Sean Jones explains why he joined the judging panel for the IFoA Volunteer Recognition Awards and what he learned from the experience.
I’ve been a committee member for my regional society, the Bristol Actuarial Society, for 5 years and president for the past year. During my time, I’ve been continually impressed by the dedication of my colleagues on the committee and those involved in our events.
The IFoA hosts monthly regional society meetings where all the societies are invited. One of my favourite parts of these meetings is hearing what the other societies have on the go, as there are numerous interesting and varied events happening across the industry. We really are spoiled for choice as actuaries!
This results in an awful lot of volunteering going on in the regional society space. And that’s just scratching the surface of what the entire IFoA’s membership gets involved with. I truly believe that few other industries have such a culture of volunteering and that this should be celebrated and recognised. This is why I said yes to being a judge.
Unsurprisingly, being a judge has been a fantastic experience. One of the highlights of being involved is seeing the sheer volume of submissions received and how much high-quality and impactful volunteer work is done across our membership.
Some of the submissions covered work I was aware of; however, many covered work that was not yet on my radar (and I subsequently have a long list of items I’d like to explore more!). This just highlights the need for us to recognise and promote the volunteering done so that our members can know what’s out there.
Importantly I came away from the experience with a sense of inspiration from the work done by our nominees. What they’ve been able to accomplish alongside many other commitments is admirable. It’s given me a nudge to think about what more I could do as a volunteer and as an actuary. What more can be achieved within my regional society? What other volunteer opportunities are out there? What can I learn from the great work done already by our volunteers?
Some key takeaways from me are:
