KEEP STORY BEFORE CHANCE HIGHLIGHTS
Strategic Planning Process Implemented
Ann Cannon
Scribe for the Strategic Planning Committee
Section on Statistical Education
W
ith the generous support of an the perspective of the ASA as a whole to By this, he meant identifying the section’s
ASA member initiative grant, the effort. customers/end users, roles, and responsibili-
the Section on Statistical The bulk of the strategic planning work
ties. He also asked the committee to take a
Education embarked on a strategic plan- was accomplished by the strategic planning
close look at the section charter so it could
ning process just before and during JSM committee. Its members met for a little
be kept in mind during the discussion.
2008. Planning for this meeting began in more than eight hours on the Saturday
Next, the committee considered the ASA
the early spring, when the executive com- before JSM with a facilitator who set the
strategic plan. For each of the eight subsec-
mittee for the section identified six section agenda for the day, taking the committee
tions of the plan, committee members iden-
members to serve on the strategic planning through the following areas: vision and mis-
tified what the section already does, what it
committee. These people represented as sion, ASA strategic plan, mission statement
should do, and what it could do.
many constituencies as possible: statisti- for the section, identifying strategic objec-
The next step was to write a mission
cians in university departments other than tives, and where we go from here. While
statistics; liberal arts colleges; statistics edu- the committee discussed all these areas
statement for the section and determine its
cators who are not tenure-track faculty, but and accomplished an amazing amount of
strategic objectives. In particular, the com-
faculty with administrative duties tied to work in that one day, one lesson the section
mittee spent a lot of time brainstorming
education (e.g., being in charge of large would pass on is to schedule more time.
(without comment) for strategic objectives.
lecture courses with many TAs); and grad- Perhaps a day and a half would be suffi-
All the ideas (a few dozen) were then listed
uate-level statistics departments more gen- cient, as the committee felt rushed at the
and clarified.
erally. The sixth member and leader of the end of the eight-hour day (even though it
Finally, the members of the committee
group was past section chair Jessica Utts, was stretched to eight and a half hours). voted. The aim, as recommended by the
who was a member of the ASA strategic The first task set by the facilitator was to facilitator, was an end result of five to seven
planning committee and able to bring discuss the vision and mission of the section. strategic objectives.
That Saturday evening, the strategic
planning committee shared the process and
outcomes (the mission statement and list
of strategic objectives) with the executive
NSF Sponsors Travel Grants to
committee of the section. This larger group
discussed and debated the two outcomes,
ISI Meeting
particularly the list of objectives. Four objec-
tives were nearly unanimously included.
The ASA has received funding from the National Science
Five others were thought to merit continued
Foundation (NSF) to support travel to Durban, South
discussion. That discussion led to a mission
Africa, for the August 16–22, 2009, meeting of the
statement and a final list of seven strategic
International Statistical Institute (ISI). The grant will
objectives—all in line with, and in response
provide partial transportation assistance to individuals
to, the larger ASA strategic plan.
presenting papers or who have an official function at the The final steps were to share the out-
meeting. Women, minorities, and newer faculty who com- comes at the annual section business meet-
pleted PhD requirements in 1996 or later are encouraged ing during JSM and then send an email to
to apply.
the entire membership with the mission
Meeting attendees must be members of ISI or one of its sections or an official
statement and strategic objectives. This
representative of an invited organization. The ISI sections include the International
email went out in the middle of September,
Association of Survey Statisticians, the International Association of Statistical
giving members until the middle of October
Computing, the International Association of Official Statistics, the Bernoulli Society
to comment. The executive committee is
for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, and the International Association for
now considering those comments and plans
Statistical Education.
to hold a vote on the two documents by
For a copy of the ISI travel grant application—due February 20, 2009—visit
mid-December.
www.amstat.org/research_grants/2009TravelGrantApplicationISI.doc.
Anyone interested in details about
For additional information, email
isitravel@amstat.org.
this process is welcome to contact Utts at
jutts@uci.edu. n
8 AMSTAT NEWS NOVEMBER 2008
AMSTAT November 08.indd 8 10/24/08 2:27:38 PM
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