Strategic Plan

(Revised August 30, 2023)


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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
Context: Decision-making discussions in public policy, including healthcare and science policy, must be guided by sound data and competent statistical analysis. The ASA and the statistical profession should actively participate in these discussions to promote the use of appropriate data and effective methods, and to ensure that the statistical sciences receive an appropriate share of public funding for scientific research and education.

Objective: Raise the profile of statistics and statisticians through promoting the value of sound statistical practice in public policy decision-making.

Strategies: (a) Promote the quality and integrity of government statistics and public policy statistics; (b) Support statisticians and data scientists involved in public policy and help public policy colleagues to strengthen their ability to advocate for increased inclusion of statisticians in public policy decision making; (c) Curate and broadly communicate case studies in public policy which emphasize the value of sound statistical practice in public policy decision making and (d) Provide statistical advocacy at the national, regional, and local level.

Theme: Ensuring the Future of our Profession


Education
Context: Ensuring the future of the profession involves ensuring a well-developed pipeline into the profession and that requires that statistical education at all levels be supported and enhanced. Statistics education occurs in a variety of domains, from formal institution-based programs to online and certificate programs. The need for statistics education does not end upon the completion of a degree.

Further, public awareness of the nature and benefits of careers in statistics and data science is insufficient. The growth of the AP Statistics Program and the rapid increase in the number of bachelor degree graduates in statistics speaks to gains in public awareness.

Objective: Provide leadership in all aspects of statistics education, from early grades to PhD, from enhancing public literacy in statistics to developing targeted professional development opportunities.

Strategies: (a) In global collaboration with entities internal and external to the ASA, provide guidelines, professional development and information on appropriate statistics education to statistics educators, curriculum developers and educational policy makers at all levels; (b) Revise and implement a plan to provide resources to K-12, community college, and undergraduate teachers to enhance their ability to teach statistics; (c) Provide guidelines for a statistics-focused pathway to a career in data-related sciences; (d) Develop and implement a plan to influence the inclusion of statistical thinking in appropriate disciplines, such as computer science and business analytics; (e) Provide face-to-face, online and hybrid continuing professional development for statisticians who need to augment their professional skills; (f) Provide professional development opportunities for professionals who are moving from other careers to statistics or data-related sciences; (g) Provide statistical training for communities such as journalists, lawyers, and physicians who need to understand statistics for their work and (h) Continue to enhance “This is Statistics” and other media campaigns.
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.