Volunteer vacancies

The Chair of the GI Board (formerly known as GI PEC) is seeking to appoint a Deputy Chair who will, in two years’ time, succeed him as Chair of this important committee.

• View the Task and Person Specification 
• View Terms of Reference 

Time Commitment and Tenure: To be able to devote time equivalent to between 1 – 1.5 working days per month (less over the summer). The appointment will, it is hoped, commence from the start of the new Sessional year and will be for a period of two years, thereafter, with the approval of the Management Board, you would take over the role of Chair.

How to volunteer: If, having read the attached documents you feel you have the skills and experience, and time, to devote to this important and senior role, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement. When contacting Debbie, please provide a brief note of your profile within this practice area, your existing experience of chairing a committee and/or subcommittee within the IFoA, and a note of your ARN,

The General Insurance Education and Continuing Professional Development (ECPD) Subcommittee is looking to appoint at least one additional member to join the committee. All applicants are encouraged both from a company and consultancy background.

This Committee plays an important role in ensuring the education of GI actuaries is kept as up to date and relevant as possible. This comprises:

• encouraging the production and promotion of educational material to both practitioners and students
• ensuring there is a healthy range of CPD events provided by the IFoA
• shaping the content provided within these events - ensuring there is a good mix of professionalism, current issues, and hot topics.
• the work involved also includes listening to members’ feedback and identifying topics and potential speakers and in creating and developing an excellent and varied programme.

Read Terms of Reference

If you are a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and have an enthusiasm for assisting the profession we would like to hear from you.

Skills and Experience: We are ideally looking for volunteers with:

• GI experience
• an awareness of current issues in GI 
• an ability to come up with ideas and to identify hot topics 
• a willingness to help organise an event programme 
• a desire to help review and shape the education material of GI students.

Time Commitment: 3 hour meetings every 6-8 weeks from September through to July. Plus some occasional time for reviewing material, follow up emails/calls etc. The meetings are held at Staple Inn Hall, in London - attendance via telephone conference call is possible.

How to volunteer: If you would like to volunteer to be considered for this committee, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement. When contacting Debbie, please provide a note of your relevant experience and your reason for wishing to be involved.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful.

The General Insurance Research Organising Committee (GIRO)  is planning to launch a new member-led working party. This will be the  "Directors and Officers Insurance" working party.

The aims of this working party will be to:  

1. Understand  the pricing and reserving risks around this class of business.
2. Collate any claims data we do have – forming a database of losses in this LOB where there is very limited claims information
3. Explore ideas for proxies and indicators of D&O risk.

Co-Chairs:  Karen Dayal, Catlin and Samantha Tanner from Channel syndicate

Time Commitment:   Volunteers will typically be expected to attend between 8 – 12 meetings per annum and to perform research between meetings.  Meetings are held in London, often Staple Inn, and usually last for 2 hours.  Please note that there is flexibility regarding your attendance at meetings and members can attend by conference call as necessary. 

The goal is to assist in a workshop presentation at the 2014 GIRO conference and possibly produce a paper summarising our findings at the end of the project.   

How to get involved:   If you would like to offer your support and volunteer to be considered for this working party, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie please provide brief details of your relevant experience and an indication of your reasons for wishing to be involved.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful.  

Many of the societies, companies and associations linked with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries provide support, to many incredible charities.  This section of our volunteer vacancies web-resource highlights these opportunities, in one place, to enable members to see how they can get involved and to provide a contact point for more information. 

The current opportunities include:

Providing financial education in London – Through the Livery Schools Link, London-based Worshipful Company of Actuaries has teamed up with BEE (Teaching Business Enterprise and Employability in Schools) to provide financial education to young people in the London area, especially in Tower Hamlets.  If you are a member of the IFoA and live and/or work in, or near London, please consider volunteering to share your enthusiasm and your knowledge of finance with young people in London’s schools. View an “Introduction to the BEE Programme”.  To find out more and to be invited to attend an introductory talk which will illustrate what is involved, the materials that will support you, and the time commitment involved, please contact Marjorie Ngwenya to register your interest.  

