Interest in risk management is steadily on the rise in Canada, where “we are faced with the same types of issues [as the U.S.],” she noted. “The results may be a little different and we may be following the U.S. on the litigation side by a number of years, but I think were still looking at some of the same issues.”

Ms. Chambers is risk manager for the Waterloo Region Municipalities Insurance Pool in Kitchener, Ontario. She and another risk manager set up the pool in 1998 as a response to rising insurance costs. They now manage the pool with a staff of three.

The pool includes eight municipalities in the region of Waterloo, which together manage a large retention, or deductible of $500,000, she explained. The pool is not separately incorporated and is not licensed to write insurance. It was set up with a fronting company and goes directly to reinsurers to cover losses beyond its self-insured retention, she said.

Ms. Chambers added that the pool “saved $3.2 million in the first three years of operation, and we were able to give back a million [dollars] to our municipalities after the first three years, plus reduce their levy into the pool.”

The pool covers “everything,” she said. “Transit, police services, fire departments, gas utility, municipal liabilityeverything except workers comp.”

Like other risk managers, the biggest challenge she currently faces is renewalswhich are coming up after a three-year term. “We renewed prior to Sept. 11, 2001, so well be facing the increases we missed during that time,” she said. But the good news is that “we still have $2.8 million in our reserves.”

Similarly to the United States, she said Canada is affected by global market forces such as reinsurance availability and affordability. “Anything that would affect the markets in the U.S. also would affect us in Canada,” she said. “Any natural disaster, the power failure or the blackout [of last summer]it affected us in Canada just like in the U.S.” Also included would be the stock market decline and terrorism. “Terror will always be on the radar screen,” she said.

Risk managers in Canada are faced with many of the same challenges as other risk managers “in this ever-changing world in which we live,” she said. “We also, like other risk managers, have been able to respond to those challenges.”

Ms. Chambers told National Underwriter she is excited about her new RIMS position because “weve had a good, solid foundation with the previous leadership in RIMS.”

As an organization, she said RIMS has been through many changes that have left it stronger. RIMS's financials, she noted, are “probably in the best shape they have been in, and that also has to do with the stock market and investments. We have also done some amazing things with our Web site.”

RIMS will continue its efforts to build relationships with risk management associations worldwide, she said, which includes announcement of a new international chapter and a focus on legislative issues in the United States and Canada.

“Our RIMS-Canada Council started meeting with representatives in Ottawa to try and promote the risk managers [profile] in Canada as well,” she said.

She added that RIMS is working closely with the brokerage and underwriting communities to clarify the needs of its members.

“RIMS is really the voice of the risk manager and will continue to be the voice,” she said. “Well be working to support our membership and our chapters. Our members are the owners of RIMS, and we owe our success to the expertise and commitment of our members on committees and task forces and leadership.”

Also of note, she said, is the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Spencer Education Foundation and the 55th anniversary of RIMS that will be celebrated at the RIMS 2005 Conference in Philadelphia.

Lance Ewing, 2003-2004 outgoing president, stressed that Canadians have always been an integral part of the RIMS makeup. He explained that many Canadian companies have operations in the United States and likewise, with many U.S. companies operating subsidiaries in Canada.

He added that the RIMS Canadian conference draws several thousand risk managers every year. “We even translate the RIMS magazine into French, so our Montreal constituents can read it,” he said.

Mr. Ewing, who is vice president of risk management at Caesars Entertainment Inc. in Las Vegas, observed that Ms. Chambers is qualified in many ways and an ideal choice to carry on the core compentencies of RIMS.

“Nancy has a different style than I do, which is always positive from a management standpoint,” he said. “She tries to build consensus in decision making, which is always welcome.”

Ms. Chambers, he said, “has been on the executive council and has been our vice president of finance and the treasurer for two years, so the financial stability that she brings to the table is helpful. She has worked on the conference and in education.”

Another positive, he explained, is that Ms. Chambers has agreed to focus on the “four competencies” emphasized by RIMSconcentrated in the areas of technology, membership, education and professional development, and the annual conference.

“Those are some of the driving engines within what RIMS does,” he said. “Those are going to be the foundational blocks with which she will continue to grow those four areas. So there will be continuity in regards to the focus.”

The four competencies, he said, “are the heart of RIMS.”

What Does It Take To Be A RIMS President?

By Caroline McDonald

Presidents for the Risk and Insurance Management Society are chosen annually by a nominating committee, explained Lance Ewing, 2003-2004 outgoing president for the New York-based association of commercial insurance buyers.

