Edited by Sonya L. Vartivarian, GSS Publications Officer

It’s time for our annual checklist to help you get ready for the 2011 meetings in Miami Beach, Florida. If you’re like a lot of us, you keep meaning to make your plans and start working on the slides for your presentation, and, oh yes, sign up for that roundtable luncheon. The list goes on and on.

So, it’s a good thing you’re reading this article, because the Government Statistics Section (GSS) and Social Statistics Section (SSS) executive board members believe your JSM experience should be enjoyable, stimulating, and stress free. To help you achieve this goal, we once again offer 10 suggestions for getting the most out of your JSM experience.

Prepare Ahead of Time. For those who are session chairs, authors, discussants, or poster presenters, the ASA’s website offers excellent, useful guidelines for preparing for your role. Don’t wait until the last minute, but take advantage of the material available to prepare yourself. Prepare for any role you may have this year.

Be Informed. Being a member of the ASA and one or more sections will be a much more rewarding experience if you know what’s going on. One way to this is to go to the ASA’s website. Another is to regularly read the ASA’s monthly membership magazine, Amstat News. When you do, be sure to check under the Section News each month for the GSS and SSS articles.

Plan Your Schedule for JSM 2011 in Advance. Because the program for JSM is online, you don’t have to wait until you get to Miami Beach to decide which sessions you want to attend. There is so much to choose from that you may run into conflicts, but doing a careful review of the sessions, business meetings, luncheons, and special events you want to attend will allow you to maximize your participation. In fact, the ASA offers a function online called “My Program” to help you create and prioritize a virtual program of what you want to attend.

Know Your Section’s Sessions. The section’s program chairs for 2011 and 2012 have worked hard to put together an exciting group of sessions, roundtables, and other activities for this year’s program. In recent and upcoming GSS-SSS newsletters and columns in Amstat News, you will find details about the invited sessions, roundtable luncheons, and topic-contributed and contributed sessions.

Know Your Section’s Activities. Join the business meeting and mixer where you’ll get a chance to meet your fellow section members and hear what’s been going on over the past year, as well as look ahead to what’s coming. And last, but not least, you’ll be able to enjoy food and drink in a relaxed atmosphere in which we can all get to know each other a little better. The SSS business meeting will be Monday, August 1 and the Government Statistics Section Business Meetings will be Tuesday, August 2, both are at 5:30 pm. Visit the online program for details.

Meet the Section Officers. If you come to the business meeting and mixer, you’ll get to meet the current officers in person. Current officers for the GSS include the following:

• Steven P. Paben, Chair
• Brian A. Harris-Kojetin, Chair-elect
• John S. Dixon, Past Chair
• Iris M. Shimizu, Program Chair
• Daniell S. Toth, Program Chair-elect
• Kevin Cecco, Secretary/Treasurer, 2011–2012
• Kennon Copeland, Council of Sections Representative, 2010–2012
• Robert Lussier, COPAFS Representative, 2011–2012
• Carol C. House, COPAFS Representative, 2010–2011
• Sonya Vartivarian, Publications Officer, 2007–2012
• Natalya Verbitsky-Savitz, Newsletter Editor, 2009–2011
• Bill Wong, Assistant Web Editor
• Tai Phan, GSSLIST Coordinator
• Rick Peterson, Staff Liaison

Current officers for the SSS include:

• John Thompson, Chair
• Joseph Salvo, Chair-elect
• Sharon M. Stern, Past Chair
• Nancy Clusen, Program Chair
• Elizabeth Stuart, Program Chair-elect
• Kirsten K. West, Secretary/Treasurer, 2010–2011
• Robert Santos, Council of Sections Representative, 2010–2012
• Joanna M. Turner, Publications Officer, 2011–2012
• Rick Peterson, Staff Liaison

Express Your Opinion. We welcome your thoughts and ideas about the sections’ sessions, activities, newsletter, Amstat News column, GSS/SSS portion of the ASA website, or anything else on your mind that relates to our organization. We want to better serve our membership, but we need your input to do that. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Find Out What Your Association Is Doing. Attend the ASA President’s Address or an open meeting sponsored by a section you may be interested in joining.

Do Something New. If you’re not a member of the Government Statistics Section or the Social Statistics Section and are interested in learning more, plan to attend both business meetings to find out what we’re all about. We welcome your attendance. Or, attend the student paper awards session on August 2 at 8:30 a.m. Take a closer look at the program this year and plan on doing or attending something you’ve never done or attended before.

Make Your Travel Plans. By now, you should at least have made your hotel reservations (online reservations opened on April 28) if you’re planning to stay in the conference hotels, as they are the most convenient to the meetings. And don’t wait until the last minute to make airline reservations, because August is a busy time for vacations and flights are often booked months in advance.