R help - Aug 2011 - Casualty Actuarial Society request for proposals for R Workshop

I'm a property-casualty actuary, use R in at my job, and lurk on the 
list. In conjunction with one of its meetings, the Casualty Actuarial 
Society (I'm a member) is looking for proposals from people to teach a 
workshop in R and I thought members of the list might be interested. 
I've pasted the information below.

My apologies if this posting violates list rules.

Thanks.

Kevin





http://www.casact.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&articleID=1613

2012 RPM Seminar Committee Welcomes Proposals for New R Workshop
08/08/2011 ?

I. Casualty Actuarial Society

The Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) was organized in 1914 as a 
professional society with the purpose of advancing the body of knowledge 
of actuarial science applied to property, casualty and similar risk 
exposures. This is accomplished through communication with the publics 
affected by insurance, the presentation and discussion of papers, 
attendance at seminars and workshops, collection of a library, funded 
research activities, and other means. The membership of the CAS includes 
over 4,000 actuaries employed by insurance companies, consulting firms, 
brokers, and the government. Additional information about the CAS can be 
found on the CAS website.

II. CAS Ratemaking/Product Management Seminar

The CAS Ratemaking/Product Management (?RPM?) Seminar is scheduled to 
take place in Philadelphia, PA on March 19-21, 2012. As with previous 
RPM Seminars, full day workshops on 4 different subject areas of 
particular interest are scheduled to be offered on the first day, or 
Monday, March 19, 2012. Examples of schedules, workshop descriptions and 
presentations from previous such workshops can be found on the CAS 
website. In response to feedback received from previous RPM Seminar 
attendees, the RPM Seminar Planning Committee (?Committee?) intends to 
include Introduction to R as one of the workshop topics at the 2012 
seminar, to provide hands-on R training for beginners.

III. Project Specifications

The Committee wishes to enlist subject matter experts to develop and 
conduct the above described 1 day workshop on R. The workshop should be 
customized to focus on the critical issues surrounding creation of an R 
program.

The Committee is most interested in providing training in the following 
areas, but is open to considering additional steps that are offered by 
respondents:

R interface
Programming in R
R datasets
R packages
Actuarial models in R

The workshop will need to include a dataset for analysis during the 
session(s), to be provided to attendees with sufficient lead time that 
they can become knowledgeable about the dataset before the workshop 
begins. An assignment could accompany the dataset so that attendees can 
review the data and perform necessary data analysis.

It is expected that the presenters will use a computer and an LCD 
projector, and that attendees will be able to use their own computers to 
conduct analysis on the dataset prior to and during the workshop. The 
participants should have access to the R software during the workshop 
and should be provided instructions on how to download the required 
version of R prior to the workshop along with any required packages.

Expected workshop attendance would be 50 persons.

The presenters must adhere to the same requirements and deadlines 
imposed on all workshop/RPM Seminar presenters, in terms of working with 
Committee session coordinators and making materials available to 
attendees prior to the seminar.

IV. Proposal Requirements

Proposals are due by September 12, 2011 and should include the following 
items:

A clear description of seminar education content
Demonstrated experience within the field
Three professional references
All submitted proposals will be evaluated equally. The Committee will, 
by October 10, 2011, select the respondent who, in the judgment of the 
Committee, is best able to perform the work as specified herein. The 
Committee reserves the right not to accept any proposal if an acceptable 
proposal is not received.

Interested parties should submit their proposals and any questions in 
writing via e-mail to Vincent Edwards, CAS Manager, Professional 
Education, at vedwards at casact.org.