Candidate Liaison Committee – Who Are We?

Occasionally, you get a small folded yellow and white packet from the CAS with a few articles called Future Fellows. Sometimes you poke through and find something interesting to read (like this article, obviously); other times you may not even unfold that packet and it lays around for six months until you spill your coffee on it and toss it.

Honestly, until I got involved in volunteering with the CAS, I didn’t understand why a separate set of articles arrived when there were plenty of things to read in the other publication I receive, Actuarial Review. I always thought, “Why not just throw these extra six articles into Actuarial Review and call it a day?” Little did I know that I would soon be writing articles for this little yellow and white newsletter.

Let’s step back a second. What exactly is Future Fellows? It started as a newsletter back in 1996 and contained articles targeted at, well, future Fellows — candidates still in the exam-taking process. That does not mean that other members and current Fellows shouldn’t read these newsletters. In fact, those with the power to vote and influence the organization have a responsibility to be engaged with the concerns of candidates who will be the future of that organization. The scope of Future Fellows expanded in 2015 to include a blog that has more frequent posts than the quarterly newsletter and a web portal where CAS candidates can find resources for how to get credentialed, informed, connected, and involved. See “Future Fellows Online” also in this newsletter for more information on the web portal.

What does any of this have to do with the Candidate Liaison Committee (CLC) you ask? The CLC is the force behind Future Fellows, with support from CAS staff. The CLC does much more than write articles for the newsletter and posts for the blog: We are a primary connection point between the CAS and candidates moving through the examination process. Despite how candidates may feel at times, the CAS truly does value feedback from us. I’ve seen that firsthand over the past year serving on the CLC.

The CLC is composed of individuals at varying points in their career — some have completed exams while others are still in the process. We meet quarterly to discuss ideas for articles and blogs that are relevant to CAS candidates, with discussions surrounding points of frustrations for candidates — yes, most of those conversations are focused on exams. Our goal is to communicate the opinions and needs of candidates to the CAS. We do this through sharing our personal experiences and those of our friends and colleagues, by scanning Actuarial Outpost and other forums for general themes or common sentiments about exams, and by creating informal and formal surveys. The surveys have played a larger part this year as we hope to have data-supported recommendations. Hopefully you have seen some of our work in that space (e.g., the first Annual CAS Candidate Survey and the follow-up Hot Topics Survey on exams).

At times, other CAS committees ask the CLC for feedback on various topics such as current processes or recent and proposed changes. For instance, when I started with the committee late last year, we provided some pointed comments about the aftermath of the TBE (technology-based exam) experience. Serving on this committee has shown me that the CAS is truly looking for feedback and aiming to make the path to Fellowship as smooth as possible. With the pace of change in the world today, feedback from future Fellows is even more vital to ensure our organization remains relevant and provides the best education to create experts in our field.

So, who is the Candidate Liaison Committee? We are you! A group of candidates, members and Fellows representing the voice of candidates to the CAS while also providing resources and relevant information to candidates on their journey to membership and Fellowship.