The experience of a volunteer working in New Zealand
“I am a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries based in New Zealand and in late 2012, I volunteered, through the IFoA’s “volunteer vacancies” webpage, to join the IFoA’s “IAA Valuation of International Social Security Programs”, Working Party. As a former Government Actuary for New Zealand this is a subject of great interest to me. The working party consisted of members from Europe, Asia, and Australasia and we spoke, via conference call, at 08:00 hrs GMT which was the best time for everyone – or the least anti-social time, when everyone was awake! One thing is that when you’re a long distance away from the vast majority of members, like living on an island in the South Pacific, taking part in a working party does give you contact with people who are interested in the same things as you are - without having to travel to conferences. It also lets you get some different perspectives to inform your own views. I guess my main motivation was that, as I am working in this social security program area, participation represented an opportunity for me to pass on my skills and experience and for others to make use of them to promote the IFoA’s say in international consultations. I do believe professional standards are really important and helping people to look at them pragmatically, while appreciating their purpose, is something all of us should try and do. Oh, and when the conference calls are in the northern hemisphere winter, it’s always fun to discuss how nice the weather is down under....”