The ASA has joined other leading statistical societies to declare 2013 the International Year of Statistics in order to promote the importance of statistics to the broader scientific community, business and government data users, media, policymakers, employers, students, and the general public. Here, ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein describes the focus of the event.

COPAFS is the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics and acts as an advocate for the development and dissemination of high-quality federal statistics. Member organizations include professional associations, businesses, research institutes, and others interested in federal statistics. Through COPAFS, members have an opportunity to review and affect issues such as timeliness, quality, confidentiality, and the relevance of data. COPAFS holds quarterly meetings, the last one being on December 2, 2011.

A biopharmaceutical symposium, BASS XIX, will be held November 5–9 at the Mulberry Inn Suites in historic Savannah, Georgia.

News and information about members of the ASA highlighted in the February issue. For a complete listing of news and information about members of the ASA, click here.

The American Statistical Association is seeking a director of programs to report to and work closely with the executive director to execute the ASA’s strategic and short-range plans.

The National Institute of Statistical Sciences and Duke University received a grant from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Census Bureau for the Triangle Census Research Network.

The first electronic Conference on Teaching Statistics (eCOTS) will take place from May 14–18 through the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education.

The Scientific and Public Affairs Committee invites all 2012 JSM poster contributors to compete for a policy applications prize in its third Statistical Significance competition.

Nancy Geller, 2011 ASA president, led the board through a rich agenda that reflected the membership’s diversity of areas of statistical practice during its final meeting of 2011.

The 2011 New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports was held on September 24, 2011, at the Harvard University Science Center.