Take a look at what questions other risk managers had during 2023
An Average of 15 Questions Per Month Submitted
In a recent conversation with an URMIA member, the man behind URMIA’s “Ask Lou” button was referred to as the “Swiss Army Knife of URMIA.” While we are preparing for Lou Drapeau’s retirement and looking for a new Swiss Army Knife, we are also taking a look back at the top ten topics Lou Drapeau, URMIA’s resource manager, received through the Ask Lou website button.*
Drapeau recently compiled a list of the top ten “Ask Lou” questions for January through November of 2023 and compared it to the same 11-month period in 2022 to see if there were trends in what was on the minds of URMIA members.
Perhaps because of changing times, a volatile period in higher education, many new and emerging risks, and the growth of the URMIA membership to 3,000 members, the number and variety of questions have increased in 2023.
Two Years’ Worth of Top 10 Lists
In 2022, there were 152 Ask Lou questions compared to a total of 163 questions in 2023. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 topics for each year:
Library navigation questions always seem to be near the top of the list, and there were the usual areas of risk management that produced questions, i.e., risk assessment, conferences, etc.
This year, there were more questions in the areas of membership, risk management reporting, and RFPs, seemingly directed at the operational areas of the risk management department, its placement in the organizational chart, where risk management reports, and how broker services are acquired. There were, of course, certain questions that were referred to other staff members to handle.
Beyond the Top Ten
Other questions that did not make the top ten list covered a wider variety of issues than in past years, probably due to the aforementioned new and emerging risks and a variety of issues impacting higher education such as DEI and declining enrollment. Evidence of this is that even though there were more overall questions in 2023, there were fewer questions that made the top ten, 69 in 2022 as opposed to 61 in 2023.
Signing Off as Ask Lou
I have greatly enjoyed my six and a half years answering “Ask Lou” questions and functioning as URMIA’s resource manager, which is a wonderful association to work for, and look forward to seeing all of you in New Orleans in 2024.
*Addition by the URMIA Insights editor to Lou’s contributed article .
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