Official 2010 merger plans (for Institute and Faculty of Actuaries)

Posted on March 2, 2010 by actuary21c

Initial details (there will probably be some changes following further comments on the draft Charter and other documents) of these have were unveiled at the weekend via an eAlert to Institute and Faculty members and are on the merger microsite (www.actuarialmerger.com):
From this page (NB member login required for the links within the text, apart from the email links):

Separate Special General Meetings of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland and the Institute of Actuaries will be held at 1700 on Tuesday 25 May 2010 to vote on separate Resolutions to form the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

The key elements of the merger package include:

* a proposal to call a merged body ‘the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’
* revised governance documents reflecting the input from the member consultation
* a proposal for both existing and new members to use the existing letters FIA, FFA, AIA and AFA
* a proposal to continue using ‘the Actuarial Profession’ for all external branding.

A joint proposal by the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland and the Institute of Actuaries to form the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries can be found here. The proposal includes details of the merger package, including the legal structure and governance; the proposed first Council; and information on subscriptions and fees.

The latest draft of the governance documents, revised in light of helpful input from members during last October’s consultation, is here. To ensure we capture as wide a view as possible, if you do have any further comments please send them to govcon@actuaries.org.uk. The deadline for receipt of any comments is 1700GMT on Friday 26 March 2010. This will enable the Profession to produce a final version of the governance documents for inclusion in the voting materials which will be dispatched to eligible members in mid-April.

As part of our commitment to ensuring all members have access to any relevant merger-related communications, and that any merger-related communications are delivered in an appropriate, balanced and timely manner, we invite groups of 10 or more members to create an identified group to present their views of the merger to the membership. You can find more information about this here.

We will use the Profession’s existing communication vehicles (eg The Actuary, website and e-newsletters) to manage the volume of merger-related information so you can choose when and how to access this information. In March the business case for a merger, produced by the Joint Councils, and information about any identified groups will be published. In April, if you are eligible to vote, you will be sent voting materials by Electoral Reform Services.

If you would like to contribute to the online discussion on the merger, please visit the merger discussion forum. You can request a reminder of your password or a copy of the activation email via the discussion forum or by sending an email to merger@actuaries.org.uk. You can pose questions on the discussion forum or by email to merger@actuaries.org.uk. You can find more details about the merger on the Profession’s website or the merger microsite.

My initial views (bear in mind that I still have to study the latest revised draft Charter) are:

  • The new name (“Institute and Faculty”) is a big improvement over the “Chartered Actuarial Profession” in the 2009 proposal
  • The draft governing documentation seems to broadly preserve members’ rights, although there are a few areas where more work still needs to be done to achieve Councils’ stated aim of maintaining the balance between members and Councils as far as possible
  • It is good that the Institute is not being wound-up in the 2010 proposals (it was in the 2009 ones). I am not yet convinced that it is necessary to wind up the Faculty which could be kept in a significantly reduced form as a Regional Society, in case of a future need by an independent (or more fully devolved) Scotland.
  • David Wilkie has an interesting alternative proposal that I and others will probably be supporting as part of Councils’ process for groups of 10 or more members to suggest alternatives (more about this soon)
  • Overall, I am pleased that the process involves much more consultation than it did last year, and very much welcome this from Councils.

NB I will be posting about merger issues both here, on this blog (where anyone can add comments), and also on the Actuarial Outpost (AO) (within the UK/Europe subforum, see e.g. http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=187156), where only registered members of the AO can add comments.   (I will also follow discussions on the official merger forum at www.actuarialforums.com but the latter have seen less activity – so far).    If anyone wants to comment but is reluctant to do so publicly, then you can email me (see the About page on this blog).

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Significant risk areas requiring mitigation in the current merger proposals

Posted on February 19, 2010 by actuary21c

Here is a flowchart of what might be the possible course ahead for the current merger proposals from Councils.

See this post on the Actuarial Outpost for more details.

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Revised draft charter proposed for 2010 Institute/Faculty merger vote

Posted on February 11, 2010 by actuary21c

Following the announcement by email to members by the two Presidents at the end of  January that a revised merger package is to be unveiled to members at the end of February for them to vote on (with the name of the merged body corrected – fortunately – from the risible Chartered Actuarial Profession to “the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries”), members may be unaware (because no announcement has been made to them) that information on the revised new charter proposed for that package is now available from the official merger microsite.

The important point here is whether members’ rights are still (as they undoubtedly were under the previous failed July 2009 proposed charter, see here and related posts) being significantly reduced.

See http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=186060 where comments will be added.

