10:00 (breakfast), 10:00 - Statistical Society of Canada
Transcription
10:00 (breakfast), 10:00 - Statistical Society of Canada
STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA AGENDA for the Meeting of the Board of Directors 17 October 2009 9:00 – 10:00 (breakfast), 10:00 – 15:30 (meeting), 15:30 – 16:30 (presentation by R. Kan) nd University of Toronto 89 Chestnut, Armoury Suite, 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. floor Approval of Agenda Approval of Minutes (attached) Business Arising Reports of the Officers of the Society 4.1. President (report attached) 4.2. Past President (report attached) 4.3. President Elect (no report) 4.4. Executive Secretary (no report) 4.5. Treasurer (report attached – 4 motions) 4.6. Publications Officer (report attached) 4.7. Executive Director (report attached) 4.8. Meetings Coordinator 4.8.1. General (report attached) 4.8.2. SSC 2010 Program Chair (report attached) 4.8.3. SSC 2010 Local Arrangements (report attached) 4.8.4. SSC 2010 Budget (report attached) 4.9. Electronic Services Manager Reports of Standing Committees 5.1. Bilingualism Committee (no report) 5.2. Election Committee (no report – 1 motion) 5.3. Publications Committee (no separate report – covers in 4.6) 5.3.1. Editor of the Canadian Journal of Statistics (report attached) 5.3.2. Managing Editor of the Canadian Journal of Statistics (no report) 5.3.3. Editor/Managing Editor of Liaison (report attached) 5.4. Program Committee (no separate report – covers in 4.7) 5.5. Finance Committee (no separate report – covers in 4.5) Reports of Continuing Committees 6.1. Accreditation Committee (report attached – 1 motion) 6.2. Accreditation Appeal Committee (no report) 6.3. Awards Committee (no report) 6.3.1. CJS Best Paper (no report) 6.3.2. Lise Manchester (no report) 6.3.3. Case Studies in Data Analysis (no report) 6.3.4. Student Presentation (report attached) 6.3.5. Pierre Robillard (no report) 6.3.6. Impact of Applied and Collaborative Work (no report) 6.3.7. CRM-SSC Prize Committee (no report) 6.4. Committee on Membership (no report, 2010 form attached – 1 motion) 6.5. Public Relations Committee (no separate report – covers in 4.6) 6.6. Research Committee (no report – 1 motion) 6.7. Statistical Education Committee (report attached) 6.8. Committee on Women in Statistics (report attached) Reports of Ad Hoc Committees 7.1. New Investigators (report attached) 7.2. NSERC Statistical Sciences Liaison (no separate report – covers in 4.1) 7.3. AusCan Scholar Committee (no separate report – covers in 4.1) 7.4. Student Travel Awards (no report) Reports of the Sections 8.1. Biostatistics (report attached) 8.2. Business & Industrial Statistics (no report) 8.3. Probability (report, regulations, AGM 2008 minutes attached – 1 motion) 8.4. Survey Methods (no report) Page 1 9. Reports of the Regional Associations 9.1. Statistical Society of Ottawa (no report) 9.2. Southern Ontario Regional Association (no report) 9.3. Statistical Society of Montreal (no report) 10. Other Business 11. Next Meeting Page 2 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA Meeting of the Board of Directors Vancouver, BC Sunday and Wednesday May 31 and June 3, 2009 / Dimanche et mercredi 31 mai et 3 juin 2009 MINUTES / PROCÈS VERBAL 31 May 2008 / 31 mai 2009 Present: R. Viveros-Aguilera (Chair), B. Abraham, P. Cabilio, E. Chen, C. Genest, W. Lou, F. Bellavance, J. Brewster, H. Chipman, G. Darlington, K. Keen, M. Lesperance, L. Lix, J. O’Hara Hines, G. Sneddon, T. Ramsay, Regrets: H. Bérard, A.-C. Favre, D. Stephens, C. Wu Invited Attending: N. Arnason, M. Bennett, D. Binder, Y. Gel, P. Gustafson, J. Koval, D. Murdoch, J. Trépanier, L. Weldon, Invited Regrets: C. Bocci, M. Boudreau, C. Dean, J. Horrocks, J. Lawless, N. Reid Meeting began at 12:00 / La réunion a commencé à 12h. 1. Approval of Agenda/ Approbation de l’ordre du jour Genest / Lou. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. 2. Approval of Minutes / Approbation du procès verbal MOTION: that the minutes of the Board meeting held 18 October 2008 be approved / que le procès verbal de la séance du Conseil tenue le 18 octobre 2008 soit approuvé. Genest / Chipman. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. Record of Electronic Vote Results of Electronic Vote of the Board held in March 2009, at which all Board members voted. MOTION: that Honorary Membership be awarded to Isobel Loutit / que le titre de Membre honoraire soit décerné à Isobel Loutit. Favre / Chipman. CARRIED unanimously / ADOPTÉ à l'unanimité. MOTION: that Honorary Membership be awarded to George P.H. Styan / que le titre de Membre honoraire soit décerné à George P.H. Styan. Lesperance / Bellavance. CARRIED unanimously / ADOPTÉ à l'unanimité. 10. Other Business 10.1 NSERC Presentation. The Board was given a presentation by Serge Villemure, Director, Chemistry, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, regarding the implementation of the GSC restructuring, as well as the results of the 2009 competition. In addition Judie Foster of NSERC attended this presentation. At the conclusion of the presentation, following a question and answer session, the meeting resumed at 13:30. Page 3 Page 1 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes 5. Reports of Standing Committees 5.3.1. Editor of the CJS / Rédacteur en chef de la RCS. (Attachment 5.3.1) P. Gustafson reported / a présenté son rapport. At this point, M. Salibián-Barrera, Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee, joined the meeting to report the up to date count of 598 web registrations, with expectations that more will be registering on site. On behalf of the SSC, R. Viveros-Aguilera thanked M. Salibián -Barrera, N. Heckman and all the other volunteers who organized this meeting. A round of applause from the Board echoed these sentiments. 6. Reports of Continuing Committees 6.1 Accreditation Committee / Comité d’accréditation. (Attachment 6.1) N. Arnason reported / a présenté son rapport. In his report, N. Arnason expressed his disappointment at the limited success in attracting academics to the accreditation program and in the number of submissions of courses for accreditation. He touched on the issue of accredited members who had dropped out, noting that one aspect that needs correcting is the lack of provisions for family leave in the accreditation program. Services for accredited members need to be developed, and a publically accessible searchable database of accredited members and their expertise needs to be developed professionally. MOTION: that the designations A.Stat. 32 to 37 and P.Stat. 109 to 115 be awarded to the individuals recommended in the report / que le titre de A.Stat. 32 à 37 et P.Stat. 109 à 115 soit accordé aux personnes recommandées dans le rapport. Chipman / Ramsay. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. R. Viveros-Aguilera hoped that progress can be achieved in implementing the directives from the Board at its meeting of May 2006, with respect to the detailed points raised by W. Oldford and J. MacKay regarding the Accreditation documents. The motion passed by the Board at that meeting reads: “Motion: that the Accreditation Committee incorporate all minor changes and corrections, report to the Board on all major suggestions, and bring forward an operational document on accreditation.” D. Binder summarized some of the issues raised by W. Oldford and J. MacKay at that Board meeting. 4. Reports of the Officers of the Society 4.1. President / Président. (Attachment 4.1) R. Viveros-Aguilera reported / a présenté son rapport. R. Viveros-Aguilera noted the number of ad-hoc committees that had been active this year, and the separation of the Lise Manchester Award Committee from the CJS Best Paper Award Committee. Page 4 Page 2 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes With regards to educational issues, he noted the support that was given to several activities within the sphere of secondary school and undergraduate statistics education. He made reference to two new publication initiatives, Statistical Surveys and Springer’s Online Encyclopaedia of Probability and Statistics (EPS). In the case of the EPS he noted that the Publications Committee had recommended that the SSC participate in this endeavour, and the Executive Committee had approved a suitably revised version of the contract with Springer. At this point W. Lou reported that at the most recent Publications Committee meeting held just prior to the Board meeting, a member of the committee had recommended that more feedback would be useful before the SSC commit itself to this enterprise. L. Weldon added that at the meeting, G. Styan had been asked how the EPS would compare to Wikipedia, G. Styan replied that, in his opinion, the EPS would be narrower in focus, but greater in quality control. As is the case for Wikipedia, there would be no cost to the user. However there is a requirement that the SSC appoint a member to the Editorial Board. P.Cabilio will send out the detailed Springer Proposal and Contract to the Board, so that the discussion may continue at our Wednesday continuation of the Board meeting. 4.2, 5.2, 6.2. (Attachment 5.2) C. Genest reported / a présenté ses rapports. 4.2 Past President / Président sortant. 5.2 Election Committee / Comité des élections. General elections / élections générales: Ballots received / Bulletins reçus : 379 Participation: 34.3% 6.2 Accreditation Appeals/ Dossiers d’accréditation en appel. The committee reinstated accreditation of an appellant on maternity leave. 4.3. President Elect / Président élu. (Attachment 4.4) B. Abraham reported / a présenté son rapport. 4.4. Secretary / Secrétaire. (Attachment 4.4) P.Cabilio reported / a présenté son rapport. Committee on Women in Statistics MOTION: that the composition of the Committee on Women in Statistics be five individuals in good standing, one of whom shall be Chair, one a representative from the Canadian Section of the Caucus for Women in Statistics and one a representative from the ISI Committee on Women in Statistics. Cabilio / Lou. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. 4.5. Treasurer / Trésorier (Attachment 4.5) E. Chen reported / a présenté son rapport. E. Chen began by thanking C. Genest’s successful initiatives in raising funds for the SSC 2008 meeting. He reported on and explained the arrangements with the SSdF with regards to splitting the meeting revenue, in which grants were not to be included as income. This provision allowed each society to raise funds for their own use from their national agencies and institutes. With this proviso, the meeting recorded a surplus of $12,700, which was to be split evenly with the SFdS. However, in order to ensure that the SFdS not incur a deficit, the Executive agreed to transfer $8480 from this surplus as the SFdS portion of the profits. The Board joined E. Chen in a round of applause in recognition of C. Genest. Page 5 Page 3 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes E. Chen continued with his report. He explained some of the complications in ascribing income to a particular year. For example, a membership payment may be for one year or for two years, and may be made before or after the beginning of the calendar year it comes into effect. He noted the increasing reserves in cash and investments, and pointed out the need to maintain at least one year’s projected expenditures in reserve. In addition there are various long term initiatives that require funding, such as the installation of our own Office. D. Murdoch stated that it is prudent to maintain a reserve. D. Binder added that it is due to E. Chen’s prudent financial management that we find ourselves in this healthy financial position. R. Viveros-Aguilera noted that this is the last month of E. Chen’s term as treasurer, and asked the Board to express their recognition of his service, to which the Board responded with a round of applause. R. Viveros-Aguilera introduced John Koval as the incoming SSC Treasurer, and noted that a recommendation will be made to the upcoming AGM to appoint a new accounting firm. 4.6. Publications Officer / Directrice des publications. (Attachment 4.6) W. Lou reported / a présenté son rapport. W. Lou highlighted the amendment to the agreement with JSTOR, and the question of Springer’s Online Encyclopaedia of Probability and Statistics. 4.7. Executive Director / Directeur exécutif. (Attachment 4.7) D. Binder reported / a présenté son rapport. D. Binder highlighted that the Office was forced to vacate its U. of Ottawa facilities, and the subsequent two moves have caused some disruption. W. Lou asked about the timeline for instituting online payments for membership, and wondered whether this could not be implemented through an agreement with a bank. CMS Representative / Représentant de la SCM. M. Bennett reported. M. Bennett brought greeting from the CMS. He discussed some of the issues regarding the changes in the NSERC grant selection process from the perspective of the mathematical community, outlined some of the outcomes of this year’s competition in Mathematics, and expressed his concern with the impact that the GSC restructuring will have on researchers. 7. Reports of Ad-Hoc Committees 7.1 Committee on New Investigators / Comité des nouveaux chercheurs. (Attachment 7.1) Y. Gel reported / a présenté le rapport. 6. Reports of Continuing Committees (continued) 6.3 Awards Committee / Comité des Prix. (Attachment 6.3.1) C. Dean. Received / Reçu. 6.3.1. CJS Award / Prix de la RCS. (Attachment 6.3.1) M. Lesperance reported / a présenté le rapport. The meeting was adjourned at 16:15 to continue 3 June 2009 at 15:30 Page 6 Page 4 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes 3 June 2009 / 3 juin 2009 Present: R. Viveros-Aguilera (Chair), B. Abraham, P. Cabilio, E. Chen, C. Genest, W. Lou, F. Bellavance, J. Brewster, H. Chipman, G. Darlington, K. Keen, M. Lesperance, L. Lix, J. O’Hara Hines, G. Sneddon, T. Ramsay, Invited Attending: D. Binder, A. Gibbs, J. Koval, A. Labbe, D. MacLeish, D. Murdoch, M. Salibián-Barrera, L. Weldon, For the information of the Board, R. Viveros-Aguilera distributed a booklet prepared by C. Dean featuring all the prize winners for this year. 5. Reports of Standing Committees (continued) 5.3.3. Editor of the Liaison / Rédacteur en chef de Liaison. (Attachment 5.3.3) L. Weldon reported / a présenté son rapport. L. Weldon expressed the need for more professional help in putting Liaison together. M. Salibián-Barrera enquired as to how many issues are printed and mailed, versus the number that are sent out electronically, to which L. Weldon replied that approximately 430 are mailed, while about 425 are e-mailed. He added that the costs are $5 each for printing, while postage is $2 per issue for local, and $7 international. D. Binder suggested that all past issues should be available from the web site, which will require scanning of all issues prior to July 2000. He added that he presently has all issues of Liaison. C. Genest added that he also has such issues, plus all the newsletters which preceded Liaison. 5.3.4 Electronic Services Manager / Gérant des services électroniques. (Attachment 5.3.4) H. Chipman reported / a présenté son rapport. 5.1 Bilingualism Committee / Comité du bilinguisme. (Attachment 5.1) Received / Reçu. 4. Reports of the Officers of the Society (continued) 4.8 Program Secretary / Secrétaire des congrès. (Attachment 4.8) D. Murdoch reported / a présenté son rapport. SSC 2012 D. Murdoch reported on the recommendation from the Program Committee. MOTION: that the 2012 SSC Annual Meeting be held at the University of Guelph in Guelph, ON, on June 3-6, 2012 / que le Congrès annuel 2012 de la Société statistique du Canada ait lieu à University of Guelph à Guelph ON du 3 au 6 juin. Lesperance / Chipman. