Subject: An update from the SIPF Section Council
The SIPF Section has not yet reached our first year anniversary as a section and we have accomplished a lot. We recently crossed the threshold of 600 section members and are no longer the smallest SOA section. We have already published our first newsletter and are putting together the second at this time. Following is a short update on SIPF activities that we have excerpted from our next newsletter.
A brief history
The Society of Actuaries board accepted our petition to form the new section in March of 2009, and by June we had the 200 members we needed to become effective. For the remainder of 2009, we concentrated on four areas:
- Organizing and tasking the first Section Council. The council was elected in summer of 2009, organized its activities in several subsequent conference calls, and met face-to-face for the first time at the SOA's annual meeting last October.
- Organizing a successful panel discussion at the 2009 Boston Annual Meeting with the title "Forgive Us Our Debts".
- Putting together our first section newsletter, In the Public Interest, under the guidance of editor Ardian Gill.
- Continuing to expand the breadth and quantity of our members.
Key Areas of Focus
In addition to these major tasks, the new section also has been working actively to (1) coordinate with other Society sections, (2) define specific areas where the section can sponsor critical research and education initiatives in the areas of social insurance and public finance, (3) tighten relationships with other targeted organizations (for example, section members attended and reported on the recent National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) and the International Congress of Actuaries (ICA) meetings), (4) identify interested volunteers, both actuaries and non-actuaries, and (5) began to frame our longer term strategy.
Current Activities
The Section Council holds monthly conference call meetings to work on SIPF business. As of our most recent conference call, we have various 2010 efforts underway including developing the next section newsletter (scheduled for the summer of 2010), developing and prioritizing ideas for SIPF research and education–both on a short and longer-term basis and organizing a continuing education webcast on a timely topic of significant interest and concern
In addition, Andy Rarus has stepped up as the volunteer webmaster for the SIPF website and has filled the section webpage with lots of useful links and articles of interest. He welcomes comments, suggestions and additions; contact him at ararus@lecg.com.
A Visual Lesson
Finally, in a change of pace, a friend of the SIPF section recently sent a group of us a short video that does a brilliant job of both (1) providing perspective on the President's deficit reduction proposal and (2) offering a fundamental view of seemingly imponderable numbers.
When you look at the video you will see the large piece of the budget that is mandatory, consisting primarily of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In addition, there are many pieces of the remainder that involve programs that are being funded over a long period of time where an actuarial perspective is needed. While not everyone will agree with all the points made in the clip, we hope you will find the key points enlightening. As the saying goes, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Click to watch.
Summary
What else can we do to be more useful to you? Our section mission is important for the public and for the profession and we'd like to be sure that we are doing all we can to achieve our objectives. There are many things we think we should do, but we are limited in what we can do by the resources and input of our members. We would welcome suggestions from you as well as any information that you think would be helpful to the broader section membership group. Contact section chair, Bob Shapiro (shapironetwork@ameritech.net) with your thoughts.
Thanks again for being a member of the Section.
Signed,
The SIPF Section Council