Council held its first meeting of the 2019-20 sessional year in Edinburgh on 6 September and welcomed its newly elected (and re-elected) members.
Ahead of that meeting, the group held a strategy day that focused on defining and agreeing some guiding principles for strategic development, which can be applied to three key areas of focus for the strategy:
- The vision for the actuarial profession, the skillsets and mindsets that will be required of our members in order for them to succeed, and the domains into which we can advance
- Defining and delivering an effective value proposition for our members
- Refreshing our international strategy in order to better support the global actuarial profession.
At the regular meeting, Council recapped the points of agreement from the strategy day, and agreed on actions to be taken to drive this work forward. It also discussed what its priorities should be across this sessional year: agreeing the revised strategy, exploring a revised structure for member subscriptions that recognises different circumstances across membership, and ensuring it does all it can to get the best outcome possible from the Kingman Review - though these priorities may evolve.
Council also held its annual review of its Research and Thought Leadership Board, which ensures the IFoA's learned society and thought leadership objectives are being delivered and are appropriate. It noted the progress that Board has made during the past year, and discussed an impending change to its composition to help make it more dynamic and forward-looking. It also agreed a proposal for that Board to continue developing the Actuarial Research Centre as a co-funded research model, but emphasised the importance of having clear criteria for selecting funding partners, to minimise the risk of the research not being perceived as impartial.
Council considered an update from the Chair of the Management Board on the work that the Board has carried out during the past few months, and agreed the Board's objectives for the year. It also discussed the chief risk officer's annual risk review, and stressed the need to make sure that risk considerations are embedded into strategic developments.
The minutes of the meetings are available at bit.ly/2u1gmx9 and you can contact Council at [email protected]