Dear section members, Due to the length of my post about a "role play" (3 pages) I excerpt below only the first page, and the full three pages available at the link below
April 6, 2023
The full text, more nicely formatted is located at
www.barkerstats.com/PDFs/ASA/RolePlay/roleplaynoteSEctionmembers.pdf
Role Play training for statistical consulting skills
For Discussion at the Statistical Consulting business meeting /mixer Monday, August 7th from 6-8pm
Joint Statistical Meetings, in Toronto, 2023
Dear Section members,
First, my thank you to Terrie for arranging a location for the Section business meeting- which is "off-site" and not in the main facility for the Toronto JSM. This is excellent stewardship of the section budget as the "off-site" is typically less costly ($) than renting the rooms at the main JSM venue. And as our section may be the first to announce the location, we had a wider choice of options.
In light of the announcement for the section business meeting in Toronto, I'm announcing an agenda item for discussion by section members attending the business meeting.
At the business meeting in Toronto or sooner we are looking for volunteers to help with the following effort which we call a "role play". I have recently been discussing the following with the section officers and other statisticians, including Frank Harrell and Janet Wittes and I am in the process of contacting other prominent statistical consultants. The background. I was brainstorming with Ron Wasserstein about resources and tools that the section could organize and make available to section members. Ron recalled that at the 1987 JSM in San Francisco (over thirty years ago), there was a "role play". And our colleague Eric Vance recalled that I asked a question at the session(again over thirty years ago). I define and discuss was the role play below And I'm proposing the section organize a role play session(-s) at the 2024 Portland JSM (not at the Toronto JSM). Approximately 2 years from now. Eric Vance describes the "value proposition" as developing the consulting skill set for current consultants or those who wish to start a consulting practice. Membership in the section is not required and any ASA statistician is welcome to help out.
First one of the 1987 role play participants (Sandra Stinett) , found a copy of the session abstract. I have spoken by phone with another of the role play participants, Walt Stroup. I will be talking with Sandra directly within the next two weeks or sooner.
Here: www.barkerstats.com/PDFs/ASA/RolePlay/Improving_the_ Effectiveness_of_Statistical_Consultants_A_Live_Demonstration.pdf
The role play involved all statisticians with one exception. The Role play was organized by Doug Zahn (retired at UFlorida) and Walter (Walt) Stroup (retired at UNebraska). There was a consultant statistician (Walt) and a consultee/client ( Sandra Stinett). And Sandra had a statistical project and Walt's task was to ask questions and figure out the project. The session was video recorded, likely on VHS tape. Walt's recollection, was that Sandra, (again in her role as client), might say things like "you statisticians work magic with data, and I have collected a lot of data…." . The session was video recorded and at the conclusion Doug and his colleague from the department of Psychology, Dan Baroto (retired from UFlorida and memorialized in 2020) could play back the video and interpret the dialogue and question/answers between Walt and Sandra and also asked questions about their questions/answers. Unfortunately, exactly what questions and exactly how the interpretation was carried out is not yet clear, the statistical problem itself is, as yet, unknown. Both Walt and Sandra are trying to locate the video recording of the role play in their personal files. I tried to contact Doug Zahn and his wife replied -and in email said that Doug was unavailable.
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remainder of post (3 pages total) available at the above link
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Chris Barker, Ph.D.
2023 Chair Statistical Consulting Section
Consultant and
Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics
www.barkerstats.com---
"In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds."
-Steve Lacy
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