Beyond JSM, JASA: Finding Hidden Value in Your ASA Membership
Jessica Utts
When you joined the ASA, you probably were given a list of benefits that members receive. But many members have discovered that benefits, which are given to everyone, are not the most rewarding part of being belonging to the ASA. That distinction goes to the value people derive from participating in activities and exploring what the ASA has to offer. Here are seven ideas for getting more value from your membership.
1. Take Advantage of the ASA Community
The ASA Community website provides a range of virtual communities you can join. All members belong to the ASA Connect community and can start discussions, post questions, and provide information, but there are lots of other communities available. You can even create your own community and decide whether to invite a select group or open it to all members. When you join a community, you can decide to get emails in real time, as a daily digest, or not at all. This is a great resource for virtual networking.
2. If You Have a Good Idea, Ask the ASA About Implementing It
The ASA staff and board are responsive to ideas from members that will benefit the membership or, more broadly, our profession. As staff member Megan Murphy noted, “Just look at the past few years. Need a mentor? We’ll start a program. Need to talk to Congress? We’ll get you a science policy professional. What about PR? Okay. Accreditation? We’re on it. Conference for applied statisticians? Got it. DataFest? Sounds like fun. Curriculum guidelines? Great, but can I get it in Spanish? Si.”
3. Join One or More Sections
I was surprised to learn that only about one-third of ASA members belong to a section! The ASA offers 28 sections, which are inexpensive to join and provide great opportunities for connecting with members with similar interests. I asked the chair of the Council of Sections Governing Board, Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar, to explain the value of joining a section:
4. Share Your Expertise by Starting a Special Interest Group
There are many ways you can share your expertise with other ASA members and the broader community. For example, you can respond to questions on the ASA Connect list or create a new virtual community. Another way to share your expertise and build a community is to start a special interest group, which requires a petition of at least 25 members, including at least one full ASA member as chair.
5. Write a White Paper or Report; Change the World!
The ASA policy and education areas of the website offer white papers and special reports written by groups of members on topics that led to ASA Board endorsement and dissemination of the work. Some of those reports led to additional impactful actions by the ASA or other agencies.
One success story began with a workshop held at the ASA, from which two reports (pre-K–12 and college) were written recommending guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education (GAISE). As noted in another article in this issue, the GAISE College Report “has had a profound effect on the teaching of statistics.” It made six simple but powerful recommendations for teaching introductory statistics, and has gained widespread acceptance throughout all sectors—from AP Statistics to research universities—affecting hundreds of thousands of students.
The pre-K–12 GAISE report has been at least as influential, affecting the Common Core State Standards in the United States and the K–12 curriculum in New Zealand. I asked Chris Franklin, the lead author of that GAISE report, to summarize its impact:
The goal was to provide a document that further expanded and complemented the data analysis and probability strand in the 2000 NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The Pre-K–12 report was completed in 2005 with a slight revision and hard copy printing in 2007. ASA and the authors began presenting GAISE at national mathematic[s] and statistic[s] meetings. There were many math educators and statistics educators promoting the inclusion of statistics using the GAISE document.
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) happened very quickly in 2009, and of the primary writers for the math standards, there were no statisticians. Due to the vision of ASA, the Pre-K–12 GAISE framework document was able to at least be on the table for the writers. Many of us are convinced we wouldn’t have the current statistics standards at grades 6–12 without Pre-K–12 GAISE. The ASA advisory group fought hard to get statistics standards at K–5, but didn’t win that battle.
The Pre-K–12 GAISE framework has been influential internationally. For example, New Zealand utilized it in the late 2000s when they were revising their national standards, influencing the NZ standards before CCSS. In the NZ maths and statistics standards, as GAISE promoted, statistics standards are across all grades levels. At the request of several countries with Spanish as the native language, ASA will soon be releasing a Spanish translation of the Pre-K–12 GAISE framework.
6. Volunteer Locally
The ASA has more than 70 chapters throughout the United States and Canada, all run by volunteers. In a 2014 article, almost half of the Founders Award winners interviewed mentioned they got their start with ASA volunteer activities through a local chapter. It’s a great way to get to know statisticians from other sectors in your geographic area. If you don’t want to make an ongoing commitment, you can volunteer to help out with an activity. Many chapters sponsor activities such as poster competitions and career days and are looking for local statisticians to serve as judges or speakers. Contact your local chapter leadership and ask how you can get involved!
There are other ways to get involved in your local community, as well. Volunteer to visit a local AP Statistics or community college statistics class and talk about what you do. You might just change a life! The ASA-sponsored website This is Statistics has a toolkit for statistics careers that you can download, with PowerPoint slides and talking points.
7. Explore the ASA Website
The ASA website includes a variety of interesting and useful material, and it’s just a few clicks away! Want to watch webinars about leadership? How about on education? Find resources and ASA policy about climate change, forensic science, or election auditing? Learn about the dozens of awards and scholarships the ASA offers? Those and much more are hidden in plain site on the website.
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