Description: This is a perspective of the upcoming year from the view of the Chair of the Council of the TaxationSection. Following the challenges from the past year and since the arrival of the pandemic, I discussed how we will adapt to this new virtual or hybrid world and how the Taxation Section will continue to offer material to its members.

Description: This article addresses how to best use body language to one's advantage

Description: Investing in and taking care of employees can result in many-faceted positive results, for your team and for your firm. We first state the case for "taking care of employees," then exhibit several practical methods for showing you care for your employees.

Description: A typical course has some "hard" parts. These "hard" parts are the places where weaker students begin to fail, lose interest, and give up. The paper introduces a metric by which to evaluate each course topic. High metric values indicate "hard parts" of courses. The paper recommends spending more course time on hard parts and less course time on easy parts. The paper also recommends using disclosure: Tell students - this part of the course is "hard" and they may feel uncomfortable which is why more time is being spent on it." This approach to hard parts works! Failure rates are significantly reduced, while retention, satisfaction, and student scores improve.

Description: Writing articles is not as hard as most people think, but it does take some thought and planning. This article gives practical tips about how to put "pen to paper" and write an effective article.

Description: An article summarizing the SOA Asia-Pacific Annual Symposium held June 12 - 13, 2024.

Description: Article describes accomplishments as Chair during the year. Four accomplishments are mentioned: i) Actuarial Research Conference ii) Early Career Award, iii) Establishment of Outstanding Educator Award, iv) Push to create surveys from the section containing a reservoir of ideas that can be used for webinars, podcasts, etc.

Description: How to design a meeting's environment to maximize participants’ positive mood, energy, and opinion of your meeting.

Description: Emails are to the business world what cars are to a road trip: we can't get anywhere without them. This article offers 6 specific strategies to write emails more effectively. The theme is that re-reading your emails to check for a clear goal, conciseness, appropriate tone, etc. is a worthwhile time investment as it saves your reader time and prevents problems caused by miscommunication.

Description: Actuarial functions are being asked to do more with less: being challenged to provide more value to the business through applying insight and foresight. This article examines ways in which actuaries can provide business insights with very limited investment. The article provides actionable steps that actuaries easily apply to their daily work.