Laura Harmon, ASA Marketing and Online Community Coordinator

The ASA’s Committee on Membership Retention and Recruitment (CMRR) reached out to ASA members this past fall for help establishing the ASA Speakers Bureau. Created specifically for the benefit of student chapters, smaller local ASA chapters, and geographically isolated groups of statisticians, the ASA Speakers Bureau officially launched in January 2019 and is off to a strong start.

After receiving support via an ASA Member Initiative proposal, the CMRR collected speaker nominations and assembled a group of more than 50 ASA members willing to travel or present long-distance to students and isolated statisticians. In January, ASA staff reached out to the ASA’s student chapter presidents to see who would like to be the first to take advantage of this new resource.

Lauren Clark, president of the University of Kansas Medical Center (UMKC) ASA Student Chapter, was the first to respond. After working to find a good match, the speakers bureau was able to connect her with Howard Hogan, chief demographer of the US Census Bureau (retired), who presented long-distance to UMKC students on January 24.

“[His] presentation was very informative and interesting, running from ancient censuses to the role of censuses in the Civil War to more modern developments in the Census-like sampling, imputation, and computer-generated graphics,” said Clark. Hogan added that he very much enjoyed presenting.

As the spring 2019 semester continues, the bureau is working with three more student chapter presidents to match their chapters with speakers. If you are a student group or an isolated group that struggles to find presenters, email ASA Marketing and Online Community Coordinator Lara Harmon at least three to four weeks ahead of when you hope to host a speaker for help.