Volunteer authors needed for articles on the web and The Actuary - Members of the Actuaries City Livery Company undertake a range of activities, often aimed at supporting its chosen charities.   The company would welcome the support of a volunteer writer for articles on the web and The Actuary.  The volunteer does not need to be a Liveryman.   To offer support or to find out more, please contact Brian Ridsdale.

Supporting actuarial education in Ghana – The London based Worshipful Company of Actuaries together with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries are seeking to hear from members, and their organisations, who would like to support this charitable initiative.  This initiative has been established to further actuarial science by helping a particular university in Ghana to initiate and advance a masters course with the ultimate goal of having this training accepted and recognised as one of the IFoA’s accredited universities for actuarial exams.  To enable this vision to be achieved, over the next 3 – 4 years, the profession is seeking support from members and their organisations and for them to volunteer to deploy their resources in the form of skills, knowledge, time and commitment to make this vision become a reality.  To find out a bit more please download a letter which Adrian Waddingham CBE, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries, sent out earlier this year.  Or to express an interest and find out more please contact Neil Hilary. 

If you are a society, company or association linked with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and you would like to post details of a charitable opportunity on this section of our website, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement. 

The ERM Research & Thought Leadership Committee is currently overseeing the formation of the following 5 new member-led research working parties:-

1.  "Design of the risk function" Working Party:

This research working party will be looking to answer the following questions:-

• How do we define a risk function?
• How large does it need to be to be effective and what skills composition should it have? 
• Who should it be accountable to?
• How should its success be measured and how should its performance be rewarded? 
• What synergies are there between different industries?

The scope of this project will probably benefit from having two work-streams; an academic work-stream and a practitioner work-stream which will run side by side but touch base every month: the academics teaching the practitioners about the theoretical framework they are developing – the practitioners providing case studies / practical example to the academics so they can test that their frameworks hold true in real life.

Who would be best placed to undertake the research:  Mix of practitioners and academics operating in the ‘Risk’ space.

2.  "Resilience" Working Party:

This research working party will seek to identify areas where risk function could/should advocate structures or methods which promote organisational resilience.  Evaluating the cost-benefit of investment in resilience requires a slightly different calculation, which involves considering the possibility that changes in the operating environment cause the organisation to unintentionally find itself in a new paradigm which is suboptimal. 

Who would be best placed to undertake this research:  The topic will generate differences of view so a diverse group including academics and practitioners. 

3.  "Emerging risks" Working Party:

 This research working party will be looking to:

• Define emerging risks, best role for group and identify information sources
• Work towards a methodology of how to assess the significance and likelihood of emerging risks
• Identify the most likely candidates of risks and who they apply to, and
• Consider how the profession should deal with emerging risks.

Who would be best placed to undertake this research:  Actuaries and other professionals, i.e. engineers, medical, computer, economists.

4.  "Risk culture" Working Party:

 This research working party will be looking to help practitioners and policy-makers understand what is meant by risk culture which has traditionally been a vague concept for risk managers to assess and manage. 

Who would be best placed to undertake the research:  Actuaries with an interest in applying Anthropology to the topic of Risk Culture to ensure that the research is grounded in a sound theoretical base and appropriately contextualised for the insurance sector.

5.  "Model risk" Working Party:

 This research working party will look to include two distinct but related work-streams covering:

• Model risk identification:  The main model risk to insurance businesses and the insurance system need to be identified.  Concrete examples will be given of the way in which model error can lead to wrong decisions in capital allocation, pricing, and other business decisions.
• Decision making in the presence of model risk:  A framework for decision making when designing and when using models will be developed, in the presence of model uncertainty.  There will be focus on dealing with contradictory expert opinion and on using information external to the model for validation and sensitivity analyses.

A Chair is required for the first stream,  (Model Risk Identification). The Chair will be an actuary with extensive experience in risk management, ideally across sectors. The Chair’s expertise should be in the ways that models are used in decision making by a variety of stakeholders, rather than statistical risk modelling itself (though additional expertise in that area would of course be welcome).

Who would be best placed to undertake this research:  Insurance practitioners, actuaries, modellers, academics in the areas of insurance and financial risk management, systems theory, and anthropology.   It is envisaged that a research working party will be formed and divided in to two streams as above.  Volunteers are needed for both streams of the project, so applicants should specify which one they are most interested in.