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. As noted in his report, D. Murdoch reminded the Board that in addition to Guelph, there had also been a bid from the University of Windsor. The Program Committee was very positive for both applications, but felt that ease of travel gave Guelph a slight edge. The committee also felt that Windsor would be a strong candidate for SSC 2014, should they choose to make a bid at that time. D. Murdoch also felt that the Guelph people had shown more enthusiasm in his interactions with them. Page 7 Page 5 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes B. Abraham asked whether this “difficulty in getting there” will become a permanent black mark on Windsor, since the conditions will not change in the foreseeable future. E. Chen stated that as a member of the Program Committee, he did not think that the travel issue should be a concern. After all, people manage to get to Windsor and back without too much trouble. D. Murdoch noted that bids from both Guelph and Windsor had been rejected before. Either site would have been acceptable to the committee. B. Abraham pointed out that Guelph had hosted a meeting some 25 years ago, while Windsor had never had the opportunity. R. Viveros-Aguilera asked whether the expenses would be comparable for the two sites, to which D. Murdoch answered that costs had not been an issue in the choice. MOTION: that the Local Organizers of the 2012 SSC Annual Meeting be jointly Brian Allen and Gary Umphrey / que Brian Allen et Gary Umphrey soient nommés Présidents conjointes du comité local d’organisation du Congrès annuel 2012. Chipman / Brewster. A discussion ensued, which touched on whether there are any provisions for co-chairs of local organizing committees and whether it would be appropriate to have a chair of such a committee who is not an SSC member. As a result, the mover and seconder accepted a friendly amendment, so that the motion considered was: MOTION: that the Local Organizer of the 2012 SSC Annual Meeting be Brian Allen / que Brian Allen soit nommé Président du comité local d’organisation du Congrès annuel 2012. Chipman / Brewster. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. SSC 2010 D. Murdoch informed the Board that the Program Committee recommends that the President invite the ASSQ to be co-sponsors of the 2010 meeting. They will be asked to organize some sessions, and will be offered space for their annual general meeting; however, they will not participate financially in the meeting. SSC 2009 M. Salibián-Barrera reported that the overwhelming majority of people registered electronically, with only 17 registering on site. R. Viveros-Aguilera called for a motion of thanks for a very well organized meeting. MOTION: that the SSC express its thanks to Matías Salibián-Barrera, Nancy Heckman, and Lang Wu for all their work in the local organization of SSC 2009 / que la SSC exprime sa gratitude envers Matías Salibián-Barrera, Nancy Heckman, et Lang Wu pour leurs services rendus dans l’organisation locale de SSC 2009. Lix / Ramsay. CARRIED unanimously / ADOPTÉ à l’unanimité. At this point the Chair returned to the issue of SSC involvement in Springer’s Online Encyclopaedia of Probability and Statistics. Page 8 Page 6 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes R. Viveros-Aguilera informed the Board that he had discussed the matter with G. Styan, who expressed no objection to this initiative. Since all Board members have now had a chance to look over the relevant documents, R. Viveros-Aguilera called for a motion. MOTION: that the SSC participate in the Springer Online Encyclopaedia of Probability and Statistics. Ramsay / Abraham. CARRIED / ADOPTÉ. 7. Reports of Ad-Hoc Committees (continued) 7.2 SSC-NSERC Liaison Committee / Comité de liaison SSC-CRSNG. (Attachment 7.2) H. Chipman reported / a présenté le rapport. In reporting, H. Chipman noted that the committee’s term ends on 1 July 2009, and touched upon the comments in the report regarding the future of the committee. A discussion took place regarding the role of this committee and the Research Committee, and whether the roles could be combined. F. Bellavance, a member of the Board and Chair of the Research Committee pointed out that several members of his committee had also served on this ad-hoc committee. R. Viveros-Aguilera pointed out that the incoming President will be discussing the roles of these committees with their chairs. D. MacLeish, (incoming President-Elect) added that lobbying for increased research support should be an important priority, and a continuing committee would be appropriate for such a role. B. Abraham stated that a combination of the two committees into one may turn out to be the best solution. 6. Reports of Continuing Committees (continued) 6.3.2 Case studies in data analysis / Études de cas en analyse de données. (Attachment 6.3.2) K. Keen reported / a présenté le rapport. K. Keen made special note of the fact that the committee is not receiving any submissions east of Toronto. It would be helpful if we promoted this prize. 6.9 Statistical Education Committee / Comité d’éducation statistique. (Attachment 6.9) A. Gibbs reported / a présenté le rapport. A. Gibbs emphasized the outreach activities in the K-12 sector. Many of these are piggybacked on initiatives from the mathematical community, and the SSC has had trouble getting “a permanent seat at the table,” so that we should be looking at options for going our own way. She also identified the need for outreach to educators at the secondary school level. R. Viveros-Aguilera added that we need to decide how much as a society we can do, and how to allocate our resources to meet our long term goals. T. Ramsey said that he would be happy to contribute to a Wiki with data sets for the use of teachers. 6.3.5 Impact of Applied and Collaborative work / Impact Du Travail Appliqué et en Collaboration (Attachment 6.5) J. Lawless. Received / Reçu. Page 9 Page 7 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes 6.5. Aus-Can Scholar Committee/ Comité du boursier AusCan (Attachment 6.5) J. Lawless. Received / Reçu. R. Viveros-Aguilera pointed out that the Australian Society (SSAI) finds itself in a financial crisis, and is unable to provide its share of the financial support for the designated scholar. The SSAI President’s suggestion was that they would try to raise the funds from Australian sources, although that seems unlikely since they are presently trying to raise money to ensure their viability as a society. In the discussion that followed it was reported by W. Lou, that the designated scholar, Jiguo Cao, had indicated that he would prefer to postpone his trip by one year. If that is indeed the case, then the issue can be postponed for a year, but in any case it would seem that the SSC can only commit to its financial obligation to partially support the scholar, and not commit itself to taking up the obligations of the SSAI. It was noted by R. Viveros-Aguilera that the agreement with the SSAI will elapse in 2010 at which time the program is scheduled for a review to decide its future. 6.10. Committee on Women in Statistics / Comité sur les Femmes en Statistique (Attachment 6.10) J. Horrocks. Received / Reçu. 9. Reports of the Regional Associations 9.1 Statistical Society of Ottawa / Société statistique d’Ottawa. (Attachment 9.1) E. Chen reported / a présenté le rapport. 9.2. SORA / ARSO (Attachment 9.2) W. Lou reported / a présenté le rapport. W. Lou informed the Board that Georges Monette is the new President of SORA. 8. Reports of the Sections 8.1. Biostatistics section / Groupe de biostatistique. (Attachment 8.1) S. Lele. Received / Reçu. 8.2. Business & Industrial Statistics section / GSIG. (Attachment 8.2) S. Cheng. Received / Reçu. Referring to Item 7 of the report which forecasts a deficit for 2009, Smiley Cheng reported in communications with P. Cabilio that in light of the fact that 38 have registered for the BISS Workshop, the resulting increased revenue will probably lead to a surplus. 8.3. Probability section / Groupe de probabilité. (Attachment 8.3) B. Remillard. Received / Reçu. 8.4. Survey Methods / Groupe d’enquêtes. (Attachment 8.4) Received / Reçu. With the completion of the agenda, the meeting turned to a short discussion on the use of our resources. J. Koval, the incoming Treasurer, referred to information given out by E. Chen with respect to the fact that we have been advised that the SSC is registered as a “charitable” rather than a “not for profit” organization. T. Ramsay gave the opinion that our reserves are too large, and we should be spending more on worthwhile endeavours. C. Genest surmised that charitable status would give us the right to issue receipts for donations. He added that as a society we rely far too much on volunteer work, and we need to spend more on professional help. Page 10 Page 8 of 9 2009 May- June SSC Board Meeting Minutes 11. Next Meeting / Prochaine assemblée. Ottawa ON, Saturday 17 October 2009 (10:00-17:00) / Ottawa, ON, samedi 17 octobre 2009 (10:00-17:00). In closing the meeting, R. Viveros-Aguilera welcomed all new Board members, and expressed thanks to all departing Board and Executive members. R. Viveros-Aguilera took the occasion to highlight P. Cabilio’s many years of service to the SSC in various roles, the latest as Executive Secretary, and asked the Board to express its appreciation with a round of applause, which the Board delivered. The meeting adjourned at 17:30 / La séance a été levée à 17h 30. E. Chen / G. Darlington. Paul Cabilio, Executive Secretary Page 11 Page 9 of 9 President’s Report, SSC October 2009 1. Appointments: • • • • • Executive Director: David Binder agreed to stay until 2010-12-31. Committee appointments are finished and the new committees are on the web. SSC signed a contract with Springer for a Statistics and Probability encyclopaedia. Representative on the Editorial Board, Springer Encyclopaedia: David Bellhouse CJS Editor: 2. JSM-09, August 1-6, Washington DC: • • • • • • Reception: More than 120 attended, was excellent SSC Booth: Ran well with the help of 10 volunteers; thanks to Wendy Lou for all the help. We picked up two SSC memberships. COPSS: Bovas, Don and Roman participated in the meeting. Two new associations (International Indian Statistical Association, and International Chinese Statistical Association) are becoming COPSS members. New ASA fellows from SSC: Syed Ejaz Ahmed (University of Windsor), Naomi S. Altman (Pennsylvania State University), Keumhee Chough Carriere (University of Alberta), Jiahua Chen (University of British Columbia), and Chris Wild (University of Auckland) COPSS F.N. David Award: Nancy Reid (University of Toronto) Student Mixer Prize: SSC offered a prize of one free membership for a year. 3. ISI Durban session: August 16-22, 2009: • • Meeting of the representatives from many national statistical societies. Bovas represented SSC. There was discussion of an international federation of societies. Amanda Ens from Canada won second in her age group in the International Statistical Literacy Competition. SSC was one of her sponsors. 4. Presidential Invited Address, SSC-2010: May 24, 2009: Nobel Laureate Robert Engle, Stern School of Business, New York University. 4. Other Committee matters: • • • NSERC Liason Committee: Research committee will take over the function AusCan scholarship: The Australian society has agreed to raise funds for AusCan Scholar’s (Jiguo Cao) Australian trip in the Fall 2010. Stat Education committee: Applied for NSERC SciencePromo Project Attachment 4.1 October 09 Page 12 page 1 of 1 Report from the Past-President, SSC October 2009 The following lists the activities I have been involved with since last Board meeting in May-June. Since I moved to the Past-President role, my level of activity was reduced. But during June-July there were a few things leftover matters. 1. Some 23 letters were written and sent to departments, deans and media offices of award winners’ universities. In addition to the letters, two copies of the awards brochure were included. 2. Thank-you letters (24 in total) were sent to Committee Chairs who completed their terms, program and local organizers of SSC2009 and their deans, Presidential Address Speaker Chris Wild, and case study providers Roberta Parish and Rob Balshaw. 3. An invitation from University of Guelph President to hold our 2012 Annual Meeting at University of Guelph was received, a positive reply letter was sent back. 4. Based on a decision taken at this year’s Annual Meeting, an invitation letter was sent to the ASSQ President to have our 2010 Annual Meeting jointly with their Association. A positive reply was received. 5. I have made myself available for consultation by President Abraham whenever necessary. 6. I attended the JSM in Washington in early August. Jointly with President Abraham and President-Elect McLeish represented the SSC at the annual meeting of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS). 7. Also helped as member of the CJS Transition Committee and as an Associate editor of Liaison where my proofing services have found use. 8. My main formal duty has been chairing this year’s Election Committee. The activities of this Committee are reported separately. Respectfully submitted, Román Viveros-Aguilera (McMaster University) Attachment 4.2 - October 17, 2009 Page 13 Page 1 of 1 Report of the Treasurer SSC October 2009 1)Financial Report on SSC2009. the Annual Meeting held in Vancouver BC May-June 2009: (see pages 4 to 6) This meeting, attended by 625 people, has a surplus of about $36,000. This does not include the cost of certain events held at the time and place of the annual meeting, such as the Workshops, the New Investigators Reception and Awards given at the meeting. These items are reported under the item Financial Report of the SSC for 2009. It should be noted that there is one revenue item (CRM/MITACS/PIMS/Fields sponsorship) to be collected, and possibly a number of small adjustments to be made. 2)Financial Report of the SSC for 2009: The final Financial Report for 2009 will not be given until the AGM in 2010. The current projected figures in the Annual report are given as column 4 in the Revenues and Expenses tables of the Proposed Budgets for 2010 and 2011 (see pages 7 and 8). The projected surplus for 2009 is about $25,000 as opposed to a budgeted loss of $11,000. The chief differences between budgeted and current projected are 2.1)Revenues: More members than expected, particularly Institutional; Annual meeting had higher income because of higher attendance and income from Sponsorship and Exhibitors; CJS – more funds predicted from Wiley but NONE received yet Liaison/Web advertising down 2.2)Expenses: Professional Fees (Auditor) $4300 higher than expected; Board and Executive expenses up: includes travel to west coast for AGM; Committees up, includes New Investigators ($2242,81 expenses, but $1914 income) and Education ($1000); Accreditation up, but income is $10,000; Meeting expenses up with more attendees; CJS expenses up; more expenses for transition year than expected; SSC Office up – additional expenses (including storage) , 3.4% increase in September, web and database work ($15000) ISLC (International Statistical Literacy Competition ) - only cost to SSC was $1000 contribution; Aus-Can costs not incurred this year, will be only $3000 next year Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 1 of 12 Page 14 3)Proposed Budgets for 2010 and 2011: The proposed budget for the Society is given in columns 5 and 6 of the tables on page 7 and 8, and the proposed budgets for the four sections are given on pages 9 to 12. 