Dear {Contact_First_Name},.
As the year comes to its end, everyone seems to be scrambling to get things done “one more time” before the next year starts. It’s like 31 December is a psychological barrier that we cannot cross unless we do so with a clean slate. Committees that have been snoozing blissfully for months suddenly perk up: We can’t possibly enter a new year without having had one last meeting in the old one.
The same goes on at home. For some reason the house must be sparkly clean before the end of the year – not just the usual way but every drawer, every skirting board, every shelf has to be tidy and pristine. Not having any family in Australia, and no one coming to stay with us over Christmas, it’s not even a case of wanting to present ourselves well to visitors. It’s all in my head! Wouldn’t it be more sensible to do all this stuff around the house early next year when I’m on leave and actually have time to clean?
Of the many committees that make up SSA, there is one that NEEDS to meet one more time. It’s our Accreditation Committee, and they will convene again next Wednesday. The reason why it’s important that this committee gets together before the year runs out, is to give those members with an AStat accreditation about to expire the chance to renew their accreditation. AStat accreditation is granted for five years, and always expires on the 31 December. Once an AStat accreditation has expired, the holder is no longer endorsed by the Society and the AStat trust mark, issued for five years upon accreditation or reaccreditation, will show an expiry date that lies in the past.
Here at the office, I send out reminders throughout the second half of the year to make sure that every AStat accredited member has a chance to get their reaccreditation application in on time. If this article strikes a chord, perhaps check when your AStat accreditation expires. If you’re not sure, here’s a hint: Look at your trust mark!
Those of you with AStat accreditation expiring this year should be aware of this already, because I have been hounding you. To those of you with an expiry date of 31 December 2023 I recommend that you get your application in early next year. There is no benefit of waiting until the end of the year (unless you need to spruce up your professional development record), and the five-year extension starts from 1 January 2024, irrespective of whether you apply for reaccreditation in January or December 2023. Why not apply for reaccreditation early, perhaps while you are on leave and have plenty of time, and then be able to forget about it for another five, almost six years?
Curious about what this talk of “accreditation” is all about? You can find all the necessary information and application forms on our website.
Marie-Louise Rankin
Executive Officer
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NSW Branch November Meeting with Dr Andrew White On the evening of Wednesday, 9th November, Dr Andrew White from Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) presented the NSW Branch’s November seminar with the talk tilted “How the ARDC helps researchers maximize impact.” Andrew began his talk with a brief introduction to ARDC and its mission of providing Australian researcher with competitive advantages through data. ARDC fulfilled this mission by offering a variety of products and services to researchers, with examples including Research Data Australia, Nectar Research Cloud, Biosecurity commons, and Research Vocabularies Australia. Furthermore, ARDC fosters communities of practices, including Sensitive data community, Machine Learning community of practice for Australia, and provides national hubs of expertise to help tackle researchers’ data challenges. At the end of the talk, Andrew demonstrated an example of how a research team used ARDC services for Australia’s Covid 19 modeling.
Linh Nghiem |
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SSA now partner organisation of the JSM
The “Joint Statistical Meetings” (JSM) is one of the largest statistical events in the world, held annually in North America. The 2023 JSM will be held in Ontario, Canada from 5th – 10th of August. Did you know that the SSA has recently become a partner organisation of the JSM?
What does this mean for our members?
SSA members are now eligible to pay the JSM member registration rate even if they are not also members of one of the five official JSM partners.
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SSA may schedule rooms to hold business meetings and/or mixers at JSM.
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SSA may compete for invited sessions in the “outside organization” competition.
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SSA has a representative on the JSM Program Committee.
This partnership will continue for a period of three years, after which this status will be reviewed for renewal by the official JSM partners.
More information on JSM, including key dates, can be found here! |
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Conference on Macroeconomic Statistics for the Future
On 10-11 November 2022, Eurostat and the United Nations Statistics Division organised a global conference on “Macroeconomic Statistics for the Future” at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels. The conference was opened by Mariana Kotzeva, Director-General of Eurostat, and Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the UNSD.
The event brought together around 250 participants from more than 70 countries from around the world, including politicians, public officials working in policy development, national accounts compilers and academics. It was live-streamed for those who could not be come in person.
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Mentioned in previous newsletters: |
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The SSA Mentoring SSA Mentoring Program 2023 - Now open for applications
The SSA is excited to invite you to participate in the 2023 mentoring program!
Open to all members of the Society, the program will connect early and mid-career statisticians with experienced mentors to provide them with career guidance and share their experiences to help them achieve their professional goals.
See here or the SSA Mentoring website to find out if you are eligible and for more information.
To register your interest please complete the form by Sunday 11th December. |
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The 2022 Tjanpi Award for Best Student Paper in Environmental Statistics
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2022 Tjanpi Award, the annual student prize for best student paper in environmental statistics, sponsored by the SSA Environmental Statistics Section. Applications close on Thursday, 8 December 2022, 5pm AEDT. Find out more. |
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NSW Branch: 2022 Annual Dinner
5 Dec 2022, 7:00 PM (AEDT), Aerial Function Centre, UTS
The afternoon begins with the 23rd annual J.B. Douglas Awards, followed by the Annual Lecture by Professor Marijka Batterham starting around 6pm, and then dinner from about 7pm.
