I had the opportunity to interview the new CAS President Dave Cummings, FCAS, while attending the 2024 Annual Meeting in Phoenix. Cummings and I discussed the Admissions Transformation Plan (ATP), the Strategic Plan, and the Property Casualty Predictive Analytics (PCPA) Exam & Project, among other topics.  

From this interview, it is clear to me that Cummings prioritizes the candidate experience and is dedicated to increasing transparency within the CAS, as demonstrated by the work he has done over the last year as president-elect. I am excited to see how he continues to contribute to this goal over the course of his term.  

A few key excerpts from the interview are included below. An extended version of the interview, which has been edited for clarity, is available in the online publication of Future Fellows on the CAS website. 

Emily Miske (EM): Thank you so much for joining me for this interview. As you enter your term as president of the CAS, what are some of the key priorities that you plan to focus on over the next year? 

Dave Cummings (DC): The Strategic Plan has just been approved by the Board, so implementing that Strategic Plan and its five key areas is going to be a major topic that we will emphasize. For me personally, it has been important to be involved in engaging with our members and our candidates as directly as I can, so trying to get out and meet people and helping them feel connected to the leadership is a really important part of this.  

EM: Could you tell me something about yourself that candidates might not know?  

DC: I started taking exams while I was already starting a career as an officer in the Air Force. When I sat for my first exam, I already had one child at home. The second was born just a few weeks after my first exam. I was working a second job as an adjunct professor in statistics for a local community college to add a little bit more income to my military pay. There was just a lot going on as I was working through my first several exams before I had the privilege and opportunity to have an actuarial job and get exam support from my company. 

I know there’s a lot of pressure on everybody. Whether you get the support from an employer or not, everybody has to make priorities, work with their time and balance many things in their lives in order to be successful with their exams.’’’ 

EM: I’m shifting into a topic that candidates are very interested in, exams and the admissions process. Following the May 1 issues, candidates are feeling anxious about the potential for similar issues to arise in the future. It’s important that we do not allow this incident to erode candidates’ trust in the CAS in the long term so that we can move forward stronger. What steps have the CAS and Pearson VUE taken to prevent this problem from happening again? Is there a disaster plan in place to handle the situation in the unlikely scenario that it does?  

DC: Well, I love what you said there, “It’s important that we don’t allow this incident to erode candidates’ trust in the CAS in the long term.” That is very important to us in the leadership, and hopefully [candidates] have seen us act with purpose and intention to remedy the situation that happened on May 1.  

We’ve had very in-depth conversations with Pearson VUE that have gotten to the root of the problem. We’ve opened stronger dialogues between us on a daily basis.  

Did we have any issues with people having trouble with the exams? There were a small number that had some challenges on one particular day for one hour. We knew about it as soon as it happened, and we were able to make sure that it was addressed immediately, and we were able to move forward. I think that’s one example of how we have become ready to respond in a much nimbler way if that happens. 

We have also developed a formal response plan with a range of strategies, and the incident that occurred last week is one of the scenarios covered by that plan. We’re ready on a scale of things, including something like what happened on May 1. We’re ready now to act much more immediately than we did before. 

EM: Moving to the Admissions Transformation Plan (ATP), we are wrapping up the fourth and final year of the ATP, whose goals include enhancing the CAS’s credentialing program, building skills for the future and improving the candidate experience. Do you feel that the ATP has been successful in accomplishing these goals? 

DC: Yes, I think it really has. We’ve accomplished a lot throughout this project. We moved fully over to computer-based testing during this time, which was an enormous change. We have also made some significant changes to the requirements, including the introduction of the PCPA, the Property Casualty Predictive Analytics exam and project. We did it in a way that has never been done before by the CAS where we beta-tested it. We got people to participate and give us feedback before it was an exam or project that counted, and we got really positive feedback from those who completed it. So again, we’re starting to do things differently in the way that we develop our pathway material. 

We also made some of the changes with the intent to prepare us to offer our exams more frequently. We put those in place, and here this morning, we’ve announced that we’re ready to start to increase frequency on several of our exams with MAS exams being offered three times a year in 2025 and four times a year in 2026. Exam 7 will now be twice a year in 2025, and we’ll get the rest of our major exams onto a twice per year cycle in 2026. So that’s coming rapidly, and it’s all because of the things we’ve been focusing on building, but as I said, we’re not done. 

We hope candidates had a chance to see that we put out a new call for input through our Actuarial Professional Analysis (APA), so that we could again look at where our focus needs to be. The APA will become a regular process every few years with the CAS to ensure our exam pathway remains current. The APA also is informing our continuing education expectations of what we will deliver, too. We’re looking holistically at all the education opportunities we give. So more will come as we go forward there. But I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made over these prior four years. ’’ 

EM: Since you did mention PCPA, the new Property and Casualty Predictive Analytics exam and project launched this summer and will be a requirement for ACAS starting in Fall 2025. Can you share a bit about the PCPA for candidates who aren’t familiar?  

DC: It is a different format of an exam than we’ve had. It’s an exam, and it’s a project, so it’s a two-part requirement. The exam gives you an opportunity to test your knowledge in the fundamentals about how to do predictive analytics, but then it gives you a hands-on opportunity to demonstrate it.  

