ASA President Lisa LaVange convened the first ASA Board meeting of 2018 at the ASA offices in Alexandria, Virginia. The highlights of the meeting follow.
Discussion Items
- The board engaged in a lively strategic planning discussion, resulting in ideas that will find their way to the pages of Amstat News in the coming months.
- The board reviewed an ASA Statement on Conveying Forensic Findings. Board approval through the Board Executive Committee will follow after some minor changes.
- The board met with Juan Meza, the new director of the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation. Meza outlined areas of current and future investment for DMS. He emphasized the connection of funding to the NSF’s “Ten Big Ideas.”
Action Items
- The following editorial appointments were made:
- Tyler McCormick, University of Washington, Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 2019–2021
- Jeff Witmer, Oberlin College, Journal of Statistics Education, 2019–2021
- Ricardo Cao, University of A Coruña, Journal of Nonparametric Statistics, 2019–2021
- Jerome Reiter, Duke University, Statistics and Public Policy, 2019–2021
- V. Roshan Joseph, Georgia Institute of Technology, Technometrics, 2020–2022
- Journal prices were reviewed and an increase of 5% on institutional North American and international print and online prices for 2019 was approved, as was a 2% increase on ASA member rates for print. Online access for ASA members is free.
- The board approved a revision to the ASA’s Guidelines for Ethical Statistical Practice. The revision addresses areas of professional misconduct not addressed in the current guidelines. Read the updated guidelines.
- The board updated the policy for formation of ASA outreach groups to clarify the purposes for such groups.
Reported Items
- Associate Executive Director and Director of Operations Steve Porzio updated the board on ASA financials for 2017. The year ended in the black. Also, Porzio and ASA Treasurer Amarjot Kaur presented the results of the ASA’s annual audit. The board thanked Porzio and staff for another clean audit.
- Kaur also updated the board on the status of the ASA’s investments. Investments gained about $2.5 million in value in 2017. Market value at the end of March 2018 was about $20.6 million.
- Kaur also presented proposed changes to the ASA bylaws to update the names and descriptions of some of the standing committees related to finance and budget. Those proposed changes are being published in this issue of Amstat News.
- The board received progress reports on the strategic initiatives launched by ASA President Lisa LaVange. All are well under way. In addition, ASA President-elect Karen Kafadar discussed with the board ideas she has for 2019. Further discussion of those ideas and detailed proposals to implement them will follow.
- The Council of Chapters Governing Board (COCGB) and the Council of Sections Governing Board (COSGB) reported on their recent activities. The COCGB highlighted its work to monitor the “health” of chapters and noted the creation of a new chapter, the Columbus (Ohio) Chapter. On the “health” theme, the COSGB has been developing better ways to evaluate the well-being of sections, including fiscal status and services to section members.
- Vice President Williamson presented the annual report of the Membership Council. These council reports help the board stay connected with ASA committees, and vice versa. Board members learned of committee activities and plans and heard questions or concerns from committees.
- Amanda Malloy, ASA director of development, provided a brief update on the ASA’s fundraising activities, and Steve Pierson, ASA director of science policy, updated the board on our advocacy work. Malloy noted that 2017 was our best year yet in terms of fundraising, continuing a multi-year string of best years. Pierson noted the launch of the ASA’s Count on Stats program, concerns about statistical agency independence in Puerto Rico, the latest developments with the citizenship question being added to the Census, and numerous other items of importance to our community.
- ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein updated the board on the follow up to the successful Symposium on Statistical Inference, held in October 2017. Later this year, a special issue of The American Statistician on the topic of statistical inference will serve as a “work product” of the symposium, though papers were welcomed from everyone, not just symposium participants. This special issue will be online only and open access.
The full board meets again July 27–28 in Vancouver, immediately prior to the start of JSM 2018. The board will also have its annual budget meeting on June 8 at the ASA HQ in Alexandria, Virginia.
2018 Board of Directors
- Lisa LaVange, President
- Karen Kafadar, President-elect
- Barry Nussbaum, Past-President
- Kathy Ensor, Third-Year Vice President
- David Williamson, Second-Year Vice President
- Katherine Monti, First-Year Vice President
- Paula Roberson, Third-Year Council of Chapters Representative
- Julia Sharp, Second-Year Council of Chapters Representative
- Don Jang, First-Year Council of Chapters Representative
- Eileen King, Third-Year Council of Sections Representative
- Jim Lepkowski, Second-Year Council of Sections Representative
- Katherine Halvorsen, First-Year Council of Sections Representative
- Cynthia Bocci, International Representative
- Scott Evans, Publications Representative
- Amarjot Kaur, Treasurer
- Ron Wasserstein, Executive Director and Board Secretary
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