eAlert, 23 April 2010

23 April 2010

Dear Institute member,

A number of members have contacted me regarding the mass email from Mr Jon Spain to Institute members about the merger, expressing their concern that this is significantly increasing their email traffic. Voting Faculty members, it seems, have not been included in the recipient list. At the risk of clogging your in-box one further time, I wanted to make the Institutes position clear.

As you may be aware, a number of members were increasingly critical of the amount of email traffic caused by merger discussions last year and, in an effort to be respectful of these comments, Joint Councils have provided opportunities for member-led groups to actively engage in the merger debate. This includes providing a discussion forum, maintaining a merger microsite and holding informal meetings. We have pointed members to the views of member-led groups in every piece of all member communications about the merger; and have linked materials from member-led groups to the merger microsite. We have specifically met with Fidelis on two separate occasions and responded to questions from Fidelis at informal meetings.

Joint Councils had hoped that this spirit of co-operation would result in a reduced disruption to members and a shared spirit of balance in argument. It is disappointing therefore that Mr Spain has chosen to ignore this spirit.

I will email Mr Spain about this interruption individually. However, there is unfortunately little the Institute can do beyond persuasion to dissuade Mr Spain and I can only suggest that those who have been irritated by this behaviour respond directly to Mr Spain.

I should add that a response to Mr Spain's comments will be posted on the Merger microsite shortly. If you still have questions or comments after reading this, please feel free to contact me directly on InstitutePresident@actuaries.org.uk.

Nigel MastersPresident, Institute of Actuaries