Editor's Note

Editor's Note

By Nancy Manning

Greetings, Readers! It's almost Easter as I write this editorial piece! By the time this edition of our NewsDirect reaches you, we'll be moving swiftly into summer. The year is flying by! And, we continue to seek ways to become more effective as the MAD Section.

In early March, your section council members gathered for an all day planning session at "sunny" O'Hare Field. We convened bright and early at the Admiral's Club–and generated ideas for future events, shared good times, and bonded. Jay Jaffe, SOA BOG member and longtime friend of the MAD section, joined us for our planning. We appreciate his continuing support, both as an author and as a vocal and visible member of our MAD section, as we all work together to develop plans and activities that support the Value Ladder and other new ideas of the SOA.

Seven members of the MAD section undertook a significant project last fall. We worked together to complete a survey of company practices, issues, ideas, for the Product Development Process. See the executive summary of the survey results in this edition. For those of you attending the Annual Meeting, you will see that our survey results have provided suggestions for new topics to present to the membership.

Presenter Peter Varisco penned a story to summarize and share lessons about "Meeting Call Center Forecasting Challenges in a Direct Marketing Operation." Peter relied on data presented at an SOA annual meeting session last fall. If you missed that session, the article is your chance to catch up on ways to address this challenging problem.

Our continuing relationship with PIMA authors gives us the opportunity to present articles about the Internet World, Telemarketing, and Customers for a Lifetime. MAD appreciates the support of Ginny Simon, Linda Barba, and Danielle Myers in collecting the articles from their various authors. Thanks to Arthur Hughes, Jon Hamilton, and Warren Hunter for taking the time to pen these articles.

In addition, Don Jackson will be conducting his annual Insurance Direct Marketing Forum and e-Commerce Assembly in September. See the announcement for details.

As always, I thank all of our contributors. Your willingness to help makes my job easier. Of course, I'm always looking for authors and/or articles of interest to our membership. If you have an article you'd like to write or you've read something you recommend that everyone else in MAD see, let me know. I welcome your suggestions. My hope is to make each edition of NewsDirect valuable to our membership.

Nancy Manning, ASA, MAAA, is associate actuary with Aegon Direct Marketing Services in Plano Texas. She can be contacted at 972.881.6004 or nmanning@aegonusa.com