by Kevin Pledge
Earlier this year we put out a call for people to stand for election for our Section Council—it is great to see such interest and, as a result, we have five excellent candidates. In addition, this call yielded some interesting questions as a number of people asked me about section structure and activities. There were also a number of people that would like to be more involved, but are not ready to stand for elections. I want to use this article to outline some of our roles and activities, and how you can become more involved.
First the basic structure: our council (like most Section Councils) consists of nine elected members each serving a three-year term, so we typically elect three new members each year. The council meets each month via teleconference to coordinate activities such as our newsletter, networking, meetings, webinars and special projects, and budget management. We also have Section Friends—volunteers who are not elected to the council, but participate in our calls just like regular council members. Those friends can do everything except vote and hold officer positions (chair, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer).
The Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section (EAS) serves the needs of actuarial entrepreneurs by providing education, business resources and networking opportunities. How do we do this?
- Education: We sponsor and coordinate meeting sessions and webinars relevant to entrepreneurs.
- Business Resources: Our Resource Center provides a knowledge base of articles (this is being updated and will be a fantastic resource for entrepreneurs when completed), the Preferred Vendor List provides services available to our members, and of course there is this newsletter.
- Networking: We provide networking events for the benefit of our members through local actuarial associations and at many SOA meetings and functions.
In addition, we provide a voice on issues that impact entrepreneurial actuaries—these issues often involve non-traditional roles as a relatively large proportion of our membership work outside of traditional areas, but our voice is not limited to the non-traditional areas.
As entrepreneurs, we are always open to new ideas, so please share them with us if you have any suggestions as to what this section could do better to serve entrepreneurs. If you want to get more involved but are not quite ready to stand for election, please send me your name and I will help you get more involved as a Section Friend.
Finally, I want to close with a comment on the elections. As I mentioned in the introduction, we have five candidates for three open positions. Please take a few minutes to read the candidates’ profiles and then vote for those candidates that you believe will best serve the EAS.
Kevin Pledge, FSA, FIA, is CEO and co-founder of Insight Decision Solutions in Markham, Ontario, Canada, and chair of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section. He may be reached at kpledge@insightdecision.com.