|
|
Greetings
|
|
Welcome to this edition of The
Advisor. We are excited to announce that for our first meeting
in 2009, Gary Beavers, President of CPActuaries, will be speaking
on "Human Resource Information Systems". The meeting
will be held on Thursday, March 26th at the Holiday Inn
Executive Center. We look forward
to seeing you there.
|
|
Gary Beavers, CEO, CPActuaries
|
|
Gary Beavers, son of an Air Force Sargeant, lived
around the world growing up and graduated High School in Camden Arkansas
as President of the student body. He attended the University of Arkansas in the late 60's
(Bill Clinton era) and graduated in 1971 with a Finance Degree.
Beginning his
career with Penn Mutual in Tampa, Florida he quickly was promoted to a Regional
Director in 1974 and moved to Philadelphia.
While there he passed all 10 parts of the CLU program in on sitting,
something that normally takes 5 years. At the time he was too
young to use the designation! He was promoted to Penn Mutual
General Agent of the Norfolk, Virginia office in 1976 and formed Virginia Pension Center
that same year, the effective date of ERISA.
He seperated
from Penn Mutual and began his independent office in May of
1980. This firm has become CPActuaries, the result of partnerships with CPA
firms in several states, providing full benefits and Human Resource
functions.
Mr. Beavers
has spoken at numerous functions including the American Dental
Society and Insurance forums in twenty states and three foreign
countries on topics ranging from Pension Plans to Human Resource
Information Systems.
CPActuaries is headquarters in the World Trade
Center in Norfolk,
Virginia with an administration
facility in Clearwater,
Florida and a number of
satellite sales and service offices.
|
|
Online
Social Networking for Professionals
www.financialworld.com
|
|
Online social networking has taken the world by
storm, but many people are still confused about what the concept
really involves and the tremendous professional advantages it can
offer. On a superficial level social networking can simply be
thought of as using the internet to mingle with a broader circle of
contacts, but there's much more to it than that.
The best-known
platforms, such as Facebook and Bebo, are primarily designed to help
people connect within a personal (ie outside work) context. But
following an initial burst in popularity, user numbers for these
networks have been stablizing. However, the massive initial
success of these services prompted the development of similar tools
aimed at creating networks for professional and business purposes.
(Perhaps the best known of these is "LinkedIn".) And
while Facebook loses users as they grow tired of poking each other
and sharing pictures of their cats, a real business benefit is
emerging from web 2.0 and social networking technology.
In the long run,
the interactive and dynamic nature of social networking technologies
provides a real advantage for sharing information and learning about
best practices within specific professional fields, allowing people
to network and to share ideas and industry news related to their area
of activity.
When a
Complinet forum was launched last October to provide a space for
compliance executives to discuss issues related to their profession,
it grew steadily by thousands of members worldwide; and is being used
to discuss wide-ranging issues of concern to the industry, from
founders' percentages in IPOs to questions about regulatory training
and time-sensitive subjects such as how to apply impending
legislation correctly.
What's more,
the ability to add blogging facilities and the instantaneous nature
of the social media medium, means expert comment and advice can be
published instantly and "linked" to relevant themes and
industry events or breaking news-related discussions can be
carried-out in real-time.
In an interview
with Silicon.com last year, LinkedIn CEO, Dan Nye, cited the example
of a Boston hedge fund manager who
used the service to research an investment opportunity in India,
when conventional research tools failed to provide the relevant
information. The connections he established resulted in him
turning a $50m investment into $300m within a year.
With these
kinds of tangible benefits on offer, it's not hard to see why Gartner
research has found that approximately half of all global chief
information officers plan to invest resources in these kinds of Web
2.0 "social" technologies in 2006.
Web-savvy
professionals in all sectors are increasingly using social networking
services to seek out specialist expertise to help them in their own
jobs, as well as looking for partnership opportunities. The
chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters was already
warning the financial services industry in 2006 to pay more attention
to social networking if it wants to continue to reach out to the best
talent.
As well as
these broad, wide ranging services, a new breed of social networking
tools is gaining traction, focusing on specific vertical markets and
specialist professions. In almost every line of business these
days, you're likely to find a few competing social networking
services hoping to become the de facto tool for people to map their
professional networks in that industry.
With
organizations such as the Financial Times promoting its own social
networking tools for professionals in niche sectors such as
technology and media, it's clear that there is real value to be
gained from these more tightly focused services.
|
|
We hope that you will be able to join us for the
March 2009 HRFEF meeting and we look forward to working with you to
make this a successful year for HRFEF.
Ed Greene
Don Richard Associates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RSVP
|
|
If you would
like to attend the HRFEF meeting on Thursday March 26th please
email cowanj@donrichard.com
by close of business March 23, 2009.
Time:
Registration: 11:30-11:45
Lunch: 11:45-1:00
Speaker will begin promptly at 12:00
Cost: $25 per person
Location:
Holiday Inn
Executive Center
5655 Greenwich Rd
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Meeting Dates
|
|
April 23rd
May 21st
June 18th
|
|
|