Amstat News - American Statistical Association

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ASA: A ‘Big Tent’ Organization
Dionne Price, FDA; George W. Williams, Amgen, Inc.; and Monica Johnston, Mostly Math
32 amstat news april 2012
The American Statistical Association is a strong,
vibrant organization with approximately
18,000 members—the largest community of
statisticians in the world. It is an organization with a
diverse membership from academia, industry, and
government who are doing research and promoting
high-quality statistical practice. The ASA is an inclusive,
“big tent” organization with members from a
wide range of professional and personal backgrounds.
Still, there are opportunities for growth allowing
increased activity and engagement for both new and
current members.
Indeed, there is more room in the tent. Wouldn’t
it be nice if when we celebrate the ASA’s 175th anniversary
in Boston in 2014, we had increased in number
to 20,000? The ASA Committee on Membership
Retention and Recruitment (CMRR) is working diligently
toward the objective of membership growth. In
this column, we want to highlight the value of ASA
membership and involvement in an effort to continue
to grow our tent.
The ASA provides opportunities for members
to remain current on new methodologies and to
continue to grow professionally. The ASA can
serve as one’s professional home. Key benefits of
ASA membership include access to its journals
and networking through innumerable workshops
and conferences. In a recent membership survey,
gaining knowledge via the ASA’s publications was
the most popular ASA benefit. New publications
have been added recently, including Statistics in
Biopharmaceutical Research and Significance.
In the same survey, ASA conferences were the
second-most valued benefit identified by ASA members.
With more than 6,000 statisticians attending the
Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM), there are opportunities
to increase one’s professional network, connect
with statisticians from around the world, and interact
with role models through mixers, business meetings,
roundtable discussions, the Career Placement Service,
and personal outreach. In general, JSM provides a
great opportunity to learn about new topics while
meeting others with similar interests.
The ASA has a strong interest in meeting the needs
of underserved groups such as early-career statisticians,
applied statisticians, and consulting statisticians.
In response to the needs of early-career statisticians,
STATtr@k was created (http://statrak.amstat.org). This
year, the ASA held its first Conference on Statistical
Practice. This conference was specifically targeted to
applied statisticians, consultants, and students interested
in applied statistics.
The ASA is organized into sections, chapters, and
committees that recognize its diversity and provide
avenues to participate in a variety of ways. Recently,
two new sections were created: the Section for
Statistical Programmers and Analysts and the Section
on Statistical Learning and Data Mining. Through
this organizational structure, the ASA provides continuing
education, webinars, awards, advertising,
mentoring, etc. Statisticians have an opportunity to
further expand their horizons by participating in and
volunteering in support of the ASA.
Given the benefits of ASA membership, what can
we do to retain, recruit, and renew members? Many
members initially joined the ASA at the recommendation
of an adviser, colleague, or employer. Hence, we
request faculty to continue to encourage participation
in ASA activities among students, colleagues to recommend
renewal of membership by lapsed members,
and leaders in industry and statistical agencies to promote
ASA membership and involvement. We should
all strive to attract new members from other quantitative
areas such as mathematics and computer science
that have a strong tie to statistics. Please join us in the
“Member Get a Member” campaign as a mechanism
for growing the ASA’s membership. See www.amstat.
org/membership/mgm for details.
One of the challenges in the growth of ASA membership
includes the lack of conversion to full membership
as students transition to young professionals.
Members of the CMRR have a 2012–2013 goal of
achieving 90% retention for students after graduation.
We are exploring mechanisms such as student focus
groups to understand the factors that promote (or hinder)
conversion from student to regular membership.
Additional opportunity lies in increasing ASA regular
membership from the industry and government
sectors. Colleague-to-colleague outreach and role
modeling may be particularly valuable in these sectors.
As some long-term ASA members have stated, membership
in a professional organization is an investment
they have made in their own careers.
The ASA’s 175th Anniversary Committee and
the ASA Committee on Membership Recruitment
and Retention encourage you to personally participate
in attracting and retaining ASA members so
even more can benefit from being committed to
and active and engaged in all that a big tent symbolizes
and can offer. n