“That committee has to cull the information to find the right person for leadership for the organization,” said Mr. Ewing, who is vice president of risk management at Caesars Entertainment Inc. in Las Vegas. “So it isnt drawing straws.”

This process, he noted, lends itself to “very positive, independent candidates,” rather than “the old boys or old girls network.”

Mr. Ewing said that RIMS looks for candidates who are well rounded, “with the financial acumen in order to drive the organization.”

He noted that the amount of time involved is no small matter. “Bear in mind, this is a volunteer agency,” he said. “You need an extremely understanding employer, because out of a seven-day work week, you are going to spend an inordinate amount of time on RIMS relationships and business.”

Finding a candidate for president “who has that type of employer support can be difficult,” he said. “From a travel standpoint, you are out of the country, going to other RIMS chapters and youre going to the conferences.”

RIMS presidents must participate in budget meetings and monthly conference calls that can last two and three hours at time, he added.

Ewing Leaves RIMS Post Batting .800

Outgoing president cites enhanced Web site, membership expansion

By Caroline McDonald

Lance Ewing, 2003-2004 outgoing president for the Risk and Insurance Management Society, is proud of his accomplishments over the past year. “I think I have about an 80 percent batting average so far,” he said.

In the area of technology, “weve done a great job with our outreach,” he noted. Included are changes to the RIMS Web site, which was given a “fresh coat of paint,” making it easier for members and outsiders to navigate.

RIMS enhanced online information, including a job bank, which is available to members. “We have over 45 e-groups as well,” he added, in industries such as restaurants, construction, oil and gas. Members are able to post questions and get information from industry peers about policies and procedures.

“We get over 200,000 hits a day on the RIMS Web site,” noted Mr. Ewing, who is vice president of risk management at Caesars Entertainment Inc. in Las Vegas.

In the area of membership, he said, “Im leaving office with the strongest numbers and volume” the association has ever enjoyed. RIMS membership has grown from 8,121 in March 2002 to 8,508 last year, to 8,804 in March 2004.

“Weve seen huge growth in the area of associate membersnon-traditional risk management people. Within our own traditional risk management professionals weve seen an increase, as well,” he said.

Mr. Ewing attributed the jump in membership to RIMS “becoming more of a resource to organizations that havent tapped us before.”

Before five years ago, the term risk management, “got very little play in the press except in our own industry,” he said. “Now its on the lips of almost every chief executive officer and chief financial officer, including those heading off in handcuffsthey wish they had done some risk management.”

He observed that one area in which he is disappointed is education and professional development. “We have not grown our RIMS Fellow program as quickly as I would have liked to have seen, but I think we are forging ahead in the right direction,” he said.

RIMS is committed, through education and workshops, to bringing risk management to corporations that may not yet have a full grasp of what the discipline is, he explained. “We will actually send in a professional who will do Risk Management 101, 201 or 301 for corporations.”

The fourth area is the RIMS annual conference. “Our conference remains the world-class premiere centerpiece for the insurance and risk management communities,” he said. “Its difficult to find between 10,000 and 12,000 insurance and risk management professionals in one location. The conference in Chicago last year had between 9,000 and 10,000 attendees.”

Financially, he said, “we are in the best financial shape, from a budget as well as from an investment income standpoint, that weve been in, in a very long time.”

Last but not least, RIMS's international outreach programs have shown growth, he noted.

“RIMS is not looking to stick flags in countries and claim them as our own,” he said. “Risk management professionals from certain countries come to us asking us to provide them with an opportunity to tap resources.”

Some of these countriessuch as Japanform chapters. “Our Japan chapter does a fantastic job,” he said. “Weve also had inquiries from Russia, Indonesia, India and Brazil.”

Mr. Ewing added that he recently conducted a Risk Management 101 training program in Kosovo for their insurance industry, “which is made up of eight carriers who mostly write car insurance.”

RIMS's sister organizations “are mirror images of RIMS, just on a smaller level,” he saidfor example, there is the Federation of European Risk Management Associations, and in the United Kingdom, the U.K. Risk Management Association.

“We go to their conferences and speak and work with the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations. So we continue to act as a resource internationally,” he explained.

All-in-all, he summarized, “weve weathered storms and done many positive thingsweve streamlined our budget process and looked at value to our members. Weve done some hard things, but weve planted some positive seeds for the growth forward.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, April 16, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.