Time Commitment for each of the 5 Working Parties:  Attendance at 8 – 12 meetings per annum and follow up on actions between meetings.  Meetings are held in London and usually last for 2 hours.  Attendance by conference call is possible.

How to get involved:  If you feel you have the relevant skills and experience and would like to offer your support and volunteer to be considered for one or more of these working parties, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie, please indicate which working party you would like to volunteer to join and please also give brief details of your relevant experience and your reason for wishing to become involved.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful.    

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We are seeking the support of Fellows with ERM experience to attend at least one of the IFoA’s CERA Seminars, each year, in a Principal Lecturer role.  This will involve contributing to the discussions throughout the day.

The members of this group will be provided with support, in their role, and we will reimburse out of pocket expenses.  As this is a PDR* role, we will also pay a small fee.  

The Task:  You would be asked to attend at least one of 4 annual CERA Seminars.  These seminars are currently based in London and attendance is required for the full day 08:45 – 17:00.  You will be required to contribute to the discussions and debates held throughout the seminar, including adding insight from your own practical experiences in those areas, and to participate in a Q&A session.  (Details of the exercises and discussion areas will be provided in advance of the day). 

You may also be required to provide feedback to the facilitator on the contributions of an individual delegate, if their suitability to gain the CERA qualification is in question.

Additional Support:  Occasional contribution to the ongoing development of exercises may also be sought, from time to time, but this is not a requirement and would only be sought if this is of interest to the individual supporter.  

How to offer support:  If you would like to offer your support and find out more, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie please provide brief details of your relevant skills and experience.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful.  All expressions of interest will be considered by Registry and the Education Team.

 * This opportunity is one of our Professional Responsibility and Development [PDR] roles:  In addition to the traditional volunteer roles and tasks which our members undertake each year, there are also a number of other opportunities whereby members can offer to provide "paid" support for a fixed service. These opportunities are not by definition, "volunteering" roles. However, we recognise that the fee paid is nominal and we, as a profession, are therefore extremely grateful to, and reliant upon, those members who provide this service to enhance and develop our profession. We think of this as being part of "Professional Development and Responsibility" [PDR].

A Professional Development and Responsibility (PDR) role. 

Are you a Fellow with at least 6 years experience who is an excellent communicator, with first class presentation skills?  If yes, please consider taking this opportunity to help the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). 

The role:  We are looking for Principal Lecturers to deliver the “Specialism Presentation” at the Professional Skills Courses (PSC).  The Institute and Faculty’s Registrar, together with the Professional Awareness Committee (PAC), is expanding the speaker panel for courses to accommodate an increased demand for PSC events.   We are also enhancing and professionalising the training, feedback and support provided to those members who act as Principal Lecturers.

Skills and experience required:  As a Principal Lecturer, you would be asked to facilitate face to face and/or online courses, engaging with newly qualified Fellows and Associates, and students who have reached their sixth anniversary of membership. 

We are seeking to build up a group of Fellows who have comprehensive understanding of subject specific material in relation to business to deliver the “Specialism Presentations”.  As such you would need to have at least 6 years experience in one of the following practice areas:  

• General insurance  
• Investment  
• Life  
• Pensions 

Time commitment and tenure:  The time commitment would be up to 3 days per year, which would include training.  Those invited to join the panel will be able to attend an initial observation of either or both the online and face to face courses.  You will then be given the opportunity to confirm your preference for the type of course you would help at.  Once trained, it is hoped that a Principal Lecturer will stay on the Speaker Panel for 2, or preferably 3, years. 

Principal Lecturers would be asked to help deliver 1 or 2 courses per year, and the time allocation per course is generally 5 hours.  Face to face courses are held in London and Edinburgh, and we are considering expanding to Birmingham and/or Manchester. Online courses are, of course, delivered from your own location. 

Training and development:  Following each course facilitation you would receive confidential feedback.  This can be reviewed with the Staff Actuary for the course, allowing you to understand how your presentation skills are received and, where necessary, to fine tune and develop them. 

Panel members will also have the opportunity to attend an annual training session, where best practice will be shared with other panel members. 

View PSC Course objectives –  this will provide an overview of the course

View PSC programme timetable – this will show you where the “Specialism Presentation” fits in to the course

How to get involved:  If you have the skills and experience and would like to find out more, and potentially get involved, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie please provide a note of your relevant experience and your specialist area, plus your ARN. 

