Description: Presented at October 1986 Annual Meeting. Presentation by a panel of historians on the aspirations of actuaries who established our profession in North America, or who helped to organize the four actuarial bodies formed in 1889, 1909, 1914 and 1916.

Description: Among actuarial newsletters these days, we have one that's new one that's using a computer, one that sports a new editor and one that has both a new editor and an increased issue frequency.

Description: The death of John S. Thompson shortly after his 95th birthday, reported in our January issue, caused us to wonder whether he was the oldest Fellow whose death is recorded in the Transactions.

Description: Asks readers to consider having SOA's Board impose discipline on special committees entrusted with matters requiring prompt resolution.

Description: Presented at October 1985 Annual Meeting. This session discussion is to call to mind the furor caused by Elizur Wright's eviction of a British company from his state for failing to meet reserve standards, to look at the 19th Century consequences of Wright's actions, and to ponder the great impact upon the actuarial profession today.

Description: This article describes the membership of the SOA outside of the United Sates. An informal count places the number of such members in active practice at 406.

Description: Provides some history on Emma Warren Cushman, the first woman to be accepted as a member of any American or European actuarial society - when she was accepted to the Actuarial Society in 1895.

Description: The Society’s computer has obediently coughed up an array of our 4,646 Fellows by year of completing Fellowship. These figures, composed of the 4,480 Fellows shown in our current Yearbook as of November 1, 1981 increased by 178 who qualified in the November 1981 examinations and decreased by deaths and other terminations. There is also detail on the SOA budget for 1981-1982 and historical financial statements.

Description: In May 1981 the Academy distributed an exposure draft, “Qualification Standards To Sign Statements of Actuarial Opinion on NAIC Annual Statement Blanks.” In it we read, with pleasure, the following bit of proposed wording: “Before considering himself or herself qualified, the actuary should have sufficient experience . . . With that experience the actuary should have . . . developed a healthy skepticism concerning data and other information proffered by others . . .” This article describes that the healthy skepticism was removed in the future language and the editor's disagreement with the ommission.

Description: This is an article about the education provided for actuaries highlighting a paper presented to the Institute in London in January 1982 by W. W. Truckle, F.I.A., Director of that body's Actuarial Tuition Service. Written to provide a framework for oral and written discussion, it features questions rather than opinions.