SOA Sections

Announcing Professional Interest Communities

Providing you with the best resources possible to navigate our rapidly changing world is our top priority. That’s why we’re pleased to announce Professional Interest Communities — a revised SOA sections structure that offers compelling online communities where you can connect directly with other users, network and share knowledge. This new structure features Community Groups and corresponding Topic Subgroups.

• Community Groups. Organized around actuarial practice areas and special interests, Communities will function within a new governance structure bringing you:
• New ways to engage directly with SOA members and staff
• Expanded opportunities for volunteering and leadership
• Easy access to curated content
• Topic Subgroups. These groups exist within Communities and are focused on specific areas of interest, providing you a deeper interaction with specified topics.

Both Community Groups and Topic Subgroups harness the best of the current sections structure but offer even more benefits:

• Inspiration and collaboration on ideas
• A versatile way to connect over common interests
• Additional volunteer and leadership opportunities
• Member two-way communication

The Emerging Topics (ET) Community is the first of the Professional Interest Communities combining three sections—Modeling, Technology and Predictive Analytics and Futurism.

Key Advantages of Professional Interest Communities

To learn more about the transition from Professional Interest Sections to Communities, please visit our FAQ page.

About SOA Sections

The Society of Actuaries sponsors 17 professional interest groups, known as sections, which are formed around common business topics or specific areas of actuarial practice. Unlike the overall organization, you do not need to be an SOA member to join a section. In fact, in most cases, you don’t even need to be a practicing actuary—and you can join more than one section. Each section has a mission statement and adheres to the SOA professional interest section bylaws.

The purpose of these groups is to encourage and support the career and personal development of individuals who are interested in the section topic, with an eye toward education, collaboration, sharing resources and networking.

Section membership offers a range of participation levels from simply keeping current with industry trends to becoming a leader of a dedicated team. One thing is for sure — sections produce relevant content each year, including:

• More than 40 webcasts
• More than 300 meeting sessions
• More than 50 podcasts
• Numerous seminars and boot camps

As a member of any of these knowledge communities, you’ll have a chance to participate in the following ways.

Network: Interact with fellow professionals with similar interests and challenges.

Share Information: Communicate what you already know to fellow section members and promote interesting discussions on emerging issues.

Publications: Read about trends in section and Society publications and contribute articles to section newsletters, websites and other publications.

Professional Education: Participate in a variety of educational forums focused on today's most relevant and pressing challenges. Create section-sponsored sessions at events and industry seminars. Contribute ideas to better define the basic and continuing education needs of actuaries.

Research: Participate in research activities. Dive into research that provides you with new insights, information or tools to enhance and improve your work.

Section Benefits

Being a section member comes with benefits that include networking opportunities, professional development, newsletters, podcasts and online discussion forums. Learn more.