Celebrating 50 years – part two of our look back at the early days of Airmic and the emergence of a modern association.

Last month, as part of a celebration of our fiftieth anniversary, we looked back to the heady days of the formation of what was then called AIMIC. In this report, we look at the 1970s and early 80s as the modern association started to take shape.

Although AIMIC was already a well-established organisation by the end of the sixties, the idea of an association for insurance buyers with its own offices and full-time secretariat was still some way off. Indeed the first attempts to create such an infrastructure had to be aborted through lack of support.

Nonetheless, 1970 was a momentous year when a number of features of the modern Airmic started to emerge. Joy Gortmans became the first-ever full-time member of staff; she worked from home. The inaugural salary survey took place, revealing an average remuneration of £3470 p.a., rising to 4,500 for the top quartile.

Perhaps most important of all, AIMIC agonised over whether membership should be corporate or individual. The issue was finally resolved at the longest-ever Council (now Board) meeting, which lasted more than six hours. They eventually came down in favour of the individual variety.

The debates continued, however. Should part-time insurers be admitted, for example. That was eventually resolved in 1973, after a number of previously inconclusive discussions, in favour of offering them Associate status.

The truly defining decision, though, was taken on October 2, 1974 when Council voted to rename the association AIRMIC, adding the word ‘Risk’. The change required a special meeting of members to approve it, so ushering in the modern idea of risk management. In this respect AIRMIC was ahead of its older and bigger American brother ASIM, later to be called RIMS.

Attempts to create an association with a permanent infrastructure proved to be troublesome, however. An attempt to recruit a general secretary, the forerunner to the modern chief executive, fell through when they were unable to raise enough money from members to pay for the post. The association was already struggling financially, with a £3,300 deficit forcing an increase in subscriptions in 1977.

In 1978 Airmic finally appointed its first secretary general. John Turton worked from home, but only lasted a year when he was sacked on grounds of performance. A Council member, Graham Hole, drove to Turton’s home in Kent to collect all his Airmic files, which were then kept in a garage until the association acquired its first offices later in the year.

The appointment of Roger Miller as general secretary in 1983 heralded the development of something much closer to the modern Airmic. Formerly with the CU, he was a gregarious individual of great intellect and vision. He remained a regular feature of Airmic events for the rest of his life. Long after retiring as general secretary he edited Airmic Express (the forerunner of Airmic News) until 2005.

The year after his appointment Airmic moved into its current home in Lloyd’s Avenue and acquired its first computer. It also held its first ‘proper’ conference, complete with exhibition area, at Robinson College, Cambridge. In 1986 Airmic was instrumental in the creation of the Institute of Risk Management, which is now well-regarded internationally as a source of risk management training and exams.

Insurance and risk had developed a great deal since the early days, and Airmic was moving with the times, helping to shape the risk landscape.

The series of retrospectives will continue next month.

Roger Miller - Served Airmic from 1983 to 1993