Input Sought on New Strategic Plan
Bob Rodriguez, Strategic Plan Task Force Chair
A
SA members have the opportunity to provide input on the ASA web site, the President’s Column in the July issue of Amstat
draft of a new strategic plan for the association, which was News, and the ASA open meeting at JSM.
developed by a task force appointed by President Mary In July, task force members evaluated this information using a
Ellen Bock in April 2007. The plan provides a concise set of high- SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
level objectives and strategies to guide fundamental decisions made with assistance from a consultant experienced in strategic planning
by future ASA presidents and boards. for nonprofit organizations. ASA board members then discussed
Members of the task force are Nicholas Fisher of ValueMetrics the results at their July meeting. In October, the task force identi-
Australia; Gerald Gates (recently retired from the U.S. Census fied a set of eight strategic issues based on the SWOT analysis and
Bureau); Robert Rodriguez of SAS Institute; Jessica Utts of the all the input received up to that point. Members of the task force
University of California, Davis; and ASA Executive Director developed an objective and strategies for each issue, which the
Ronald Wasserstein. chair then presented to the board in a series of webinars.
Since May, the task force has obtained input from more than The outcome is a draft strategic plan, available at www.
70 stakeholders, including leaders of ASA committees and activi-
surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KDcoM6vOYJWNc1yrkAr2ow_3d_3d.
ties, ASA staff members, student members and recent graduates, ASA members can provide feedback by clicking into the story on
past presidents, representatives of other societies, academic depart- the ASA’s home page at
www.amstat.org. The deadline for com-
ment heads, and hiring managers in corporate and government ments is February 1, 2008, and adoption of the final plan is expect-
environments. Also, members of the task force have encouraged ed to take place at the March meeting of the ASA board. n
ASA members to provide input through an announcement on the
Draft of ASA Strategic Plan (December 1, 2007)
Theme background Objective Strategies
1. Membership A strength of ASA is the mix of members Make membership attractive to (a) Conduct a systematic review of the
Growth from business/industry, government, students, young statisticians, applied knowledge and skills needed by these
and higher education. However, statisticians, quantitative analysts (in groups; (b) Work with appropriate
permanent membership in ASA has areas such as financial services), and committees, sections and chapters to
declined annually since the mid-1990s. government statisticians develop and implement products and
At the same time, there is widespread services to meet these needs
concern that ASA does not serve the
needs of applied statisticians (including
MS level statisticians) and other non-
academic groups. Opportunities for
meeting these needs include a program
for individual accreditation and serving
as a source of information useful to
general statistical analysts. A challenge
for ASA is to reach out to underserved
groups while preserving our traditional
strengths, particularly among academic
statisticians.
2. Public The field of statistics suffers from Stimulate public awareness of the role (a) Develop and implement a
Awareness lack of visibility and identity in spite of statistics and statisticians in issues comprehensive public awareness plan,
of ever-increasing demands for that affect daily life identifying our various audiences,
statistical analysis in areas of science, devising messages for each, and using
government, and business that rely on appropriate vehicles to reach those
massive data bases and information audiences; (b) Strengthen ASA’s ability
technology. A weakness of ASA is to advise the media and respond to
that it is not the “face of statistics”. The media requests
ASA should become a primary source
for the media on events that involve
statistical issues, and for management
on the role and value of statisticians.
4 AMSTAT NEWS JANUARY 2008
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