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Edition

Welcome from the Guest Editor

Welcome from the Guest Editor

 

My name is Virginia (Jenny) Young, and I am the guest editor of this issue of Expanding Horizons. Our regular editors, Esther Portnoy and James Broffitt, are taking a break this time around. One of the primary functions of the Education and Research (E&R) Section Council is to serve as organizer of several sessions of interest to this section at the spring and annual meetings of the Society of Actuaries. In this issue of the newsletter, we summarize the sessions at the Boston Annual Meeting in fall of 2002, as well as give you a preview of the sessions for the spring meetings in 2003.

The Education and Research Section is also instrumental in arranging the Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) each August. In August 2002, the University of Waterloo hosted the ARC, and in August 2003, the University of Michigan will host ARC. Also, look for the article on the location and dates for future ARCs.

In addition to helping with the ARC, the E&R Section Council is in touch with educational issues of interest to its members. For example, the International Actuarial Association is reviewing three actuarial educational systems around the world, and Curtis Huntington lead a session at the Boston Annual Meeting on that topic. See the summaries of sessions at the Boston Annual Meeting for a link to the presentation. Also, the SOA is reviewing its own educational system with a target date of 2005 for any changes. The Board of Governors agreed with what was submitted to them by the Preliminary Education Work Group and Actuarial Education Work Group. Learning objectives are being set. The two work groups have re–configured so as to adapt to the new mandate. The Board will again address this topic during its January meeting in 2003. Look for information about the Boards decisions in future issues of Expanding Horizons.

Of interest to all sections is the fact that the SOA is currently reviewing the structure of the sections and practice areas, and Karen Gentilcore gives us an overview of that process in this issue.

To keep the section up to date on the goings on of the E&R Section Council, we include the results of the election last summer, as well as minutes from our recent meetings and a treasurers report from Claire Bilodeau. Another job of the E&R Section Council is to help choose the Halmstad prizethe AERF makes the final decisionand we report on the most recent winner of that prize. In addition, Edward Frees, editor of the North American Actuarial Journal, gives us information about the recent winner of the Annual Prize. Finally, the E&R Section Council is involved indirectly in many of the research projects of the SOA. Please visit the web sites SOA.org/research or ActuarialFoundation.org for information about many of those projects, and see the article by Curtis Huntington in this issue on the merger of the Actuarial Education and Research Fund and The Actuarial Foundation.

Last, but certainly not least, Sheree Baker is now the SOA staff liaison for this section, taking over Judy Yores duties after Judy left this past summer. We welcome Sherees help, and she writes to us in this issue.