Biometrics
Business Meeting Covers Much Ground
Edited by Page Moore, Biometrics section Publications Officer
T
he Biometrics Section recently
held its annual business commit-
Dues Increase
tee meeting during JSM in
Washington, DC. Dan Heitjan, 2009
Daniel Heitjan, 2009 section Chair
section chair, welcomed members and
The section’s executive committee voted on August 2 to increase annual dues
guests and introduced Steve Pierson, the
from $3 to $5. Why raise dues now? Let’s start with a bit of history.
ASA’s director of science policy. Pierson
Although our section is the largest in the ASA, with more than 2,000 paying
described efforts to develop a series of
members, we have traditionally been among the low-dues/low-service sections.
one-page documents for policymakers
In recent years, however, there has been interest in increasing the section’s role
called “Statistical Significance” that
in professional outreach.
underscore significant contributions
In 2003, then Section Chair Dennis Dixon began our membership initiative
statisticians have made in key areas such
grants program, which last year distributed $12,000 and is by far the largest
as health care, economic productivity,
item in our budget. We hope to continue this important initiative. We would
and national security. Pierson said he
also like to raise our section’s profile at JSM by holding a morning refreshment
views his role, in part, as educating the
event. Of course, we also must periodically raise levels of our young investigator
ASA membership about ways to influ-
awards, and the prices of traditional budget items (e.g., the executive committee
ence science policy and invited sugges-
meeting and mixer) do not stand still. Although we have tried to cut costs in
tions for ASA science policy action from
other areas (e.g., holding the executive committee meeting offsite), our expenses
section members.
were so modest before that little is saved.
Hormuzd Katki issued a call for invit-
If we are to continue our effort to become a more dynamic section, we need
ed session proposals to be submitted by
to realize more revenue. Raising our dues to $5 will put us in the low to mid-
September 9, noting that the section has
dle range among ASA sections, but will give us another $4,000 to work with.
four invited session slots and can com-
Although nobody likes to ask for more money, particularly in these challenging
pete for up to two more. Jerry Heatley
times, we hope the benefits will be worth the price.
reported on the success of this year’s
As always, feel free to share your comments and suggestions with any
continuing education courses and noted
member of the executive committee or with me by sending an email to
that there is a September 30 deadline for
dheitjan@upenn.edu.
course proposals for next year’s JSM.
The section recognized the efforts of
Heatley as 2009 continuing education
chair and Wensheng Guo as 2009 JSM understanding and enthusiasm for statis- continue indefinitely. It also was noted
section program chair. tics as a profession. The section’s support that the executive committee voted to
Past section chair Jeremy Taylor provided a foundation for the group to raise section dues from $3 to $5; $4,500
introduced Sonja Greven of The Johns develop a successful application for would be budgeted for student awards,
Hopkins University as the winner of the National Institutes of Health/National with the Byar Award winner receiving
David P. Byar Young Investigator Award Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute fund- $1,500 and the remainder being given as
and Xiaoxi Zhang of Pfizer as the recipient ing to broaden dissemination of such travel awards; and that an initiative to pro-
of the Biometrics Section travel award. materials. Jeremy Taylor paid tribute to vide refreshments and/or coffee between
Bonnie LaFleur described the sec- the leadership of previous section chair the morning sessions during JSM was
tion’s member initiative program, which Dennis Dixon, who initiated the sec- being explored.
made four grants this year with a total tion’s member initiative program. Complete minutes of the
budget of $12,000. LaFleur intro- Treasurer Tom Belin reported that the meeting can be found at www.bio.ri.ccf.
duced Roslyn Stone of the University of section started calendar year 2008 with a org/biometrics.
Pittsburgh, who received multiple mem- balance of $35,585.54 and ended the year
ber initiative awards. She described her with $26,081.67. It was noted that while
Applications Invited
group’s work with a local high-school the drawdown was intentional as part of
Do you know a young investigator
AP Statistics class. The project involved an effort to maintain section funds at rea-
who is planning to submit an abstract
developing take-home materials for stu- sonable levels (approximately twice annu-
for the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings?
dents, teachers, and parents to encourage al expenses), such an imbalance could not
If so, you might mention that the
OCTObER 2009 AMsTAT NEWs 65
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