Nominations and applications are being sought for several ASA journals. The deadline for nominations is December 1, 2009.

One of the final tasks of the JSM program chair is to provide a summary of what happened during the meetings. This year’s chair, Wendy Martinez, takes a moment to reflect on the wonderful times she had with colleagues and friends in Washington, DC.

One of the highlights of any JSM are the introductory overview lectures (IOLs). We had five great lectures this year on many timely topics: high-dimensional data, spatial statistics, designing longitudinal studies, causal inference in statistics, and data mining. I was able to attend two, which were very informative, and I heard through the grapevine that the other IOLs were equally as good and well-attended.

The ASA Board of Directors voted to endorse a proposal to create a National Institute of Finance (NIF). The proposal calls for the establishment of the NIF as an independent federal agency with the responsibility and authority to provide the data and analytic tools needed to safeguard the U.S. financial system.

The ASA is pleased to announce its newest benefit of membership, the ASA Community, to foster member engagement and interaction within the ASA.

Medpedia is a project sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, the University of Michigan, and several health care organizations. Its goal is “to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine, and the body among medical professionals and the general public.”