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WSS NEWS |
WSS NEWS--News about activities of the Washington Statistical Society - a Chapter of the American Statistical Association
May 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:
An election ballot for the 1997-1998 program year of the Washington Statistical Society Board of Directors was enclosed in the surface mail issue. All members of WSS should have recieved it. Biographical information on the candidates was provided on pages 3 and 4 of the April WSS NEWS. Ballots must be received by Sunday, June 1, 1997 to be counted. Results will be announced at the WSS Annual Dinner at China Garden Restaurant in Rosslyn, VA on Tuesday, June 17, 1997.
The WSS Annual Dinner will be held Tuesday, June 17, at China Garden Restaurant in Rosslyn. Please see the attached flyer for details and a reservation form. This is a great opportunity to join with friends, meet colleagues, and make new acquaintances! All are invited. We look forward to seeing you there!
The theme of this year's meeting will be an examination of federal forecasting in the era of diminishing resources. FFC-97 will try to look at the appropriate role of the public sector in an information economy; how forecasters can maintain timely, reliable forecasting with shrinking resources for themselves and fellow agencies; and how forecasters can contribute to answering these questions for policy-makers and the public. It will be held on September 11, 1997 at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Conference and Training Center, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC. Additional information on registration and submitting papers for presentation is available at http://www.scs.gmu.edu/wss/.
Elizabeth Sweet is a statistician in the Statistical Research Division at the Bureau of the Census. Her work interests include electronic questionnaire design and usability testing. She received a BS in mathematics from Loyola College and received a MS in statistics from George Washington University. She has served as the WSS secretary during the 1995-1997 term.
There are three ways to let WSS members hear about your seminars, classes or events.
The WSS newsletter (WSS NEWS) is received by all WSS members! Some receive it via e-mail (about 300) and the remaining receive a paper version. Send Mike Feil (mfeil@helix.nih.gov) or Fran Chevarley (fmc1@nch08a.em.cdc.gov) your announcement at least one month before the newsletter is due to be published and your announcement will reach all WSS members.
The WSS FAX is sent bi-monthly to severl dozen members who members have agreed to post the FAX on bulletin boards to let others in their companies hear about WSS events. All items submitted to the WSS NEWS are automatically added to the WSS FAX. If you have late breaking events you can send your announcement to Michael Greene at mgreene@erols.com. He'll add it to the WSS FAX.
The WSS e-mail is sent on an as needed basis to our 300 members with e-mail addresses. Send the announcement to Vince Massimini at svm@mitre.com and he will get it out to the e-mail list in a few hours. The annoucements must be in ASCII (text) format using a non-proportional 12 point font (such as courier 12) and have margins not greater than 72 characters wide. This format allows Vince to send to a large number of different e-mail formats.
Remember to reach all WSS members, publicize your event in the WSS NEWS!
SIGSTAT is the Special Interest Group in Statistics for the Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) and WORMSC, Washington Operations Research and Management Science Council.
The May SIGSTAT meeting is on the 14th and will feature a demo of Time Series Forecasting with Neural Connection. This SIGSTAT meeting will follow up on a previous demo of Neural Connections from SPSS by using the neural network program to predict a time series. Information on Neural Connections can be obtained at http://www.spss.com.
There will be no SIGSTAT meeting in June.
All SIGSTAT meeting are held from 12:30 - 1:30 in Room 1208, 1301 New York Ave, Washington DC. Directions and a full schedule can be found at the SIGSTAT web site http://www.ers.usda.govsigstat/ or on the Members/SIGS page of http://www.cpcug.org. First time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan, hallahan@econ.ag.gov or 202-501-6928, and leave their name to gain entrance to the building.
Items for publication in the Summer 1997 WSS NEWS should be submitted no later than May 30, 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.
If you are interested in the editing process of publications and want some experience, contact Mike Feil at mfeil@helix.nih.gov or 301-443-1330.
Committee on National Statistics Celebrates Twenty-Fifth
Anniversary
The Committee on National Statistics celebrated its
twenty-fifth anniversary at its meeting on February 21, 1997
the National Academy of Sciences. Joining the committee in
its celebration were many representatives from federal
agencies, statistical organizations, and other interested
groups. Special invited guests included OMB Chief
Statistician Katherine Wallman; the Committee's first chair
William Kruskal; former Committee chair Stephen Fienberg, who
presented a paper on confidentiality; former chair of the
President's Commission on Federal Statistics Allen Wallis; and
OMB Director Franklin Raines, who made a special address to
the Committee and its guests.
The Committee on National Statistics serves to contribute to
a better understanding of important national issues by working
to improve the statistical methods and information on which
public policy decisions are based. By studying what data and
methodology are needed to increase our understanding of the
economy, the environment, public health, and other timely
issues for which public policy decisions are made, the
Committee reviews the statistical programs of federal agencies
and suggest improvements. It is a major division in the
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
within the National Academy of Sciences National Research
Council.
The Committee has established a home page on the Internet at
http://www2.nas.edu/cnstat providing information on Committee
and panel members, publications, and current studies. Links
provide access to academic and government statistics sites.
The home page includes summaries of major Committee reports
and the text of some. Further information can be obtained
from the Committee on National Statistics, 2101 Constitution
Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20416, (telephone: 202-334-3096).
WSS People
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) 443-4234
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