From the Leadership Council

First, as I have mentioned in the last couple of newsletters, our Membership Committee organized a membership drive at the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting April 2-5, 2017. There will be a similar drive at the annual Western Benefits Conference July 9-12, 2017 in Anaheim, CA. There will be more on that later. The drive at the EA Meeting went well from all reports. The buttons were a hit there as well as at the ARA Board Meeting. 

Second, while on the subject of Membership, for those of you in multi-actuary organizations, if any of your associates are not ACOPA members, please ask them to consider joining. Remember that there is a discount on dues for multiple memberships. Hint that you can’t always remember to tell them about important threads on the listserv. We are considering giving a button to those who successfully refer a new member. 

Third, those of you who are Academy members received an email from Steve Alpert, PE of the Academy, asking for member input regarding a proposed advocacy statement, “Retirement Income Options in Employer-Sponsored Defined Contribution Plans.” ACOPA will not provide any official comments to the Academy. You who are Academy members are free to do so. As the president of an organization that has long seen the benefit to its members of advocacy to an organization which long considered advocacy unprofessional, I could comment with the words of Friedrich Schiller: “Late you come, but still you come.” But I won’t.

Fourth, the change in due dates of various businesses (notably C-Corporations) has been somewhat confusing. After too many years of writing contribution letters, I am not hopeful that ours will be read except for “the maximum contribution is $X.” I am hoping that the owners and CPAs of C-Corps continue to follow habit and make their contributions according to the old deadlines so as to not make our October 15 deadlines even… [insert comparative adjective]. 

Finally, thank you to all of the ACOPA volunteers who are working on ACOPA committees and projects and on our members’ behalf with other organizations such as the American Academy of Actuaries, the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries, our sister organization ASPPA, and elsewhere. From the founding of ASPA to COPA to ACOPA, it is the volunteers who make this organization possible — and who Make ACOPA Great.