executive
The past year has been characterised by consolidation, development and innovation for the Profession as well as by responding quickly to external events to support members in their working lives. The forthcoming year will be dominated by the continuing drive to enhance services for our members and to prepare the profession for a vibrant future, ensuring that all members are well-placed for years to come to meet the ever-increasing challenges of the 21st century.
Caroline Instance
Chief Executive
