Council held its second meeting of the 2019/20 sessional year in London on 29 November.
The afternoon prior, Council members met to discuss the progress made since our meeting in September towards developing a new strategic direction for the IFoA, focusing on two key areas:
- The development of our pre-qualification (Associateship) and advanced (Fellowship) curricula, to ensure that these curricula appropriately reflect the evolving profession and market demand
- Defining the direction in which our international strategy should evolve, and understanding both the requirements and implications of those choices.
At our regular meeting, we agreed how each of these strategic imperatives should be taken forward, and how they will take shape in the form of a final Strategic Plan, to be approved at our next formal meeting (5 March 2020) and shared with the membership soon thereafter.
On the subject of our Associateship qualification, we looked at a proposal to modernise the assessment and marking of our Associate examinations. This work, which will be led by our Lifelong Learning Board and overseen by our Management Board in the coming months, aims to improve the efficiency of these processes and, in doing so, allow us to refocus resources on the development of our educational and lifelong learning offerings in line with our strategic imperatives.
We held our annual review of our Regulation Board, which centred on: the Board's work towards delivering its outputs as defined in the current regulatory strategy; its current priorities, challenges, and opportunities; and its engagement with the strategic priorities set by Council. The review covered a number of important topics, including: the Kingman Review and the future of UK actuarial regulation arrangements; the IFoA's international regulatory strategy; the ongoing review of our Continuous Professional Development Scheme; and the role of regulation in supporting and assisting members, including how we can better promote the value of being a regulated professional.
We received an update on ongoing work towards developing a value proposition for our members. We also considered an update from the chair of our Management Board on the work that it has carried out in recent months, and approved the appointment of Trevor Spires, the lay chair of our Audit and Risk Committee, as a lay non-executive member of that Board.
We approved two proposals to change our constitutional documents, which intend to help modernise the appeal of the IFoA and streamline its operations. Both of these proposals - broadening the scope of our Affiliate membership category, and simplifying the process for appointing Honorary Fellows of the IFoA - will require the approval of our members before they can be implemented. More information on each proposal will be shared with you soon, along with a third proposal (also recently approved) to change requirements around Council members' tenure on Council.
Our next regular meeting will take place on 5 March 2020, with an extraordinary meeting to elect the president-elect of Council for the 2020/21 sessional year taking place the afternoon before. The minutes of our meetings are available at bit.ly/2u1gmx9 and you can contact us at [email protected]