The 23rd J. B. Douglas Awards
Each year the J. B. Douglas award showcases NSW postgraduate students' research work. As usual, we will have several talks by research students nearing completion at NSW institutions. Nominees are still being finalised, we will send a separate announcement closer to the day.
2022 Annual Lecture
This year, we are very happy to have Professor Marijka Batterham, Director of the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research Australia and the Statistical Consulting Centre give the Annual Lecture. Details of the talk will be made available closer to the date.
2022 Annual Dinner
To register, please follow the link here. A discount is given to early career and student members. |
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Canberra Branch - Knibbs lecture 2022
6 Dec 2022, 5:45 PM – 7:15 PM (AEDT), in-person and on Zoom
SSA Canberra invites you to the 2022 Knibbs lecture, the final branch meeting of the year. This year, we are delighted to have Heather Battey from Imperial College London present in-person (and streamed online) on the roles of R.A. Fisher and D.R. Cox in the development of statistics.
After the lecture, in-person attendees (and others if they so wish) are invited to join a dinner afterwards with the speaker. |
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SSA Vic: Virtual social event
7 Dec 2022, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM (AEDT), via Zoom
Come along to this December social event for a chance to catch up with other stat-minded individuals and have a chat about a range of topics the statistical community is facing/will face in the future. We will be joined by our current SSA President Ian Gordon and Vice President Jessica Kasza, and we have selected a handful of topics to get us started:
- Statistics vs Data Science: Similarities and differences
- Advances in statistics : Significant advances in recent years and future directions
- The role of science communication in statistics: Should/how can statisticians be more involved in conveying statistical ideas to the lay population as a foundation for policy change (e.g., Covid)?
- Statistical education: Should we change the way we teach statistics in higher education?
- Statistical education: What can we do to improve the teaching and development of statistical curriculum in secondary education?
We welcome you to suggest any additional topics that would be of interest to you, here!
Drop in from 7pm to 8pm to have a chat and unwind after another hectic year.
See you there! |
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New dates!The Necessary SQL - An Introduction to SQL with Daniel Fryer
6-February 2023, 9:00 AM (AEDT) – 7 February 2023, 5:00 PM (AEDT), Online via Zoom
This course is a gentle, fast paced introduction to SQL. Their objective is to build a strong foundation and intuition for SQL programming, with an emphasis on retrieving and transforming data in a robust and testable manner. The course is suitable for beginners with no prior programming experience, but includes plenty of additional material for experienced programmers that are new to SQL.
For more information and to register click here. |
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Save the date: ASC and OZCOTS 2023
10-15 December 2023, University of Wollongong, NSW |
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 International Statistical Institute (ISI) Regional Webinar:
What are the important issues facing Australasia relating to Statistics and Data Science? Hear from the below panelists and domain experts.
The first ISI Regional Webinar for Australasian region is to be held at 4pm AEST 13 December 2022.
Speakers will be well known to SSA members: Kerrie Mengersen, Rob Hyndman, Louise Ryan, Rob Barnett, Dianne Cook, James Curran
Further details are available here. |
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AMSI Summer Careers Day 2023
16 Jan 2023, 9:30 AM – 1:00 PM (AEDT), Melbourne Connect, 700 Swanston Street, The University of Melbourne, Parkville
Cutting edge research, stock markets, finance, energy, education, even cosmetics industries - careers in the mathematical sciences come in all shapes, colours and sizes!
Chat to organisations including MECCA, Optiver, AGL, CSRIO's Data61, Reserve Bank of Australia and APR.Intern at the 2023 Summer Careers Day and discover the variety of career pathways for maths, stats and data science grads.
This is a FREE in-person event open to ALL tertiary students.
Light refreshments will be provided. |
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International Symposium on Forecasting
25-28 June 2023
University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Charlottesville, USA
The International Symposium on Forecasting (ISF) is the premier forecasting conference, attracting the world's leading forecasting researchers, practitioners, and students. Through a combination of keynote speaker presentations, academic sessions, workshops, and social programs, the ISF provides many excellent opportunities for networking, learning, and fun.
Important Dates (2023)
Invited Session Proposals: 1 March
Travel grant applications: 3 March
Abstract Submissions: 17 March
Early Registration: 28 April
Keynote Speakers
Kathy Ensor, Rice University
Dan Goldstein, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
M. Ayhan Kose, World Bank Group
Michael Lewis-Beck, University of Iowa
Dolores Romero Morales, Copenhagen Business School
Keith Wiebe, International Food Policy Research Institute
For more information, contact isf@forecasters.org |
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Current positions in SSA's Career Centre |
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If you have news from the Australian statistical community to share in Stats Matters and Events, please get in touch with us! We love getting feedback too. |
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