25 January 2019
Our volunteers - nearly 4000 individuals - give in so many ways.
We all share in the benefits of the time given by IFoA volunteers who use their skills and experience to support, run, regulate and enhance our membership body, and use their intellectual expertise to advance our research and thought leadership.
Volunteering for the IFoA means different things to different individuals. Some volunteer quietly while others have a more public facing role: both are impactful.
Our volunteers give their time, effort and expertise in a wide range of roles from speakers at our conferences to IFoA Council members and Board Chairs. We would like to take this opportunity to recognise and celebrate some of the IFoA’s achievements made possible working in partnership with our volunteers.
“The IFoA is where it is today because of the time given by members, both past and present.”
Jules Constantinou, IFoA President
How our volunteers made an impact in 2018
Our volunteers give their time in a huge range of roles to make the IFoA a sought after, leading, professional body. Here are just a few of them from the last year:
These are just a few of the volunteer roles carried out over the last year. The IFoA’s Directory of Opportunities provides an overview of our governance structure and highlights the many ways volunteers are involved.
Progress: Innovation
In the last year, volunteers on the IFoA’s Data Science Conference Programme Committee have been at the forefront of innovation – delivering an event on a new topic, in a virtual format, and achieving this by working in new ways as a committee.
The committee working in partnership with IFoA Executive staff took advantage of our remote working tools to pilot a globally inclusive, accessible, way of working together – the committee (made up of members based in New Zealand, South Africa, India and from the UK, and sharing a diverse range of experience) participated in meetings held entirely by conference call.
In November the committee saw the effective delivery of their first event – following on from this success together they have researched, reviewed and selected content for Data Science: Opportunities for Actuaries. This virtual conference will be delivered entirely online through live webinars, on demand videos and access to resources from our volunteers over 3 days from 26 - 28 February, making this accessible for all members around the globe.
Registration for IFoA members will be free of charge.
Find out more about Data Science: Opportunities for Actuaries
Thought leadership: advancing actuarial science
Research outputs from our member-led working parties and other volunteer groups has enabled the IFoA to deliver our extensive programme of workshops, plenaries, sessional papers and events, for our members. These outputs also form the basis of our policy and public affairs work, ensuring the IFoA’s views are heard by policy makers on matters relevant to the public interest.
Over the past year our volunteers have produced technical papers in key policy areas for the profession, which has allowed the IFoA to be in a position to be invited to give evidence to Select Committees and to engage with Minsters, and with the Department of Work and Pensions on the potential workings of a pensions dashboard.
Supporting our volunteers and saying thank you
We want to make sure we are offering our volunteers the support and recognition they deserve. Alongside our volunteer recognition pins and worldwide programme of volunteer recognition events, we provide support and guidance through our Volunteer Information Pack (VIP). Over the past year we have enhanced the support we offer our volunteers with new resources, including;
- A competition law webinar to support volunteers involved in member led research – highlighting the importance of and issues involved in complying with Competition Law.
- This includes a new competition law guidance and decision tree for the VIP
- In line with our diversity strategy, we have introduced ways to work remotely.
- BlueJeans by Dolby is the IFoA’s videoconferencing system. Introduced to enable volunteers to participate in meetings from their own location, without the need for travel.
- Egress Secure Workspace: for collaborating on documents and sharing files.
- Volunteers are invited to join a one hour Egress Training webinar on 25 February. This will be recorded and can be watched on catch up at a later date. To register for the webinar, please contact Andy Coughlan.
- Learning from others: over the last year, we have increased the number of case studies on our volunteer experience webpage where volunteers have written about the positive lifelong learning they have gained from their volunteer roles and an inspirational new IFoA Buddy System was launched by members willing to volunteer to help other members.
If you are an IFoA volunteer and you would like to share your feedback or experience, please contact Debbie Atkins, IFoA’s Head of Engagement.
Find out more about volunteering for the IFoA.