One of the best ways to optimize your membership with CFA Society Hartford is to volunteer. Volunteering heightens your visibility and puts you in contact with other professionals in the industry. There are many levels of volunteer activity, so take your time evaluating how you would like to get involved and then get started by choosing an initiative below:
CFA Society Hartford Initiatives
Education & CFA Institute Research Challenge
The CFA Institute Research Challenge requires a large number of Volunteers. Volunteer needs include the following:
- Industry Mentors: The primary responsibility of the Industry Mentor is to impart a “real-world” industry perspective into the students’ theoretical knowledge base. Each Industry Mentor will review an assigned team’s written work and presentation and provide commentary. Industry Mentors should have at least five years of experience in a position focusing on company analysis and CFA Charterholders are preferred. It is not necessary to have experience in a specific sector. The allowed time commitment under the competition rules is a maximum of six hours including any phone calls, emails, in-person meetings, and any additional contact. An additional two hours is allowed for each local, regional or global final.
- Report Graders: The Report Graders work remotely by reviewing the reports submitted by the student teams. The reports are reviewed and scored by the Graders according to a predetermined point system and Graders also provide written feedback. Graders should have at least five years of experience preparing or reading equity research along with a strong understanding of the financial markets and investment process. CFA Charterholders are preferred. The total expected time commitment is approximately eight to sixteen hours in early to mid-February.
- Presentation Judges: Judges view the student presentations. In this role, they wear the cap of a buy-side analyst or a Director of Research listening to and critiquing a member of his/her team. Judges should have at least five years of experience preparing or reading equity research along with a strong understanding of the financial markets and investment process. CFA Charterholders are preferred. The time commitment will be for two to three hours on the day of the local final competition.
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Classroom Presentations - Volunteers are needed to make presentations and connect with professors
Career Panels - Volunteers are needed to help coordinate the events and serve on the panels.
University Outreach - Liaison with local universities to inform students about CFA Designation, assist universities in incorporating CFA charter into their curriculum, create study groups for CFA exams
Annual Forecast Dinner
Each year the CFA Society Hartford holds a Forecast Dinner at the Connecticut Convention Center. The event includes a reception with exhibitor area, a seated dinner, President’s address, Keynote speaker and awards. The event is sponsored by local firms.
Volunteer Needs:
- Sponsorship Committee: This committee develops a sponsor plan that sets levels of sponsorship and related benefits, targets and reaches out to prospective sponsors
- Forecast Dinner Committee: This includes all aspects of planning this event. The contract is always set the previous year when feedback is fresh so the new volunteer has a foundation on which to build. Activities are shown below:
- Liaison with venue: technology vendor contract and venue contract management
- Choose attendee gift
- Determine Forecast Contest winners
- Speaker Handlers
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Outreach
The goal is to better integrate the CFA Society Hartford into the greater Hartford financial and business community establishing CFA Society Hartford as a leader promoting ethical behavior and best business practices in finance.
Volunteer Needs:
- Investor's First - Research and utilize available CFAI support and materials
- Greater Hartford Leadership Academy
- Identify and connect with other local organizations that have a similar mission to the CFA Society Hartford. (Our mission is to lead the financial services industry in Hartford.) Develop business ties with other organizations within the Greater Hartford Region. The potential ties may be for programming, promotion, cross-membership opportunities or anything mutually beneficial for our memberships.
- Identify local nonprofit organizations that may benefit from the resources available to the CFA Society Hartford
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Financial Literacy Education
The CFA Society Hartford provides financial literacy education within local schools in classes K -12. Volunteers go into classrooms and present financial literacy education materials (provided in partnership with Junior Achievement). Each assignment will typically involve five classroom sessions of about 45 minutes each (one per week). Volunteers can work individually or in teams.
- Volunteers go into classrooms and present financial literacy education materials (provided in partnership with Junior Achievement) for classes K-12. Each assignment will typically involve five classroom sessions of about 45 minutes each (one per week). Volunteers can work individually or in teams. Timing is flexible and sessions can be carried out throughout the school year.
- The committee works with the Junior Achievement and other non-profit organizations group to bring financial literacy volunteers to Hartford region schools through volunteer involvement.
- Volunteers must attend a training session at the Junior Achievement offices in Hartford. This will likely take place on a weekend this fall.
- Volunteers must be comfortable presenting lessons to and interacting with school age children.
- Volunteers will need to spend time familiarizing themselves with the education materials prior to going into the classroom. They should plan on 45 minutes of prep time per session.
- Volunteers should be able to commit to approximately five straight weeks of going into classrooms. Total time commitment (including prep time) will be approximately 1 ½ hours / week plus travel time. Alternatively, a team of volunteers may split responsibilities amongst several members thereby reducing the time commitment for individuals
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