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WSS NEWS |
WSS NEWS--News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society - a Chapter of the American Statistical Association
January 1997
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WSS NEWS |
WSS NEWS--News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society - a Chapter of the American Statistical Association
Contents:
The Curtis Jacobs Memorial Award for outstanding statistics project is sponsored jointly by American Statistical Association and Washington Statistical Society. It was established in 1991 to honor the memory of a former statistician of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mr. Jacobs, a long-time member of ASA and the Institute for Mathematical Statistics, was the chief mathematical statistician on the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, and several major economic statistics programs conducted by the BLS.
The purpose of the Jacobs Award is to provide encouragement for students to gain an understanding of surveys and their uses so they may better appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of statistics reported in the media and elsewhere. The competition is open to middle and high school students in the local Washington, D.C. area. Entrants may be individuals or teams of up to four students. The deadline for entry in the 1996-97 competition is April 14, 1997. Prizes are awarded each year at the Washington Statistical Society annual dinner. The 1995-96 winners were a team of four students: Steven Jakubiak, Doug Weber, Neil Crabtree, and Jordan Valliere. All were students of Mrs. Rebecca Bartelt at Rocky Run Middle School in Chantilly, VA. Each student received a $50 U.S. savings bond and Mrs. Bartelt was awarded a plaque for her classroom.
Members of WSS are encouraged to provide copies of the brochure to their children's teachers. A brochure and entry form are attached to this month's newsletter. Additional brochures are available from either Paul Cook on (703) 235-5218 or Wendy Rotz on (202) 874-0969.
The WSS and ASA also welcome contributions to the Jacobs Memorial fund. Your tax deductible contribution may be sent to Penny Young, American Statistical Association, 1429 Duke St., Alexandria VA 22314-3402.
Volunteers are now being solicited to represent the Washington Statistical Society as judges in local area science fairs next spring. The WSS sponsors awards at fairs in Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and the District of Columbia. Since 1986, WSS has provided special awards at these fairs to students whose projects demonstrate excellence in statistical theory or application. Those who have participated in this activity have very much enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the students and to observe the widely diverse projects which are presented. The fairs are held on a Saturday morning in mid-March to mid-April. The only time required is that one Saturday morning, plus one weekday lunchtime meeting to discuss judging strategy and to distribute the awards to be given out at each fair.
If you would like to be a WSS science fair judge, or if you would like additional information about this activity, please contact Lee Abramson at (301) 415-6180 or e-mail at lxa@nrc.gov. (If you judged last spring, there is no need to contact Lee unless your mailing address or phone number has changed.)
SIGSTAT is the Special Interest Group in Statistics for the Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) and WORMSC, Washington Operations Research and Management Science Council. All meetings are from 12:30 - 1:30 in Room 1208, 1301 New York Ave, NW. First-time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan at 202-501-6928 or hallahan@econ.ag.gov. Further information is at http://www.ers.usda.govsigstat or the Members/Sigs page of http://www.cpcug.org.
EViews is an econometric package developed from earlier versions of TSP. EViews is built around the concept of objects. Series, equations, systems etc are examples of objects. Each object has its own window, its own menus, its own procedures and its own views of the data. Most statistical procedures are treated simply as alternative views of the object. For example, a simple menu choice from a time series window changes the display between a speadsheet, line and bar graphs, a histogram-and-statistics view, a correlagram, and a unit root test. EViews also has a powerful command language, including matrix functions. Online information for Eviews is available at http://www.eviews.com.
Dr. Robert Condon of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine is retiring after 25 years of service. Anyone interested in attending the retirement dinner January 11, 1997, or who would like more information, please contact Pat Ryan at 301-594-1600 or e-mail her at PRYAN@BANGATE.FDA.GOV.
We're becoming the electric company. WSS now distributes the newsletter electronically to nearly 270 members, including reminders and notices of interesting statistical events in the Washington area. WSS also saves printing and postage, since we don't need to send a paper copy to the electronic folks.
If you would like to receive the newsletter by email, please send a note to Vince Massimini (svm@mitre.org) listing your name, organization, and internet email address. If you are an ASA member, it would help if you could include your ASA number (most easily found on your AmStat News address label).
The newsletter can also be viewed as a part of the WSS WWW page, or can be downloaded in Adobe format to be read or printed. This is in addition to the usual employment, seminars, and other useful information. The WSS WWW page is at URL http://www.scs.gmu.edu/wss/ if you would like to give it a try.
Also, if your email address has changed, please let Vince know. Your messages may be bouncing and he can't get them to you.
Items for publication in the March 1997 WSS NEWS should be submitted no later than January 28, 1997. E-mail items to mfeil@helix.nih.gov [Mike Feil] or fmc1@nch08a.em.cdc.gov [Fran Chevarley]. FAX items to Mike Feil at (301) 443-4045.
President Past President
Phillip Kott (703) 235-5211 Ron Fecso (703) 235-5211
ext. 102 ext. 142
President-Elect
Graham Kalton (301) 251-8253
Secretary Treasurer
Elizabeth Sweet (301) 457-4865 Carolyn Shettle (703) 306-1780
WSS Program Chairs
Agriculture & Natural Resources Economics
Mike Steiner (202) 690-2486 Linda Atkinson (202) 219-0934
Robert Latta (202) 586-1385 Art Kennickell (202) 452-2247
Methodology Public Health and Biostatistics
Julia Bienias (301) 457-2696 Vance Berger (301) 594-5756
Karol Krotki (202) 944-5243 Julie Legler (301) 493-6832
Public Policy Quality Assurance
Carolee Bush (202) 366-6946 Harold Johnson (202) 606-7758
Phil Ross (202) 260-5244 Amrut Champaneri (202) 268-2299
Paul L. Zador (301) 294-2825
Social & Demographic Statistics Statistical Computing
Michael Horrigan (202) 606-5905 Bob Jernigan (202) 885-3170
Myron Katzoff (703) 670-8917 Mike Fleming (703) 235-5213
ext. 170
Short Courses Data Collection Methods
Fritz Scheuren (703) 549-1120 Brad Edwards (301) 294-2021
Linda Stinson (202) 606-7528
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Employment
Bill Arends (202) 720-6812
WSS NEWS Editors
Mike Feil (301) 443-1330
Fran Chevarley (301) 436-7093
ext. 153
Membership
Antionette Martin (202) 426-1110
Renee Miller (202) 426-1117
Fritz Scheuren (703) 549-1120
Videotapes
Mel Kollander (202) 973-2820
Quantitative Literacy
Shail Butani (202) 606-6347
Local Arrangement
Robie Sangster (202) 606-7517