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Education and Research Section Council Notes

Conference Call Notes February 13, 11:00 a.m. (Central)

Participants:

  • Council Members:
  • Ian Duncan, Chairperson
  • ph: 860.951.4200 x10
  • e–mail: iduncan@soluciaconsulting.com
  •  
  • Len Asimow
  • Steve Craighead
  • Jim Daniel
  • Enrique de Alba
  • Chuck Fuhrer
  • Frank Reynolds
  • Friends of the Council:
  • Claire Bilodeau
  • Eli Donkar
  • Tom Edwalds
  • Curtis Huntington
  • Stuart Klugman
  •  
  • ARCH co–editor
  • Arnold Shapiro,

Absent:

  • Council Members:
  • Michel Jacques
  • Jeffrey Pai
  • Aaron Tennenbein
  •  
  • Friends of the Council:
  • Mary Hardy
  • Warren Luckner
  • Krzysztof Ostaszewski

Objective(s):

  1. 2007 Annual Meeting Session ideas
  2. Updating Halmstad nomination process
  3. Budget for 42nd ARC

Welcome and Roll Call, Ian Duncan–Chair

  • Notes January 9, 2007: These notes need to have Arnold Shapiro added to the participant list. Jim Daniel made a motion to accept notes with that change; Len Asimow seconded the motion. Notes will not be posted on the E&R section web area following the launch of the new redesigned SOA website sometime the end of March, early April.

Consent

    • Both Spring Meetings are fully recruited

     

    • CKER, Curtis Huntington, Chairperson: On February 7, CKER reviewed the 11 proposals submitted for the 2007 AERF/CKER Individual Grants Competition. They will award five grants to researchers. On the March conference call, CKER will give a more specific update on the researchers, proposals and amounts that were awarded because all of the researchers who submitted research proposals have not been contactedwith the results of this competition. Letters will be sent out to all researchers over the nextweek or two, and Letters of Agreement will be drafted for those who were awarded research grants. The AERF Committee of The Actuarial Foundation reviewed 15 proposals and awarded grants to 3 researchers.
    • nothing to report at this time
    • (See attached report)
      • Action: Jeremy Gold and Ian Duncan discussed the official alignment of the Committee on Knowledge Extension Research (CKER) with the E&R Section

Business

    • Health: Ian Duncan
    • P&C: Yet to be determined
    • Life: Steve Craighead
    • Investment/Finance/Risk Management: Ken Seng Tan
    • Pension: Yet to be determined
    • Mathematical Foundations (demography, ruin theory, etc.): Mary Hardy

  • Attachment: Halmstad Prize 2007 Process and Timeline

    • Action: Discuss the progress on the nomination and selection process of the Halmstad Prize. Also, discuss the prize amount which is currently $1,000.

    Discussion: The section agreed with the timeline provided to Mike Boa at the CAS. There was discussion about raising the prize from $1,000 to $1,500 or 2,000. Sheree will research other prizes within the SOA and other actuarial organizations and submit that information for the next conference call. The Halmstad Prize needs to be better publicized and marketed.

  • Topic 2: 2007 Annual Meeting Sessions, Chuck Fuhrer, Annual Meeting Coordinator: The SOA 07 Annual Meeting & Exhibits Planning Committee met on January 18, 2007. The Planning Committee decided on seven showcase sessions in addition to other regular sessions. Chuck volunteered for the E&R Section Council to be responsible for the session titled, "Analytics You Should Know (But Don't)." This showcase session can be one or more sessions if needed. Chuck will report his ideas for this showcase session.

    •  

    Action: The Section Council needs to put together a description for this showcase session by March 16. The Section Council should decide if it will do another session in addition to this one.

    Discussion: The Section Council discussed the showcase session. Chuck's showcase idea was that there are certain areas of knowledge outside of the normal actuarial practice that actuaries should know more about to do their work such as data mining, statistical concepts, enterprise risk management, copulas, extreme value theory, methodologies in modeling techniques, etc. Steve Craighead will write up a session description before the March 16 deadline date. He would like to have a sample sent to him. Tom Edwalds was interested in possibly speaking at this session. (NOTE: Sheree sent internal meeting notes and sample session description to Steve, Ian, Chuck, and Tom.)

    There was more discussion about additional E&R section sessions at the 2007 Annual Meeting. Ian mentioned co-sponsoring a session the Health Section having Professor Les Mayhew, a statistician, from City University in London, as the speaker. Ian will work with the Health Section on this session. Frank Reynolds mentioned mortality experience as another possible session. In Britain, they are developing a model of individual life expectancy, and the model would be used to rank priority for health care. There was also a discussion about having a Halmstad Prize session where the winner could present their research. The section will also have a breakfast session at the Annual Meeting.

  • Budget review and keynote speaker update Attachment: 42nd ARC Budget

    • Discussion: ARC budget–Curtis reported that the AERF Committee of The Actuarial Foundation is concerned about the sponsorship in the ARC budget. Highmark has asked that any extra funds go to a student scholarship in actuarial sciences at the university. AERF felt that these were two different things, helping the academic research community and giving money for a scholarship for the school. AERF felt uncomfortable with the sponsorship stipulations and thought the funds should go to helping the academic research community. This kind of sponsorship has not been an issue at previous ARCs. There was discussion regarding Robert Morris University being penalized for getting a large sponsorship amount with some stipulations. Section Council members felt that this should be encouraged and not discouraged. Len, as representative of the host university, suggested lowering the registration fee from the stated $150.

Keynote speakers–There will be two speakers, John Shephard and Carla Angela. Curtis will be meeting with Angela on Friday of the week of this call, and he will confirm that she plans to speak at ARC since she hasn't been responded to any e–mails. ARC Presentation Prizes–The section decided that it will have ARC presentation prizes at the 42nd ARC. On the next conference call, there should be some funding discussions and possibly request some funding from CKER. Stuart Klugman volunteered to do the onsite evaluations again.

Strategy

  • How to get more people involved in research?

    • Action: Ongoing Discussion and progress

Next call is Tuesday, March 13, at 11:00 a.m.