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