And as I said, the beta test was a really interesting opportunity to hear feedback. One of the things we heard from many people was how much they felt they learned in the project process — that they were learning more by doing, not only by studying and taking the exam. We heard from many people who haven’t yet had the opportunity to get their hands on a real predictive analytics project in their career but felt like, “Hey, this gave me a really good head start, and I’m going to be ready when that next opportunity comes forward. 

EM: On the flip side, candidates continue to be concerned about the potential impact to travel times with the introduction of this requirement. How do you respond to these concerns?  

DC: It is definitely something that we always are looking at. In fact, the board just yesterday saw a report about travel time, which has been holding steady at this point over the past three years, so we’ve been able to maintain travel time with maybe some slight improvements on the path to ACAS at this point. So, there’s good progress that we’re making in holding the line. We are looking holistically at the time that it does take. Now, increasing the frequency of our exams is one of the things that I think is going to help the travel time as well. So, we’re excited about that, but we are definitely monitoring it. Our indications are that the PCPA requirement is not going to add to our travel time in a meaningful way, but we’re going to continue to monitor, and if we do need to make some adjustments in the process in order to make sure we don’t create creep in the in the travel time, we will do that. 

EM: I think candidates will appreciate that that's being analyzed and monitored, and that's something that you're aware of and care about.

Transitioning to our last topic, I wanted to talk a bit about volunteering because I don't think candidates realize the multitude and scope of volunteers’ contributions to the CAS as a whole. Could you share your thoughts on the value volunteers bring to the CAS, especially in recent years?

DC: Volunteering really is the soul of the CAS, in so many ways. It's really part of what makes us a profession — our willingness to give some of our own time and energy back to the profession. It has a very material impact, particularly in the areas of admissions, research, professional education and international engagement. It's really CAS members that make the CAS what it is, with awesome support from our CAS staff. We do rely heavily on volunteers.

We have a great tradition of volunteerism in the CAS. Amongst other associations, we continue to be among the highest level of people that volunteer in some way, shape or form, and there are many opportunities to do it.

 What I loved about my experience in volunteering is that I've been able to do different things along the way — sometimes that are related to what I do at work and sometimes things that are not. That's actually helped me grow and experience things that I might not have otherwise done in my career. It's a great opportunity to get out and meet people and have the opportunity to grow yourself, as well as grow your career.

EM: I really appreciate that the CAS has opportunities to volunteer even as a candidate. It shows that the CAS does value candidates’ opinions, and that's a great way to open up the door to volunteering. And then, as you progress and you get your credentials, more doors open into ways that you can contribute.

It is important to remember that CAS volunteers were an integral part of the problem-solving efforts that followed May 1. CAS volunteers gave many more hours than they had originally signed up for in order to grade additional exams and analyze results. Do you think this unexpected work has diminished the morale of the CAS volunteers? How do you see this affecting volunteer turn out moving forward?

DC: It’s really great to have you recognize that work that the volunteers did have to put in there because, again, volunteers are an essential part of all  our processes, particularly the exam administration process. So we did have a number of people who needed to do a little bit more work and give a little bit more time in order for us to both identify how best to respond to the May 1 incident, and then actually address it with another set of testing windows and all those sorts of things. So there's a lot of that [extra work] that did come in, but I will say that the sentiment from the volunteers and the staff who responded has been focused on [being] here to help the candidates and making sure that our exam process remains highly trusted going forward.

And so, I would say that morale has not been impacted negatively. I think in many ways, it's been a bit of a rallying cry and an opportunity for people to say, “Hey, now we know we're really making a difference for a whole lot of people.” I think there's a lot of pride amongst the volunteers in how they showed up and how they responded. I think they're really pleased with how they came together at a time of need, and I think it speaks well to the spirit of volunteerism at the CAS.

EM: To wrap up on the topic of volunteering, what would you say to candidates and members who are considering volunteering with the CAS for the first time?

DC: I would say just do it. It's a great opportunity to get to meet people who aren't necessarily in your company or even your level of experience in the profession. I've met so many people throughout my career that I could really value their advice and their input, and I've gotten great mentoring throughout my volunteering experience. I've had the chance to volunteer in exams, in research, in professional education and meeting planning, and a whole host of different things along the way. It's really been about what interested me at that time in my career. It's really a great opportunity to get in and learn, and I definitely would encourage everybody to consider doing that as soon as you're ready to give a little bit of time.

The other thing I would add is that not everything you do with the CAS is a huge commitment of time. There are many micro-engagement opportunities, in particular in the research area. There's lots of great ways to simply get involved,learn what is being done in the research areas and then throw your hat in as you see an opportunity to do that.

EM: Like you said, I think not only professional development comes out of volunteering but also networking opportunities. That's one of my favorite aspects that I've had with volunteering is meeting people that are outside your organization. You get to meet so many more people through volunteering.

DC: That's right. Oftentimes, there's a leadership development opportunity that comes at a different pace in the volunteer world than in your job. For me, I think that's something I reflect on – that many of my first formal leadership roles actually came out of my volunteering, which then prepared me to get the right leadership opportunities in my day job.

EM: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me about these important topics candidates are thinking about!