AmStat Section News, November 2002 Section on Statistics and the Environment (ENVR)
News from the JSM --
The ENVR Executive committee met during the JSM in early August. Highlights of this meeting and the open session that followed are provided below [thanks to Lance Waller for taking excellent notes!]. Opportunities for greater involvement in the life of the section are highlighted in these reports.
Treasurer's report The section is healthy fiscal state with a fund balance of approximately $7000 (reported by Steve Stehman). Section expenses exceed dues income and need periodic infusion of cash (which is the motivation for the biannual section sponsored meetings). Section expenses for activities during the JSM are approximately $2500. The two ENVR-sponsored short courses at ENVR (Spatial Statistics and compositional data analysis) are anticipated to at least break even and possibly make money.
Program Chair's report Ron McRoberts noted the section sponsored three invited sessions (one on environmental econometrics, one on EPA criterion document, and one on compositional data). Also, ENVR is co-sponsoring GP Patil's session and the IAMG (International Association of Mathematical Geology) sessions. In addition, ENVR sponsored two short courses (applied spatial analysis and compositional data).
There was a good deal of discussion about future meetings and organization. Options for involving "outside organizations" in ASA meetings included Topic Contributed Sessions and Invited Technical Exhibits (posters). Ideas and suggestions from Section members are invited.
Newsletter report Ron McRoberts welcomes and solicits input for future newsletters and indicated a liberal policy on announcements for meetings, anything related to environmental statistics appears. As an aside, the annual production and mailing costs and it was reported to be approximately $3000/year. The option of e-mailing the newsletter .pdf file to members or continuing to print was discussed. An advantage of .pdf is the ability to include color. Some discussion of the timing and distribution of the newsletter occurred. One possibility was to produce two newsletters, perhaps a winter electronic newsletter emailed to members with updates, and the current newsletter in May. This allows more current meeting announcements and links. Stay tuned. By the way, ideas for the newsletter or the ENVR AMSTAT News column are always welcome.
Student competition This year there were four submissions (all four high quality) and two awards will be given. Congratulations to all participating students and to their mentors!
Distinguished Achievement Award and ASA Fellows The Section's distinguished achievement award was given to Bimal Sinha. In addition, ENVR section member and executive committee member, Carol Gotway, was awarded ASA Fellow status this year. Kudos to both!
Thanks to the ENVR Fellows committee [Linda Young and Ken Pollock] for the efforts to shepherd the ASA Fellow nomination packets for ENVR members. Now is a good time to gather names and volunteers to put together packets. Forward your suggestions to Linda or Ken.
Meetings There was discussion about ENVR conferences in general. Surveys suggest ASA members want smaller, topic-specific conferences. It may be valuable to allow attendees to participate. Every other year seems to work well as there is much work involved in organizing the workshops. An ENVR-sponsoredworkshop for 2005 is being considered and your suggestions are welcome.
News from the Council of Sections front [David Umbach]
The possibility of electronic voting for ASA officers is being discussed. Some concern about possible disenfranchisement of section members without electronic access was voiced. The current proposal is to post full bibliographies online, but allow paper or electronic ballots.
JSM registration will go up $50 next year. In addition ASA proceedings will cost from $25 to $35. The CD Proceedings may add page numbers for every article and citations to the section. There is also the possibility of a program book with links to each PDF file and the addition of the abstract book on the CD (stay tuned - still being debated).
How should the continuing education needs of members be best served? There was some discussion of a "core curriculum" of courses to be offered every year.
Membership? ASA membership is flat and there are efforts to increase membership. This society pattern is also manifest in section membership. What do you want from ASA? From ENVR? Send your thoughts to any of the members of the ENVR Executive Committee.
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