American Statistical Association (ASA) Section on Statistics and the Environment (ENVR) Last Modified: 98-Sep-02

The Executive Committee of the ENVR Section met during the recent ASA Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) held in August at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The committee consists of Noel Cressie, Chair, Loveday Conquest, Chair-elect, Paige Williams, Secretary, Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver, Treasurer, Christine Bunck, JSM ProgramChair, Robert O'Brien, Program Chair-Elect, Tim Gregoire, PublicationsChair, Philip Dixon, Publications Chair-Elect, and Tony Olsen, COS Representative. In addition to these elected members for 1998,two newly elected members for the 1999 term attended: Katherine Campbell as the incoming Treasurer and Barry Nussbaum as the new Chair-Elect. Katherine Ensor was elected as Program Chair-elect,but was unable to attend. According to ENVR Section policy, Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver will take the role of Secretary in place of PaigeWilliams for the 1999 term. Also in attendance were Lance Waller, theENVR Newsletter editor, and Derek Lawlor as the liaison from theASA office.

Despite the long list of items on the agenda, the Committee was ableto devote discussion to several noteworthy topics. Jackie Hughes-Oliverpresented a summary of our financial status and proposed budget for1999, and noted that the ENVR section had a small deficit for 1997and is anticipated to again have a small deficit for 1998. The main expenditures of the section are the newsletter, publication of proceedings, and contributions to other groups. The committee agreed that the newsletter and proceedings were vital to the mission of the group, but noted that we may need to limit donations to other groups in the future. However, the committee agreed to provide funding for aYoung Investigator's Luncheon at next year's WNAR meetings in Seattle,since this was felt to be a successful event led by Loveday Conquest at the past WNAR meeting.

The committee discussed approaches forattracting new members, especially students, to the ENVR section.As noted in a previous column (March 1998), the section plans to send an information packet including a copy of our most recent newsletter towelcome new members, but has been unable to implement this decisiondue to the lack of availability of new member lists from the ASA office. These have again been promised by ASA "in the near future". Otherideas suggested for attracting new members included sending letters to new ASA members who have not joined our section and increasing publicityof the student paper award. Tony Olsen reported that the COS isconsidering a proposal to allow each new member of ASA to choose one free section membership when they first join, and the executive committee agreed to allow a free 1-year membership in the ENVR Section to anyonein this category, pending approval of the ASA proposal.

The ENVR section website ( http://www.pnl.gov/statenvi ) management will betaken over shortly by Philip Dixon, with Rick Bates continuing as ourwebmaster. Noel Cressie congratulated Tim, Phil, and Rick for keepingthe website looking fresh and up-to-date. The website contains links to several other meetings of interest to environmental statisticians, and additional relevant contributions to the website are welcome(contact Philip Dixon, PDixon@IaState.edu). Plans are also underway to establish shared links to other environmental groups within statistical societies, suchas The International Environmetrics Society (TIES). Take a look atthe website and let us know what you think! As part of a further effort to promote interaction of the ENVR section with other environmental statisticians, the ENVR section has appointed Dr. David Marker as ourLiaison Officer. David Marker will be working to develop further contacts with other related organizations.

Christine Bunck did a terrific job as the ENVR Program Chair for the1998 JSM, and was able to secure a number of sessions forenvironmental topics. The committee is working to ensure that futuremeetings will be similarly successful. Bob O'Brien presented the executive committee with proposals for 6 environmentally-related sessions for the 1999 JSM to be held in Baltimore, so we look forward to an exciting program for next year's ASA meetings. Proceedings from this year's meeting will be compiled this fall and are available for purchasedirectly from ASA. If you do not regularly acquire the section'sProceedings volume,please encourage the publications department of your institution to do so.

Philip Dixon and Paige Williams are serving as representatives fromthe ENVR section to the 1999 ENAR Program Committee, to be held inAtlanta next March. Both the ASA and ENAR programs should be finalized shortly.

The ENVR Section presented two awards at their Awards Ceremony andReception at the ASA Meetings in Dallas. First, Breda Munoz-Hernandez, from the Department of Statistics at Oregon State University, waspresented with the award for the top student paper for her submissionentitled "Design-based EOF model for environmental monitoring dataanalysis", with co-authors Virginia Lesser and Fred Ramsey. Secondly,Robert O'Brien was presented with the Distinguished Achievement Medalfor his "excellent work in environmental sampling design and inestimation and testing for environmental contamination". More informationon theaward and nomination procedure can be found on the ENVR section website given above. In order to encourage greater participation in the student paper award contest, the ENVR executive committee decided to make someslight changes to the student award for next year. First, the toppaper will receive a prize of $100, but will receive an additional$100 travel subsidy if they are able to attend the JSM meeting topresent their paper. Secondly, a number of honorable mention awardsmay also be given, and winners of honorable mentions will receive a free 1-year membership to the ENVR Section. We encourage allinterested students to apply by the deadline of February 1, 1999.In addition to the two awards presented at the ENVR Business Meetingand Mixer in Dallas, a new inclusion in our program for this year wasa speaker invited by the Chair. This year, Noel asked Paul Sampsonto give a brief overview of the National Research Center forStatistics and the Environment (NRCSE) in Seattle.