3.1)SSC Budget for 2010: Compared to the 2009 budget, the following changes in 2010 are expected: 3.1.1)Revenues: Membership income higher – more institutional members projected; Meeting income down – calculations based on 500 attendees; less sponsorship available and fewer exhibitors CJS – 5% increase; Subscriptions - $6000 less (but also $6000 less expenses) due to no longer offering subscriptions to non-Canadian journals; Liaison/Web advertising – small increase from actual 2009 but $8000 less than 2009 budget; Donations less – no ISLC contributions expected this year 3.1.2)Expenses: Subscriptions: down because of dropping subscriptions to non-Canadian journals; Professional fees (auditor) higher that budgeted in 2009, but less than actual cost in 2009; Accreditation up to reflect actual costs in 2009; Annual meeting costs down to reflect smaller meeting (expected $2000 surplus for the meeting); CJS costs down to reflect most work being handled by Wiley; SSC Office – annual increase of 3% in September; change from GST (5%) to HST (13%) on July 1, 2010; Liaison – 5% increase in cost; Web Site– increased by $20,000 to cover expected costs of update to Web access, to allow for online membership subscription and easier management of contents of our Web pages; Awards up and Translation down to reflect actual costs in 2009 3.2)Budget for 2011: very similar to that for 2010, except 3.2.1)Revenue: CJS revenue up by5%, and Liaison/Web advertising up by $1000 3.2.2)Expenses: SSC office – 3% increase per year by CSM, plus remaining 6 months of increase due to changing from GST to HST Liaison costs up by 5% Web Site costs back to usual 3.3)Budgets of the Sections These predict small surpluses or losses. The losses could be handled by the accumulated surplus of any section; in general the sections run a small surplus, due to income from workshops. The Probability Section is having their first workshop this year, joint with BISS. Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 2 of 12 Page 15 4)Finance Committee: The finance committee met on the morning of October 17, 2009. A report will be forthcoming. The committee will be striking a sub-committee with the following tasks: 4.1)determine the amount of the cumulative surplus of the SSC required as an operating reserve and recommend how this should be invested 4.2)determine the amount of the cumulative surplus NOT required as an operating reserve, and recommend how this should be invested. 5)Motions arising from this report 5.1)That the SSC no longer handle subscriptions for journals from outside of Canada, that is, the SSC handle subscriptions only for the Canadian Journal of Statistics and Survey Methodology; 5.2)That the cost of the subscription for the Canadian Journal of Statistics be raised from $20 annually to $25 annually. 5.3)That the board approve the Budget of the SSC for 2010; 5.4)That the board approve the Budget of the four sections for 2010. Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 3 of 12 Page 16 SSC 2009 – Final financial report October 2009 Local organizing committee Matias Salibian-Barrera The University of British Columbia Expenses Reception Facilities Overtime / Administration Food Museum of Anthropology (rental) Board / Executive Food Banquet Facilities Custodial / security Food Coffee breaks Management (Meeting / Exhibitors) Staffing Organization Event staffing (approx 330 hours) Other staffing (UBC Stats and PIMS) Web services Website Registration (CMS) Abstract preparation (CRM) Registration Space rental UBC Conferences staff CMS Paypal fee Miscellaneous Insurance Travel awards Photocopies / signage Gifts to Media Services people Volunteer T-shirts Grad Student Mixer Facilities / A/V / Labour Food Attachment 4.5 October 09 $12,898.99 $500.00 $236.80 $12,162.19 $3,360.00 $1,169.07 $1,169.07 $50,809.39 $1,129.81 $1,271.64 $48,407.94 $11,145.75 $21,525.00 $37,203.15 $30,000.00 $4,950.00 $2,253.15 $5,672.13 $3,000.00 $1,672.13 $1,000.00 $20,522.12 $367.50 $2,100.00 $11,484.38 $6,570.24 $4,730.61 $1,085.00 $1,200.00 $1,814.09 $20.00 $611.52 $3,975.14 $1,291.08 $2,684.06 Page 4 of 12 Page 17 Translations Abstracts Web (local information) Presentation slides Sessions Facilities Equipment for speakers Exhibitors Speaker support A/V Gifts / Programs $9,098.40 $6,420.00 $592.60 $2,085.80 $33,421.26 $7,108.50 $5,242.70 $1,152.06 $16,138.00 $3,780.00 $14,634.85 Total Expenses $230,165.86 Revenues Sponsorship UBC Stats (in kind) Corporate Institutional Exhibitors Registration + banquet tickets Registration Banquet tickets $63,250.00 $34,950.00 $7,800.00 $20,500.00 $7,900.00 $195,305.00 $193,350.00 $1,955.00 Total revenues $266,455.00 Total expenses: Total revenues: Profit: $230,165.86 $266,455.00 $36,289.14 Financial result Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 5 of 12 Page 18 Conference Attendance totals Regular Student Retired Total Member & Invited speakers 293 58 19 370 Non-member 99 154 3 256 Total 392 212 22 626 Retired Total Workshops attendance Biostatistics Regular Student Member & Invited speakers 11 5 16 Non-member 8 20 28 Total 19 25 44 BISS Regular Student Retired Total Member & Invited speakers 10 9 19 Non-member 5 18 23 Total 15 27 42 Survey Methods Regular Student Retired Total Member & Invited speakers 4 2 6 Non-member 5 6 11 Total 9 8 17 Workshop Finances The only cost incurred by the Sections was the coffee break. The total cost of the catering service was $1168.76, which results in a per person cost of $11.35. Workshop Attendance Cost Revenue Profit Biostatistics 44 $499.28 $5,030.00 $4,530.72 BISS 42 $476.58 $4,285.00 $3,808.42 Survey Methods 17 $192.90 $2,185.00 $1,992.10 6) Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 6 of 12 Page 19 2010 and 2011 SSC BUDGETS: REVENUES 2008 Budge t Actual Re ve nue MEMBERSHIP Re gular 2009 Budge t Proje cte d 2010 Budge t 2011 Budge t 610 67100 250 5800 22 7150 80050 700 74830 319 7130 28 9100 91060 650 71500 250 5800 22 7150 84450 677 74470 279 8370 32 10400 93240 650 71500 250 7500 28 9100 88100 650 71500 250 7500 28 9100 88100 Annual Me e ting 328067 352201 196300 266455 170000 160000 CJS 129700 142433 30000 47205 49700 52000 Accre ditation 11200 10285 10200 10000 10200 10200 Socie tie s/Subscription s 15000 14850 15000 15000 9000 9000 Inve stme nt Inte re st 6000 10512 7000 7000 7000 7000 Liaison/We b Ad. 16000 14642 17000 8000 9000 10000 GST Re bate s 4000 7872 3000 5000 5000 5000 JSM Re ve nue (USD) 2000 1565 2000 1500 1500 1500 Donations 500 120 500 2727 500 500 Othe r 3000 5676 3000 3000 3000 3000 Fore ign Exchange 0 0 0 -228 0 0 595517 643344 368450 458899 353000 346300 Associate Institutional Total Total Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 7 of 12 Page 20 2010 and 2011 SSC BUDGETS: EXPENSES Expenses ADMINISTRATIVE Bank Charge s Insurance Socie tie s/Subscriptions Organization Due s Profe ssional Fe e s BOARD/COMMITTEES Board & Exe c Expe nse s Committe es Pre side nt Accre ditation OTHER EXPENSES Annual Mee ting Stude nt Trave l CJS Re gular Ope ration SSC Office Liaison Ele ctions We b Site Awards JSM Me mbership Promotion Science Fair Translation Misce llane ous Office Ope rations ADDITIONAL EXPENSES ISLC Aus-Can Program TOTAL: Surplus (Deficit) 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2011 budge t actual budge t proje cte d budge t budge t 2008 Budge t Actual 2009 Budge t Proje cted 2010 Budge t 2011 Budge t 2500 2500 15000 1000 6000 2687.75 2386.80 14850.00 982.00 10290.00 2500 2500 15000 1000 6000 2500.00 2500.00 13247.00 897.37 11149.69 2500 2500 10000 1000 9000 2500 2500 10000 1000 9000 8500 2000 1000 8300 8805.60 753.30 1044.14 540.00 12500 2000 1000 3000 15057.00 3242.81 1000.00 4011.14 15000 2000 1000 4000 15000 2000 1000 4000 328067 2000 100905 301136.00 1587.57 106801.00 200594 3000 8000 236165.86 1800.00 13000.00 168000 3000 6000 160000 3000 6000 50350 35000 4000 3000 4000 2500 2000 2000 3500 4000 4000 50434.97 33535.40 3653.74 6330.31 5194.11 2436.40 333.90 2000.00 380.69 3518.73 4851.08 51555 34000 2000 3000 4000 2500 2000 2000 3500 4000 4000 70000.00 33429.00 2000.00 2660.00 4467.28 1376.00 2000.00 2000.00 502.27 3000.00 4000.00 74000 35700 2000 23000 5000 2500 2000 2000 2000 4000 4000 78000 37500 2000 3000 5000 2500 2000 2000 2000 4000 4000 10000 4231.69 0 10000 3600.00 0.00 3000 3000 602122 568765.17 379649 433605.42 383200 361000 Revenues Expenses 595,517 602,122 643,344 568,765 368,450 379,649 458,899 433,605 353,000 383,200 346,300 361,000 Attachment 4.5 October 09 = = = = = = -6,605 74,579 -11,199 25,294 -30,200 -14,700 Page 8 of 12 Page 21 Statistical Society of Canada Biostatistics Section Proposed budgets for 2010 and 2011 REVENUES 2008 Approve d Membership (number) Workshop Other Income - interest TOTAL 10/08/09 2008 Actual 2009 Approved 900 1055.00 180 342 6650 9955.00 500 779.00 8050 11789.00 2009 Curre nt 900 1055.00 180 342 6650 9955.00 500 779.00 8050 11789.00 2010 2010 2011 Approved Propos ed Propos e d 900 342 7000 500 8400 950 950 7500 300 8750 8000 300 9250 0.00 250.00 3641.42 3000.00 500.00 47.50 0.00 500.00 7938.92 2000 250 4700 2000 500 50 500 500 10500 3000 250 4700 3000 500 50 500 500 12500 3250 260 4700 3250 500 25 500 500 12985 -2425 3850.08 35165 41439.65 -2100 39340 -3750 37690 -3735 33955 EXPENSES SSC Sessions Webmaster Workshop Student Travel Grants Science Fair Contribution Bank charges Pres Travel to Board Meeting Young Biostatisticians Talk TOTAL 2000 250 4700 2000 0 25 500 0.00 250.00 3641.42 3000.00 500.00 25.00 22.50 9475 7438.92 SURPLUS Reserve Funds -1425 4350.08 37589.57 Attachment 4.5 October 09 2000 250 4700 2000 500 25 500 500 10475 Page 9 of 12 Page 22 Survey Methods Section of SSC Budget for 2010 -11 2009 $14,898.00 Balance on January 1 Revenue Fee Membership Workshop ► regular ► student Workshop total No. Fee No. Total $2 100 $200.00 $2 100 $200.00 $175 $60 7 8 15 $1,225.00 $480.00 $1,705.00 $175 $60 25 5 30 $4,375.00 $300.00 $4,675.00 Total Revenue Expenses Workshop Workshop Speakers Workshop room, audiovisual & materials Workshop catering (2 coffee breaks only) Workshop total Invited speakers (Special Invited and Invited sessions organized by SMS) SMS Award for best student paper Travel Grant for Students Bank fees Total Expenses Excess (deficiency) of revenue over expenses Balance on December 31 2010 $14,301.00 2011 $12,901.00 Fee No. $2 100 $175 $60 15 5 20 Total $200.00 $2,625.00 $300.00 $2,925.00 $1,905.00 $4,875.00 $3,125.00 $0.00 $600.00 $375.00 $975.00 $2,000.00 $300.00 $450.00 $2,750.00 $500.00 $300.00 $300.00 $1,100.00 $15 30 $15 20 $0.00 $2,000.00 $1,000.00 $500.00 $1,000.00 $500.00 $1,000.00 $500.00 $1,000.00 $27.00 $25.00 $25.00 $2,502.00 $6,275.00 $3,625.00 -$597.00 -$1,400.00 -$500.00 $14,301.00 $12,901.00 $12,401.00 Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 10 of 12 Page 23 Budget - Business and Industrial Statistics Section Budget 2010-11 (Aug. 2009 forecast) (Aug. 2009 forecast) (Aug. 2009 forecast) 2009 2010 2011 $375.00 $2,000.00 20 @ $100 $375.00 $1,175.00 10@ $175 10@$60 $375.00 $1,500.00 10 @ $175 10@$60 (Don McLeish/Vancouver) (Queb ec) Joint with PS (Wolfeville) $2,375.00 $1,550.00 $1,875.00 Workshop Coffee/luncheon AV Printing/CD-ROM Speaker Room Student travel Other TDBank Transaction fees $1,750.00 $150 $300 $100 $500 $700 $1,000.00 $59.40 $425.00 $150 $100 $100 $500 $0 $1,000.00 $59.40 $850.00 $150 $100 $100 $500 $0 $1,000.00 $59.40 Total, expenditure $2,809.40 $1,484.40 $1,909.40 Surplus, year CUMULATIVE SURPLUS* -$434.40 $8,447.36 $65.60 $8,512.96 -$34.40 $8,478.56 REVENUE Membership Workshop Total, revenue EXPENDITURE *(based on balance of $6196.76 on Dec 31 2008 plus $2685.00 income for year 2008) Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 11 of 12 Page 24 Budget, Probability Section 2010-11 REVENUE Membership Workshop (as of March 2009) (Sept. 2010 forecast) (Sept. 2011 forecast) 2009 2010 2011 1175 $320.00 64x$5 $0.00 Regular Student Total, revenue $300.00 60x$5 $300.00 60x$5 1175 $1,175.00 $2,350.00 Joint with BISS $1,750.00 $1,750.00 10x$175 10x$175 $600.00 $600.00 10x$60 10x$60 $320.00 $1,475.00 $2,650.00 $0.00 $212.50 $75.00 $50.00 $50.00 $250.00 $0.00 $1,500.00 Student travel $0.00 $500.00 $500.00 Total, expenditure $0.00 $712.50 $2,000.00 $320.00 $830.00 $762.50 $1,592.50 $650.00 $2,242.50 EXPENDITURE Workshop Coffee/luncheon AV Printing Speakers Room Surplus, year CUMULATIVE SURPLUS* Attachment 4.5 October 09 Page 12 of 12 Page 25 Report of the Publications Officer, SSC October 2009 Since the submission of the last report in May 2009, the following activities were undertaken: • Springer and the Encyclopedia of Probability and Statistics The Publications Committee recommended participating in the Springer online encyclopedia “Probability and Statistics Online”, which is also supported by many other statistical societies (including Bernoulli, IBS, and ISI). Following the signing of the contract agreement, an SSC representative to the Editorial Board was sought, and Prof. David Bellhouse recently accepted the position. • Editor for the Canadian Journal of Statistics (CJS) Working closely with Prof. Bovas Abraham, the SSC President, the search for a successor to Paul Gustafson, whose term as CJS Editor will expire at the end of December, 2009, is continuing. • Statistics Surveys (SS) A direct link to the journal has been added to the SSC website under “Publications”. SS is an open-access journal, and is sponsored by ASA, Bernoulli, IMS and SSC. Prof. Richard Lockhart is the current Executive Editor representing SSC. • JSM 2009 An exhibition booth displaying SSC information, including an SSC poster and accreditation brochures, was set up during the JSM, as in previous years. Because of ASA’s announcement of a program for voluntary individual accreditation of statisticians, there was an increased number of booth visitors inquiring about our accreditation process, and there were plenty of interactions that promoted the SSC and its programs. • Other Matters Ongoing efforts include further refinement of the SSC poster and preparation of new SSC brochures. Respectfully submitted, Wendy Lou Publications Officer October 1, 2009 Attachment 4.6 October 09 Page 1 of 1 Page 26 Report of the Executive Director, October 2009 CMS has now hired a new Executive Director, Johan Rudnick. Johan is quite personable and it looks like he will be easy to work with. Graham Wright, the outgoing Executive Director, will continue to be available until December. I continue to receive monthly updates of the database from the Office. Using this I was able to handle several requests from members and the Executive regarding the status of our members. I was also able to point out a very small number of errors in the information recorded on the database, and help with giving information to the Office resulting from Executive and Board decisions. I dealt with some ad hoc correspondence that was sent to the office. I meet with office staff biweekly. This has proven to be quite useful as issues are resolved quickly. The old 2005 Brochures needed to be converted from Quark Express to InDesign to allow changes by the Office. Accreditation colours changed from maroon to SSC-red. Some minor changes in wording were made to Accreditation brochure. As well the Accreditation seals and certificates are being changed to new colour. Based on information from Bovas, the SSC aliases for committees have been updated. I was on Bovas' committee on advising the executive with respect to Office contract renewal. Respectfully submitted, David Binder September 29, 2009 Attachment 4.7 October 09 Page 27 Page 1 of 1 Report of Meetings Coordinator, SSC October 2009 1. SSC 2009 in Vancouver The meeting in Vancouver was a great success; there is a report elsewhere from the chair of the Local Arrangements Committee. It has been Board policy (since about 2004, but the practice predates that) to give a grant of $6000 for scholarships in statistics to the host institution when the meeting makes at least that much profit; I will so move at the Board meeting. 2. SSC 2010 meeting in Québec Local Arrangements Chair Thierry Duchesne has submitted a written report, as has Program Chair Christian Léger. 3. SSC 2011 meeting in Wolfville Shelley Bull has been appointed as Program Chair. 4. SSC 2012 meeting in Guelph We requested and received a formal invitation from the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph, and the SSC President accepted the invitation. Local chair Brian Allen reports he has received help from U. of Guelph Conference Services, to block out about 235 rooms in nearby hotels. (He was hoping for information from past organizers to estimate how many will be taken up.) He has also got room reservations for lecture halls on campus, and a dining room where we could have lunch. 