I hope everyone has the opportunity to take a breath during these summer months. Some may have just finished a busy season of work or study, and some are graduating or celebrating milestones. Others are using a summer break as a halftime to review the first half of the year and make adjustments for the second half. In a few of the companies where I’ve worked, we use a simple “Start, Stop, Continue” framework to decide on what adjustments to make. I only have a few months left in my current position as president to make an impact, so allow me to share a potential list of “Start, Stop, Continue” items for the CAS.
The “Start” List
Getting regular feedback loops with important stakeholders
After candidates faced unexpected exam outages on May 1, our admissions volunteers, leaders and staff activated internal crisis management plans. We understood the candidates’ frustrations after they spent months in preparation for their exam, as well as the concerns of their employers, so we sought to act quickly. Emails were sent to impacted candidates within hours of discovery and over a dozen emails went out to multiple stakeholders within 48 hours. Behind the scenes, there was an all-hands-on-deck effort by the collective Admissions team to determine a path forward and have it reviewed and approved by leadership.
We sincerely regretted this situation occurred and knew we needed to do better to provide a positive exam experience. So, in the subsequent weeks and months, we’ve identified opportunities both to prevent future situations like this as well as have a more robust contingency plan in the unlikely event anything similar happens in the future. While dealing with this issue, we received a lot of feedback concerning exams and communication, which led to recent meetings with both the Candidate Advocacy Working Group and the Employer Advisory Council. The impromptu post-exam dialog with these groups gave us invaluable insight into what they are seeing, feeling, and experiencing — and that is insight we need to tap into much more regularly in order to stay in touch. We are working on additional ways to have more frequent engagement with these important groups of stakeholders.
Utilizing more AI within the CAS
I am excited to share with you that the CAS is embarking on an initiative to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance our internal business operations. This strategic move aims to position our association at the forefront of technological advancements, ensuring we continue to deliver exceptional value to our members.
To guide this effort, we have developed a set of guidelines for our staff. These guidelines have been reviewed by our external IT security consultant, the CAS Risk Management Committee, and the Executive Council. This comprehensive review process ensures that we maintain strong standards of security and integrity as we integrate AI into our operations.
We have also established an internal group of staff dedicated to enhancing their skills in AI. This team has undertaken initial pilot projects, utilizing AI for various purposes such as marketing products, summarizing and synthesizing reports, generating ideas, taking notes and conducting business research. Their efforts are paving the way for more efficient and innovative business processes within our organization.
The market for AI products tailored to professional association business operations is rapidly evolving. To ensure that the CAS remains at the cutting edge of this trend, the Executive Council and staff leadership are collaborating closely to identify the best ways to leverage this emerging technology. Our goal is to harness AI’s potential to strengthen our society and better serve our members.
The “Stop” List
This is the hardest of the three categories for me because there are many worthy efforts which are hard to say no to. However, if we prioritize everything, we prioritize nothing, and the most important issues don’t get addressed. A great read, for those who are balancing ambitious goals and seemingly urgent everyday issues, is the classic Harvard Business Review article, “Who’s Got the Monkey.” For the rest of my term, my main item to stop is overcommitment, so I can focus either on my main CAS goals for 2024 or urgent CAS issues.
The “Continue” List
There are many projects going well that we should continue at the CAS.
Transforming Admissions
Within Admissions, we need to continue our planned rollouts, like the Property and Casualty Predictive Analytics (PCPA) requirement for Associates, as well as continue planning for the future with the work on our Actuarial Professional Analysis (APA) project. See the separate article on the APA for more details.
Updating the Strategic Plan
CAS Board Chair Roosevelt Mosley has been leading our Strategic Plan Task Force, which has already received a lot of input from multiple focus groups and town halls in order to set the CAS Strategic Plan for the next few years. The Task Force has been working on a set of high-level priorities which should uniquely position the CAS to have a sustainable competitive advantage. This work will form the basis for the development of an operational work plan that is prioritized and consistently reviewed and revised by the Board and staff based on changes in the environment.
Engaging with other organizations
As mentioned in the “Start” list, we are strengthening our engagement with key stakeholder groups, including employers, candidates, and universities. At the same time, we should continue to work with all our relevant North American partner organizations, like the American Academy of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries, the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. There are common themes that we face in our profession that we should continue to partner on. We should also increase our engagement with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and will be increasing our leadership presence at their meetings.
Connecting with members and other actuaries internationally
We should keep supporting our members working abroad. Two years ago, in-person conferences and meetings began to happen again, and the CAS has ambassadors like Ron Kozlowski, FCAS, who help build connections between CAS leadership and members, employers, candidates, and universities in their region. This gives us valuable perspective in understanding how the CAS can continue to be the only global actuarial organization focused on P&C work. We should also continue our work with international actuarial organizations, building on several years of bilateral leadership meetings across our target markets, including most recently at the International Actuarial Association Council and Committee Meetings in Seoul.
Expressing thanks to the CAS volunteer and staff
The strength of the CAS is our community, which is built on volunteers, staff, members, candidates, students, and Affiliates. I have loved seeing this community at our large meetings, our Regional Affiliate meetings, and at our Student Central Summer Program. There are a lot of people working to help make the CAS what it is and for that we should be grateful. If you are considering volunteering, please take the VIP survey.
Finally, I hope the rest of the summer is a great time for all of you and wish you a successful second half of 2024.