Latest News: 

• Update On Petition To Change Rules Governing Participation Of Guests At Academy Committee Meetings (Sep. 21, 2018)
• Read also “Know the Facts Transparency and Public Participation Remain Core Values—and Policies—of the Academy” from the August issue of Actuarial Update (Aug. 31, 2018)

The Academy is aware that an actuary has begun a campaign to enlist members in a petition drive to amend the Academy bylaws regarding the Board’s recently revised policy on attending Academy meetings. (See the news entry from Jan. 31, 2018, here.) To provide more information about the genesis of this request, and the Academy’s Board’s response to it, members should know that in the last 18 months, certain observers have used the board and committee meeting policy to engage in conduct that has tended to chill discussions and debates at the ASB and other Academy committees. In one case, an observer has insisted on attending committee and board meetings despite threatening legal action against the Academy. The Board responded appropriately by striking a balance between transparency, which has always been important to the Academy, the need to protect the independence and objectivity of all Academy bodies and the need of those committees to have a robust deliberative process with free and frank exchanges of ideas. The revised policy does precisely that by giving chairpersons the freedom to admit observers who will be helpful to their respective committees while at the same time giving them the necessary tools to protect the committees’ work.
 
The revised meeting policy has one overarching aim—to empower committee and board chairpersons to do their jobs.  Meetings of committees and other Academy bodies—other than those of a few committees that have always been closed—remain open to observation provided the observer will be helpful to the work of the committee.

RESOURCES:

• A link to the policy is here.
• For more information about the reasons for this petition campaign, please also see this letter to the actuary’s attorney about the nature and basis of her requests.
• Read the answers to frequently asked questions about the updated meetings policy.
• Read “Know the Facts Transparency and Public Participation Remain Core Values—and Policies—of the Academy” from the August issue of Actuarial Update.
• Update On Petition To Change Rules Governing Participation Of Guests At Academy Committee Meetings

We will be posting updates to this page as they are available.