Why join ASA? (and other societies)

Why join ASA? (and other societies) Alicia Carriquiry Iowa State University alicia@iastate.edu

Outline • Benefits of membership • Committee structure (somewhat outdated). • Opportunities to volunteer and participate. • Other professional associations. • Personal experiences.

Benefits of membership • Some of the more obvious ones: • Stay up to date with the profession through journals, magazines and other publications. • Have a say (through your vote) in the leadership of the profession. It matters. • Hear about professional opportunities (job announcements, for example). • Participate in continuing education: webinars, short courses.

Benefits of membership • Some not so obvious benefits: • Get to meet your future colleagues. • Make friends in the profession that will last a life-time and with whom you will spend time at meetings, exchange invitations, etc. • Learn how to communicate with a wide range of statisticians. • Be part of a community that is broader than your own university, or company or government agency.

The ASA committee structure • ASA is a large association with a wide variety of members: www.amstat.org. • Members’ needs and wishes are also varied; ASA must try to meet them all. • A large number of committees (~70) carry out a wide range of tasks associated with: • Membership issues: opinion surveys, services, expansion… • Meetings: where to hold them, how much to charge… • Minorities and women in statistics • Public policy issues.

Opportunities for participation • Committees are a great gateway into the association. • New committee members must be selected each year (~3 per committee so about 200 people). • Elector is President-Elect, and election happens early each year. • Each committee keeps its own web site. Posted are: • Budgets for past years. • Membership. • Meetings and meeting reports.

Volunteer! • Explore the committee charges to see whether any is doing interesting (for you) work. • Check out the membership – are students involved? If not, might students be involved? • To go about volunteering, steps are: • Find the committees that set your toes on fire. • Read the charge carefully and understand their mission. • Contact the current committee chair and the appropriate ASA Vice President. • If appointed, do the best possible job. You will be remembered!

Other organizations • ASA is the largest organization of statisticians, but not the only one! • Other organizations have less general missions or focus on specific aspects of statistics. Examples: • Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS): International scope, more focused on academic statisticians, almost exclusively PhDs as members. • East (West) North American Region of the International Biometric Society (E(W)NAR): Domestic focus, but strongly directed toward statistics in the biological, medical agricultural and environmental sciences.

Other organizations (cont’d) • Yet others: • International Statistical Institute (ISI): Many government statisticians belong to the ISI. Fully international, headquartered in Holland. • International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA): For Bayesians (who have more fun!). • National societies: • Statistical Society of Canada (SSC): one of the co-sponsors of the JSM. • The Royal Statistical Society (RRS). • Many others. • Many offer free membership to students (IMS, ISBA), others charge a nominal annual fee (ASA).

Personal experiences • Member (since I was a student) of ASA, IMS, and for many years of ISI, ISBA and ENAR. • Have been in a leadership position in all of them, but served on many committees before that. • At ASA, was first asked to be the Program Chair for the Biometrics Section when a hole had to be plugged. • After that, I was nominated for other positions in the association. • 1999: Overall program chair for the JSM. • 2007-2009: Vice President of ASA. • Lots of work, but lots of visibility as well.

Personal experiences (cont’d) • Formerly: • Past President of ISBA • Past Member of Executive Committee of IMS • Member of Board of Directors of ISI • Past member of Regional Advisory Board of ENAR • Through all of those appointments I have had a chance to: • Participate in the setting of direction for the profession. • Interact with colleagues in other sectors who hire our graduates.

In summary… • Regardless of your choice of career path, you will benefit from participating in a professional association. • Explore the various associations and find the one that suits you best. • Become a member, volunteer and build your own professional community.

Why join ASA? (and other societies)