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Twitter and the Actuarial Outpost: why actuaries should be interested in these and some tips

Posted on January 9, 2010 by actuary21c

I have been on Twitter (@actuary21c)  for just over a year now and find it very useful.

Why? Please see the excellent article by Eddie Smith (@Eddie_Smith) on page 11 of  the Society of Actuaries October issue of CompAct magazine: http://soa.org/library/newsletters/compact/2009/october/com-2009-iss33.pdf

I am also finding the Actuarial Outpost (AO) increasingly useful – as stated in this previous post it really is the 500 pound gorilla in the world of actuarial discussion forums.

To register on the AO, please be aware that there are some rules that you need to follow to prevent spammers, as per the following from the AO administrator Tom Troceen (userid Tom on the AO):

If you add “THANKS TOM” to the end of any ID, it will always be approved.  If you use a work or ISP email address, you will be approved.  If you use an anonymous/free email address like aol.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com, freemail.com, it will be rejected.  We do this because spammers use these types of email addresses to spam forums, and this helps us prevent vandalism in the types of discussions you would like to join.

If you add “THANKS TOM” to the end of any ID, it will always be approved. If you use a work or ISP email address, you will be approved. If you use an anonymous/free email address like aol.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com, freemail.com, it will be rejected. We do this because spammers use these types of email addresses to spam forums, and this helps us prevent vandalism in the types of discussions you would like to join.

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Institute/Faculty Consultation process so far gives impression of going through the motions

Posted on November 19, 2009 by actuary21c

I said in yesterday’s blog post that I was waiting to hear how the consultation meeting (on Charter documentation) at the Institute of Actuaries in London went yesterday.  I have kept quiet for several weeks about this in the hope that the leadership would respond to points previously made, but the consultation period ends tomorrow, so if I am to comment at all, now is the time.

Although I hear that yesterday’s meeting was well conducted, what I heard about it (including that it wasn’t very well attended [only about 20 members], that those joint Council members present didn’t offer a lot of detail as to what problem the proposed new Charter was meant to solve) has I’m afraid confirmed my impression that, so far, the process has not been handled very well.  Why do I say this? Continue reading →

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Merger consultation: waiting to hear how today’s Institute consultation meeting goes

Posted on November 18, 2009 by actuary21c

The Faculty and Institute of Actuaries launched a further consultation period about a month ago on the new charter documentation which had been proposed for the failed July merger.

I feel that so far, not enough account has been taken by the leadership of the detailed criticism made by David Wilkie (see here and related earlier posts) and others during the run up to the July merger vote, but will wait to hear how a consultation meeting at the Institute later today goes before making any further comments (NB the consultation period ends on Friday, 20 November).

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Scientology is criminal organisation says Australian politician

Posted on November 18, 2009 by actuary21c

In another blow to the organisation that brought the alien Xenu see this article from The Australian in which funnily enough a senator named Nick Xenophon (not Xenuphon however) makes further strong criticisms of the cult founded by L Ron Hubbard, 1950s science fiction writer.

From the article:

Independent senator Nick Xenophon tabled explosive letters from former Scientology officials and staff alleging a litany of abuses, including coerced abortions, assault, imprisonment, covering up sexual abuse, embezzlement of church funds and blackmail.

Senator Xenophon, who said he had referred the allegations to police, demanded a Senate inquiry into the church. And he questioned the tax-exempt status given to the church, which he said “turns supporters into victims in its pursuit of power and wealth”.

“In my view, this is a two-faced organisation,” he told the Senate.

“There is the public face of an organisation . . . that claims to offer guidance and support to its followers and there is the private face of an organisation that abuses its followers and viciously targets its critics, and seems largely driven by paranoia.

“Scientology is not a religious organisation; it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious belief.”

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The power of the internet: preventing politicians from ignoring inconvenient evidence

Posted on November 1, 2009 by actuary21c

The recent revelation that Gordon Brown’s government are trying to prevent an independent committee of scientists from accurately reporting evidence about the relative dangers of different types of drugs is only one of several examples of misrepresentation of scientific evidence by the UK government.

At the end of 2008, the then Home Secretary (Jacqui Smith) had to apologise after selectively releasing statistics which appeared to show a reduction in knife crime.   Sir Michael Scholar, the Head of the UK Statistics Authority said:

They picked out the elements from the statistics that went along with their announcement and they didn’t publish the rest.

A more longstanding problem is that the UK government has claimed for several years that educational standards have been rising consistently, as shown by the continued rise in pass rates at both GCSE (age 16) and A level (age 18). See for example the following A level results chart below (extracted from this article): Continue reading →

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The power of the internet: exposing religious lunacies

Posted on November 1, 2009 by actuary21c

“The internet has done for Scientology. Could it rumble the Christians, too?”

