Strategic Plan

(Revised October 8, 2024)


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Vision: A world that relies on data and statistical thinking to drive discovery and inform decisions

Mission: Promoting the practice and profession of statistics

 
 

Theme: Enhancing the Diversity and Breadth of our Association


Membership Retention and Growth
Objectives:
  • Communicate the value of long-term membership to current and new members.
  • Increase the diversity, inclusiveness, and sense of belonging of our membership.
  • Communicate core values of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility to members and potential members.
  • Target specific outreach to professional statisticians and data scientists who are not currently ASA members.
Strategies/Tactics:
  • Improve collection of member demographic data to better inform decisions.
  • Follow up and follow through on the recommendations of the Antiracism Task Force.
  • Continue interviews/focus groups to gain insight into needs of specific audiences.
  • Develop and implement website policy that prioritizes outreach, especially to potential members.
  • Identify topics of interest to key member groups and engage those members through regular virtual townhall meetings on these subjects.
  • Add data science accreditation to our PStat/GStat accreditation suite.
  • Implement the streamlined process for Board Members and ASA Fellows to become PStat accredited.
  • Increase international membership through deeply discounted rate for developing countries.
  • Pursue external grants to cultivate student and early-career participation in the association (National Data Mine, REU (collaboration with AAPOR))
  • Implement optional automatic membership renewal and multiyear membership option, and promote life memberships.
  • Review processes for reminding members to renew their memberships, and develop methods for better understanding why people choose not to renew membership.
Professional Development
Objective: Develop the Leadership Institute to provide the infrastructure to coordinate and champion all ASA professional development to maximize the value to the association.

Strategies/Tactics:
  • Build a professional development course catalog.
  • Create a certificate system to provide a mechanism to recognize achievements.
  • Continue the IDEA Forum as an annual event to focus on the important ways statistics and statisticians impact society.
  • Support the StatsForward program to develop young leaders in the profession.
  • Reevaluate ASA meetings to ensure they are meeting member needs.
  • Coordinate with sections to support section-hosted workshops, conferences, and other professional development offerings.
Publications
Objectives:
  • Maintain a diverse portfolio of journals that advance statistics and data science by disseminating high quality, high impact research.
  • Maintain and further develop our outreach publications (Amstat News, CHANCE, Significance) to meet member needs and expand the awareness, reach, and visibility of statistics and data science.
Strategies/Tactics:
  • Monitor the publishing climate to ensure ASA publications are well positioned to be responsive to demands for open access and open science and are able to respond to national and international directives.
  • Evaluate methods for making sure that high quality research finds a home in ASA journals.
  • Ensure that our policies encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion, and are accessible to all.
  • Develop streamlined submission processes and significantly improve review times leading to fast publication.
  • Effectively promote beyond the statistical community journal articles of broad interest.
  • Explore the development of a fellowship program for early-career professionals to prepare them to serve as editors and to broaden participation in the publications process.

Theme: Increasing the Visibility of our Profession


Public Awareness
Objectives:
  • Identify important, influential audiences to hear and absorb the message that statistics and data science have high impact on science, business, industry, and government and that it is a foundation for innovation.
  • Communicate the value and relevance of statistics to science and society.
  • Communicate the value and relevance of statistics at all levels of education.
  • Communicate ASA core values of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility and the ethical guidelines under which we work.
Strategies/Tactics:
  • Revise and reinvigorate the This is Statistics campaign using video and audio content to emphasize the impact of statistics and data science and ensure the campaign is recognized as an ASA initiative.
  • Develop at least one high quality marketing video explaining explain who “we” are. “We” are statisticians, we are data scientists, we are educators, we ARE the ASA. The video will act as an introduction to ASA programs and why being part of the ASA community is important.
  • Develop TedX event(s) to celebrate the accomplishments of the statistics and data science community and to inspire young people to choose educational paths that will allow them to continue this work.
  • Follow up and follow through on the recommendations of the Antiracism Task Force, especially those regarding communications.
  • Further develop SciLine connection to improve impact on reporting involving statistics/data science
  • Continue the migration of “stats check” to StatLine.
  • Grow the Impact Webinar series, looking to reach a broader audience.
  • Develop the Leadership Institute Ideas Forum
  • Grow and better publicize existing podcasts, especially Stats+Stories, and consider the development of additional podcasts for different audiences.
  • Expand the role of the Public Lecture. For JSM, expand the reach of the public lecture by increasing publicity for the lecture in the venue city and to make it available live online (and for viewing on YouTube afterward). Plan to add a public lecture to other ASA meetings.
Visibility and Impact in Public Policy Making
Objectives:
  • Raise the profile of statistics and statisticians by promoting the value of sound practice of the statistical sciences in public policy decision-making.
  • Promote the fundamental role of statistical sciences in shaping evidence-based policy.
  • Promote the quality and integrity of government statistics.
Strategies/Tactics:
  • Pursue opportunities to achieve these objectives in categories such as the following, which are explained and for which examples are provided in this Amstat News article
    a. Statistics improving governance, justice, democracy, human rights, and other aspects of society
    b. Defense of scientific freedom
    c. Championing of scientific integrity in statistical science and official statistics
    d. Promotion of statistics to inform policymaking
    e. Statistics improving science and the scientific process
  • Build ASA’s support for statisticians and data scientists involved in public and scientific policy.
  • Extend ASA’s work with its members to strengthen their ability to advocate for issues supporting the above objectives.
  • Provide timely information to ASA members about ongoing public policy discussions relevant to the statistical sciences.
  • Provide statistical advocacy at the national, regional, and local levels.
  • Engage with ASA members and request their input on public policy topics.
  • Advocate for the federal statistical system and research funding agencies.
  • Work with the ASA External Nominations and Awards Committee and other ASA units to nominate ASA members for external awards, boards, and panels to increase the representation and engagement of statisticians broadly.
  • Communicate ASA’s work to raise the visibility and impact of statistics and statisticians in public policy making with our members and encourage their participation.

