RIMS Set To Boost Enterprise RM Effort

The Risk and Insurance Management Society last week announced plans to become a "premiere resource and support organization" for members' enterprise risk management program efforts.

The New York-based RIMS said its board recently met to finalize an ERM business plan, giving each board member a role in upholding the commitment.

The need for an ERM "Center of Excellence" was underscored by an e-mail survey taken of 1,054 deputy risk managers in March. RIMS found that nearly 38 percent of respondents either have an ERM program or have partially integrated one, noted John R. Phelps, a RIMS director responsible for ERM and director of risk management for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida Inc., in Jacksonville, Fla.

"This was a huge indication to us about the change that's happening within our discipline," Mr. Phelps said. "For RIMS to continue to be relevant for risk managers of the future, we need to concentrate on ERM."

In fact, so many companies have implemented ERM, he said, that it is "not futuristic now."

"There's a lot of excitement about ERM. We feel that RIMS is positioned to be a leader," he added.

In the months and years ahead, RIMS said it will add new resources to support organizational implementation of ERM, including education, information, networking and services. Currently, Mr. Phelps said, RIMS is planning Web site tools such as links, articles and professional development opportunities.

He added that for the first time in RIMS' history, "we've got a track of ERM sessions at our annual conference in Honolulu [in 2006]." Nearly a dozen ERM-related sessions and workshops are scheduled, including "Risk Management and the Bottom Line," "ERM Forum," and "ERM Implementation--Progress and Pitfalls."

The association is offering a RIMS Fellow workshop for ERM. "That is selling out like hotcakes," he said.

An ERM summit for senior risk managers recently took place in New York City. Three upcoming RIMS Fellow workshops on the topic have been planned for Winnipeg, Canada, Seattle and Houston. Additional revised and updated professional development programs on the topic will be launched in 2006, RIMS said.

So many companies have implemented ERM it is "not futuristic now."

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RIMS Set To Boost Enterprise RM Effort

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