Dear Member,
Although most of us travel in our jobs, some locally, some regionally and some farther afield; one of the great privileges of being President of AICLA is the chance to travel and meet members. April is the busiest month for AICLA as it brings together both the Asian Claims Convention and also the visit to various countries in Asia.
This year the convention was held in Bali. Whilst it had the added advantage of being a very nice and relaxing venue, it was chosen for two reasons: ease of access and the fact that we had not yet held the convention in Indonesia. Clearly the choice was well received with some 140 attendees from 15 different countries present – a record for the convention. It is one of the longer conferences on the insurance calendar, with two full days of presentations across a wide range of subjects – 14 different presentations in all. We received excellent feedback on the content and format of the convention and next year’s event will likely be held in April 2019 in Phnom Phen, capital of Cambodia.
At the conference dinner it was also my pleasure to award the Charles Buchanan Prize to Nguyen Son of Vietnam and the Carey Bird Scholarship to Ms Februzi Nasution from Indonesia. Congratulations to both of them for their hard work. The question for the 2018 Cary Bird Scholarship has just been released and has been written with the intention of appealing to a wide range of members. With a prize of either attending the convention in Asia, the conference in Sydney or A$3,000 in cash, it is a fantastic opportunity and I encourage members to consider entering.
Following the convention Tony Libke (AICLA CEO), Andrew Khoo (International Division Chairman) and I visited members in Asia. This region is the largest by membership, with almost 30% of AICLA members belonging to the international division. Having already been in Indonesia, we then visited Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong; the five countries with the most members. In most locations we met with the local institute (either the local loss adjusters’ institute or the local national insurance institute, or both) had lunch or dinner with members, and provided a technical presentation. In total we met over 100 current and prospective members.
We also had the good fortune to meet with the President and CEO of CILA, who were travelling through Singapore at the same time that we were. Although there are areas of overlap between our operations, most notably in Asia, we do not see ourselves as bitter rivals. Both organisations have a common goal of improving the practice of loss adjusting, both for the benefit of the community and for loss adjusters themselves. Our dialogue with them continues, including a meeting when I am in the UK in early May.
Although it was two weeks away from my regular job, it was pleasing to see the level of support for the profession of loss adjusting, and for professionalism of loss adjusters. Long may it continue!
Kind regards
Leon Briggs, Chartered Loss Adjuster
President – AICLA
