At Councils president-elect election meeting on 12 February 2019, Tan Suee Chieh was chosen to be president for the 2020/21 sessional year.
We congratulate Suee Chieh, who will be the first IFoA president from Asia. You can read more about him here, and at on the IFoA website.
Council also agreed to co-opt Mahidhara Davangere onto Council until the 2020 AGM. This follows the recent volunteer vacancy advertised for an individual with specialist knowledge of the Indian and South Asian markets. Congratulations, Mahidhara!
Council's third meeting of the 2018/19 sessional year took place on 13 February. We considered the summary findings of the quantitative research phase of the IFoA's Member Value Proposition. This is a major strategic project being led by Council, which arose from our members' concerns about membership fees, regulatory burden and the difficulty some have competing with non-actuaries. The employment landscape and our membership demographics have changed significantly since we last carried out major all-member research, and we want to know what our members value and don't value from membership. We will keep you informed about this project as it progresses.
Another focus of the meeting was the development of the IFoA's Corporate Plan for the next couple of years. We looked at how the Plan proposed to deliver the priorities that Council identified at its strategy day in October 2018 and in the initial findings of the member survey, and how to balance this with improving our operations, processes and systems in order to provide a better service to members. The Management Board will continue to work on refining the Plan, and once it is finalised it will be communicated to our members.
We heard from the chair of the Lifelong Learning Board, which was established last year to develop IFoA strategy in relation to pre and post-qualification learning, as well as conference and events offerings. One of its challenges is to help us to see the IFoA not just as a qualifying body with Continuous Professional Development attached, but as a partner in lifelong learning. The profession will see much change in the next 10-20 years, and if we don't adapt we will be left behind - unable to branch out into wider fields, and with our traditional areas under threat.
The chair of our Policy and Public Affairs Board presented an annual report on its work. This highlighted the improvements in the IFoA's marketing, communications and digital capabilities, which we hope you have been able to observe in recent months. We also continue to engage with politicians and policymakers, and scan the horizon for threats and opportunities.
We received updates on the Kingman Review and proposals regarding the Actuarial Monitoring Scheme, as well as reports on Brexit and data science. We also noted the current status of the IFoA's work regarding equity release mortgages, both in relation to the research programme working with the Association of British Insurers and for the IFoA's response to the Prudential Regulation Authority's 2018 consultation on the subject.
Our next meeting will be on Friday 14 June 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, following Council-led visits to actuarial associations and employers in other parts of Africa during that week. Our minutes are available here and you can contact us at [email protected]
