Description: Shortsighted goals may seem expedient at the time, but long-term success is not found by following the crowd.

Description: An article on what the author has learned by joining Toastmasters.

Description: The Board of Governors of the Society of Actuaries unanimously approved a proposal from the Nontraditional Marketing NTM Section Council to change the name of the section to the Marketing and Distribution MAD Section. From News Direct, September 2005, Issue No. 51.

Description: Comments from the Chair Progress and Volunteerism

Description: A listing of all the events at the ReFocus 2011 meeting.

Description: Chairman’s column describing the leadership positions of the Section Council.

Description: The authors take a deeper look at the long-standing motto of the Society of Actuaries, from John Ruskin, “The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions.”

Description: This is a brief report on the trip that the author made with two other SOA members, Bruce Schobel and Jim Wiseman, to Almaty, Kazakhstan during the week of September 1, 2003. They were invited by the Actuarial Society of Kazakhstan [ASK] to conduct several seminars for their members and various government officials. The trip was financed by USAID through a grant to the Arizona-Kazakhstan Foundation. The topics of the seminars were pension/social security reform, role of the actuary in an economy, annuity pricing/ reserving and professionalism.

Description: This article discusses the actuarial profession in Australia including the Institute of Actuaries of Australia. Also discussed are the financial services industry in Australia and the regulatory environment.

Description: The International Section Council is pleased to announce the winners of the Country Feature Award held for the Ambassadors by the section. First place went to the Ambassador in Vietnam.