*  As this role falls within our “Professional Development and Responsibility” (PDR) criteria those selected to become part of the Speaker Panel would receive a nominal fee per lecture. Reasonable travelling expenses would also be reimbursed to those delivering a face to face presentation.

Our Education Directorate are seeking to hear from Associates and Fellows who already have experience of setting and marking the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' exams (or equivalent experience) and who would now like to be considered to join a “bank” of volunteers who can be called upon, from time to time, to act as Independent Examiners. 

The Role:  Independent Examiners are appointed by the profession to assist in monitoring the quality and standards of accredited university degree programmes and university degree programmes with exemption recognition agreements.  They report to our Deputy Registrar for quality assurance and will be invited to attend an annual review meeting for those appointed to accredited programmes. 

The Key Tasks: If appointed as an Independent Examiner, it will be for an academic year and you will be assigned to a specific university. 

During that year you will be asked to:  

• Review and comment on draft exam papers and course materials.  
• Meet with the university to which you have been assigned.  
• Attend the university’s Exam Board at the end of the exam period to agree lists of students recommended for exemptions.   
• Attend the Profession’s annual review meeting for accredited university programmes.   
• Attend the Profession’s Independent Examiners meeting.  (Members may dial in, if preferred).

Tenure:  Once appointed to a programme this will be for an academic year, with a maximum term of four years for any one programme. 

How to apply:  If you would like to be considered as an Independent Examiner, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie, please give a brief indication of your experience in setting and marking the profession’s exams, or equivalent.  We are keen to appoint members who have experience both in actuarial practice and academics involved in teaching actuarial science courses and it would be helpful if you could highlight your relevant experience.  Please also provide a note of your ARN.

* Professional Development and Responsibility (PDR) - please note, this is one of a number of opportunities whereby members can offer to provide "paid" support for a fixed service.   View details about our PDR.

The Life Research Committee is planning to launch two new member-led working parties looking at different topics on asset-liability management for life insurers.

1. "Non-traditional assets – insurers as providers of long-term finance" Working Party:

The low yields available on traditional assets, such as corporate bonds, and the high sector concentration, incentivise insurers to diversify into alternative sources of yield.

At the same time, the ongoing deleveraging in the traditional banking sector could create new opportunities for insurers to expand their investment into non-traditional forms of long-term finance such as social housing, infrastructure and commercial real estate.

The aim of this Working Party is to identify the opportunities available to insurers, and the risks and impediments to their adoption.

Areas for research could include:  

• Bank deleveraging - has it been as dramatic as originally forecast - and the potential opportunities created.
• The different types of investment opportunity available, their characteristics and suitability for insurers, including potential market changes needed to make them compatible with insurers needs.
• Risks to insurers of investing in such assets.
• Impact of different insurer liability profiles e.g. annuities vs. with profits.
• Role for non-fixed income alternative assets, such as private equity or hedge funds
• Regulatory impacts, including the potential impact of Solvency II and the Classic Matching Adjustment
• Precedents for asset allocation amongst unconstrained long-term investors e.g. US endowment funds and Sovereign Wealth Funds.

2.  "Dynamic hedging strategies" Working Party:

Life insurance companies have typically adopted a relatively passive approach to hedging interest rate risks, treating it as “unrewarded risk”.

In contrast, liability-driven investment mandates for pension funds often take a more active and dynamic approach to managing risk, e.g. using options and trigger levels to implement hedges.    And with profit funds often dynamically manage equity risk.

The aim of this Working Party is to contrast the different approaches, understand the reasons for the differences, and see what lessons can be learned for ALM best practice.

Areas for research could include:

• Whether interest rate risk is really an unrewarded risk.
• Merits and disadvantages of the different approaches.
• Approaches to managing inflation risk (e.g. caps and floors, CPI vs RPI).
• Impact of traditional Pillar 1 rules (e.g. cashflow mismatch reserves) versus an economic capital approach (Pillar 2, Solvency II).
• Role of the different regulatory approaches and solvency position of insurers vs, pension funds.
• International precedents – e.g. the approach adopted by Dutch and Danish pension funds, who are subject to risk-based regulation.
• Identifying opportunities for life insurers to enhance their ALM approaches.

