OM Industrial Speakers Program Chair

Title

SPES Industrial Speakers Program Chair

Purpose

The Industrial Speakers Chair coordinates the SPES Industrial Speakers Program. This program partially supports visits to colleges by industrial statisticians to speak on their work experiences to graduate students or advanced undergraduates. The purpose of the program is to increase awareness of industrial practice and thereby encourage students to consider careers as industrial statisticians.

Term of Office

The Industrial Speakers Chair serves a two-year term.

Responsibilities

• Solicit requests for speakers from colleges (see attachment).
• Solicit industrial statisticians to participate as speakers (see attachment).
• Maintain industrial speaker web page (background info, list of speakers, bios, etc.).
• Select colleges to participate in the program (see attachment).
• Arrange for campus visits by mutually acceptable industrial speakers and selected colleges (see attachment).
• Upon receiving completed visit evaluation form from college and receipts for travel expenses and lodging, request ASA Project Leader for Chapters and Sections to reimburse the college for their expenses up to the maximum stipulated in the Industrial Speakers Program agreement. Must also notify SPES Treasurer of reimbursement request.
• Request copy of industrial speaker budget spreadsheet from Treasurer (around January) to check that withdrawals and deposits for past year are correct.
• Report on program activities to the Executive Committee.

Additional Activities (Desirable, not Mandatory)

• Attend Executive Committee Meeting at Joint Statistical Meetings

Qualifications

• SPES member
• Be able to commit to responsibilities of the job
• Established contacts with industrial statisticians (desirable, not mandatory).

Resources Available

• Past Industrial Speakers Chair
• ASA Membership Directory
• List server to university statistics departments (stat-acad-reps@amstat.org). Note that this is not a listserv that can be "subscribed to" but is a controlled list of the ASA Academic Program Representatives for communication of open positions, important announcements, information-sharing among the statistics programs, etc. The contact person at ASA for questions, changes, or corrections about this list is Carole Sutton, Special Projects Coordinator, 703-684-1221 Ext. 163.

Calendar

• As Needed - Upon receiving completed visit evaluation form from college, request ASA Chapter and Section Administrator to reimburse the college for their expenses up to $500.
• January - Receive requests for speakers from colleges, Select colleges that will participate in the program, Arrange for campus visits by mutually acceptable industrial speakers and selected colleges, Send visit evaluation forms to selected speakers and colleges, Notify non-selected colleges
• March - Send news item about program to SPES newsletter editor (invite industrial statistician participation and, if funds remain, invite colleges to participate in program).
• August - Report on program activities to Executive Committee at Joint Statistical Meetings
• October - Send news item about program to SPES newsletter editor (invite industrial statistician participation and invite colleges to participate in program in the following year).
• December - Announce program on the statistics program electronic mailing list stat-acad-reps@amstat.org

Election/Appointment Mechanism

The Industrial Speakers Chair is appointed by the Section Chair. There is no limit on the number of terms that may be served.

Details

Solicitation of Requests for Speakers from Colleges

The program is announced in the December issue of the Q&P/SPES Newsletter. Upon publication of the newsletter, the program is also announced through the statistics program electronic mailing list (stat-acad-reps@stat.sc.edu). If these solicitations do not produce enough requests, the program is announced in the June Q&P/SPES Newsletter. The Industrial Speakers Chair may also announce the program in other ways he/she believes appropriate.

Solicitation of Speakers

The program is announced in the June and December issues of the Q&P/SPES Newsletter. The Industrial Speakers Chair may also ask selected colleges to suggest names of speakers and use his/her personal contacts to add to the speaker list. Speakers generally make at most one visit per calendar year.

Selection of Colleges to Participate in the Program

The Industrial Speakers Chair selects the colleges to be included in the program. A primary, but not necessarily the only, purpose of the proposed visit must be consistent with the purpose of the Industrial Speakers Program. Priority is given to colleges that did not participate in the program in the previous year. The industrial speaker may also take into account geographical distribution of visits, order of receipt of requests, and prior participation in the program. Selected colleges should be notified before February 1. The visit may take place at any mutually acceptable time during the calendar year.

Arranging for Campus Visit

Upon the selection of a college to participate in the program, the Industrial Speakers Chair contacts the college representative that made the request (the host) to indicate formal approval. The college representative is then asked to select a speaker from the speaker list (on the website) and make arrangements for a visit.

Generally, these speakers would be geographically close to the college. While the Industrial Speaker Chair can suggest potential speakers, the process is more efficient if the host representative ultimately selects a speaker and then works out arrangements directly (i.e., seminar topic, additional student/faculty meetings, travel details, etc.). Once arrangements are made, the host representative must pass on the details to the Industrial Speaker Chair.

Reimbursement for Visit

The college reimburses the speaker for his/her expenses. If the college traditionally pays an honorarium to outside speakers, they should also pay an honorarium to the speaker. Upon receipt of the college's visit evaluation form and travel expense receipts, the Industrial Speakers Chair requests the ASA Chapter and Section Administrator to reimburse the college for their expenses up to $500. Unless other arrangements are required, the check is made payable to the home department of the host and is mailed to the attention of the host.