WSS NEWS

News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society
A Chapter of the American Statistical Association

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February 2000

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Contents:

• Herriot Award Nominations Sought
• E-mail option, new phone number for seminar attendees at BLS
• An Open Letter to the WSS Membership
  from the Chair of the WSS Fellows Committee
• SIGSTAT for February and March, 2000
• Employment Opportunities
• Courses
• Seminars
• Note From The WSS NEWS Editor
• WSS People

Herriot Award Nominations Sought

After the sudden death in May, 1994 of Roger Herriot, an Associate Commissioner for Statistical Standards and Methodology at the National Center for Education Statistics, the Washington Statistical Society, the Social Statistics and Government Statistics Sections of the American Statistical Association established an award in his memory to recognize individuals who develop unique approaches to the solution of statistical problems in federal data collection programs.

The award is intended to reflect the special characteristics that marked Roger Herriot's career:

• Dedication to the issues of measurement
• Improvements in the efficiency of data collection programs;
• Improvements and use of statistical data or policy analysis.

The recipient of the 2000 Roger Herriot Award will be chosen by a committee of representatives of the Social Statistics Section and Government Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association and a representative of the Washington Statistical Society. Roger Herriot was associated with and strongly supportive of these organizations during his career. The award consists of an honorarium of $500 and a framed citation.

Joseph Waksberg (Westat), Monroe Sirken (National Center for Health Statistics), Constance Citro (National Academy of Sciences), Roderick Harrison (U.S. Bureau of the Census), Clyde Tucker (Bureau of Labor Statistics), and Tom Jabine (Consultant) are previous recipients of the Herriot Award.

The award is not restricted to senior members of an organization; nor is it to be considered as a culmination of a long period of service. Individuals at all levels, from entry to senior, federal employees, private sector employees, or employees of the academic community, may be nominated on the basis of the significance of the specific contribution.

A nomination form can be obtained by contacting Fritz Scheuren at 202-261-5886, by fax at 703-549-1119, or e-mail scheuren@aol.com.

All nomination forms should be returned to the Roger Herriot Award Committee, c/o Fritz Scheuren, 1402 Ruffner Road, Alexandria, VA 22302. Completed nomination forms must be received by April 28, 2000.

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E-mail option, new phone number for seminar attendees at BLS

1. e-mail name, affiliation, and name of seminar to wss_seminar@bls.gov (underscore after 'wss') by noon 1 day ahead
   or
2. call Karen Jackson at 202-691-7524 at least 2 days ahead.

Finally, bring a photo ID. While problems sometimes arise, those of us arranging seminars at BLS really appreciate the efforts of BLS security to make the system work. Names will be accumulated on the list through June.

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An Open Letter to the WSS Membership
from the Chair of the WSS Fellows Committee

CRITERIA FOR AN ASA FELLOW

• Recognize ASA members "who have made outstanding contributions in some aspect of statistical work." (ASA By-Laws)

• Give "due weight to publications, the position held by the candidate in the organization in which the individual is employed, activities in the Association, membership and attainment in other societies, and other professional activities .. with no one of these criteria governing selection to the exclusion of others." (ASA By-Laws)

• Elaborated in guidelines:
  www.amstat.org/awards/fellow-guidelines.html

NOMINATION FORM REQUIRES

• Supporting statements on contributions of the nominee in the following areas (only one area is necessary, but more is better): statistical applications and data collection; administration of statistical activities; teaching and dissemination of statistical knowledge; statistical research; activities in ASA.

• List of no more than 12 publications having statistical content

• Supporting letters (no more than 8,including the nominating letter; each should try to cite specific contribution(s) about which writer is aware; letters need not be from fellows or even statisticians)

• Proposed citation (for ASA fellows ceremony)

THE PROCESS

1. Nominations by ASA members & sections, chapters, etc.

2. Selection by Committee on Fellows

3. Nominee must have been full ASA member prior three years

4. Number elected yearly may not exceed one third of 1% of full membership (which comes out to roughly 60 individuals each year; in the last few years the Committee has chosen the maximum allowable, but it has not always done so)

TIMING

Election process occurs from March to May. The ASA Fellows committee performs the evaluations: First mail ballot, Second mail ballot, and Meeting at ASA headquarters to make final decision.

Successful nominators/nominees are appraised. Unsuccessful nominators are also appraised (some with encouragement to re-nominate and suggestions).

Formal induction takes place at JSM.

HINTS FOR IMPROVING NOMINATIONS

Emphasize impact/quality of nominee's contributions; e.g., Effect of publications on targeted audience, Teaching awards, Innovations as Section or Chapter Chair, Evidence of leadership (and sustained work for profession)

Avoid over-emphasizing relatively routine contributions.

Letters of support should provide added insights. Reflect breadth of nominee's contributions (e.g., letters from managers, customer, past students, journal editors). Need not (all) be from statisticians. Be based on personal experience (don't just repeat info on nomination). Stress value of contributions. Letter can be sent directly to ASA but it is better to include them with the nomination package (so they don't get lost at ASA office).

WHAT DOES THE WSS FELLOWS COMMITTEE DO?

Any WSS member and ASA Fellow is welcome to join the WSS Fellows Committee, which is made up mostly of individuals who did not have the strength of will to turn down the President when asked to serve (many WSS committees are populated in this matter). Most importantly, THE COMMITTEE ACTIVELY ENCOURAGES YOU TO SHARE WITH US THE NAME OF ANY MEMBER YOU BELIEVE WORTHY OF A NOMINATION.

Phil Kott
703-235-5211 x 102
pkott@nass.usda.gov

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SIGSTAT for February and March, 2000

• February 9: SAS ODS

  One of the new features introduced in SAS 7 is the Output Delivery System, ODS. With this feature the user gains access to all results calculated in a SAS PROC and can customize the appearance of the output. Output can be generated in HTML, RTF, or Postscript formats. The demo will consist of examples of applying ODS to data analysis.

• March 8: Stata 6.0

  Stata is a complete statistical/econometric package with extensive data management capabilities and programming features, including a matrix language. Features are easily added through the programming language and many such additions are reported in the Stata Technical Bulletin, STB. It has built-in commands for panel data, time series data, survival models, count and binary data, and complex survey data. Hundreds of user-written commands are available for use with Stata and, with Stata's Internet features, obtaining these programs is easy. Bimonthly updates to Stata can easily be applied via the Internet. Stata performs very well on the NIST StRD certification tests.

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

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WSS People

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First posted January 27, 2000
Last modified June 2, 2000

Webmaster: Dan Jacobs, Maryland Sea Grant