5. SSC 2013 meeting in Western Canada We are looking for bids for this meeting. The Program Committee will consider them next winter and spring and make a recommendation in our May meeting in Québec. Respectfully submitted by Duncan Murdoch, Meetings Coordinator Attachment 4.8.1 October 2009 Page 1 of 1 Page 28 Report of the Program Chair SSC 2010, SSC October 2009 The invited program is still a work in progress and its structure looks as follows at this time: Special Invited Lectures Other Societies & Org Sections Introductory Overview Lectures Actuarial Science Science New Investigators Accredited Members Creating a National Statistical Sciences Institute Interdisciplinary Research Late Breaking Other Invited Sessions Total 6 4 16 3 3 (+1 BISS) 1 1 1 1 1 0 11 48 Workshops: There will be three workshops. The joint BISS and Probability workshop will be led by Christian Genest (Laval) and Johanna Nešlehová (McGill) on the topic of “Copulas (Introduction to the Theory, Implementation in R, with Applications in Finance and Insurance)”. The Biostatistics workshop will be led by Miguel A. Hernán (Harvard School of Public Health) and will be devoted to “Draw your Assumptions Before your Conclusions: Graphs for Causal Inference”. The Survey Methods’ workshop should be decided soon. Special Invited Lectures: They are the Presidential Invited Address (Robert F. Engle, Nobel Prize; thanks to Bovas!), the Gold Medal (Nancy Reid), the SSC Impact Award (Rick Routledge), the CRM-SSC Prize, Pierre-Robillard Award, and CJS Award (still to be determined). Special Features: The SSC 2010 Program will introduce some new features. First of all, we will have three Introductory Overview Lectures (IOL). The concept is freely borrowed from the Joint Statistical Meetings. These lectures should provide a 90-minute introduction to important and timely statistical topics. Presented by specialists, they are planned to be accessible to a wide range of researchers and statisticians. The exact topic and speakers for these three IOL is yet to be determined as I am waiting to see how much money I will have for these sessions. But I would hope to attract Jim Ramsay (McGill) on Functional Data Analysis, David Hand (Imperial College) on Attachment 4.8.2 October 09 Page 29 Page 1 out of 4 Statistical Learning and Data Mining and Lance Waller (Emory University) on Spatial Statistics. Actuarial Science: Our Annual Meeting often features an occasional session on peripheral topics such as actuarial science. A single session is unlikely to draw a critical mass of participants from such a community beyond the invited speakers. This year, I have decided to have a concentration of invited sessions in actuarial science in order to attract a sizable number of them to the meeting. BISS is organizing a session in actuarial science and three other sessions are being organized. José Garrido of Concordia University is helping me coordinate these four sessions. ASSQ: In June, Roman Viveros-Aguilera contacted Martin Rioux, President of the Association des statisticiennes et statisticiens du Québec in order to invite them to join us in SSC 2010. They have been invited to organize three invited sessions. These three sessions will most likely be in French. Statistics and Science: Once again, Agnes Herzberg will be organizing a session on Science and Statistics. A fair budget will have to be set aside for this session. New Investigators and Accredited Members: I contacted the Chairs of these two committees to see if some activities could be organized for those communities. The New Investigators Committee is organizing a roundtable on problems and issues for junior researchers (both in academia and in industry). The Accreditation Committee is planning to organize a session of interest for accredited members, but details are yet to come although I recently talked to Mary Lesperance who has agreed to organize the session. NICDS: The Next Step Following the non-renewal of NICDS funding by NSERC, I felt that it was important to do all that I can to keep the idea alive. I have been in touch with Charmaine Dean to discuss the matter. She will organize a regular invited session on interdisciplinary research. Another session is being planned. To maximize its impact, it should not be competing with other sessions. The plan right now is to schedule it late Sunday afternoon, after the Board Meeting and the Workshops, and before the Mixer. It would discuss the idea of creating a National Statistical Sciences Institute. Details are still to be worked out. Invitations would be sent to a number of leaders in the country to ensure ample participation from the Canadian statistical leadership. It is hoped that this session would keep the dream alive and would lead to some plan. I am glad to report that Charmaine has agreed to look into organizing such a session and she is looking at recruiting some other people to help her with this. Attachment 4.8.2 October 09 Page 30 Page 2 out of 4 Other Invited Sessions: As in previous years, a Call for Proposals of Invited Sessions was circulated on the d-ssc list in July with a reminder in August. I received many proposals and selected a fraction of them on the basis of quality and diversity of topics. I have been careful not to repeat certain themes that were recently covered, including by the same organizers. I have also asked some people to organize sessions on specific topics that I felt were missing from the program to ensure sufficient coverage of topics. Presence of Women in the Invited Program: In the Call for Proposals of Invited Sessions, as well as in my exchanges with the Section Presidents, I raised the issue that women were underrepresented in the Invited Program as organizers and invited speakers. I suggested to organizers to look beyond their usual professional network and that they could often identify women who would be excellent additions to their session. Although it is still a bit early, I have the feeling that the message will have helped. Schedule: I propose a daily schedule similar to the meeting in Ottawa. It features two plenary sessions per day (of 90 minutes in the morning and 60 minutes in the afternoon) and three parallel sessions per day, for a total of six plenary sessions and nine parallel sessions. 8:3010:00 10:3012:00 13:3014:30 14:3516:05 16:3018:00 Sunday - 3 workshops (various schedules) Session on a National Institute (tentative) 18:0019:00 Monday SSC Pres. Inv. Add. (Welcome at 8:30) Parallel 1 Tuesday SSC Gold Medal (8:4510:00) Parallel 4 Wednesday Pierre-Robillard & CJS Award (were together until 2005) Parallel 7 Plenary 2 Plenary 4 CRM-SSC Prize Parallel 2 Parallel 5 Parallel 8 Parallel 3 Parallel 6 Parallel 9 4 Section AGM AGM (18:00(plus NSERC, plus 19:30) ASSQ) The plenary talks would be the SSC Presidential Invited Address, the Gold Medal, and the Pierre-Robillard and CJS Prizes (two 45-minute talks in a single session) in the morning. For the afternoon plenary talks, the CRM-SSC Prize is planned on Wednesday afternoon. I am also planning to have the SSC Impact Award talk of Rick Routledge in one of the plenary time slots. The last afternoon plenary time slot is still up in the air, although some ideas are being considered. Attachment 4.8.2 October 09 Page 31 Page 3 out of 4 Please note that the scientific sessions would end at 6pm, even on Wednesday. Some may feel that this is too late, especially on Wednesday. A possibility would be to end the meeting at 4:05pm on Wednesday and to stop with the 8th parallel session. I currently am planning 41 parallel invited sessions. In 2009, there were 40 contributed paper sessions, but only 30 needed rooms, the other ones being poster sessions of some sort. Hence, I am expecting about 71 parallel sessions needing rooms. Since there will be 10 rooms at our disposal, it may be possible to schedule all sessions in 8 time slots. And there is still some room for other invited or contributed sessions, if necessary. But that pretty means that there would be around 10-11 parallel sessions (including poster, case studies, etc) at all time. But adding the 9th time slot would not drastically change this. I will probably attempt to schedule the parallel sessions in 8 time slots, but I will wait until I know the total number of sessions before confirming that the meeting will end at 4pm rather than 6pm on Wednesday. Invited Speakers’ Budget: Thanks to Thierry Duchesne and his team as well as the SSC Executive, it has been possible to plan to have an invited speakers’ budget of 30,000$. As in previous years, sessions organized by sections will share about 12,800$, i.e. about 3,200$ per section (if the overall invited speakers’ budget is to be decreased in future years, this policy may have to be revisited). Another 6,600$ is planned for some of the plenary speakers (award winners with an NSERC grant will not receive any funding). This leaves about 10,600$. Funds are likely to be needed for the following speakers. The Statistics and Science session organized by Agnes Herzberg has a speaker from Ottawa, one from Toronto, and a third one is expected to come from San Francisco. Depending if their fees are waived (which is sometimes the case, but for this session only) or explicitly paid and then reimbursed, the total cost of this session is likely to be high. Two of the speakers for the Introductory Overview Lectures should probably get their expenses reimbursed, tentatively one from the US and one from England. One session on education may require some funding for some prestigious speakers (e.g. Debbie Nolan of Berkeley; this session may or may not materialize). I am still waiting to select the last plenary speaker. Depending on the choice, some funding may help. In the end, I doubt that I will allocate the whole amount and as in the past, probably not all of it will be claimed (although by concentrating more funding on fewer speakers as opposed to 400$ to many speakers, a larger proportion of the allocated funds may be claimed than in the past). Respectfully submitted, Christian Léger Attachment 4.8.2 October 09 Page 32 Page 4 out of 4 Report from the Local Arrangements Committee SSC 2010 Annual Meeting Laval University, Québec City SSC Board Meeting October 2009 This report summarizes our work and our plans for the 2010 annual meeting in Québec City. A schedule of the activities that we are planning and their incidence on the budget are outlined in Appendix A of this report. Committee composition The Local Arrangements Committee (LAC) of the 2010 meeting is chaired by Thierry Duchesne and counts 6 members: Thierry Duchesne, Louis-Paul Rivest, Lajmi Lakhal Chaieb, Gaétan Daigle, Sylvie Lambert and Sophie Baillargeon. Facilities on campus We have already reserved several facilities for the meeting. • • • • • Conference rooms: All workshops and scientific conferences will take place in the brand new Vandry building, where we have 10 rooms of various sizes (from 20 to 200 seats) reserved for us for the entire duration of the meeting. The only exceptions are the plenary sessions, which will take place in the University Theatre (625 seats). Though we have reserved the University Theatre for all plenary sessions, in March we might be able to cancel some of the reservations if the 500 seat auditorium of the Pouliot building, which is closer to the Vandry building, becomes available. Meeting room: For the finance, board and various committee meetings, we have reserved a large meeting room in the Kruger building. This room can easily be set up to accommodate one large committee meeting or several simultaneous small committee meetings. Welcoming mixer and graduate student BBQ: These will take place on campus in the Atrium of the De Koninck building. Registration desk, exhibitors, poster sessions, coffee breaks: These will be located in the large hall at the ground level of the Vandry building. Power outlets and wireless Internet will be available. Some coffee and cookies will also be available in the mezzanine on the second floor of the building during coffee breaks. Computer lab: Though wireless Internet and technical support will be available in the Vandry building, conference participants will have access to a computer lab in the Pouliot building. Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 33 Page 1 of 10 Conference room equipment The room for the plenary sessions will be equipped with two data projectors and two screens. The rooms for the workshops and the parallel sessions will be equipped with one laptop computer (with MS Office and Adobe Acrobat Reader), one data projector and one screen. Conference web site The conference web site (http://www.ssc.ca/2010/index_e.html) has been up and running for nearly 10 months. It is maintained by Sophie Baillargeon. For the moment, people can find information about accommodation, how to travel to Québec City and links to touristic information. Banquet The banquet will be held in one of the two Sainte-Foy hotels, Hotel Plaza Québec. There is a large room that can accommodate a little over 600 people. This is one of the very few rooms of this size in the city, and it is available to us at no cost. We are planning to organize transportation from the campus to the banquet at the end of the AGM and from the banquet to the residences and hotel after the evening. Social events Other than the banquet that will take place on Tuesday night, we are organizing a welcoming mixer on Sunday night and a graduate student BBQ on Monday night. These events will take place on campus, which makes it simple for people to attend after the sessions and to return to the residences, the Sainte-Foy hotels or downtown at the end of the event. We are also trying to set up discounts for various attractions in the Québec City area for participants who are planning to stick around for a few days after the meeting. We will put the relevant information on the web site and/or in the conference bags. Money raising We have already started to contact various organizations (software companies, publishers, government organizations, local companies) to raise money. Some have expressed some interests. We are also counting on a grant from the math institutes. Opening ceremony We already have a confirmation that the university’s vice-president of research (who, by the way, was a good client of our statistical consulting service!) will say a word at the opening ceremony. Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 34 Page 2 of 10 Accomodation Blocks of rooms have been reserved for the meeting participants in three hotels: two in the Sainte-Foy district (about 2.5 km west of the campus) and one downtown near the Saint-Jean gate to the Old City (6 km east of the campus, but travel between downtown and Laval University is simple and efficient by public transit). Blocks of rooms have also been booked at the university residences. Details (cost, maps, phone numbers, online reservations, etc.) are already available on the conference website (of course there are several more hotels in/near the Old City or in Sainte-Foy, and people should not have any trouble to find a place to stay at that time of year): http://www.ssc.ca/2010/accomodation_e.html. Note that given the fact that the meeting will take place just before the start of the touristic season in Québec City, release dates for the blocks of room have been set earlier than what we are used to by the hotels, i.e., 45 days before the first day of the meeting. Food For SSC events: We are planning to order coffee breaks in the morning and the afternoon from Sunday to Wednesday. We are also planning to order lunch for the Sunday Board meeting as well as the various SSC committee meetings. Finally, we will order dinner for the Wednesday Board meeting. [Note: If some of the workshops would like to have lunch included with their registration, they should inform the LOC of the number of lunches to order and of the corresponding budget.] For purchase by participants: A few large cafeterias and sandwich stands remain open on campus in the summer. There are also several shopping centers with large food courts within a ten minute walk from the Vandry building. Event staff Technicians to help with the AV and computers will be available throughout the meeting. All of our graduate students in statistics (about 25) will register to the conference. They will be trained to use the AV systems and will be spread among the conference rooms throughout the meeting. We will hire some students from our graduate programs in mathematics to staff the registration desk Transit The university campus and the downtown area are well deserved by public transit. The Réseau de transport de la Capitale (RTC) has an excellent website where people can enter their start and arrival points and get in return a very detailed itinerary. A link to this website as well as information on how to use it will be posted on the conference web site. Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 35 Page 3 of 10 Parking It is easy for visitors to find a parking space right by the Vandry building in May. Participants can buy a daily or weekly pass. Instructions will be posted on the conference web site. Daycare The hotels have forwarded to us the contact information of the private company that they recommend to their clients. Information will be posted on the conference website and interested participants will have to contact the company directly. BUDGET So far with 371 participants we would have a meeting with a balanced budget. The likelihood that this number of registrants will be exceeded is quite high, and so we are making sure that we can accommodate up to 600 registrants. Given the crowd of 550 participants at the Montréal meeting in 2004, a realistic yet conservative attendance figure for this budget is 500 people. With the latter, we can conservatively expect a profit of about $8,300. Here is a detailed explanation of the budget lines (the budget appears three pages below). Registration fees We simply reproduced the fee schedule from last year’s meeting in Vancouver. Revenues Our revenue figures are conservative: they assume a higher proportion of student/retired registrants (38% instead of the 33%-35% observed in past meetings) and that everyone will register before the fee increase date. The sponsorship figures are also conservative, since it is very likely that the math institutes will provide $10,000. We also think that 4-5 exhibitors is a conservative estimate. Expenses Per person • Banquet: The room is free because we are holding the banquet in one of our conference hotels and because we are guaranteeing more than 300 participants. We are budgeting $80/person for food, taxes and gratuity and $5/person for transportation from campus to the banquet and from the banquet to the hotels and residences at the end of the evening. • Registration fees: Based on last year’s figures. • Mixer: The room is free, so we will ask for a cocktail reception for 2/3 of the participants at $30 (including taxes and gratuity) per “cover”. Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 36 Page 4 of 10 • • • • • • • BBQ: The room is free, so we ask for food for $35 (including taxes and gratuity) per student. Non students will be invited to participate, but they will have to pay $35 to do so and therefore they do not have an incidence on the bottom line of the budget. Coffee breaks: Our figures are inspired from the past few meetings. We are budgeting $5 per coffee break per person on day 1, then 80% of that on the remaining days. Conference bag: The bag itself will be similar to the one used in Vancouver, but with the sponsor logos on it. It will cost a little under $3 (taxes included). The main element in the total cost of $17.50 is the USB stick that will contain the abstracts, whose cost has gone up well over $10 in the last few months. We also intend to put in some printed information for the participants (food courts, restaurants, public transit, internet access instructions, etc.). Wireless internet access: The cost is $4 per wireless internet connection. We will purchase one connection per 2 participants (meaning that half the participants can be connected at any time), which has been more than sufficient for conferences held at Laval University in the recent past. Photocopying, program book: We have a quotation of about $5 per participant. The number of pages is based on last year’s program and does not include the abstracts. Abstract translation costs: Again, based on the past few meetings, at about $20 per 2 participants. Question for the Board: The LAC is actually divided on the following issue. We can do as in the last couple of meetings and distribute the abstracts on a USB stick and not in print (and this is what is budgeted so far). We could also forget about the USB and get back to the old method of distributing the abstracts in print in the program. The latter would be cheaper (economy of more than $10/person by getting rid of the USB for an increase of only $3 for the thicker program), but perhaps less modern and ecological (though this assumes that people do reuse their USB stick after the meeting). However the USB stick offers a sponsorship opportunity. Does the Board have a clear preference for either option? Fixed • Program preparation by CRM: This will cost $1,000. • Local employees: One technician for the AV on Sunday (one is there without any extra cost on other days), one computer technician for the meeting duration, 4-5 graduate students in mathematics to staff the registration desk for all 4 days. • Signage: For direction signs on campus and in the buildings. • Insurance: the meeting is now covered by the SSC’s general insurance. • Committee meals: Based on previous conference programs, 6 person committee (except for the Board which we estimate as a 30 member committee). • Invited speakers: The budget to refund the travel expenses of invited speakers has been set to $30,000 by the executive and program committees this year. • Room for opening sessions and plenary: The University Theatre is the only room for which we have to pay a rental fee. We will also have to rent portable data Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 37 Page 5 of 10 • • • • • projector and screen since the plenary sessions usually have bilingual visual support. Tables, chairs, power bars: for exhibitors, coffee breaks and registration desk. Laptops: Rental of computers to equip the parallel session rooms. Phone: To get a phone and a phone number to reach the registration desk. Boards for poster: We have none of those on campus, so they must be rented from an external supplier. Unforeseen expenses: Let us hope that we haven’t forgotten about more than $5,000’s worth of expenses!! Respectfully submitted, Thierry Duchesne, LAC chair, SSC 2010 Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 38 Page 6 of 10 Conference Member Student Retired Early registration Late registration 400.00 $ 450.00 $ 150.00 $ 175.00 $ 200.00 $ 225.00 $ # of participants Break even For approval # students # retired # regular members 130 11 230 175 15 310 total 371 500 $113,700 $12,000 $5,000 $130,700 $153,250 $12,000 $5,000 $170,250 $31,535 $0 $9,904 $7,420 $4,550 $47,500 $0 $13,348 $10,000 $6,125 $9,646 $6,493 $742 $1,855 $3,710 $13,000 $8,750 $1,000 $2,500 $5,000 $1,000 $5,600 $2,000 $1,000 $5,600 $2,000 $0 $4,500 $30,000 $2,100 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,500 $5,000 $130,554 $0 $4,500 $30,000 $2,100 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,500 $5,000 $161,923 $146 $8,328 REVENUES • Registration fees • Sponsors • Exhibitors TOTAL fixed per person EXPENSES • Banquet (food 80$+ transportation 5$) • Banquet room: free if more than 300 people • Registration fee (17.50$) + Paypal fee (3%) • Mixer ($30) (66% of participants) • BBQ ($35/student) • Coffee breaks ($5/break 100% day 1, 80% other days) • Conference bag + contents (17.5$/person) • Wireless internet access ($4/2 persons) • Photocopying for program book ($5/person) • Translation ($20/(2 persons)) • Program preparation by CRM • Local employees • Signage • Insurance • Committee meals • Invited speakers • Room for opening session and other days • Tables, chairs, power bars • Laptops for parallel sessions • Phone + communication, registration desk • Boards for posters • Other unforseen expenses TOTAL PROFIT Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 39 Page 7 of 10 APPENDIX A Schedule of activities planned and their incidence on budget Here is a schedule of the activities for which we are currently planning. Saturday, May 22 2010 Evening • Exec meeting. Location: To be determined (most likely one of the hotels). Incidence on budget: room rental Sunday, May 23 2010 Morning • SSC committee meetings. Location: meeting room, Kruger building. Incidence on budget: coffee break Afternoon • Board meeting. Location: meeting room, Kruger building. Incidence on budget: one lunch and one coffee break • Special NICDS meeting. Location: meeting room, Kruger building. Incidence on budget: none. All day • Section workshops. Location: three or four of the ten rooms that are reserved for us in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: none (accounting for the workshop is outside of the accounting for the meeting … but aside from the salary for one AV technician to be split among sections and coffee breaks, no expenses are forecast) • Registration desk open. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: telephone line, power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, staff Evening • Welcome mixer. Location: Atrium of the De Koninck building. Incidence on budget: food and drinks Monday, May 24 2010 Morning • Opening plenary session. Location: University theatre. Incidence on budget: room rental + staff + AV • Coffee break. Location: lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: food, drinks, table rental, power bar and extension chords • Parallel scientific sessions. Location: ten rooms and lobby in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: poster board rental During lunch time • Committee meetings. Location: meeting room of the Kruger building. Incidence on budget: meals for committee members Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 40 Page 8 of 10 Afternoon • Plenary session. Location: University theatre (or auditorium of Pouliot building). Incidence on budget: room rental and AV if in the theatre • Coffee break. Location: lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: food, drinks, table rental, power bar and extension chords • Parallel scientific sessions. Location: ten rooms and lobby in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: poster board rental • Section AGMs. Location: ten rooms in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: none Evening • Graduate student BBQ. Location: Atrium of the De Koninck building. Incidence on budget: food and drinks. All day • Registration desk open. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: telephone line, power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, staff • Exhibitors. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, internet access Tuesday, May 25 2010 Morning • Plenary session. Location: University theatre (or auditorium of Pouliot building). Incidence on budget: room rental and AV if in the theatre • Coffee break. Location: lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: food, drinks, table rental, power bar and extension chords • Parallel scientific sessions. Location: ten rooms and lobby in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: poster board rental During lunch time • Committee meetings. Location: meeting room of the Kruger building. Incidence on budget: meals for committee members Afternoon • Plenary session. Location: University theatre (or auditorium of Pouliot building). Incidence on budget: room rental and AV if in the theatre • Coffee break. Location: lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: food, drinks, table rental, power bar and extension chords • Parallel scientific sessions. Location: ten rooms and lobby in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: poster board rental • SSC AGM. Location: ten rooms in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: none Evening • Banquet. Location: Hotel Plaza Quebec. Incidence on budget: food and drinks, transportation. Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 41 Page 9 of 10 All day • Registration desk open. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: telephone line, power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, staff • Exhibitors. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, internet access Wednesday, May 26 2010 Morning • Plenary session. Location: University theatre (or auditorium of Pouliot building). Incidence on budget: room rental and AV if in the theatre • Coffee break. Location: lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: food, drinks, table rental, power bar and extension chords • Parallel scientific sessions. Location: ten rooms and lobby in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: poster board rental During lunch time • Committee meetings. Location: meeting room of the Kruger building. Incidence on budget: meals for committee members Afternoon • Plenary session. Location: University theatre (or auditorium of Pouliot building). Incidence on budget: room rental and AV if in the theatre • Coffee break. Location: lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: food, drinks, table rental, power bar and extension chords • Parallel scientific sessions. Location: ten rooms and lobby in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: poster board rental • SSC AGM. Location: ten rooms in the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: none Evening • Board meeting. Location: meeting room of the Kruger building. Incidence on budget: dinner. • Exec meeting. Location: meeting room of the Kruger building. Incidence on budget: coffee. All day • Registration desk open. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: telephone line, power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, staff • Exhibitors. Location: main lobby of the Vandry building. Incidence on budget: power bar & extension chords, poster board rental, table and chair rental, internet access Report 4.8.3-4.8.4 Page 42 Page 10 of 10 Report of Electronic Services Manager, SSC October 2009 I would like to report the following updates since May 2009: 1. In consultation with the SSC executive and SSC office staff (Alan Kelm and Steve La Rocque) I will be issuing a RFP in October for migration of the SSC website to a more sophisticated “content management system” (CMS). We will be seeking an open-source CMS, with a webbased interface for editing and adding content. Considerations will include portability, ease of use, ability to produce and manage French and English content , and provisions for regular software updates and patches. This RFP will focus primarily on “static” content, which is the vast bulk of material on the SSC webpage. The intent is for the work to be completed by April 2009. 2. Once the RFP in #1 above is under way, I will begin work on a second phase, the introduction of a “member portal”, currently called “My SSC”. This will ultimately allow SSC members to log in and manage many of their member activities and records. The model will be one in which various applications will be provided, corresponding to different services. Examples include membership renewal, meeting registration, abstract submission, electronic voting in SSC elections, updates to membership profile, and services for specific subgroups (e.g., Accredited members). The first priority will be to have a system in place that enables membership renewals for 2011. This will require the system to be operational by Fall 2010. Several steps are required: 1. updates to the SSC membership database, 2. migration of database to a server that enables multiple clients (e.g. office staff, web programs, etc) to access and update information, 3. issuing of an RFP for technical work to develop the portal and interface it with the membership database. 