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PRESIDENT’S CORNER
To the Future Presidents of
the ASA
T
his is my last president’s column. Last month, I asked Bob take direction from that plan and apply their interests and creativity
Mason and Mike O’Fallon to reminisce about their terms. to implementing it.
This month, I will claim that privilege. In one sense, this The president-elect, president, and past president visit various agen-
column is directed toward the next presidents-elect, in addition to cies at the time of each board meeting. During my time, we visited the
the membership. EPA, FDA, NSF, and U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, at one board
When I started my term as president-elect, everything was new. meeting, we had dinner with the heads of all statistical agencies. It has
I had not been on the board and was unfamiliar with the workings been valuable for us to learn about the activities of these agencies. We
of the ASA. Bill Smith, who was executive director at the time, and may begin arranging visits with industry groups, though this will be a
various committee chairs helped me get my bearings. Susan Devlin, bit more difficult because they are not concentrated in the DC area.
incoming chair of the Committee on Committees, was particularly We may invite some groups to the ASA office.
helpful. One project that was getting started was the ad hoc advisory I was often asked to speak to various chapters of the ASA. These are
committee on presidential appointments. I didn’t make as much use of interesting, and I got to meet people I never would have otherwise. I
it as I could have, but future presidents will have a slightly more formal spoke to six chapters and all were fun. Some were in connection with
process. This committee helps the president-elect name the committee a career day, where I had the delightful opportunity to meet high-
membership. As you may know, one of the first jobs of the president- schoolers. I suggest giving this talk in the spring, as the students will
elect is to reappoint or name new committee members. have had their AP Statistics course by then. In one talk, the students
There are about 150 appointments to make. The ASA has a staff were just beginning and hadn’t yet gotten excited about our subject.
member who kept me informed of the appointments that needed to Another speaking issue is the presidential address at JSM. This was
be made, and I made many lists of volunteers, recommendations, etc. terrifying when I first thought about it. As it approached, I wrote the
Some committees must have experienced members (e.g., the nomina- talk, organized the issues, and became far less stressed about it. One of
tions committee needs people familiar with many statisticians who the great privileges is to award the Fellows with their certificates and
will serve; the Fellows committee must have members who are current shake their hands. Some close friends were on the list, and that was a
Fellows, etc.). It’s important to contact committee chairs and see if special treat.
they have suggestions or special needs. The suggestions are just that— Every president seems to have to deal with at least one controversial
committee chairs do not have the privilege of naming their commit- issue. I have been fortunate in that these have been limited, but one
tees. However, when I got good suggestions, I usually followed them. issue led to some bad feelings. Another set of incidents was from a
Sometimes, there would be no response, which left me in a quandary. Fellow who had an issue he was passionate about, but really needed to
Another benefit of naming committee members is that you get to learn be handled through the committee structure. When I suggested that,
about some of the committees that you’d previously paid no attention he was not a happy camper. It is important for presidents to remember
to. For me, the Committee on Statistics and Disability was one. to take advantage of the resources of the association to address difficult
I mentioned Bill Smith, the outgoing executive director of the ASA issues. These resources include the committees, the ASA staff, and the
as a big help. Bill had been in that position for about six years and membership. An important issue facing us has to do with online pub-
knew the association inside and out. Any questions I had, he knew the lication and a wiki site. Stay tuned …
answer to. The new executive director, Ron Wasserstein, has the same It is important to communicate important issues to the ASA mem-
talents and knowledge. bership. The ASA presidents have the monthly president’s column in
Early in the year (February), the president-elect gets to decide on Amstat News that allows this. I could not think of 12 ‘great’ columns
the theme for the annual meetings. I had a good idea of what I want- to write, so I asked members to write about topics of interest. Thus, we
ed, but Bill helped and added to my title, which improved it a great had columns about various jobs, committees, the task force on com-
deal. Ron is continuing with this practice. munications, Student’s t centenary, voting, former president’s reminis-
As part of the theme, the president-elect may want to name task cences. These were interesting to me, and I hope to you, too.
forces to make recommendations to the association. At the March It has been a delight and a great privilege to serve as the ASA presi-
Board of Directors meeting, the president-elect is given time for brain- dent. The presidency of the association is a prestigious position, and
storming. I had some thoughts, and the board split into two groups people within and without the ASA give the president a great deal of
to consider them and make short recommendations. I later forwarded deference. I’ve been honored to serve the ASA, but I will be equally
these to a task force I appointed. In some cases, task forces from prior glad to go back to just being Tony.
years can continue. However, future presidents-elect have the advan-
tage of a fully developed strategic plan to work from, and they will
2 AMSTAT NEWS DECEMBER 2008
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