Home » Featured

Quantity, Quality, and Statistics Without Borders

1 April 2015 1,722 views 2 Comments
Justin Fisher, Statistics Without Borders Past Chair

    According to The Third Plate by Dan Barber, child rearing begins “not at birth, or even conception, but 100 years before a child is born” in Mennonite tradition. It’s been a few months since I became past chair of Statistics Without Borders (SWB), and, upon reflection, it strikes me that the ASA really should have thought about SWB in about 1908. No matter. To create the environment necessary for SWB to thrive 100 years from now, we should consider two things: quantity and quality.

    Before we tackle these questions about the future, let’s look a little at our short history. SWB was created in 2008 to provide pro bono statistical assistance to organizations worldwide. We are still a young upstart, and in our first half dozen years, we found our footing by sipping from the fire hose of endless options and opportunities. We did our best to evaluate requests for our help, as well as welcoming hundreds upon hundreds of eager volunteers.

    At first, this was done purely in an ad hoc way. But, we have since put in place systems to ensure consistency, and more will be coming “online” soon. Although the rules need some further codification, we on the executive committee have largely come to agree on what makes for an appropriate SWB project. We also have begun to track with a simple spreadsheet the current status of all accepted projects. We are now more consistent and rooted in documentation, which has become increasingly necessary as the number of projects has grown.

    So what’s next for ensuring a sustainable organization? We have been talking about how best to scale up, and many ideas have been floated. Of course, our goal is to help more and more organizations. In addition, there have been numerous suggestions about how to recruit more volunteers. My view is that we already have many potential volunteers. As of JSM 2014, we had more than 1,000 people on our listserv, and for every call for a volunteer, we routinely receive a dozen people raising their hands. The supply-demand ratio is out of balance. Part of our current limitation on the number of projects is that all the administrative staff of SWB are also volunteers—executive committee members and project managers alike. So an increase in projects would require more administrative volunteers to establish relationships with organizations, track projects, and carry out other nonstatistical (but incredibly important) tasks.

    It’s also worth asking how large of an organization we want to be. The most famous “Without Borders,” Médecins Sans Frontières, has an annual budget of $400 million and a network of 24 associations. Granted, they had a 40-year head start on SWB, but we should think about whether we aspire to a similar size and scope. For now, however, we have no paid staff and aren’t even set up to take donations (a dilemma for an entirely separate article).

    It is not simply a matter of scaling up administratively. In the past few years, we’ve also tried to address systematically the quality of our assistance, and SWB leadership has increasingly made this a priority. The latest on this front is that SWB put out a call in February for volunteers to be on a quality assurance committee. I am confident this will be a good start to ensuring we adhere to our standards. Not only that, but it should free up time for members of the executive committee to pay attention to other issues, such as organizing more projects.

    To me, it comes down to both quantity and quality. We shouldn’t emphasize one without keeping careful watch on the other. My hope is that slow and steady growth, with an emphasis on putting systems in place, will lead to a more efficient and sustainable organization—able to provide more assistance—in the coming years. I look forward to seeing you all at JSM 2115 to take stock once again.

    1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
    Loading...

    2 Comments »

    • Aliou Diouf MBALLO said:

      I really appreciate this article.
      Real good points and solutions that could help the current staff to better the work.
      Thank you Dear Justin!!!

    • Raymond I. Majengo said:

      The article is great and highlight everything about SWB. What is important is to focus on how SWB will deliver quality statistical works ( Of course there is Quality Assurance Committee). Also as a number of volunteers grows it become difficult for every member to get a chance to participate even for one project in a year.
      Much can be done but what is important is to meet needs of Clients and Volunteers.