4. implementation of the RFP work. The portal will include a mechanism to allow members to securely log into their account. Steps 1-3 can be started prior to the “static content” RFP describe in #1. 3. I have made modest changes and updates to the webpage, including redesign of the committee membership page and posting old issues of Liaison (courtesy of Peter MacDonald) and minutes from the board and executive meetings (courtesy of Chrisitian Genest). Routine activities, such as posting of award winners, announcements, etc, and backups, are ongoing. Respectfully submitted, Hugh Chipman Electronic Services Manager October 2, 2009 Attachment 4.9 October 09 Page 43 page 1 of 1 Report of the CJS Editor, October 3, 2009 0.6 0.4 0.0 0.2 Survival 0.8 1.0 Through the first nine months of 2009, CJS received 91 submissions. Time to initial decision for these submissions is described by the survival curve below. The number of submissions is down compared to last year (124 for the first nine months), but I feel the the aggregate quality of submissions is higher this year than last year. Particularly, the proportion of submissions I screen out right away due to obvious weakness or inappropriateness is 33% this year, compared to 43% last year. My conjecture is that the switch to submission via the Manuscript Central website has had an unintended consequence. Because submission is now slightly more involved than simply attaching a pdf file to an e-mail to the Editor, we have lost some of the ‘nuisance’ submissions which frankly did create unnecessary and frustrating work previously. For submissions which do pass the initial screen, the experience with AE and referee opinions seems commensurate with previous years. 0 50 100 150 200 Days With regard to the submission site, we still have some technical problems from time to time, but some tasks are clearly easier and quicker now compared to the old system of emailing pdfs hither and yon. Wiley-Blackwell is good about providing technical support. The AE opinion on the system is mixed. Since the next editorial board will start with this system rather than switch to it two-thirds of the way through their terms, I suspect it will go smoother in 2010. With mixed success, I continue to tweak the settings to try to make the system more compatible with the CJS way of doing things. With regard to published issues, we still seem to be in a comfortable steady-stat position, with neither a shortage or backlog of accepted papers. Attachment (5.3.1) Oct 09 1/2 Page 44 As I reported in May, with approval of the publications committee, a forthcoming issue will be guest-edited by Brajendra Sutradar, with papers arising from the International Symposium in Statistics on Inferences in Generalized Linear Longitudinal Mixed Models held this summer. A more recent development is that some space in a future issue will be devoted to papers arising from the Case Studies at the 2009 Annual Meeting. Alison Gibbs, Kevin Keen and Liqun Wang have kindly agreed to act as guest-editors for this. With only three months remaining in my term as Editor, I would say that I have enjoyed the work and found it interesting. At the same time, three years is a long time, and it does feel like time for a change! I am ready to ‘talk transition’ with my successor as soon as that person is identified. Following the Wiens → Gustafson model (and I believe the model for earlier handovers as well), I will retain responsibility for those 2009 submissions for which the AE report on the initial submission arrives back on my desk before Jan. 1, 2010. And of course I will retain responsibility for papers further along in the revision process. Those initial submissions which are still ‘out’ with an AE and/or referees on Jan. 1 will be handed over to my successor. Respectfully submitted, Paul Gustafson Attachment (5.3.1) Oct 09 2/2 Page 45 Report from the Editor of Liaison, SSC 2009 September 21, 2009 Financial Record: The attached spreadsheet provides the information for Liaison expenses so far under my editorship, and comparisons with the budgets allocated. The total expense has been kept within the budgeted amount, although there have been some differences in the component amounts between budgeted amount and actual expense. A larger portion has been spent on layout and smaller portions on printing and translation. The translation saving has been mostly due to the translation contributions of bilingual contributors, notably Christian Genest. The smaller printing cost has been due to newer technology allowing colour printing for less cost per page than older-technology black & white. I plan to continue to use “The UPS Store” for producing these full-colour print-offs. In reviewing costs, note the influence of the number of pages per issue and also the number of copies needed for the mail-out. Editing: I would like to acknowledge of huge contribution of Christian Genest and Román Aguilera-Viveros in reviewing the page proofs of every issue. I would also like to thank my wife Jill for her help in saving me from more numerous editing errors. Jill has become quite expert with the use of Adobe Indesign for the layout. Content: The items published are almost entirely determined by the contributions received in response to the “Calls” send over the internet. So far, no items have been refused and only a few have been abbreviated. The few additions have involved items in statistics education, and this is in response to a request from the Heckman report of 2007. Many of the photographs that appear in Liaison are thanks to the resource supplied by Peter Macdonald. This is especially true of the four-page spread occurring in the August issue, and recording the attendees of the Annual Conference of SSC. Translation: Paid translation services have been provided by Catherine Cox. Catherine has been punctual on every task and also is careful to provide the appropriate format as well. I plan to continue to use her services. Attachment 5.3.3 Oct 09 Page 46 Page 1 of 2 Liaison Budgets: 2008-2010 (as of Sept 21, 2009) Larry Weldon Editor, Liaison Attachment 5.3.3 Oct 09 Page 47 Page 2 of 2 Report of the Accreditation Committee SSC Board October 2009 Submitted by: Neil Arnason, Chair SSC Accreditation Committee October 14, 2009 1. Activities of the Accreditation Committee July-September 2009: a. Documents and website: I maintain the Accreditation documents and website. There was routine maintenance and backup of documents, mainly related to the change in address and contact information of the SSC. The accreditation and ethics brochures were re-edited over the summer to correct the contact information, change the colour (to the SSC red from a maroon colour). Some minor wording changes were made to the accreditation brochure to correct errors and bring it up to date. b. Renewals: starting in July, the SSC office and I have contacted accredited members who are at risk of losing their status because they are delinquent in paying the SSC membership and/or their accreditation dues. The following have not responded despite several warnings and will be suspended (to resume their status they will have to apply to the Accreditation Appeals Committee): accred # First_Name Initials Last_Name Title P.Stat. P.Stat. P.Stat. A.Stat. A.Stat A.Stat #100 #106 #108 #037 #021 #023 Barbara Delbert Jeffrey Robin Longdi Max A. E. A. E.N. Thomson Stewart Bakal Burkhalter Fu Nevill Mr. Dr. Mrs. Mr. Mr. Employer University of Toronto Brogan Inc. University of Alberta Population Health, U. Waterloo University of Toronto Checkwell Decision Corp. c. Approval of new P.Stat/A.Stat: the July 1, 2009 deadline for new P.Stat. and A.Stat. applications resulted in 3 P.Stat. and 4 A.Stat. applications. (By comparison, a year ago, there were 3 P.Stat, and 6 A.Stat. applications). All applications have now been reviewed, with 2 P.Stat. and all 4 A.Stat. being approved by the accreditation committee. The summaries of the approved applicants are given below, and the Board is asked to approve these. In the case of one P.Stat the reviews were mixed and steps to get additional feedback from the reviewers and additional information from the applicants are in progress. Motion: “The Board approves the awarding of accredited status to P.Stat. #116 and #117 and A.Stat. #038, #039, #040 and #041 as listed below” The number of accredited members in good standing after the additions and deletions above, will be P.Stat: 108; A.Stat: 37 d. Mentoring: Judy-Anne Chapman has matched all new A.Stat approved at the May 2009 SSC Board meeting with mentors (there were 9 new A.Stat. applicants and 4 P.Stat. applicants approved at the May 2009 Board). e. Meetings: An Open meeting for accredited members and a meeting of the Accreditation Committee (AC) were held at the annual meeting in May in Vancouver. Minutes of these October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 48 Page 1 of 8 meetings will be posted to the website shortly. Judy-Anne Chapman attended the JSM meetings last August and has been involved (along with David Binder) in providing input to the ASA as they reconsidered an accreditation process similar to ours. The ASA agreed to proceed with an accreditation program and Judy-Anne has agreed to let her name stand for the implementation committee, so I hope we will have some input and feedback as their program develops. f. Members Services: (i) Mary Lesperance has agreed to organize a session at the 2010 annual meeting for accredited members only. She is preparing a survey to sound out members’ preferences (ii) Judy-Anne Chapman has been in discussion with Hugh Chipman about making some workshop videos and presentations available to members through a members-only area of the SSC website. 2. Priorities for October 2009-June 2010 Through pressure of teaching and administration duties this term, it’s unlikely that I can embark on much more than just “holding the fort” until the new year, when my duties are considerably lightened. Some of the priorities for next year (as discussed at the 2 AGM meetings mentioned in 1.e.) a. Public relations: contact University statistics departments to accredit their courses for facilitating A.Stat. approvals and to promote the accreditation program with graduating students. Form a “public relations” subcommittee of the AC to advise and assist in this work. b. Members Data Base: work to develop and deploy a publicly searchable database that members can also login into and maintain their own profile on. I will consult with Hugh Chipman on this… if this goes out as a RFP, draw up the requirements; or look at existing solutions. c. Documentation: the operational documents need to be reviewed and updated. Form a “constitution subcommittee” to review documents and recommend changes to the Board. Incorporate valid suggestion from Mackay Oldford report to the Board (2006). 3. Accreditation of new members: New P.Stat. and A.Stat. of the SSC/ Nouveaux P.Stat. et A.Stat. de la SSC. 2008-07-01 Competition It is with great pleasure that the Board of the Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) awarded the P.Stat. or A.Stat. designation to the following individuals: C’est avec plaisir que le Conseil de la Société statistique du Canada (SSC) a octroyé la désignation P.Stat. ou A.Stat. aux individus suivants : October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 49 Page 2 of 8 Photographs have been requested from candidates. NOTE: candidates have been informed of the results of the reviews and that the decision is provisional pending approval by the Board. Please keep these results confidential. The Chair will contact all candidates following Board approval. to confirm the decision. P.Stat. 116: GRAY; Derrick, T. M.Sc. B.Sc. 2009 Candidate, Part-time University of Toronto, Statistics 1999 University of Toronto Mathematics (Statistics) Current Employer: Director, Research Sample Design and Control at BBM Canada Currently employed as Director, Research Sample Design and Control at BBM Canada. My areas of expertise include media research, sample design, experimental design, survey non-response, panel balancing and management, database design and management, and data analysis. Currently working towards a Masters degree in statistics at University of Toronto. Graduated from the Bachelor of Science program at the University of Toronto in 1999. Majored in Mathematical Sciences (Statistics). I have done some graduate work as a Special Student at the University of Michigan and the University of Toronto in Survey Methodology and in Statistics. Email: dgray@bbm.ca October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 50 Page 3 of 8 P.Stat. 117: ROTHMAN; Lorne, D. P.D.F Ph.D. M.Sc. B.S. 1997 University of Alberta Ecology/Population Biology 1995 Univeristy of British Columbia, Ecology/Population Biology 1990 University of Toronto Ecology/Population Biology 1988 University of Toronto, Zoology Current Position: Senior Statistician, SAS Institute (Canada) Dr. Lorne Rothman is a Senior Statistician with SAS Institute Canada, teaching and consulting in the areas of statistics, time series analysis, and data mining to a wide variety of private and public sector organizations across North America. He joined SAS in 1998. He holds Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of British Columbia. His interests include applications of Mixed and Generalized Linear Models, Predictive Modeling and Time Series (ARIMAX) Forecasting. Email: lorne.rothman@sas.com October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 51 Page 4 of 8 A.Stat. 038: BLANCHARD; Nadeene M.Sc. B.Sc. 2008 2001 University of Toronto (Statistics) QueensUniversity (Computing, Information Science, & Statistics) Current position: Clinical Research Associate, Toronto Hospital for Sick Kids I meet the requirements of the A.Stat because I have successfully completed many statistics courses as part of 2 degrees. I have a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing & Information Science & Statistics from Queen's University, awarded on June 1, 2001 and a Master of Science in Statistics, awarded on November 13, 2008, from the University of Toronto. The undergraduate degree required the completion of 20 courses, 10 of which were math and statistics courses. The graduate degree required the completion of 8 courses, all of which were in statistics. I currently work as a Clinical Research Associate for a scientist/epidemiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children. In this role, my knowledge of and experience with practical and applied statistics has expanded. I carry out a variety of simple and complex statistical analyses every day, in an ethical manner. In addition, I have been the data analyst and a co-author on 3 published Pediatric Academic Societies' abstracts. Email: nadeeneb@hotmail.com October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 52 Page 5 of 8 A.Stat. 039: CHEN; Weichun (Christy) Ph.D. 2008 M.Sc. B.Sc. 2004 2002 University of Victoria; Applied Statistics and Economc Theory University of Victoria; Economics Sun Yat Sen University; finance and economics Current position: Economist, BMO Nesbitt Burns Christy currently seves as an Economist at the Economics Research unit in BMO Nesbitt Burns. She analyzes and forecasts a variety of industries and commodity markets. She also contributes to BMO Nesbitt Burns’ monthly publication Goods and to other publications. Before joining BMO Nesbitt Burns, Christy held positions in BMO Risk Management, AIG and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. She has also been a lecturer in Statistics and Economics at the University of Toronto and the University of Victoria. Christy has authored several articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, including the B. E. Journal of Macroeconomics and Economics Frontier, as well as extensive BMO Financial Group publications. Christy is a Certified Financial Risk Manager, a Certified SAS Programmer and a CFA Level III Candidate Email: christy.1999@gmail.com October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 