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From the Executive Director

Since the last issue, we had a very successful ACOPA Symposium in early August. A big thank you to the committee. Sara DeFillipo (chair), Ray Berry and Drew Forgrave put together a great event. Discussion was very lively, and time went by quickly. If you haven't attended an ACOPA Symposium, plan on making it next year. At the Symposium, we held our formal annual business meeting. The primary action was to announce the election results. Newly elected LC members will take office at our Transition Meeting at ASPPA Annual’s actuarial luncheon.

Speaking of the Transition Meeting, this year’s meeting will take place at the actuarial luncheon at the ASPPA Annual Conference on Tuesday, Oct. 25 from noon to 1:30 p.m. This is the meeting where our new officers and LC members take office, which means Karen Smith will hand off the presidency to Kurt Piper, and Bill Karbon will move up to President-Elect. John Markley will become Executive Vice President, which means he will automatically move into the position of President-Elect in 2017 then President in 2018. Drew Forgrave will be joining the LC as Secretary, Tom Munson as Budget Officer, and Sara DeFillipo will become a voting member of the LC. Richard Kutikoff returns as Vice President, and Ray Berry and Eugene Joseph will begin their second terms as voting LC members. In addition to the leadership transition, we recognize the winner of the Burrows call for papers and new FSPAs at this event. We usually have about 150 of our members in attendance, and it is really fine to have so many of us in one room. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

By now you have heard that ASPPA is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and that the ASPPA Annual Conference will include quite the celebration. Our newer members may not know that ASPPA used to be ASPA – with no “Pension Professionals &” in the name. So the 50th anniversary is very much a celebration of ASPPA’s actuarial roots, as well as the tremendous growth in both membership and influence that we have seen over the decades. It is fitting that ASPPA’s President for this anniversary year Annual Conference is ACOPA Past President Joe Nichols, and ACOPA LC member Lauren Okum is a conference co-chair.

After the Annual Conference in National Harbor, ACOPA’s next in-person gathering will be in Los Angeles. Kevin Donovan once again is chairing the LA Advanced Pension Conference Committee, and ACOPA member Angela Barclay is a new committee member. This conference has two actuarial tracks and one that is of interest to non-actuaries. Holly Scott represents non-actuarial members of ASPPA on the committee. Of necessity, conference committees do much of their work well in advance of the event, and the agenda is nearly complete for the Jan. 19-20, 2017 conference at Universal Studios outside LA. Registration will be opening soon.

Of course, not everyone can make it to one of these conferences, but we all need our CE before the end of the enrollment cycle. Whether for credit or good information, consider registering for Tom Finnegan’s webcast on floor offset arrangements coming in December. There are also recorded webcasts from both ACOPA and ASPPA that can help if you need to earn some credits, or learn something new.

That reminds me: If you have a topic you think would make a good webcast next year, let Ken Vollmer know. Or send me an email and I will forward it to him. Ken chairs the ACOPA advisory committee for ARA’s Retirement Plan Academy. He and his committee members are always on the lookout for good ideas. 

If you think you might like to serve on one of the ACOPA committees in the future, please let me know that as well. It’s our volunteers that make ACOPA run — thanks to all of you.

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