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A Chapter of the American Statistical Association

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Summer 2002

Contents:


2002 Science Fair Winners

WSS presented awards to 51 Washington area students at five regional science fairs this spring (District of Columbia, Fairfax County, Montgomery County, Northern Virginia, Prince George's County). Since 1986, WSS has been recognizing students whose projects demonstrate excellence in the application of statistical methods. Since 1996, The Gallup Organization has made an annual donation of $1000 for prizes. This year, a total of $700 was divided among 6 first place winners (prizes ranged between $50 and $150) and the balance will be used to purchase ASA school memberships for the winners' schools. There were 7 second place winners and each received a copy of Statistics: A Guide to the Unknown, by Tanur, et al. All first and second place winners will also receive a one-year subscription to STATS magazine. Others received certificates of honorable mention.

The judging was coordinated by Lee Abramson. Thanks to all WSS members who volunteered as judges. They are: Dwight Brock*, Gene Burns, Bill Cleveland, Bob Clickner*, Michael Cohen, David Des Jardins, Brenda Edwards, Charlotte Gard, Ellen Hertz, Gene Heyman*, Tzu-Cheg Kao, Jurate Landwehr, Ruey-Ping Lu, Mark Otto, Arnold Reznek, John Rogers, Sid Schwartz, Stuart Scott*, Mike Stoto, Glenn White* and Lorie Wijntjes.

* Chief Judge

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First Wray Jackson Smith Scholarship Award

On receiving the Roger Herriot Award in June 2001, Jeanne Griffith said:

One of the most rewarding aspects (of Federal statistics) for me was the opportunity to promote creative activities and energies among my staff .

Dr. Griffith died in August 2001 after working for more than 25 years in the Federal statistical system. Throughout her career, and especially in her senior management positions at the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Science Foundation, one of Jeanne's highest priorities was to mentor and encourage junior staff to learn, to grow, and to recognize and seize career opportunities as they came along.

This is to announce the establishment of The Jeanne E. Griffith Mentoring Award. The purpose of the award is to encourage the mentoring of younger staff in the Federal statistical system.

This award is co-sponsored by the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, the Council for Excellence in Government, the Washington Statistical Society, the Social Statistics and Government Statistics Sections of the American Statistical Association, and the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics. It will be presented yearly to a mid-level supervisor, generally at the GS-14 or GS-15 level, who is nominated by coworkers and supervisors, and chosen by the Award Selection Committee.

The first of these yearly awards will be presented in 2003. Requests for nominations and detailed information packets will be available in November 2002; nominations will be due back by April 1, 2003; and the Selection Committee will make its determination of the award winner by May 1, 2003. The award will consist of a $1,000 honorarium and a citation.

The winning mentor will be selected for his or her efforts in supporting the work and developing the careers of younger staff. Such efforts would include the following types of activities:

  • Working with junior staff to help develop their skills, knowledge, experience, self-confidence, and insights into organizational functioning;

  • Advising junior staff to help them develop career opportunities, networking skills, and contacts;

  • Making resource support available for junior staff attendance and oral presentations at meetings, training courses, and conferences;

  • Providing opportunities for junior staff to participate in meetings with higher level officials and staffs of other agencies and to represent the office at external meetings;

  • Offering informal feedback and coaching to assist junior staff in developing analysis, writing, presentation, and other professional skills.

As indicated above, specific information on the 2003 award cycle will be made available and disseminated in November 2002. For further general information on the award, contact Ed Spar, Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS), by phone at 703-836-0404 or by e-mail at copafs@aol.com.

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Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology

Research Conference
Call for Papers
Fall 2003 Washington, DC Area

The Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FSCM), composed of the senior statisticians from several statistical agencies and organizations, and sponsored by the Office of Management and Budget, is planning a research conference to be held in the Fall of 2003. The conference will feature mostly contributed papers with formal discussion and software demonstrations on topics related to a variety of statistical research issues. Papers and demonstrations should address methodology, empirical studies, relevant issues, or needs for statistical research. Papers must be original and not previously published or disseminated. Proceedings will be published from the conference.

Possible topics include but are not limited to

Cross-cutting topic areas
Statistical issues in national security
Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure issues in dat release and data linkage
Data mining, warehousing, and metadata
Design and analysis of longitudinal studies
Measurement issues and bridging changes in classification systems
Statistical uses of administrative records

Analysis
Bayesian statistical methods and software
Estimation methodologies to obtain early or preliminary data
Exposure analysis and modeling
Forecasting, time series analysis, and seasonal adjustment
Innovative methods for designing and analyzing epidemiological studies
Methods of statistical modeling and meta-analysis

Survey design and data collection
Geospatial data collection and analysis
Impact of culture and language diversity on questionnaire design
Improving coverage and response rates
Research on data collection instrument design, pretesting and evaluation
Survey integration and cross-survey planning
Treatment of missing data
Use of innovative technologies for data collection, processing and dissemination
Advances in frame development for censuses and surveys
Model-based survey estimation

Evaluation
Census and survey evaluation methodologies
Environmental effects and ecological assessments
Innovative approaches to program evaluation
Measuring data quality
Nonsampling error, estimation and evaluation
Usability testing

To submit a paper or demonstration for consideration, send an abstract by October 1, 2002 to:

Renee Miller, Program Chair and
Bill Mockovak, Co-chair by
E-mail: fcsm@bls.gov
Fax (Renee Miller): 202 287-1705
Phone (Renee Miller): 202 287-1718
Phone (Bill Mockovak): 202 691-7414

To obtain registration information or to be included on the mailing list, contact:

Carol McDaniel, Conference Coordination
E-mail: fcsm@census.gov
Phone: 301 457-2308
Fax: 301 457-3682

FCSM Website: www.fcsm.gov

Abstracts should include a brief description of the paper; up to four key words; authors' names and e-mail addresses; plus the presenter's name, affiliation, mailing address, phone & fax numbers. Submit an ASCII text file by e-mail or hard copy by fax. Early submissions are encouraged.

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for the September issue are due no later August 5, 2002. Please e-mail items to michael.feil@usda.gov.

Due to travel commitments during August, the September issue will be going to the printers on August 10, 2002.

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First posted July 29, 2002
Last modified November 03, 2015

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