I think it’s clearly a form of professionalism, but I also don’t think the standard professionalism should be completely replaced by it. We clearly need some training available about how to foster and operate in a diverse environment, but judging by some of the comments at some of the seminars, some also need a foundation on appropriate actuarial decision making.
I don’t think there should be caps on any type of ce. I think we should have a minimum amount for general ce, so you don’t get nothing but business education, instead. Mathematically, it’s similar. But the optics and messaging are different. If you took a good class on communication, you should proudly list it on your ce record.
And you should also get at least n hours of basic we in your field.
I think diversity stuff is a form of professionalism. Professionalism is all about being trustworthy. Do you check your data? Do you document what you do? Will you be misled by implicit bias? They seem similar to me.
I mean, you shouldn’t always get all your professionalism in the same place. Your shouldn’t just do d&i every year. But you shouldn’t just re-read the asop on documentation each year, either.
Have you read any actuarial reports supporting reserve opinions? Reviewing documentation requires should probably be an exam…
You probably should reread the asop on documentation, but that shouldn’t be your only professionalism ce.
Welcome back MH! Your absence from the AO was noticed and your presence was missed
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Mountainhawk, I am not LGBTQ but I have family and friends who are. I would like to find an appropriate way to support the LGBTQ community.
As an admittedly small start, I wear a T-shirt from the Schitt’s Creek television show that says, “I like the wine, not the label.”
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I definitely agree with D&I being included in professionalism. It’s unprofessional to be a bigot, no? Then why not have some training on the topic? The recent CAS Annual Meeting had an excellent session on this and even though my CE is fine for the year, I’m upset it doesn’t count (even though the immediate past president supported such!)
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I almost wonder if there ought to be a discrete CE category for “skills, manners, and other considerations actuaries as business professionals should stay on top of” vice “the rules of proper practice that we agree to abide by as part of being a respected profession, and therefore need to document staying current with”.
I think there is value in having diversity training/awareness included in a well-rounded curriculum of “professionalism”, but it shouldn’t be the sole training used to satisfy that aspect of our CE requirements.
I’m not sure that I’d want the powers that be to get hyper-detailed in what is covered by our CE, because of differences in our needs, and differences in access to CE opportunities. But I do note that the Canadians have adopted (or are in the process of adopting) a requirement for a periodic CIA-prescribed professionalism seminar, and such a structure might afford a way to ensure training on certain subjects (like D&I) is achieved without raising concerns of such dominating a CE log.
for me it is required by my company
TimeWars! 
Not the reply I was expecting one month later 
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Tangentially related to the original topic at hand — I was on the AAA’s Effective P&C Opinion seminar over the last two weeks, and last night was the Workshop part where I was on a zoom with 120 other actuaries. It was a difficult experience, and I found myself unable to unmute the mic to make comments that any other year I would have made quickly. Hopefully that come back once we are back to meeting in person (which I hope the AAA plans to return to – the meeting was still good, but it lost a lot not having the interactivity of the in person sessions).
This is usually me when people talk about their personal lives during staff meetings.
Just to be clear — it wasn’t due to anyone else making it difficult, just my own internal fear paralyzing me sadly. I was so angry and frustrated last night afterwards.
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That’s what I meant as well. I find it uncomfortable when people talk about their SO as I’m not out at work. I probably come off as rude that I refuse to share anything personal about myself, or that I appear extremely introverted.
While I obviously have no issue with speaking up in any situation, I understand this is not usual (especially among actuaries).
That said, I have found actuaries to be good at expressing themselves in written format. While a “live” spoken comment may be impactful (sorry for the use of that word), a written comment is more easily shared, even if it doesn’t have the emotional OOMPH.
What I’m getting at is this: please submit written comments/write articles on these issues.
Don’t beat yourself for not getting out your comment live – that can be tough. I was writing emails, letters to the editor, etc., well before I was literally speaking publicly on anything. It helps to have that practice in writing out your points before getting to speaking it in person.
Job Interviews where you take the prospect to lunch is always a bit awkward. You usually want to turn off interview mode and just chat, but there is always the fine line you don’t want to cross about personal information you can’t actually ask about
And I’ve seen an unfortunate number of cases where the prospective employee bombed the lunch. They told their lunch companion they didn’t really want the job, it was just a backup. Or they bragged about how well they had lied to one of the formal interviewers, or…
All academic subjects are potentially exposed to charges that they are not sufficiently culturally responsive. It is easy to think that math is an exception because it is cold and objective. Truthfully, this had been my opinion. But math is no different, and my eyes were opened when I learned about the Condo Problem. The Condo Problem has had a lot of discussion in mathematical teaching communities recently. This school problem is about twenty years old, is appropriate down to grades 6 and 7, and is a nonroutine problem that is not easy to solve, separate from its cultural insensitivity.
The Condo Problem is: In a certain community, 2/3 of all the men are married to 3/5 of all the women. What fraction of the entire community is married?
Traditionally the underlying assumption is that each man can be married to at most one woman, and vice versa. Today we would ask, what about same-sex marriages and what about people who do not identify as binary?
It is not easy to change this problem while maintaining the math, unless we depart from human relations. One way to change is it to say 2/3 of newer residents have dogs and 3/5 of older residents have dogs, what fraction of the entire community has dogs? This maintains the math, while removing the insensitivity.
My eyes were definitely opened, and I will try to be more aware as I construct math problems in my teaching. Incidentally, the solution is the not obvious 12/19, which I would be happy to explain to anyone that cares. I first became aware of the Condo Problem from an article by Nabb et al. in the September, 2020 issue of Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12.
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