We continue our series that takes you behind the scenes and on the set of an ASA Board of Directors meeting. Tuesday's blog provided an overview of the Board and its meetings. Yesterday we looked at the preparations for the meeting. Today we’ll take a glimpse at other things we ask Board members to do while they are in the DC area for the Board meeting.
Frequently, we ask the Board, particularly the ASA presidents, to help us call upon various federal agencies to introduce the ASA and statistics to them, or to further develop connections that we already have. This week, for example, ASA Past President Marie Davidian will join ASA staff members Steve Pierson (Director of Science Policy), Lynn Palmer (Director of Programs) and me in making two stops at the National Institutes of Health. We’ll meet with the Jon Lorsch, Director of the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), along with his colleagues Susan Gregurick, Director of the Division of Biomedical Technology, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology (BBCB), and Paul Brazhnik, a Program Director in this Division. Davidian, Palmer, and Pierson will also meet with Philip Bourne, the Associate Director for Data Science at the National Institutes of Health.
Board members have visited every one of the principal federal statistical agencies over the years, with frequent visits to agencies like NIH and NSF that provide funding for statistical research. They have also visited the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Personnel Management, the US Department of the Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, the Federal Reserve Board, and the US Agency for International Development. On the legislative side, Board members have joined Steve Pierson in calling on Congressional staff. All of these visits serve to provide information about the ways statistics contributes to science and policy and to keep our association and profession connected with policy makers and key government organizations.
Board members are sometimes asked to confer with staff prior to Board meetings on important matters. For example, five Board members came early to last November’s Board meeting to help us interview consulting firms and decide on a partner for the public relations campaign being developed over the course of this year. (Stay tuned to this blog space for details of that campaign.) It is also fairly common that Board members are invited to speak to local agencies or universities while they are in the DC area.
Thus, the Board meeting brings to Washington a talented and dedicated group of statisticians, and they try to make the most of every visit.
Tomorrow, though, the Board meeting begins, extending over two intense days. Details to follow in this blog.
In 2014, the American Statistical Association is celebrating its 175th anniversary. Over the course of this year, this blog will highlight aspects of that celebration, and look broadly at the ASA and its activities. Please contact ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein (ron@amstat.org) if you would like to post an entry to this blog.