ASA's Membership Council and the JSM Policy Committee are working to increase diversity across both technical and professional development sessions in order to better serve the needs of the community, and to provide expanded opportunities to all attendees to present at JSM. The current JSM program rules restricting speakers to one session may result in speakers having to choose between speaking on their technical work or offering professional development to the JSM community. This pilot exception for JSM 2025 aims to increase participation across both types of sessions and to provide people the opportunity to present in both a technical session and a professional development session.
The following topics are included in the definition of a professional development session:
● Process of making decisions for long term learning, to align personal needs of physical or psychological fulfillment with career advancement opportunities
● Decide on a career goal, then map out the experience, competencies and connections
● Transferable skills: communication, problem solving, self-control (emotional intelligence)
● Self-awareness, application, and reflection
● Networking, seeking out a mentor and taking on new responsibilities
● Coaching, mentoring, skills development, networking and career pathing
● Leadership; Career path
Teaching sessions and continued education courses are covered under a different set of JSM participation guidelines and currently do not qualify for this pilot exception program.
The exception form must be filled out to apply for the exception. The exception is for JSM only. Other ASA conferences may wish to pilot this exception via a separate process. Requests for exceptions will be evaluated by the Professional Development Session Working Group on behalf of the JSM Policy Committee. Information from exceptions will be recorded for assessment by the JSM Policy Committee. The assessment may be used to determine future JSM policy.
To apply for an exception for participation as a speaker in both a technical and professional development session, fill out the exception form here.
The definition of Professional Development and the exception policy were developed by working group members representing ASA's Membership Council, Committee on Career Development, JEDI Group, Committee on Women in Statistics, and Committee on Minorities in Statistics.