ASA President Barry D. Nussbaum speaks during a mini-conference at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The event was hosted by the Alabama Chapter of the ASA.

The Alabama Chapter hosted a mini-conference November 11 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Approximately 50 current and prospective chapter members attended.

The participants came from Alabama and Mississippi, and were primarily affiliated with UAB, the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), Mississippi State University, and the University of Mississippi.

The keynote speaker was ASA President Barry Nussbaum, who gave a talk, titled “It’s Not What We Say; It’s Not What They Heard; It’s What They Say They Heard.” His primary premise was that even when we as statisticians carefully present our results and conclusions to decision makers, the message the recipients (decision makers) receive may not be what we thought we delivered or what we thought they heard. He illustrated what one should and should not do through examples used in court cases, executive documents, and material presented for the president of the United States. Nussbaum’s talk, given with a mix of seriousness and humor, was well received.

Student presenters and their topics included the following:

• Sheida Raihi, Mississippi State University, “Measuring and Testing Central Symmetry in Bivariate Settings”
• Yuliang Liu, UAB, “Comparison of Single Event, Competing Risk, and Frailty-Based Models for Competing Risks Data”
• Curry Hilton, University of Alabama, “Statistical Process Measurement (SPM) R Package”
• Yan Li, UAB, “Sample Size Re-Estimation for Confirmatory Multi-Arm Trials with Normal Outcomes”

The chapter also held a business meeting, during which members discussed the governing structure of the chapter—particularly writing an up-to-date chapter constitution—proposed activities for 2017—including another mini-conference—and brainstormed ways to promote the chapter and participation in chapter activities.