53 Page 6 of 8 A.Stat. 040: LO SIOU; Géraldine M.Sc. 2008 M.Sc. B.Sc. 2004 2001 University of Montpellier, Mathematics and Statistics University of Montréal, Statistics University of Montpellier; Applied Mathematics and Social Sciences, Current position : Statistical Associate, Alberta Health Services Géraldine Lo Siou is a statistical associate with The Tomorrow Project research team at the Alberta Health Services - Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention and Screening in Calgary, Alberta. She completed her M.Sc. in Statistics in 2004 at the University of Montréal in Québec, Canada and her Maîtrise Sciences, Technologies, Santé in Mathematics (specialization Mathematics, Statistics and Applications) in 2008 at the University of Montpellier 2 in France. She has worked on various statistical methodologies and analyses in sociology, psychology, epidemiology and population health research. Her role in The Tomorrow Project research team is to provide statistical support for research activities carried out by the team as well as by collaborated research scientists and other cancer researchers. Email: losioug@yahoo.com October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 54 Page 7 of 8 A.Stat. 041: ZHU, Yi M.A. 2008 B.A. 2006 University of Toronto, Financial Economics University of Western Ontario; statistics, actuarial science with economics Current position : Analyst, TD Bank Financial Group Having degrees in Actuarial sciences and economics from Western and University of Toronto, I received solid training in statistics and quantitative skills from two top universities in Canada. I also gained hands-on experiences in applying my statistical skills to analyze and validate real data. For example, I applied time series analysis to backdate financial time series data during my internship with Ontario teacher's pension plan and I validated several segmentation models, such as logistic regression and decision trees, during my work with Bank of Montreal. My current position at TD is to develop methodologies for estimating economic capital (upper quantiles of loss distributions) for various bank portfolios. Email: zhu.jieying3@gmail.com October 2009 Accreditation Committee Report to the SSC Board Page 55 Page 8 of 8 Report of the Student Presentation Award Committee, SSC October 2009 Members: Sylvia Esterby, David Haziza, Rhonda Rosychuk (Chair) This report is for information only. The Committee thanks Mary Thompson for her service as Chair. Rhonda talked with Mary during the summer to get her insights and advice for 2010. Mary offered great suggestions. A key aspect for 2010 will be the recruitment of more judges proficient in French to handle the anticipated larger number of presentations in French. An announcement about the award was made in the summer issue of Liaison. Most of the work on the Committee will occur in the few months leading up to the SSC annual scientific meeting. The SSC Committee webpage does not have any information about this Committee. One of the goals this year will be to provide content for the webpage. Respectfully submitted, Rhonda Rosychuk, Chair Student Presentation Award Committee Attachment 6.3.4 October 09 Page 1 of 1 Page 56 Print Form MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM January 1 to December 31, 2010 First Name: Title: Initial(s): Last Name: Mailing Address: City: Province/State: Country: Postal/Zip Code: Invoicing address: (if other than mailing address) TEL: HOME TEL: WORK LANGUAGE English TEL: EMPLOYER SEX Female FAX: EMPLOYER: EMAIL: Web (with emailed notice) COMPLIMENTARY NEWSLETTER LIAISON PREFERENCE (WEB OR PAPER): INCLUDE MY NAME/CONTACT INFORMATION ON THE SSC WEB DIRECTORY? THE SSC PERIODICALLY RENTS ITS MEMBERSHIP LIST TO DEFRAY ITS COSTS: WILLING TO PARTICIPATE? MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTION RATES $110.00 ASSOCIATE, STUDENT (FULL TIME STUDENT) $ 30.00 ASSOCIATE, RETIRED OR SPOUSE OF REGULAR MEMBER $ 30.00 CJS SUBSCRIPTION: ALL MEMBER CATEGORIES $ 20.00 MEMBER OF - ASSOCIATION DES STATISTICIENNES ET STATISTICIENS DU QUÉBEC: To become a member of ASSQ, get your registration form on the Web at www.association-assq.qc.ca - $ 10.00 REDUCTION SECTION MEMBERSHIPS ASSQ RATE (CDN) Biostatistics $5.00 Business & Industrial Statistics $5.00 Probability $5.00 Survey Methods $2.00 REGIONAL ASSOCIATION RATE ($CDN OR $US ) REGULAR REGULAR RATE ASSOCIATE RATE Montreal $10.00 $ 0.00 Ottawa $12.00 $ 0.00 Southern Ontario $10.00 $ 0.00 PUBLICATIONS: RATE Survey Methodology $35.00 SUBTOTAL I WOULD LIKE TO RENEW MY MEMBERSHIP AND SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR 2 YEARS: Page 57 Yes Yes $ X 2= DONATIONS , GENERAL or SPECIFIED PURPOSE : TOTAL $ PAYMENT Payment method CHEQUE OR MONEY ORDER INCLUDED Visa (Payable to Statistical Society of Canada) CREDIT CARD NUMBER: EXPIRY DATE: NAME ON CARD: SIGNATURE: DO YOU REQUIRE A RECEIPT (if so it will be mailed to your mailing address)? RETURN TO: SSC, 1785 ALTA VISTA DRIVE, SUITE 105, OTTAWA, ON CANADA K1G 3Y6 Page 58 No TELEPHONE: (613) 733-2662 / FAX: (613) 733-1386 Report of the Statistical Education Committee, SSC October 2009 For information only. Recent Activity: Grant Application to NSERC PromoScience Program The committee has recently applied to the NSERC PromoScience Program for funds ($72,000 per year for 3 years) to support Statistics Canada in promoting Census at School. Census at School is an international program to promote statistical activities in school for students in grades 4 through 12. In the classroom, students complete an online survey, analyse their class results, and compare themselves to students in Canada and other countries through access to an international database that is maintained by the Royal Statistical Society in the UK. In Canada, the project has been run since 2003 by the Education Outreach program of Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada maintains the Canadian database and provides survey questions and curriculum relevant learning activities for the project. • If our application to NSERC is successful, the funds will be used to hire resource teachers to visit schools to carry out these activities with students and to train teachers in how to make effective use of Census at School. Statistics Canada already has a network of trained resource teachers available, but does not have funds to hire them. Some of the money will also be used to fund additional prizes at events such as data fairs and the Canada Wide Science Fair and to cover the costs of administering the grant. In December we will learn whether or not the application was successful. Other Committee Activities Planned in 2009-10: The committee is also working on the following activities. For each activity, I have noted whether SSC funds will be requested to support it. • 2010 SSC Annual Meeting The committee is sponsoring two invited paper sessions at SSC 2010. Data Fairs We expect to be asked to provide judges and prizes for data fairs in Ottawa and Halton region as in the past. We will be requesting $250 per fair for prizes. • • Canada Wide Science Fairs We plan to continue to provide a prize and judges for the Canada Wide Youth Science Fair. The cost to sponsor one prize is $2000. International Statistical Literacy Competition We will participate in the Canadian stage of the next International Statistical Literacy Competition; the finals will take place during the IASE meeting in Dublin in 2011. • Attachment 6.7 October 2009 Page 59 page 1 de 2 The SSC supported the travel to the 2009 competition in South Africa for Amanda Ens, a 14-year old Canadian student who won the national competition, and Karen Livingston Jeffrey, her teacher. Amanda placed second in her age category. Karen is keen to be involved again and will be an excellent ambassador for the competition. No funds will be needed until 2011. Meeting Within a Meeting at JSM 2010 In conjunction with the JSM, the ASA has the “Meeting Within a Meeting” (MWM) which is a professional development program for elementary and secondary school teachers. The ASA pays most of the costs, and registration for teachers is $30. We are in contact with the ASA organizers regarding the 2010 MWM in Vancouver, and we have been assured that at least 30 (10 at each of elementary, middle, and secondary school levels) spots will be reserved for Canadian teachers. We will be helping the ASA organizers identify potential Canadian speakers for MWM, including speakers who can address the details of the local curricula. We will be requesting SSC funds (initial estimate $2500) to support the Canadian teachers’ registration fees and accommodation. • Activities in Support of Undergraduate Teaching of Statistics Many of the recent activities of the committee have involved support of statistics education activities at the elementary and secondary school levels. In response to concern about how we can influence undergraduate teaching of statistics two ideas have emerged: 1. We plan to start and moderate a wiki for discussion and dissemination of resources for teachers of statistics. Our current plan to start this off is to post activities and resources presented during the statistics education sessions at the SSC meeting. 2. Preliminary planning is underway for a meeting of people interested in statistics education at the SSC meeting in Quebec. • A final comment on outreach to mathematics education organizations: Recently, SSC members have participated on behalf of the SSC in the Fields Mathematics Education Forum, the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group, and the Canadian Mathematics Education Forum. All of these organizations are interested in mathematics education at the elementary and secondary school levels. The consensus of the participants and the committee is that we are likely to remain only peripheral to the activities of these organizations and that our resources would be better used planning, supporting, and promoting activities with a clear emphasis on statistics. These other organizations are dominated by pure mathematicians whose interests are quite different from ours. The planned activities of the committee listed above reflect this focus. We may want to give future consideration to including activities in SSC meetings that would be of interest to elementary and secondary school science and mathematics teachers. Submitted by: Alison Gibbs, Chair of the Statistical Education Committee October 4, 2009 Attachment 6.7 October 2009 Page 60 page 2 de 2 Report of the Committee on Women in Statistics, SSC October 2009 Members for 2009/10: Julie Horrocks (Chair) Cynthia Bocci Joanna Flemming Nadia Ghazzali Susana Rubin-Bleuer (ISI Rep.) Leilei Zeng (Caucus Rep.) 2011-06-30 2010-06-30 2010-06-30 2012-06-30 2012-06-30 2011-12-31 COWIS/Caucus Invited Session at SSC 2009: The SSC Committee on Women in Statistics and the Caucus for Women in Statistics jointly sponsored an invited session, “Modelling and Measuring Pollution and Natural Systems”, at the 2009 SSC Conference. The session was organized by Sylvia Esterby, University of British Columbia Okanagan. The session featured research in three very distinct areas. • Yulia Gel, University of Waterloo, described work with her student, Bei Chen, on procedures for generating statistical ensembles of surface temperature forecasts using a hierarchical geostatistical model and sieve bootstrap. The significance of such probabilistic forecasts is that they give an assessment of the uncertainty in addition to the usual point estimate. • Huang Mi Kim, University of Calgary, gave a paper on the results of a survey of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide at rural locations in Western Canada as part of an epidemiological study of the effects of oil and gas industry emissions on the health of cattle. The paper was joint with investigators from the Universities of Alberta and Saskatchewan. • Laura Cowen, University of Victoria, considered how to put into a Bayesian framework a model by Cowan and Schwarz which incorporates secondary radio failure data to adjust survival estimates from capture-recapture studies. The example of tag loss during a radio telemetry study of Chinook smolts in the Columbia River was considered. Despite the 8:30 AM start the morning after the banquet, the session was well attended, and it provided a sampling of interesting problems being worked on by women in our statistical community. Social Event: COWIS/Caucus also sponsored a social event at 2009 SSC. All interested men and women were invited. Participants met for dinner at Candia Taverna Restaurant on Monday (June 1) evening at 7:30 pm. This event was organized by Leilei Zeng and was advertised through d-ssc mailing list, on the SSC meeting website and in the conference package. Attachment 6.8 October 09 Page 61 page 1 de 2 Childcare/Daycare at the 2009 SSC: A childcare/daycare service (Nannies on Call) was advertised on the SSC Conference website, and pricing information was given. COWIS member Leilei Zeng assisted Nancy Heckman and Lang Wu from UBC in arranging this opportunity. COWIS Website: The SSC Committee on Women in Statistics continues to maintain its own website, at http://www.ssc.ca/women/index_e.html, with information on our past and future activities at SSC conferences, reviews of books and articles of interest to our members, links to sites on mentoring and other issues, and links to organizations with goals that are similar to our own. Profiles of currently active female statisticians are posted on the website. Our newest profile is on Julie Trépanier, and was obtained by Cynthia Bocci. Previous profiles were obtained by Laura Cowen. The profiles consist of a set of questions (chosen from a list by the respondent) and answers. The goal is to highlight successful individuals and show women role models for others who might be thinking of such careers. We plan to continue to expand our collection of profiles of female statisticians in Canada. Study of participation of women in statistics in Canada: We continue to analyze the data on the participation of women at the SSC meetings. A new analysis should be available shortly. Respectfully submitted, Julie Horrocks, Chair SSC Committee on Women in Statistics October 3, 2009 Attachment 6.8 October 09 Page 62 page 2 de 2 Report of the ad hoc Committee for New Investigators, SSC October 2009 The current members of the ad hoc committee for new investigators are: Juli Atherton (McGill) Yulia R. Gel (Chair, Waterloo) Katherine Davies (UManitoba) Geneviève Lefebvre (UQAM) Jason Nielsen (Carleton) Jeffrey D. Picka (UNB) Matias Salibian-Barrera (continuing member, UBC) Activities 1. On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, we held the second annual dinner of new investigators under the framework of the SSC Meeting. The event was well attended by junior faculty members, PDFs and senior PhD students. We had two talks, one given by Professor Paul Gustafson, UBC, and the other one by Duncan Philips, a representative from the MITACS ACCELERATE program. Juli Atherton, McGill, and Genevieve Lefebvre, UQAM, concluded the dinner by presenting the results of the Quebec-Ontario workshop from April 2009 2. For the next SSC meeting in Quebec City, we submitted a proposal for the invited panel discussion on problems and issues met by junior researchers, which includes job interviews, grant proposals, papers, consulting, collaborating, balancing life etc. The confirmed speakers are Kelly H. Zou, Pfizer Inc. and Harvard University, Paul Cabilio, Acadia University and Nancy Reid, University of Toronto. 