Heading a section of the Education Committee that designssessions for the Insurance Accounting and Systems Association(IASA) Education Conference sometimes feels a bit like running acompany: You must stay abreast of current issues and interests,lead a group of professionals, delegate work and ultimately answerfor the outcome of the sessions.

No one knows this better than Dotti Augustine, director offiduciary cash at Aon Benfield in Minneapolis, who has chaired theInsurance Accounting, Risk Management and Finance (ARF)committee for four years, overseeing selection and oftencreation of a broad range of sessions. Next year, the number of ARFsessions at the annual IASA event is scheduled to jump from 40 to45.

This year, the committee accepted 30 of the 40 session proposalsit received and lined up topics and speakers for the rest.Attendees rely on these sessions to keep abreast of regulatorychanges and for continuing education credits, so the committee mustassure a good balance of topics, she says. “We always have taxupdates from the bigger CPA (certified public accountant) firms andwe usually offer the statutory reporting and statutory accountingupdates twice to assure everyone at the conference can attend.”

In forming sessions, committees consider hot topics, but alsolook at statistics, evaluations and suggestions from the previousyear to determine what to offer and how to approach an issue. Forexample, regulatory issues may be discussed from the NationalAssociation of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) perspective one year,and from the insurance company perspective the next.

As director of the committee that creates the Technologytrack, Anil Chacko, vice president of technology for FirstRehab Life Insurance in Great Neck, N.Y., must weigh many of thesame considerations. He and his 40-member committee allocated a dayand a half in the fall to review, prioritize and whittle down 80tech vendor submissions into 29 sessions across six tracks.

During the winter, each of the six track leaders kept in touchwith the committee's session coordinators. Then everything wasfinalized during a one-hour conference call in March — quite anachievement for a meeting that usually takes most of a day.

In fact, notes Chacko, some on the committee were surprised whenthey tried to enter the call late only to find it was over.

Jeanne Sokolak, account manager for R.R. Donnelly inPhiladelphia, is director of Career Skills Development(CSD), the newest and smallest of the committees, whoseeight members are responsible for six sessions, each presented byone to three speakers, plus a 90-minute super session.

CSD reviews 25 to 30 submissions, some meriting considerationand others having little relevance to the CSD track.

The committee also creates its own sessions, such as the one itassembled two years ago on work-life balance “because we thought itwas a pertinent issue,” explains Sokolak. That session proved verypopular, she adds.

Interest in the CSD track has crown, which she attributes to atight job market and a desire among members to hone theirleadership and organizational skills. Or maybe thebehind-the-scenes enthusiasm of CSD members is contagious, becauseas Sokolak notes, “We're a really fun committee.”