WSS
NEWS

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

January 1999

  

Contents:


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Nominations Sought For Shiskin Award

Nominations are invited for the annual Julius Shiskin Award for Economic Statistics. The award was established in 1979 by the Washington Stastistical Society and is now co-sponsored by the National Association of BusinessEconomists. It is given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics or in the use of economic statistics in interpreting the economy. The contributions could be in statistical research, in the development of statistical tools, in the application of computer techniques, in the use of economic statistical programs, in the management of statistical programs, or in developing public understanding of measurement issues, to all of which Mr. Shiskin contributed. Either individuals or groups in the public or private sector can be nominated.

For details, please visit theShiskin Award page.

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1999 Science Fairs

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) by January 20. (If you judged last spring and wish to judge again this year, there is no need to contact Lee unless your mailing address or phone number has changed.)

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Message From the ASA Office

It has come to our attention that some WSS members who receive the WSS News electronically may not have received some recent issues of Amstat News. If this has happened to you and you want to obtain the back issues, please contact the ASA Customer Service Center at 1-888-321-3473 or by email at asainfo@amstat.org.

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Statistical Seminar Series On Confidentiality

This seminar is one in a series on issues concerning confidentiality of and access to statistical data. Members of the Washington statistical community are invited to attend the following lecture which will be held at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),Room 2990, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE.

Please visit the current list of WSS seminars for more information.

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SIGSTAT Schedule - January - March 1999

The January SIGSTAT meeting on the 13th will be a demo of EViews 3.1. EViews is an object-oriented econometric package featuring both a point-and-click interface and a powerful programming language.

From the EViews webpage: "EViews 3.1 provides sophisticated data analysis, regression, and forecasting tools for modern Windows-based computers. With EViews, you can quickly develop a statistical relation from your data and then use the relation to forecast future values of the data. Areas where EViews can be useful include:scientific data analysis and evaluation, financial analyusis, macroeconomic forecasting, simulation, sales forecasting, and cost analysis."

The February SIGSTAT meeting on the 10th will be a demo of JMP from SAS. JMP, a point-and-click statistical package for data exploration and model building, was originally available only on the Macintosh. A Windows version is now available.

The March SIGSTAT on the 3rd will be a demo of the SAS/ETS Time Series Forecasting System (TSFS). The TSFS is a menu interface to the forecasting capabilities of SAS/ETS. Through simple point-and- click operations the best forecasting model (selected from a preset list of models) can be quickly found for a number of time series. (Note March's meeting is on the 1st Wednesday)

All SIGSTAT meeting are held in Waugh A on the 3rd floor of 1800 M St, NW. Directions to the meetings and a full schedule can be found on the SIGSTAT website www.econ.ag.gov/sigstat/. First-time attendees should contact Charlie Hallahan at 202-694-5051 or hallahan@econ.ag.gov to leave your name for admittance to the building.

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the March 1999 WSS NEWS should be submitted no later than January 26, 1999. E-mail items to Michael Feil at mfeil@helix.nih.gov. FAX items to Michael Feil at (301) 443-4045.

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WSS People

President
Dwight Brock (301)496-9795
 Past President
Graham Kalton (301)251-8253
 President-Elect
Mary Batcher (202) 327-6740
Secretary
Elizabeth Nichols (301) 457-4865
 Treasurer
Jill Montaquila (301) 517-4046

Vice Chair for District 2 of
Council of Chapters
Andrew A. White (202) 334-2511
 Council of Chapters Representative
Ron Fecso (703) 306-1780 ext. 6906.
Representatives-at-Large
John Czajka (202) 484-4685
David Marker (301) 251-4398
  
Carolyn Shettle (301) 215-9100 x 166
Sandra West (202) 606-7384
WSS Program Chairs
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Bill Iwig (202) 720-3895
Dwight French (202)586-1126
 Economics
Linda Atkinson (202) 694-5046
Art Kennickell (202) 452-2247
Methodology
Brenda Cox (202) 484-4231
Stuart Scott (202) 606-7383
 Public Health and Biostatistics
Trena Ezzati-Rice (301) 436-7022 ext. 133
Rene Gonin (301) 517-8084
Public Policy
Carolee Bush (202) 366-6946
Phil Ross (202) 260-5244
 Quality Assurance
Amrut Champaneri (202) 690-3130
Glenn White (202) 327-6414
Short Courses
Roberta Sangster (202) 606-7517
Fritz Scheuren (703) 549-1120
 Social & Demographic Statistics
Michael Horrigan (202) 606-5905
Edith McArthur (202) 219-1442
Statistical Computing
Bob Jernigan (202) 885-3170
Mike Fleming (703) 235-5213 ext. 170
 Data Collection Methods
Brad Edwards (301) 294-2021
Linda Stinson (202) 606-7528
Employment
Fotios Kokkotos (202) 414-4563
 WSS NEWS Editors
Michael Feil (301) 443-4234
Fran Chevarley (301) 436-7093 ext. 153
Electronic Mail
Michael L. Cohen (202) 334-3765
Michael Greene (703) 247-1575
S.V. (Vince) Massimini (703) 883-5893
 Membership
Renee Miller (202) 426-1117
Antionette Martin 202) 426-1110
Fritz Scheuren (703) 549-1120
Quantitative Literacy
Carolyn Carroll (703) 352-1712
 Science Fair
Lee Abramson (301) 415-6180
Video Librarian
Mel Kollander (202) 973-2820
 Social Arrangements
Jeri Mulrow (202) 327-6772
Local Arrangement
Wendy Rotz (202) 874-0969
 WSS Historian
Michael P. Cohen (202) 219-1917
WSS Committee on ASA Fellows
Phil Kott (703) 235-5211 x 102

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First posted January 8, 1999
Last modified January 8, 1999

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