3. The NI Committee thinks that it will be very useful if one of the NI representatives will be a member of the Committee on NSERC funding as the junior faculty members are typically in a particularly disadvantage position when they apply for their first research grant. Attachment 7.1 October 09 Page 63 Page 1 of 1 Report of the Biostatistics Section, SSC October 2009 Quebec Meeting: The four sessions are in place, with the following organizers/topics: Topic Statistics in Cancer Spatial Statistics and Envt. Statistical Methods for Life History Analysis Response-biased sampling and missing covars. Organizer Lehana Thabane Patrick Brown Richard Cook Don McLeish The section workshop is in place, and will be given by Miguel Hernan of Harvard on causal inference: “Draw your assumptions before you draw your conclusions”. Section goals for 2009-10: Interaction with other Societies: We have been successful in raising our level of interaction with other societies, in particular the Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics. SSC biostatistics has been invited to give workshops at the upcoming CSEB student meeting in May 2010, and to continue working with CSEB in future. SSC biostatistics was recently approached to sponsor an invited session at the 2011 Congress of Epidemiology, to be held in Montreal. Fundraising and budgets: The section ran deficits for several years, but in order to maintain a base accumulated surplus, we have proposed budgets with minimal deficits for 2009-11. Advocacy: We will continue our work on raising the profile of biostatistics, in particular with regard to the position/role of biostatistics in universities and funding agencies. Specific goals include progress on training of biostatisticians and funding within the medical research environment for statistical methods research. We continue to work with journals regarding statistical attestation; we have had useful discussions with the editor of one journal and plan to approach others. Professional Development: Over the past two years we have had invited session and a pizza lunch session with students on collaboration and career development, respectively. These were both well-received and we will continue to try to offer these types of sessions. Attachment 8.1 October 09 Page 64 Page 1 of 1 Report of the Probability Section, SSC October 2009 (For Information Only) The Probability Section sponsored four invited sessions at the Vancouver meeting, including a special invited talk by Peter Guttorp, chaired by Richard Lockhart. The session, “Stochastic Spatial Models,” was organized and chaired by Ed Perkins (UBC). It featured talks by Ted Cox, Frank den Hollander and Amanda Turner. “Stochastic Modeling of Disordered Spatial Patterns” was organized and chaired by Jeff Picka and features Christine Soteros and Balint Virag. The fourth session, “Empirical Processes and Applications to Finance” was organized and chaired by Hao Yu and featured Piotr Kokoszka, Bruno Rémillard and Hao Yu as speakers. There was one contributed paper session sponsored by the Probability Section, entitled Probability and Finance. I wish to thank Bruno Rémilliard for his excellent job as President of the Probability Section and Wendy Lou, the overall conference organizer, for her superb organizational skills. The next Annual Meeting will take place in Québec City. We will offer our first Workshop at this meeting. It will be a joint venture with the Business and Industrial Statistics Section and will feature Christian Genest (Laval) and Johanna Nešlehová (McGill) as the speakers. In keeping with the Actuarial Science/Financial Mathematics theme of the conference, the Probability Section will also offer two invited session of interest. Title: “Probability, Regression and Time Series” (co-sponsored by the Business and Industrial Statistics Section) Organizers: Rafal Kulik (U. of Ottawa) and Hao (Western) Speakers: Reg Kulperger (University of Western Ontario) Wei Biao Wu (University of Chicago) Yuliya Martsynyuk (University of Manitoba), to be confirmed Title: “Probability and Finance” Organizer: Rafal Kulik (U. of Ottawa) Speakers: Miklós Csörgı (Carleton U.) Zbigniew Palmowski (University of Wroclaw, Poland) The other theme will be Mathematical Biology with two sessions: Title: "Stochastic Dynamics in Biology" Organizer: Lea Popovic (Concordia) Speakers: Nicolas Lanchier (Arizona State), John Mayberry (Cornell), Anita Winter (Munich) Attachment 8.3 October 09 Page 65 Page 1 of 2 Title: "Stochastic Models in Population Genetics" Organizer: Sabin Lessard Speakers: Bob Griffiths (Oxford), Martin Moehle (Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen), One T.B.A. I wish to thank the Program Committee of the Probability Section, Rafal Kulik, Neal Madras and Hao Yu, for their excellent work. Looking to the future, we hope to offer a workshop at the 2011 Annual Meeting. Murray Burke Probability Section President Attachment 8.3 October 09 Page 66 Page 2 of 2 Probability Section of the Statistical Society of Canada Minutes of the Annual General Meeting University of Ottawa; Morissette 250; 26 May 2008 Called to order by President Edit Gombay. 1. Agenda approval: moved by Burke seconded by Rémillard Carried. 2. Minutes of 2007 AGM approval: moved by Rémillard seconded by Kulperger. Carried. 3. President’s Report: Edit Gombay reported. 4. Name of Section: Proposed motion: That the name of the section be changed to “Probability and Mathematical Statistics”. This motion was tabled. 5. Approval of Section Regulations: two versions of the section regulations were circulated — one reflecting the proposed name change and the other not. In view of the decision not to change the name the latter version was considered. Approval was moved by Rémillard and seconded by Burke Carried 6. Committee Reports: (a) Publication Committee: Byron Schmuland reported. (b) Program Committee: Murray Burke reported. (c) Finance: Raluca Balan reported. 7. Executive and Committee Memberships: For 2008/09 the section executive will be: Bruno Rémillard, President; Edit Gombay, Past President; Murray Burke, President Elect; Raluca Balan, Treasurer; Richard Lockhart, Secretary 8. Adjournment: at 1800 EDT. 1 Page 67 Attendance The meeting was attended by: Raluca Balan, Murray Burke, Miklós Csörgő, Donald Dawson, René Ferland, Edit Gombay, Abdul Kadir Hussein, Reg Kulperger, Richard Lockhart, Éric Marchand, Don McLeish, Yuliay Martsynyuk, Bruno Rémillard, Raj Srinivasan Barbara Szyszkowicz, François Watier, Hao Yu, Yiqiang Zhao. Minutes prepared by Richard Lockhart, Secretary 2 Page 68 REGULATIONS OF THE PROBABILITY SECTION RÈGLEMENTS DU GROUPE DE PROBABILITÉ As a Section of the Statistical Society of Canada, hereafter called “the Society”, the Probability Section is governed by the By-Laws of the Society, and by the following Section regulations. Comme groupe de la Société de la statistique du Canada («la Société»), le Groupe de probabilité sera gouverné selon les lois de la Société et selon les règles suivantes. 1. SCOPE 1. MANDAT 1.1 The Probability Section, hereafter called “the Section”, shall be concerned with probability and its applications to statistics, mathematics, biology, finance and many other areas. 1.1 Le Groupe de probabilité («le Groupe») s’intéressera à la théorie des probabilités et ses applications à la statistique, la mathématique, la biologie, la finance et à beaucoup d’autres domaines. 2. MEMBERSHIP 2. ADHÉSION 2.1 The membership of the Section shall consist of individual members of the Society who share the interests of the Section, and have paid their Section annual membership dues. 2.1 Le membership du Goupe sera constitué de membres individuels de la Société qui partagent les intérêts du Groupe et qui ont payé leurs frais annuels d’inscription au Groupe. 3. SECTION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 3. COMITÉ EXÉCUTIF DU GROUPE 3.1 The activities and business of the Section shall be managed by a Section Executive Committee consisting of the President, the President-Elect, the Past-President, the Secretary, and the Treasurer. 3.1 Les activités et les affaires du Groupe seront gérées par un comité exécutif du Groupe qui sera composé du président, du président désigné, du président sortant, du secrétaire et du trésorier. 3.2 The membership dues shall be determined by the Section Executive Committee. Any modification of the current dues shall become effective at the beginning of the next calendar year. 3.2 Les frais d’inscription au Groupe seront determinés par le comité exécutif du Groupe. Toute modification au montant de la cotisation entrera en vigueur début de l’année civile suivante. 4. OFFICERS 4. OFFICIERS The Section President shall be responsible for the affairs of the Section, and shall serve as, or designate, the presiding officer at business meetings of the Section or of its Executive Committee. Le président du Groupe sera responsable des affaires du Groupe et servira de, ou désignera un, président pour les réunions d’affaires du Groupe et pour les réunions du comité exécutif du Groupe. The Section President-Elect shall act as President in the event the President is absent or unable to serve, serve as Program Representative for the Section to the Program Committee of the Society for its Annual Meeting to be held in the year of his/her presidency, and coordinate other statistical and professional meetings sponsored by the Section. Le président désigné du Groupe agira à titre de président lorsque le président sera absent ou incapable d’agir, agira à titre de représentant de congrès du Groupe au comité de congrès de la Société pour son congrès annuel tenu lors de l’année de sa présidence, et coordonnera d’autres rencontres statistiques et professionnelles commanditées par le Groupe. 4.3 The Section Past-President shall provide continuity in the affairs of the Section, chair the Elections Committee of the Section, and act as liaison with the Elections Committee of the Society. 4.3 Le président sortant du Groupe apportera de la continuité aux affaires du Groupe, présidera le comité d’élection du Groupe et agira à titre d’agent de liaison avec le comité d’élection de la Société. 4.4 The Section Secretary shall serve as secretary of annual and other business meetings of the Section or of its Executive Committee, prepare the minutes of such meetings, keep these minutes and other records of the Section, maintain a list of current members, respond to requests from members, and see that all notices are duly given in accordance with these regulations. 4.4 Le secrétaire du Groupe agira à titre de secrétaire lors de l’assemblée annuelle et autres réunions d’affaires du Groupe ou de son comité exécutif, préparera le procès verbal de ces réunions, conservera ces procès verbaux et autres archives du Groupe, maintiendra une liste des membres actifs, répondra aux demandes des membres et s’assurera que tous les avis sont publiés selon les présentes règles. Page 69 4.5 The Section Treasurer shall manage the fiscal affairs of the Section, and shall present an annual budget for the Section to the Board of Directors of the Society and to the annual meeting of the Section. 4.5 Le trésorier du Groupe gérera les affaires fiscales du Groupe et présentera un budget annuel pour le Groupe au Conseil d’administration de la Société et à l’assemblée du Groupe. 5. MEETINGS 5. ASSEMBLÉES 5.1 The Section shall hold at least one general meeting each year at a time and place to be determined by the Section Executive Committee. Additional general meetings shall be held whenever requested by the lesser of ten members and one third of all members, or by the Section Executive Committee. Any such request must be filed with the Secretary at least thirty days prior to the date of the proposed meeting. 5.1 Le Groupe devra tenir au moins une assemblée générale par année à un endroit et une date choisis par le comité exécutif du Groupe. Des assemblées générales additionnelles seront tenues dès que demandées par le moindre de dix membres et le tiers de tous les membres, ou par le comité exécutif du Groupe. Une telle demande devra être faite auprès du Secrétaire du Groupe au moins trente jours avant la date de l’assemblée proposée. 5.2 The quorum at a general meeting shall be the lesser of one third of all members and ten members of the Section 5.2 Le quorum lors d’une assemblée générale sera le moindre de dix membres et le tiers de tous les membres. 5.3 Written notice of meeting shall be sent to each member of the Section at least thirty days prior to any general meeting of the Section. 5.3 Un avis écrit sera envoyé à tous les membres du Groupe au moins trente jours avant la tenue de toute assemblée générale du Groupe. 6. ELECTIONS AND TERMS OF OFFICE 6. ÉLECTIONS ET DURÉE DES MANDATS 6.1 The Section President-Elect shall be elected annually, serving as such for one year, and shall then become Section President for the following year, and PastPresident the next year. 6.1 Le président désigné du Groupe sera élu annuellement, agira à ce titre pour un an, deviendra ensuite président du Groupe pour l’année suivante, et président sortant l’année suivant celle de sa présidence. 6.2 The Section Secretary and Treasurer shall be elected for three-year terms. The Section Secretary shall be elected in years that are multiples of three. The Section Treasurer shall be elected in each year immediately following the year of election of the Section Secretary. 6.2 Le secrétaire et le trésorier du Groupe seront élus pour des mandats de trois ans. Le secrétaire du Groupe sera élu lors des années qui sont multiples de trois. Le trésorier du Groupe sera élu lors des années succédants l’élection du Secrétaire du Groupe. 6.3 No one shall be a member of the Executive Committee for more than six consecutive years. 6.3 Personne ne pourra être membre du comité exécutif du Groupe pour plus de six années consécutives. 6.4 Terms of office shall start normally on July 1 of the year of the election. 6.4 Les mandats commenceront normalement le premier juillet de l’année de l’élection. 6.5 On or before September 1 of each year, the Section President shall appoint an Election Committee consisting of the Past-President and at least two members of the Section who have agreed not to run in the next election. 6.5 Au plus tard le premier septembre de chaque année, le président du Groupe devra former un comité d’élection composé du président sortant et d’au moins deux membres du Groupe qui ont décidé de ne pas se porter candidat lors la prochaine élection. 6.6 The Election Committee shall submit at least one nomination for each position on the Section Executive Committee which will be vacant. Additional nominations must be supported in writing by at least five members of the Section, and must be received by the Past-President on or before December 1 of the year preceding the election. 6.6 Le comité d’élection devra soumettre au moins une nomination pour chaque poste disponible lors de la prochaine élection au comité exécutif du Groupe. Les nominations additionnelles devront être secondées par écrit par au moins cinq membres du Groupe et doivent être recues par le président sortant du Groupe au plus tard le premier décembre de l’année précédent l’élection. 6.7 On or before December 1 of each year, the Section Past President shall provide the Chair of the Election Committee of the Society with a list of candidates for the positions to be filled the following year. 6.7 Au plus tard le premier décembre de chaque année, le président-sortant du Groupe devra donner au président du comité d’élection de la Société une liste de candidats pour les postes à remplir lors de l’année suivante. 7. VACANCIES 7. POSTES VACANTS 7.1 In the event a member of the Section Executive Committee cannot serve a full term, the remainder of the Section Executive Committee shall appoint a successor to serve for the balance of the term to which the Executive Committee member was elected. 7.1 Dans l’éventualité où un membre du comité exécutif du Groupe ne pourrait servir tout son mandat, le reste du comité exécutif du Groupe devra nommer un successeur qui terminera le mandat pour lequel le membre du comité exécutif avait été élu Page 70 8. AMENDMENTS 8. AMENDEMENTS 8.1 These regulations may be amended by a two-thirds vote of those present at any general meeting. Each proposed amendment shall be placed on the agenda. 8.1 Ces règles peuvent être amendées par un vote du deux tiers des membres présents à toute assemblée générale. Tout amendement proposé devra être inscrit à l’agenda. Page 71