I am excited to write my first ACOPA Monthly article as ACOPA President. Not even a month has passed since we changed leadership at ASPPA Annual, and I have some exciting news to share.
But first, I’d like to thank the Leadership Council (LC) for their hard work this past year. Ray Berry, Sara DeFilipo, Eugene Joseph and Alan Stone rolled off the LC. I appreciate all that they have contributed to ACOPA leadership over the past several years. I welcome Charles Brown and David Kupstas as new LC members, as well as Norman Levinrad, who has returned to the LC after many years. I look forward to working with them this year.
By the time this article is published, you should have received a letter via email regarding our proposed name change and rebranding efforts. We are excited about the American Society of Enrolled Actuaries (pronounced using each letter, A-S-E-A, not “a-see” or “a-see-a” – I know my phonetic spelling is incorrect, but this seemed easier to understand than the correct phonetics), and we hope that you are too. We briefly addressed some of the reasons for the change in our letter, but I thought I would provide some background on this endeavor.
How it Began
As many of you know, ACOPA has a booth in the exhibitor hall at the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting. This past year, Marty Pippins, Elizabeth Duda and I managed the booth. We had a good amount of traffic at the booth, and we discovered that many people weren’t familiar with ACOPA. (Truth be told, I never heard of ASPPA or ACOPA when I worked at the large firms.) We saw several confused looks as we explained, “We’re the ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries, and ASPPA stands for the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries.” Marty said he had a similar experience at a recent International Association of Actuaries (IAA) meeting. He and Elizabeth asked me if I’d considering changing our name to American College of Pension Actuaries. Given the frequent confusion of having an acronym within an acronym, in addition to the establishment of the American Retirement Association as an umbrella organization of several unique (but related) sister organizations, I thought it was a good idea. And so it began…
How It Developed
It’s no secret that ACOPA has been struggling with declining membership. Many of our leadership discussions focus on how we can increase membership and brand awareness within the actuarial community. At an in-person meeting in DC in June, the Management Council (then-President John Markley, then-EVP Justin Bonestroo and myself) – along with Marty and Elizabeth – decided that, since we’re already considering changing our name to the American College of Pension Actuaries, we should consider a more significant name change to more clearly reflect our core mission and allow us to better identify with our potential audience. We are the only organization solely devoted to the needs of Enrolled Actuaries, so we decided that “Enrolled Actuaries” should be in our name.
We first mentioned our idea to Brian Graff, Executive Director and CEO of the American Retirement Association. Brian approved of us moving forward.
We then brought our idea to the Leadership Council. We proposed and discussed several new names. Though the preference for the new name was mixed, almost everyone agreed that a name change was a good idea. We debated whether our new name should include “Association.” In the recent past, another actuarial organization has labeled ACOPA as a trade association that“lobbies extensively for the commercial benefit of its members on pension issues.” They fail to recognize our focus on education, professionalism, ethics, and cooperation within the actuarial profession. Some of us feared that “Association” would not accurately reflect our core mission.
After receiving approval from the Leadership Council, we thought it would be a good idea to consult the founders of the College of Pension Actuaries (COPA). I held a conference call with several of them. After much discussion, the bottom line was: (1) they’re fine with a name change; and (2) they’re not fine with including “Association” in the name.
We then informally mentioned our potential name change to the leadership of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (CCA). We have a great relationship with CCA, and we wanted to make sure that they didn’t have an issue with “Enrolled Actuaries” in our name. They did not. In fact, they seemed excited for us. We did not know at the time that they were going through a rebranding effort themselves, which likely made them even more supportive of ours.
Finally, we announced our desired name change at the ACOPA Luncheon at ASPPA Annual. Justin led the discussion, which lasted about 20 minutes, and we then took a poll with two questions:
- Do you wish to proceed with a name change to better reflect our mission?
- Do you support the new name of American Society of Enrolled Actuaries (ASEA)?
An overwhelmingly majority of attendees approved of both. Based upon this sampling of our members, we decided to move forward with a full membership vote.
Where We Are Today
As I mentioned above, you should have received a letter via email with the announcement of our proposed new name and look of ACOPA.
To adopt the new name, we need to amend our Operating Principles. The amendment requires a membership vote. To pass, it will require a majority approval, provided that there is a quorum (i.e., at least 10% of members cast a vote). Voting will close no earlier than 35 days after the date of the letter. I encourage you to play an active role in shaping the future brand of our organization by casting your vote.
I look forward to representing and serving ACOPA (or ASEA!) this upcoming year. It’s going to be exciting!
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