Summer 2019 has been very special for the CAS. We have a lot to celebrate!
It began with Association Media & Publishing’s EXCEL Awards Gala. The CAS took home three prizes — golds for two of our social media campaigns and a bronze for an AR story. (See the story on page 21 for details.)
My colleagues and I attended that night to represent not only the different projects, but the many people who were involved with making them successful.
Take the award-winning story, “Driverless Utopia.” Annmarie Geddes Baribeau had the solitary task of writing the piece, but she was not entirely alone. She had to find sources, ask sources for other sources, conduct interviews, work with company PR departments and fact check. She checked in with me before, during and after she crafted the gathered information into a story that appealed to AR’s readers and also to the larger public audience.
Then AR copy editors pored over the words, checking the facts, clarifying text and hunting down typos and asking the author questions they had. They repeated the process in the magazine layout, this time checking for anything that needed further refinement or correction. All of the elements came together for this award-winning story! So many people contributed to the success of all these projects. And for that, we thank you!
While I’m giving thanks, I want to thank Jerry Degerness, FCAS, who reached out to me about getting more CAS members involved in writing obituaries for AR’s In Remembrance column. Stu Sadwin, FCAS, was contacted, and he wrote a lovely piece for Ted Stone in this issue. Gregory Kushnir, FCAS, also contributed to the obituary for Nathan Voorhis. Degerness, Sadwin and Kushnir’s involvement exemplify the deep friendships that develop among people who work together.
Thanks also to our very own, Rebecca Armon, FCAS, who wrote about growing hemp and the implications for crop insurance. She is an AR copy editor, and this is her first story for AR. I hope to read more from her in the future.
Finally, thanks to the awarding-winning author and our cover story writer, Annmarie Geddes Baribeau. She knows insurance, and she also knows actuaries and what they’d like to read.
