Chairperson's Corner
By Michelle Grusenmeyer
Small Talk, June 2021
Today was a weird day. I woke up this late-April morning in Indiana to four inches of snow on the ground which melted by 2:00 p.m. only to have more snow flurries on and off all afternoon.
I also had a rare almost MS Teams/Zoom meeting-free day since I blocked my calendar in case I had bad side effects from the second COVID vaccination I had yesterday. After hitting the extreme exhaustion with caffeine and the body aches with Advil, I was able to have a very productive work day—I think I need to block off a day more often! My only meetings today were the Spring Council of Section Chairs and the Board Meeting Outcomes. It was a good day to focus on what the SOA and Smaller Insurance Company Section (SmallCo) are doing.
We have all had to adapt over the last year in the way we work and interact with others and the SOA is no different. The 2021 Life Meeting originally planned to be in New York City will go virtual Aug. 30–Sept. 1. SmallCo will be hosting a Smaller Insurance Company Chief Actuary/Appointed Actuary Forum during this virtual meeting. Reach out to Stefanie Porta for more information or suggest topics, and be sure to join your peers for this event! The 2021 Annual Meeting & Exhibit is expected to be in person in Pittsburgh with virtual options as well.
I was impressed by what the SOA is doing in the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion space. I think it is fair to say we have a long way to go, but there is a true plan in place to have diverse volunteer committees. One thing you can do is to go to your SOA profile and complete the demographic information. This really helps the SOA have accurate information about the make-up of their members, volunteers and committees.
The Community Engagement Strategy Work Group updated us on the plans for a pilot later this year. They will soon be making a decision on which community and related sections will participate in the pilot. SmallCo has started a SmallCo of the Future team to evaluate which community will be the best fit for our group under the proposed structure. The one thing we have agreed so far is that this group will continue to exist and do similar work to what we do now. Regardless of which community we belong, we will continue to serve smaller insurance company actuaries.
Dale Hall gave a research update and it was exciting to hear about one of the research projects to which SmallCo contributed. Be sure to check the SmallCo webpage to read the research report on Mortality by Socioeconomic Category.
The section chairs broke out into small groups to share with each other both what is working well and any challenges. I shared a couple of things I am proud this group has accomplished. First I talked about the Illustration Actuary Corner that was recently added to the SmallCo webpage. This is a collection of Small Talk articles, a webinar recording, and a vodcast series as well as relevant resources put together by Mark Rowley and Mark DeVries. This is a great example of leveraging the same material for multiple uses which former Chairperson Mark Rowley was a big proponent. I also talked about our virtual happy hour/networking events. Other sections have tried these too, but didn't seem as happy with the result. Our latest happy hour was March 26 and we had good turnout and great participation. We will continue to provide networking opportunities virtually and in person when we can, hopefully in October. Stay tuned!
During both the Spring Council of Section Chairs and the Board Meeting Outcomes, I was struck by all of the changes that are happening—some exciting and some have uncertainty. But like the weather in Indiana, the only constant is change. I look forward to being part of the changes ahead, as well as the 80 degree weather projected here for next week.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Michelle Grusenmeyer, FSA, MAAA, is VP, senior client manager at Swiss Re America Holding Corp. She can be reached at Michelle_Grusenmeyer@swissre.com.