Outputs:

Working parties should aim to produce a written record of their findings, as well as seeking opportunities to present their research.  The potential outputs could include:

• Actuary article to draw attention to the research
• Present at Life Conference in 2014
• Preparing and presenting a Sessional Event or British Actuarial Journal paper
• Presentations at regional societies and other Professional conferences (e.g. Risk & Investment conference)

Time Commitment:  

For each of these working parties, volunteers will typically be expected to attend between 8 – 12 meetings per annum and to perform research between meetings.  Meetings are held in London, often Staple Inn, and usually last for 2 hours.  Please note that there is flexibility regarding your attendance at meetings and members can attend by conference call as necessary.

Getting involved: 

If you would like to offer your support and consider volunteering for either or both of these working parties, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.

When contacting Debbie, please indicate which of these working parties you are interested in being part of and please give brief details of your relevant experience and your reason for wishing to become involved.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful. 

An initial scoping meeting for each working party will be held in early September 2013 at Staple Inn Hall, London, and attendance can either be in person or by conference call. 

At these initial meetings, which will be chaired by a member of the Life Research Committee, interested members will discuss the feasibility and interest in moving forward with research on the topic and appoint a Chair for future meetings.

The Pensions Practice Executive Committee and sub-committees are currently overseeing the formation of  5 new member-led research working parties:-

1.   "Bond Yields – Why are they so low and will they increase?" Working Party 

Research to determine what information can be inferred from interest rates at the present time and the market conditions that necessitate changes in interest rates. It will assess whether it is reasonable to assume that interest rates could revert to previous levels and the conditions that might be required for this to happen. Other areas to discuss could include changes in the market for corporate bonds; investment patterns of pension schemes and other regulated financial entities that could affect the market pricing.

2.  "General" Working Party 

The environment in which members give advice to clients, or their employers, on how occupational pension provision can be made is becoming increasingly complex.  It would be useful for members to have access to clear information in the following areas:

• mortality and future projections in life expectancy;
• the regulatory framework for financing pension schemes in the UK;
• hedging and other re-risking products; and
• mechanisms for mitigating or sharing risk.

In addition, there are some more speculative projects we are interested in that include:

• investigating aspects of the proposals to revise the IORP directive, including the holistic balance sheet; and 
• the right split between private and state pension provision.

A range of projects could be developed for each of these areas, and the output could vary depending on whether a narrow or a more detailed focus was taken or an approach to provide a wider overview of the relevant issues. It is expected that there is value in either method and the IFoA would be happy to support any volunteers wanting to investigate these topics, or aspects of these.

3.   "Defined Ambition" Working Party

Research to look at defining what “defined ambition” is, or could be, including the risk profile such a scheme might pose for members and sponsoring employers. It should also consider whether it is really a new concept and whether there are any regulatory obstacles to achieving a “defined ambition” design currently.

4.   "Inflation" Working Party

This would involve research to study the information that is available to trustees and their scheme actuaries in order to help them consider what would be an appropriate approach to setting CPI assumptions.

5.   "State Pension Age" Working Party

This working party would address the purpose of the state pension age and the information that needs to be taken into account when determining at what age this should be set.  It would consider whether there is an optimum division between time spent at work and in retirement, for example to facilitate supportable levels of saving and risk. The paper should also look at the wider economic effects that need to be taken into account in determining state pension age.

Time Commitment:   For each of these working parties, volunteers will be asked to attend between 8 – 12 meetings per annum and follow up on actions between meetings.  Meetings are normally held in London, at Staple Inn Hall, however there is no requirement for this to be the case and if it would be sensible for the meetings to be held in another location, this can be discussed and agreed.  Meetings usually last for 2 hours.  Please note that there is flexibility regarding your attendance at meetings and members can attend by conference call as necessary.  

How to get involved:  If you would like to offer your support and consider volunteering for one or more of these working parties, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie, please indicate which of these working parties you are interested in being part of and please provide brief details of your relevant experience and your reason for wishing to become involved.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful.

