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. 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. These restrictions may impact both the individual speaker and the entire ASA community as the larger community may miss out on insights, expertise and opportunities for increased diversity across types of sessions. This pilot exception for JSM 2025 and JSM 2026 aims to increase participation across both types of sessions and to evaluate the potential impact of speaker restriction on the success of both professional development and technical sessions.
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
The definition of a Professional Development session and the speaker exception policy were developed by working group members representing ASA's Membership Council (Liz Mannshardt), Committee on Career Development (Daniel Elchert), Committee on Women in Statistics (Umut Ozbek), Committee on Minorities in Statistics (Christina Nurse), ASA’s JEDI Outreach Group (Leslie McClure) and the Caucus on Women in Statistics and Data Science (Jessica Kohlschmidt).
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 is to obtain a designation of professional development for a JSM 2025 session and request a speaker exception. Speakers or session organizers can complete the form for the session.
The exception form is to obtain a designation of professional development for a JSM 2025 session and request a speaker exception. To be considered for an exception for participation as a speaker in both a technical and professional development session, the exception form must be filled out. Speakers or session organizers can complete the form for the session. The exception is for JSM 2025 only. Other ASA conferences may wish to pilot this exception via a separate process.
Requests for JSM 2025 exceptions will be evaluated by the Professional Development Session Working Group on behalf of the JSM Policy Committee. Information from exception forms will be recorded for assessment by the JSM Policy Committee and the working group. 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.
Questions: ASA Membership Council Vice Chair and Working Group Chair for JSM Professional Development Speaker Exception Pilot - Liz Mannshardt