This month's Executive Update shares how we are fostering a global community of volunteers.
Volunteerism has always been central to executing on the CFA Institute mission and to how we serve the industry. Beginning with our first charterholders, our members have used their credentials and generous time to promote standards of ethics, education, and excellence in the investment profession. When CFA charterholders, society members, and industry leaders volunteer—with societies or CFA Institute—they support the mission.
Virtually every part of CFA Institute benefits from the contributions of volunteers, and it is the thousands of members who volunteer to serve societies and their members who make the society network what it is today. At the beginning of this fiscal year, Society Relations expanded our department to include the Volunteer Experience team, which, as the name suggests, focuses on optimizing the experience we provide CFA Institute volunteers. The team’s work spans how we match volunteers to relevant opportunities, manage our volunteer programs, and engage volunteers in the work we do together to, moving forward, how we build connectivity and community across our diverse, global volunteer base.
In line with our Society Operating Model theme of Community, we are taking an important next step in improving the volunteer experience by investing in building a truly global community of volunteers. CFA Institute will partner with Higher Logic, a leading community engagement provider, to implement a world-class platform for volunteer management and online community building. This is an area we know is of high importance to the society network as well, and, we believe, will help improve the global and local member value proposition.
Fostering Interconnections across the Network
While the platform will engage all CFA Institute volunteers, society volunteers are a group that we believe will benefit significantly from the interconnectivity and collaboration Higher Logic enables. For several years, societies have expressed the desire to have a platform for leaders and staff to connect with one another across the world to share experiences, content, and best practices. This platform will provide that functionality.
A platform of this size and scale will take time to implement and require a clear strategy to leverage its functionality to best serve our members and volunteers. Our first steps will be to focus on onboarding CFA Institute volunteer groups, and then society leaders themselves by the end of FY22. Stay tuned for more details about Higher Logic in the coming months.
Measuring Impact
Globally, volunteers with CFA Institute contribute about 25,000 hours each year alone! We know society volunteers contribute at least that much time and likely much more in their local markets. But we have never tried to quantify how many society volunteers give of their time every year or how much time they give. That’s why we need your help.
We’d like to be able to estimate the sheer number of volunteers and the volume of time that so many of our members and industry practitioners give back to CFA Institute and local members. As we begin implementing Higher Logic, this will help us plan for future phases. More importantly, it’s a useful data point for communicating the valuable work of our passionate global community back to our management team and the CFA Institute Board of Governors.
To that end, I would very much appreciate your input. Please take five minutes to respond to a short questionnaire here by Friday, 19 November. We only need one participant per society.
Thank you for helping us better understand the breadth and impact of our global volunteers. We look forward to finding more ways to integrate all volunteers—whether that’s with CFA Institute, societies, or both—and tap the full potential of the network.
Wrapping Up 2021
Our last update of the year is quickly approaching. In the spirit of building community, we’ll highlight stories from societies around the world who brought people together, led with ethics and inclusion, and drove influence. Though we can’t feature every story, every success, or every society, it’s clear we have a lot to be grateful for and to celebrate, especially in light of the many challenges of the past year. I look forward to being back in touch next month to share some highlights of the many great opportunities societies created this year and the many more possibilities ahead.
ETHICS AND RESEARCH, ADVOCACY, AND STANDARDS
Global ESG Disclosure Standards for Investment Products Released
CFA Institute is excited to announce the release of the first voluntary Global ESG Disclosure Standards for Investment Products designed to enable investors, consultants, advisers, and distributors to better understand, compare, and evaluate ESG investment products. Thank you to our CFA Society network for your feedback on the consultation paper and exposure draft, which contributed to the final draft of the Standards. Find out more about the release—and access social media assets to promote the Standards—here.
OUTREACH
FY23 Board of Governor Nominations due by 12 November
We recognize that our society leaders play a pivotal role in developing the pipeline of leaders in the CFA Institute community. As such, the Nominating Committee of the CFA Institute Board of Governors is requesting your assistance in building a list of qualified applicants to serve on the Board.
Read our article for the list of preferred skillsets and qualities, and forward your list of priority candidates to Nominating Committee representative, Roman McAchren by 12 November.
MEMBERSHIP
Renewal Efforts
We are pleased to report that CFA Institute is tracking well against our 2021–2022 renewal goals, with global renewals surpassing 89%. CFA Institute recovery efforts continue, and additional recovery emails are scheduled in the coming weeks. Societies are welcome, but not expected, to continue local outreach.
SOCIETY MANAGEMENT
FY22 Society Awards Programme – Opening Soon!
The FY22 Society Awards Programme will be opening in early December. More information, including a timeline for applications, will be shared via Connexions in the coming weeks. Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to last year’s programme, we are unable to extend the application deadline this year. Be sure to watch future updates and be thinking ahead of the volunteers and societies you wish to recognize!
CREDENTIALING AND CANDIDATE SUPPORT
Shift in Exam Windows and Call for Volunteer Graders
With the shift to computer-based testing, we have identified ways to shorten the results timeline and release results quicker. Human-grading each Level III exam, while essential to our process and our commitment to candidates, has proven difficult to do during this time of year. As a result, we are unable to reap the full benefits of computer-based testing with this schedule. Moving the Level III administration out of November and into August and adding Level II to November will allow us to do that. Find more information on the short- and long-term plans to implement this change.
And given the number of exam grading sessions in 2021, we need to replenish our pool of graders for the January 2022 grading session. Please spread the word to your members that volunteer grading sessions will be virtual and held 5 January through 11 January 2022, for seven hours each day. Graders must be charterholders, free of pending professional conduct investigations, and members in good standing with CFA Institute. Please contact Grader Support for more information.
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