Statistics Without Borders Gets
Off Ground
E
nter “without borders” into any search engine
and you will be amazed at the breadth of
results. The first page of a Google search
includes what one would expect: Doctors Without
Borders (or Médecins Sans Frontières), Teachers
Without Borders, Engineers Without Borders,
Lawyers Without Borders, Builders Without
Borders, and MBAs Without Borders. As you prog-
ress through the pages of the search, you find other
interesting results—Architects Without Borders,
Sociologists Without Borders, Scientists Without
Borders—organizations of various sizes and mis-
sions, all devoted to international aid and assistance
in their respective areas. The search eventually reveals
some unexpected results: Clowns Without Borders,
Geeks Without Borders, Soccer Without Borders,
Alpacas Without Borders?
Wine Without Borders, and Alpacas Without
Photo courtesy of Alpacas Without Borders, www.
alpacaswithoutborders.org
Borders. Obviously, borders are of great interest to a
variety of special interest groups.
Soon, the results of such a search will include
Statistics Without Borders (SWB). This ASA affili-
ated group, comprised of 40 volunteers, was estab-
lished to provide pro bono statistical expertise
to nonprofit organizations working on problems
Special Interest Group
broadly related to international health issues. The
members of SWB have been as busy as bees (and
yes, there is a Bees Without Borders) over the past Guatemalan Police
several months. Since its inception in October of
2008, SWB has accomplished the following:
Records: An Update
Gathered information about and built a data
base on the pro bono interests of its members
Gary Shapiro
Held monthly meetings of its executive
committee to discuss various issues and strategies
Developed its web site
W
arehouses containing old National Police records were discov-
ered several years ago in Guatemala City, Guatemala. They are
of great interest to those seeking information about police
abuses of the 70s and 80s. As part of the activities of the ASA Special
Contacted other organizations (Engineers Interest Group on Volunteerism, Paul Zador and Gary Shapiro have been
Without Borders, Doctors Without Borders, helping Benetech staff select samples of the police records and determine
Scientists Without Borders, On-Call weights and variance estimates.
Scientists UNESCO, WHO, Nuba Water The survey is a multistage sample of room-size areas (environ-
Project, and Inter-American Development ments), containers within environments, bundles within containers,
Bank) to discuss potential joint projects and page clusters within bundles. The survey has been greatly compli-
cated by difficult warehouse conditions and haphazard storage, empty
Planned an organizational meeting to be held
space in environments, and moving of containers while the survey is
during JSM 2009 in Washington, DC
being conducted. The first stage of data collection has been done, and
Do you have suggestions for SWB projects? Perhaps
weighting and analysis is ongoing. Planning also has been completed
you know of a nonprofit working on a health-related
for a second stage of data collection.
issue that could use some assistance. If so (or if you
For more information about the Special Interest Group on
would like more information about SWB), contact
Volunteerism, visit
www.amstat-online.org/sig/volunteerism/tiki-index.php. ■
SWB co-chairs Gary Shapiro at
shapirg1@westat.com
or James J. Cochran at
jcochran@cab.latech .edu. ■
MAY 2009 AMSTAT NEWS 15
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