From left: John Boyer, Council of Chapters Representative; Katherine From left: Al Zarate, chair of the ASA Committee on Privacy and
Monti, Council of Chapters Representative; Sastry Pantula, Treasurer; and Confidentiality; David Banks, Council of Sections Representative; and
Nathaniel Schenker, Vice President Thomas Santner, Council of Sections Representative
unanimously to have staff members take initial steps in the coming Committee review—The Committee on Committees reported
year, spending some resources to get started, toward an advance- on its process for reviewing activities and charges of committees.
ment program and to bring a proposal to the board for the 2010 Minor changes were made to the charge of the Committee on
budget during the budget cycle next spring. Applied Statisticians and clarifications were made to the wording of
the composition of the Committee on Fellows.
Science policy—ASA Director of Science Policy Steve Pierson
reviewed progress on science policy issues. He updated board mem- Publications report—Ed Wegman, publications representative
bers on the status of federal funding for research and statistical to the board, reported on the activities and deliberations of the
agencies. Pierson also noted he is working with the Scientific and Committee on Publications. Among these are a proposal to part-
Public Affairs (SPA) Committee to plan a congressional visits day ner with a commercial publisher and other statistical societies to
that will take place on the last day of JSM 2009. The goal is to have produce an open-access statistics and probability encyclopedia and
at least 50 members visit congressional staff for their elected offi- a proposal from the Section on Nonparametric Statistics to launch
cials. Pierson and others will help prepare volunteers for these vis- an electronic journal, Contemporary Nonparametric Statistics. The
its. Pierson also reported on potential ASA involvement with two committee will discuss these and other items and make recom-
studies on the future of the statistical and mathematical sciences mendations to the board at an appropriate time.
being considered by the NSF and the National Resource Council’s
Board of Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications. JSM structure—The board continued an ongoing discussion
with the Committee on Meetings regarding possible changes to
Statement on disclosure risk—Al Zarate, chair of the the structure of future JSMs. The Committee on Meetings will
Committee on Privacy and Confidentiality, presented a proposed work with the Membership Surveys Committee to get data about
ASA statement on “protection of confidentiality and privacy and the interests and needs of members of the JSM partners to shape
appropriate methods of disclosure control.” The board considered future discussions.
the statement, made suggestions, and referred it back to the com-
mittee through staff. With some minor work, the statement will be International activities—Demissie Alemayehu, chair of the
ready this fall. The board thanked Zarate and the committee for its Committee on International Relations in Statistics, reported on
work in preparing the draft. the committee’s activities of the past year, focusing especially
on the educational ambassadorship program. Alemayehu sought
Statistical principles in post-election audits—The board feedback from the board about the program and future direc-
gave the ASA’s endorsement to the statistical component of the tions for international activities. The committee made sugges-
proposed Principles and Best Practices for Post-Election Audits tions that will be researched this fall and considered by the board
2008, a set of guidelines proposed by a coalition of groups inter- in December.
ested in post-election auditing and election integrity. (See Pierson’s
article on next page for details.) NISS report—Alan Karr, executive director of the National
Institute of Statistical Sciences, and Jim Landwehr, chair of the
Council of Sections—The board heard the report of the Council NISS Board, reported an eventful year for NISS, with new clients
of Sections Governing Board. The Council of Sections is con- and research topics, a building expansion, completion of a strategic
sidering the addition of two new sections—a section on statisti- positioning study, hiring of a director of communications, changes
cal programming and a section on statistical learning and data in the leadership of the board of trustees, and multiple workshops
mining—and the addition of a new interest group, teaching of and conferences.
statistics in business schools. The council also completed its peri- The board will meet again in December for its final meeting
odic review of invited session allocations for sections. of 2008. n
OCTOBER 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 5
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