This is a new series featuring ASA members who share their ASA stories. Our mission is to collect authentic and meaningful accounts of member experiences. If you have a story you would like to share, email the ASA’s marketing and communications coordinator, Kim Gilliam.

I first joined the ASA in 1973, when I was a graduate student in the department of biostatistics at The University of North Carolina. I was basically told that if I was going to be a professional statistician, then I should join the largest organization of professional statisticians in the world. (If you want to be a grown-up statistician, then … .) So, I joined.

Although I attended JSM most years and had been slightly involved through grad school and the next 16 years in St. Louis, my ASA involvement level ratcheted up when I moved to Boston in 1991. I joined the chapter’s planning committee and later was elected secretary, then president. By 1995, my career had drifted into the pharma world and I was appointed to the executive committee of the Biopharmaceutical Section, later becoming a section representative to the Council of Sections and eventually section chair.

The more involved you get, the more effective your networking …

Next came ASA committees. My major efforts there involved a five-year stint as a member (and chair one year) of the Advisory Committee on Continuing Education (the ACCE selects the short courses) and a term on the Fellows Committee, also with a one-year chair position. Snuck in between some of those appointments, I was elected as the Council of Chapters representative to the board. Most recently, I was elected as an ASA vice president.

How did I get so involved? I showed up, did what needed to be done, and—the next thing I knew—I was appointed or elected to something else. I said “yes.”

You might wonder if all this volunteer work has taken time. Yes, indeed, but, overall, it has been exceedingly worthwhile. The more involved you get, the more effective your networking is, the more you learn, the more friends you make, and the more you are invited to do. I very strongly suspect my election as ASA Fellow was supported by my ASA involvement. And it is extremely satisfying to know that, in my own way, I have been of service to my professional organization.

What’s been most rewarding about my involvement? So many stories! So little space! I’ll pick three.

One of my greatest honors was being appointed to the Fellows Committee. What an amazing experience it turned out to be. Over my three years on the committee, we reviewed a total of 299 nomination packets. It just blew me away to see how many statisticians have made so many astounding contributions to statistics, to the great human endeavor, and to the ASA. Wow!

Next up: my trail of documentation. Trail of what, you ask? Documentation. My contributions to the ASA include some sort of improved documentation for just about every corner of the ASA in which I’ve been active. Maybe I have a fear of failing to do what I am supposed to do, but whenever I had a “job” to do, I wanted to know what I was supposed to do. When there was nothing that approached a “job description,” I made one. If there was a need for updating an operations manual or other document and I was there? You guessed it. My finger prints are on, to a greater or lesser extent, the assignment of chapters to districts and regions, the tips sheet and FAQ sheet for fellows nominations, the Biopharmaceutical Section operations manual, and the recently updated ASA constitution and bylaws, to name a few.

Last but by no means least, one of the greatest pleasures has been working with the amazing crew who inhabit—or at least used to inhabit—ASA headquarters in Alexandria. Ron Wasserstein inherited some very talented folks when he became executive director about 13 years ago and has brought in some other top-notch professionals, creating a highly effective team. The support that crew offers is amazing. Just today, I asked for some information, needing it quickly, assuming it even still existed. I had the answer in under 10 minutes! They always pull off JSM, but JSM 2020? That worked amazingly well. We are all so very fortunate as a profession to have such able leadership and assistance.