The above article from the Guardian points out that, thanks to the internet, including an embarrassing indoctrination video by Tom Cruise about Scientology available (despite the organisation’s repeated attempts to suppress it) on You Tube/Gawker, Scientology is on the retreat, the organisation and four of its officials having been found guilty of fraud (to be more precise, defrauding its members) in France.  The article points out that it is time that we exposed the more established religions to similar levels of scrutiny – I could not agree more.

Two choice quotes from the article, the second referring to scientologists’ apparent belief that our destinies are at severe risk from an alien called Xenu:

In France, Scientology was found guilty of defrauding its followers after a judge effectively debunked the idea of the church’s trusty e-meter, a crude polygraph whose readings are used to encourage Scientologists to purchase everything from books to extreme sauna courses.

Naturally, one’s initial assumption is that the everlasting battery which provides the force field which holds the intergalactic tyrant Xenu captive in an unspecified mountain here on Earth is not as everlasting as billed, or was perhaps commandeered when the battery went in some vast cosmic remote control.

Two quotes from Tom Cruise’s video (or click here for the entire transcript):

Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it’s not like anyone else, it’s, you drive past, you know you have to do something about it. You know you are the only one who can really help. That’s what drives me.

We are the authorities on getting people off drugs. We are the authorities on the mind. We are the authorities on improving conditions. Criminon [sic]. We can rehabilitate criminals. We can bring peace and unite cultures. That once you know these tools and you know that they work, it’s not good enough that I’m just doing Ok.

But is this really any more delusional than, for example, the following:

- the Christian belief that Jesus was born of a virgin, rose from the dead after three days, then disappeared again, but will reappear when we least expect it  (NB similar beliefs,  appeared in religions predating Christianity, e.g. see here re other virgin births, and here for other examples of belief in resurrection)

- the Muslim belief that Mohammed was the last prophet and the Koran contains the ultimate truth (since it purports to be the last word of God): pity that the book makes no mention of trains, aeroplanes, computers, keyhole surgery and other modern devices that were brought to us by scientific research.  It is a wonder that adherents of this religion can bring themselves to use such  modern equipment at all.

- the Hindu belief that cows are sacred, the Jewish and Muslim belief that it is wrong to eat pork?

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President Blair? Non. Gordon Brown’s government interfering politically in science? Oui

Posted on October 31, 2009 by actuary21c

This week we have had the farce of Tony Blair first of all being spun as the favourite for the post of European President (without the man in question having even made clear that he wanted to stand), then the possibility of this prize being denied him first of all by the inexperienced David Milliband.  Now at last it appears that the leaders of France and Germany have quietly but firmly let it be known that their answer is Non, Nein.  actuary21c is pleased to see that on this occasion at least, there are going to be no EU rewards for failure:  Tony Blair presided over an illusory economic boom based largely on artificially low credit, and took us into a catastrophic war in Iraq based on information that he ought to have known at the time was very suspect (and indeed turned out to be false).

Now we have the news that the UK government has sacked its chief scientific advisor on drugs, on the grounds that they claim that by saying earlier this week that “smoking cannabis created only a ‘relatively small risk’ of psychotic illness and it was actually less harmful than nicotine or alcohol”, he stepped over the line and made a political statement.  On the contrary, according to this BBC article, Gordon Brown seems to have been ignoring scientific advice and making statements that are not supported by the scientific evidence: (the quotes are from Prof. David Nutt, the adviser just sacked)

“Gordon Brown comes into office and soon after that he starts saying absurd things like cannabis is lethal… it has to be a Class B drug. He has made his mind up.

“We went back, we looked at the evidence, we said, ‘No, no, there is no extra evidence of harm, it’s still a Class C drug.’

“He said, ‘Tough, it’s going to be Class B.’”

Prof Nutt said drug laws should not be influenced “petty party politics” and compared them to interest rates, which are set by the Bank of England not the government.

In the same way, he said, an independent committee should be set up to rule on drug classifications.

“There’s no point in having drug laws that are meaningless and arbitrary just because politicians find it useful and expedient occasionally to come down hard on drugs.

“That’s undermining the whole purpose of the drugs laws.”

Alcohol yes, but having no direct experience of using cannabis or nicotine, actuary21c is not qualified to comment as to whether cannabis is indeed less harmful than nicotine or alcohol, but is far more prepared to believe a scientific committee rather than any politician.

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