2008年7月19日土曜日

ケベック・シティーでのIAA(国際アクチュアリー)会議でIACAの議長を務める


6月の10日から18日まで、ケベックで開催されたIAA(国際アクチュアリー)会議に参加するために、出張した。シカゴとトロントを乗り継いでの便で20時間くらいかけて現地にたどり着いた。IACA(国際コンサルティングアクチュアリー会)の議長に就任して、初めての会議であり緊張した。本番は、6月14日の9時から10時半まで、現地の会議室と電話会議で参加する世界中の委員の方をつないでおこなわれた。議事録は、以下のとおりであるが、何とか前議長や他のオフィサーに支えられて終えることができた。セクションの議長になると、自分の委員会だけでなく、他の重要な会議に参加を要求される。Council meeting, Executive committee, Section Chair Meetingなどであるが、中には夕食から始まって夜の10時過ぎまで続く会議もある。タフでないと務まらない。ケベック市は、400年記念とのことでにぎわっていた。美しくてエレガントな街でフランス語が公用語だが英語もたいていは通じた。帰りはニューヨーク経由で帰ったが、航空ショーのアクロバット飛行をやっていた関係で飛行機は大幅におくれ、マンハッタン入りしたのは夜の11時頃になっていた。

IACA議事録(June 14,2008):
Committee members in attendance in person:
Hideyuki Yoshida, Chair
Mike Toothman, Past Chair
Ken Buffin, Vice Chair
Margaret Sherwood, Executive Director
Zainal Abidin Mohd-Kassim
Kenneth Hohman

Committee members in attendance by phone:
Morten Harbitz, Secretary/Treasurer
Michael Codron
Janina Slawski
Segundo Tascon
Gerd Warncke

Committee members absent with regrets were:
Barbara Addie
Grace Jiang
Emmanuel Tassin
Nicholas Salter
Alexander van Stee
Andrew Vaughan

Committee members absent were:
Liyaquat Khan

Guest in attendance:
Martin Stephenson


Hideyuki opened the meeting and welcomed all new members, plus the guest Martin Stephenson
1. Prior Meeting Minutes.

The Committee approved the 4 May 2008 minutes with minor changes.

The Committee also approved the minutes from the Biennial General Meeting 5 May 2008 with minor changes.

Margaret Sherwood will distribute the final minutes from both meetings and ask Christian Levac to post them.

2. Outgoing treasurer’s report.

a. 31 December 2007
The accounts for 2007 were approved. The net assets at year end 2007 are $339.520,97C. 2007 showed a surplus of $26.263,28C.

b. Joint Colloquium in Boston
There is still some work with splitting the expenses between the three parties responsible for the colloquium. Margaret will cooperate with the IAA secretary to get this in order. Once this is settled, the new treasurer, Morten Harbitz, will take over.

c. Proposed budget 2008-2011
After some discussion regarding the cost of getting the ASTIN Bulletin, the budget was approved with some minor corrections. The corrections are partly connected to the refund of the loss from the joint colloquium from the two other sections, and partly to increased administrative charges from IAA for use of the secretariat.

3. Bylaws Review

It appears that the bylaws that we can find on the web site are not correct. Apparently 3 different versions are around. Margaret will find out which version is the correct, and ensure that this will be put on the website.

Hideyuki urged everyone to read the bylaws, which are called the rules on the net. They will need to be discussed at the next meeting in order to make them more suitable for the actions that we foresee.

4. Strategic Initiative and Action Plan

a. General
Hideyuki opened this point by saying that the activities already initiated should continue, and that the functional committees now more or less dormant should be reactivated. There is a need to get rid of ambiguity.

As section chair, Hideyuki will be member of the executive committee in IAA. A clear signal from the members services task force in IAA is that the increased number of sections will lead to more joint colloquia (like the one we had in Boston). Our challenge is that IACA, being a section more composed of practioners than scientists, may have slightly different goals for the colloquia than other sections. The next opportunity in this regard will be the 2012 colloquium, probably in Mumbai.

b. Officer’s Roles and Responsibilities
There were no suggestions as to any change here. The web site information needs an update.

c. Function Committees’ Roles and Responsibilities
Professionalism Committee – Jay Jaffe is the chair. The question was raised whether we need this committee.

Publications and Research Joint Committee – Andrew Vaughan is chair and Liyaquat Khan is a member of this committee. They need some help from other section members.

Membership – Barbara Addie is the Chair of this committee. Christian Levac has produced a list of former members that for some reason have dropped out. We should try to get them back. Adrian Waddington and Brent Walker will be asked to volunteer to help in this matter.

Hideyuki and Ken Buffin will discuss further actions, and send an email to all committee members with question of where they will participate.

d. Other Committees’ and Task Forces’ Roles and Responsibilities
Our rules do not allow for non functional committees. These committees are therefore informal committees. We do not have a nominations committee.
The Max Lander award committee could be chaired by the past chair of IACA. There could be a need for a special task force to pursue the idea of a special award for younger (i.e. < 40) members. The thought about such an award was originally aired by Brent Walker. Margaret contacts him about this. It might be great to start this award in connection with the 2010 congress, f.i. with bursaries.

If these committees should be formalized, the rules need to be changed Hideyuki looks into this.

5. Mini-Meetings.

February 2009 – ACA – Gatwick, GB. This is taken care of by Nick Salter.

September or October 2009 – EAAC – Korea. It is suggested to have a special IACA day during this meeting. Hideyuki follows up.

5-7 October 2009 – PBSS – Tokyo. We should channel back that we would like to take part in form of a section or a (half) day.

1-4 November 2009 – CCA – Tucson, Arizona, USA. The responsibility of getting IACA involved will naturally lie on Kenneth Hohman.

6. Next Biennial Meetings.

7-12 March 2010 – ICA meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. Mike Codron will be the liaison with the congress, with help from Emmanuel Tassin and Janina Slawski. IACA needs a professional program, and we shall organize the biennial meeting. An IACA lunch will also be considered, like the one in Paris.

2012 – This will probably be in Mumbai, India. Liyaquat Khan and Brent Walker have liaised with the organizing committee.

30 March – 4 April 2014 – ICA meeting in Washington, DC, USA.

2016 – Europe.

2018 could be in Sydney.

8. Next Meetings.

Margaret will send an email with suggestions to time, and make sure that we shall have a quorum. Possible time is late July and early September, for the two meetings we need before the IAA meeting in Cyprus.