Theme: Ensuring the Future of our Profession


Education
Objectives:
  • Advance Statistical Education: Enhance the quality of education in the statistical sciences, which includes theoretical and applied statistics and data science, at all levels, from preK- 12 to postgraduate.
  • Curriculum Development: Facilitate the development and dissemination of innovative curricula in the statistical sciences that align with evolving industry and research demands.
  • Support for Educators: Provide professional development opportunities, mentoring, and recognition for educators in the statistical sciences to continually improve teaching and learning.
  • Equity: Promote opportunities within the statistical sciences, with a focus on increasing participation and representation of underrepresented groups among students, educators, and practitioners.
  • Ethical Considerations: Promote the understanding that statistical literacy extends beyond technical competence in statistics, data science, and AI disciplines, and emphasize ethical implications, such as fairness, transparency, and privacy.
  • Advocacy for Broad Impact: Advocate for the importance of the statistical sciences in the broader education system and encourage the inclusion of statistics as an important component of curricula in other disciplines.
  • Promote Data Science Skills: Demonstrate the importance of data science as an interdisciplinary field and work to ensure statistical concepts and skills are central to data science education.
  • Integration of Statistics and AI: Support an understanding of statistical concepts and methodologies within the context of artificial intelligence (AI) education.
  • Global Engagement: Extend the reach of ASA's educational initiatives internationally to contribute to global statistical capacity building.
Strategies/Tactics
  • Forge new partnerships and strengthen existing collaborations with organizations, governmental agencies, academic institutions, and statistical agencies.
  • Make educational content accessible to a global audience through online learning.
  • Support accreditation efforts in the statistical sciences.
  • Enhance existing student competitions, e.g., ASA DataFest, Fall Data Challenge, etc. and develop new opportunities.
  • Develop proposals to obtain external funding to support educational initiatives.
  • Continue curriculum development, expand the reach of Statistics Teacher, and consider developing digital badging/credentialling programs to encourage and recognize teacher achievements.
  • Develop on-demand curricula (at all levels) and create an annual professional development calendar.
  • Hold regular engagements with key stakeholders in positions of influence in industry, government, and academe.
  • Leverage existing resources such as the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education and the National Data Mine to further advance education and educational opportunities.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders from academe, industry, and government to create pathways for the inclusion of statistics as a key component of AI technologies and data science.
Organizational Leadership Development
Context: The ASA depends critically on the volunteer efforts of its members through committees, sections and chapters. Identifying and developing the next generation of ASA leadership and ensuring that leadership reflects the diversity of the association is critical to success.

Objective: Ensure that the ASA's structures and processes support the development of future leaders of the association.

Strategies: (a) Proactively engage and develop volunteers who reflect the diversity of our membership; (b) Develop a system of mentorship and recognition for volunteers that helps create a pool from which to develop high level leaders of ASA and (c) Continue to promote effective use of and member involvement in existing organizational structures (committees, chapters, sections, interest and outreach groups.)
Financial Status
Background: Although the ASA is currently a financially stable organization, lack of growth in the number of regular memberships and the conversion of student memberships to regular membership threatens long term revenue. Ad revenues have plummeted. In order to expand services to an increasingly diverse membership and to increase the visibility of the profession, new sources of revenue need to be developed.

Objective: Ensure long-term financial viability and the ability to support the association's strategic activities.

Strategies: Continue to (a) seek stable sources of future revenue consistent with the ASA mission; (b) grow the ASA’s development program; (c) monitor and control costs; (d) use our reserves to invest effectively in the future of the ASA and (e) ensure initiatives are linked to the strategic plan.