Dale Yamamoto cites Actuarial Outpost

[bdschobel]

...in the 2007 president-elect candidate round table:

http://www.soa.org/files/video/leade...ound-table.wmv

Watch Dale's response to the third question. Neither of the other candidates picked up on this.

Incidentally, the evolution of AO's acceptance within the actuarial community is a pretty interesting story. When I joined the SOA Board in 2001, the "rebel forum" was regarded as a bad neighborhood, essentially. Nobody respectable would be seen there. The SOA operated its own discussion forum (known here as "the desert"), which was dominated by one individual with unique views.

I joined AO in May 2004, mostly to help exam candidates understand how the exams are developed and graded. Chris DesRochers and I saw the value in AO and persuaded the SOA leadership to establish a link to it from soa.org. Unfortunately, that link came with an incredibly hostile disclaimer! A year later, I got the disclaimer relaxed a little and moved so that it applies to all linked sites, not just AO.

In 2006, we closed down SOA's own discussion forum on soa.org, due primarily to lack of interest and a series of outrageous, nonactuarial posts by its chief user. So AO became the only place where actuaries could have open discussions of issues.

And now, in 2007, a candidate for SOA president-elect cites AO as a place to get in touch with members and find out what's on their minds. I totally agree and am very happy to see Dale's comments.

Bruce

[tommie frazier]

can you quote the text, or can I just tell people he said either "in my pants" or something about "in russia..."

thanks!

( I do apprecaite that the site is seen as the only working meetingplace of actuarial discussion, despite also being home to things like I offer above)

[campbell]

The video runs just under 13 minutes.
[semi-careful transcription -- some words have been dropped]
Third question (at time: 8:30)
What do you believe are the most important leadership qualities needed to lead the SOA in the coming years?

Dale: "That's an excellent question. I think the focus that we need to keep our eyes on right now is what does the membership want. There are several ways we can get the feedback from the membership that we have in existence right now. And just the creation of the sections was the greatest way I saw over the last few years, to get the feedback from the grassroots of the membership.

"And Bruce Schobel actually turned me onto something that I didn't think I really wanted to look at very much which was the Actuarial Outpost. I've been reading things at the Outpost and there actually are a lot of good things that come up throughout that discussion. So that's a great way to get input from the membership that probably don't come out and speak a lot, in the public's eyes, and really talk to the membership that much.

"So I would open up telephone calls from anyone, to help us direct, what direction do they want their organization to move on."

[Swan]

Originally Posted by bdschobel

When I joined the SOA Board in 2001, the "rebel forum" was regarded as a bad neighborhood, essentially. Nobody respectable would be seen there...

I miss the rebel forum.

[Wag, the Dog]

Gentrification

[cincinnatikid]

Originally Posted by Wag, the Dog

Gentrification

Not to mention a spike in the foreclosure rate on subprime threads.

[tommie frazier]

of the two options I thought, I'll go with "In russia, the topics discuss YOU!"

[Actuary321]

Originally Posted by bdschobel

...in the 2007 president-elect candidate round table:

http://www.soa.org/files/video/leade...ound-table.wmv

Watch Dale's response to the third question. Neither of the other candidates picked up on this.

Incidentally, the evolution of AO's acceptance within the actuarial community is a pretty interesting story. When I joined the SOA Board in 2001, the "rebel forum" was regarded as a bad neighborhood, essentially. Nobody respectable would be seen there. The SOA operated its own discussion forum (known here as "the desert"), which was dominated by one individual with unique views.

I joined AO in May 2004, mostly to help exam candidates understand how the exams are developed and graded. Chris DesRochers and I saw the value in AO and persuaded the SOA leadership to establish a link to it from soa.org. Unfortunately, that link came with an incredibly hostile disclaimer! A year later, I got the disclaimer relaxed a little and moved so that it applies to all linked sites, not just AO.

In 2006, we closed down SOA's own discussion forum on soa.org, due primarily to lack of interest and a series of outrageous, nonactuarial posts by its chief user. So AO became the only place where actuaries could have open discussions of issues.

And now, in 2007, a candidate for SOA president-elect cites AO as a place to get in touch with members and find out what's on their minds. I totally agree and am very happy to see Dale's comments.

Bruce

I guess that was probably the case, but it is disappointing that you would say that since there are a few here that post under their real names (DonnaClaire (though I thought she had been around longer than she has) , Steve White, Abraham Weishaus, or under outed pseudonyms ala JMO, or even non outed pseudonyms, ala JMO Fan.)

It did take quite a while for more general acceptance of the forum and I am sure there are still many who don't like it one bit (and I can understand their reasoning). But I for one have (from the very beginning, even before the formation of the "rebel forum" found this community to be an extremely useful tool in my professional development. I have been able to get answers quickly and accurately on many, many questions that came up in my professional life. I work basically alone, actuarially, with help from some consultants, but have found that I can often get an answer here even faster than putting a call in to our consultant, and many times I expect a more useful answer as well. And this goes way, way back to days of Compuserve.

[bdschobel]

The "bad neighborhood" comment really referred to AO's perception from the SOA's official vantage point. I never thought of it as a bad neighborhood -- or maybe I just don't mind being seen there! But all that has changed. The AO is now respectable, and more and more of us freely post using our own names (as I always have). Dale's reference was sort of the icing on the cake to me.

Bruce

[JeffAllen]

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad neighborhood, but it is a place to go when you want to find timely information. I've found it to be true in the past, and also today, when Bruce's posting was the first I became aware of the Presidential candidate videos on the SOA website.

I think the active forum and the access to timely information has forced many to recognize that AO plays an important role.