ASA President Rob Santos called to order the first 2021 meeting of the ASA Board on Wednesday, April 14. The board met via videoconference over a three-day period. The highlights of the board meeting follow.

Actions

The board …

• Updated the ASA’s Activities Conduct Policy and renamed the policy as the ASA Code of Conduct.
• Updated the ASA’s accreditation guidelines to incorporate the Code of Conduct.
• Made editorial appointments for eight ASA journals based on recommendations from search committees and the Committee on Publications. Terms will begin in 2022, but editorial transitions will begin soon.
• Accepted the results of the 2020 audit, another clean audit for ASA.
• Changed investment advisers, agreeing to transfer management of the ASA’s assets to Vanguard.
• Set journal prices for 2022.
• Decided the format of JSM 2021 needed to be virtual and set registration prices.
• Simplified the membership category structure to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
• Recommended a change to the ASA bylaws to make the treasurer an elected position on the board.
• Revised the process for determining when to take an official position on a policy-related issue based on recommendations from the ASA Committee on Scientific and Public Affairs.
• Endorsed the 7th edition of Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, published by the Committee on National Statistics.

Reports and Discussions

• Associate Executive Director and Director of Operations Steve Porzio summarized the end-of-year financials for 2020. He noted ongoing challenges with variations in revenue sources and indicated that costs will continue to be tightly controlled.
• ASA Treasurer Ruixiao Lu reported on the ASA’s investments. She reviewed the allocation of the ASA’s nearly $21 million among various types of investments as of March 31. Lu also updated the board on the activities of the Investments Committee and Audit Committee.
• Adrian Coles and David Marker, co-chairs of the ASA’s Antiracism Task Force, updated the board on the progress of the task force. They reminded the board of the task force membership, the goals of the task force, the timeline for the task force, and the way the task force has organized itself to accomplish its tasks. They shared reports from each of the three subcommittees of the task force, emphasizing that the process is well underway and recommendations would be emerging later in the process.
• ASA President Rob Santos, President-elect Kathy Ensor, and Past President Wendy Martinez updated the board on the strategic initiatives they are planning or that are in progress. Information about them will appear in Amstat News.
• Council of Chapters Representative Anamaria Kazanis reviewed the activities of the council since November. The council discussed challenges faced by the chapters and is considering new approaches to addressing them. They are focusing on improving communication and leadership. Addressing chapter needs as related to current and future JSMs is also important.
• Council of Sections Representative Mark Glickman reviewed the activities of the council since November. The council met once and Glickman and Council of Sections Governing Board (COSGB) Chair Sarah Kalicin met with the members of the Committee on Membership Retention and Recruitment. The COSGB is continuing to improve several ongoing programs and is considering a survey regarding the value of section and chapter membership.
• ASA Vice President Matilde Sanchez-Kam, chair of the Membership Council, and Mark Otto, vice chair, reported on behalf of the council. For each of the committees in this council, they reported their major accomplishments in 2020, compared them to the previously reported planned activities, and looked ahead to activities for 2021. Issues for the board or staff were noted and will be followed up on.
• ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein shared a draft paper considering changes to the way the ASA provides value and access to members. The paper defined what a membership model is, described the current ASA membership situation, and proposed new approaches. He asked for board feedback to help determine next steps. Armed with many suggestions, Wasserstein will continue to refine the proposal.
• Wasserstein updated the board on activities related to the decision made at the last meeting to join CSAB, an entity involved in accrediting undergraduate data science programs. Everything is proceeding smoothly to merge the ASA into CSAB and the ASA has already had its first opportunity to provide feedback to the data science accreditation criteria.
• ASA Director of Science Policy Steve Pierson provided his regular report on the ASA’s advocacy efforts. He noted that we have been more focused on the federal statistical agencies in the past few years, but we hope to broaden our focus going forward. He mentioned our work with the 2020 Census in developing quality indicators, efforts to interface with the new administration and the legislature regarding statistical agency budgets, and several other ongoing activities of the science policy office.
• ASA Director of Development Amanda Malloy reported on development and fundraising activities and totals for 2020, discussed 2021 plans, and asked the board for feedback and advice, particularly with regards to developing more corporate partnerships. The board provided several suggestions for Malloy to take back to the Development Committee.

The next regular meeting of the board will be August 4–6 via videoconference. The board will hold a budget meeting on June 11.

2021 Board of Directors
Rob Santos, President
Kathy Ensor, President-Elect
Wendy Martinez, Past President
Richard De Veaux, Third-Year Vice President
Dionne Price, Second-Year Vice President
Matilde Sanchez-Kam, First-Year Vice President
Anamaria Kazanis, Third-Year Council of Chapters Representative
Ji-Hyun Lee, Second-Year Council of Chapters Representative
Alexandra Hanlon, First-Year Council of Chapters Representative
Mark Glickman, Third-Year Council of Sections Representative
Rebecca Hubbard, Second-Year Council of Sections Representative
Kate Calder, First-Year Council of Sections Representative
Alexandra Schmidt, International Representative
Bin Nan, Publications Representative
Ruixiao Lu, Treasurer
Ron Wasserstein, Executive Director and Board Secretary