All members who offer their support will be invited to attend an initial scoping workshop / meeting to be held in mid September at Staple Inn Hall, London, and attendance can either be in person or by conference call. At this initial meeting, which will be chaired by the sponsor for the research topic and a member of the Pensions Practice Executive Committee / sub-committee, interested members will discuss the intended scope of the project, confirm that they still wish to be involved, and discuss whether a Chair is needed, in addition to members, in order to drive each of the working parties forward.  Some of the outputs of these working parties are likely to be a workshop at the Pensions’ conference; articles in the British Actuarial Journal, the Pensions’ newsletter; and/or a paper presented at a sessional event. 

The Pensions Education and Continuing Professional Development (ECPD) Subcommittee is looking to appoint one additional member to join the committee. To complement the existing skills of this committee, we are seeking to find a member who is an investment specialist.

This Committee plays an important role in shaping the content provided in the profession’s CPD events.  They seek to ensure there is a good mix of professionalism, current issues, and hot topics.  The work involved includes listening to members’ feedback and identifying topics and potential speakers and in creating and developing an excellent and varied programme. 

Read Terms of Reference 

If you are a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and have an enthusiasm for planning CPD events, we would like to hear from you.

Skills and Experience:  We are ideally looking for volunteers with: 

• Investment experience, especially in dealing with providing investment advice to clients  
• an awareness of current issues in pensions  
• an ability to come up with ideas and to identify hot topics 
• a willingness to pro-actively help organise an event programme (this includes making contact with the potential speakers and the Chair of an event, including securing their support) 
• a desire to develop CPD online would also be an advantage but is not essential; and  
• experience of organising CPD events is also desirable but not essential

Time Commitment:  2 hour meetings every 4-6 weeks from September through to July.  Plus approximately another hour per month for follow up emails/calls etc.  This would equate to approximately 2 - 3 hours per month in total.  The meetings are held at Staple Inn Hall, in London - attendance via telephone conference call is possible.

How to volunteer:  If you would like to volunteer to be considered for this committee, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie, please give brief details of your relevant experience.  A note of your ARN would also be helpful. 

As part of their remit to engage with members living and working in Scotland, the Scottish Board has launched a new initiative.  This new initiative is called “Knowledge Sharing Scotland” and delivers technical and professional CPD training, to small (20 – 40) groups of actuaries in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, throughout the year.

The purpose is to better engage with employers of actuaries; to bring these sessions to their offices, provide networking, offer CPD, and to deliver additional events and valuable knowledge to members living and working in Scotland.

To view the current programme please visit the "Regional actuarial activity" webpage.  

The Scottish Board are seeking to hear from members who would be prepared to volunteer to support this resource either as: 

• A speaker at a future event, and or 
• To host a lunchtime event in their office

If you would like to offer your support, or find out more, please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  When contacting Debbie please indicate the type of support you would be willing to provide with as much detail as possible.  A note of your ARN, if applicable, would also be helpful.

If you would like to volunteer to deliver a talk at a Regional event in the UK,  please contact Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement.  

When contacting Debbie, please provide brief details of the topic and content of your proposed talk and a note of the geographical location/s which might be of interest to you.  Full details of our current Regional Actuarial Activities can be viewed on our website under the Member tab.

In addtion, details of how to recommend a speaker, or to volunteer to be considered as a speaker, at one of the future IFoA events or residential conferences can be found here.

As part of our digital strategy, during the remainder of 2013 and first half of 2014, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries will be engaged in two high level projects:  

• the redevelopment of the Profession’s website with a user-centred focus; and 
• the creation of a virtual learning environment (VLE).

To help us with this, we are setting up a Digital Volunteer Group -  a group of people of all membership categories to be our experts in bringing forward ideas, commenting and guiding us through these projects so that the outcomes will truly reflect our members needs. 

There are no formal criteria for members who would like to be a part of this group – all that we ask is that you have an interest in websites, and a familiarity with the profession’s own site, and/or an interest in or previous experience of online learning.  We would also expect members to have an understanding of the ‘member journey’ concept.  No special technical knowledge is required.

There are likely to be a variety of opportunities over the next few months in which members can get involved – tasks will include exploratory meetings with our digital agency; testing of new proposals/information architecture; and feedback on design issues. 

Membership of the "Digital Volunteer Group" is a great opportunity to get involved with two very important projects which will have long term benefits for the actuarial profession, so if this sort of thing interests you and you would like to join the Group, please contact Emma Pegg in order to register your interest and to find out more.