IASS News October 2020

In this newsletter we cover the IASS’ involvement in World Statistics Day 2020 celebrations and in the World Statistics Conference 2021, key decisions made by the IASS Executive Committee at its September meeting, the United Nations Task Force on COVID-19 and Household Surveys, and upcoming conferences.

Links to more information:

 The IASS Executive Committee encourage members to subscribe and contribute articles to the Statistics Journal of the International Association of Official Statistics. Website: https://officialstatistics.com/aims-scope .

 Please feel free to send items to publish in future IASS newsletters to James Chipperfield james.chipperfield@abs.gov.au

World Statistics Day 2020 (20th October)

The IASS and IAOS are organising an event to celebrate World Statistics Day 2020- the event will likely be held early November, after the official WSD which falls on the 20th October. The event will be advertised soon.

World Statistics Conference 2021

The IASS and the IAOS are collaborating on a Short Course Proposal

The Evolution of the 21st Century Census
The cycle of population censuses remains a core activity of any National Statistics Institute (NSI), with the data collection / collation activities for the most recent round completed in the midst of the Cov-19 pandemic. However, for many NSIs there has already been an evolution towards increasing reliance on administrative data, and that has spread beyond those country’s that have a long history of register-based official statistics. In this proposed session, we will explore the future path that different agencies are contemplating drawing on a range of contributors that reflects the current stages of census evolution. It will focus on the role of the NSI’s research in the future decision-making of census evolution; and the statistical challenges that are being faced. There will be an opportunity for contributors to reflect on how Cov-19 pandemic has influenced the path of evolution.

Executive Committee Meeting

On the 17th September the IASS Executive Committee met and discussed a range of issues, the key outcomes of which are summarised below.

Future Annual General Meetings of IASS

  • EC will make the slides and significant outcomes of AGMs available on the IASS website.
  • EC will make video recordings of future AGMs available only to IASS members, upon request.

Forming an IASS Council

  • At the IASS AGM held at the WSC in Malaysia 2019, a motion was passed to form an IASS council. The current EC agreed to take actions regarding this issue around the beginning of 2021. The EC will draft terms of reference and specific goals for the Council.

Revising the terms of the Hansen-Cochran Prize

  • The EC agreed that the value of the next HC prize would be approximately $1500 (Euros). This covers general WSC 2021 registration and attendance at its satellite short courses. The remaining amount may be spent by the winner for the purpose of professional development in statistics (e.g. conference registration, short courses, books).

United Nations Task Force on COVID-19 and household surveys (shared at the request of the United Nations Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys)

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented itself as both a tremendous challenge and an opportunity to household survey programmes in countries.

The overall objectives of the Task Force are to (a) support the coordination of the COVID-19 impact surveys in countries; (b) provide guidance to countries both on maintaining the continuity of regular survey programmes and various methodological aspects of COVID-19 related surveys; and (c) establish a collective vision on the implications of COVID-19 for reshaping the national household survey programmes.

For more information see https://unstats.un.org/iswghs/task-forces/covid-19-and-household-surveys/

Conferences

 

Upcoming IASS-Supported Conferences

ICES VI – The International Conference on Establishment Statistics will take place 14-17 June 2021 in New Orleans, U.S.

Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/ices/2020/conferenceinfo.cfm/   

SAE2021- BigSmall – Conference on Small Area Estimation, with the theme “Big Data for Small Areas”, will be held 5-7 July in Naples, Italy, as a satellite conference to the World Statistics Conference in 2021.

Website: https://sae2020.org/

Summer School on Survey Statistics 2020 was planned to be held 24–28 August in Minsk, Belarus but it has been postponed to 2021. Details to be announced.

Website: https://wiki.helsinki.fi/display/BNU/Events.

11e Colloque International Francophone sur les Sondages – 11th International Francophone Conference on Surveys will take place 6-8 October 2021 in Brussels, Belgium.

Website: http://sondages2020.sciencesconf.org.

 

Other Conferences on survey statistics and related areas

BigSurv20 – Big Data Meets Survey Science will be held virtually during November and December. Website: https://www.bigsurv20.org

American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice is planned to take place 18-20 February 2021 in Nashville, USA. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/csp/2020/index.cfm

Statistics in the Big Data Era will take place 2 – 4 June 2021 in Berkeley, USA. Website: https://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/statistics-big-data-era

Symposium on Data Science & Statistics is planned to take place June 2-5, 2021 in Missouri, USA–. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/sdss/2021/

ANZSC 2021 – Australian Statistical Society and New Zealand Statistical Association Conference will take place 5 – 9 July 5, Gold Coast, Australia.  Website: https://anzsc2021.com.au/

Conference and Special Issue of Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A in memory of Fred Smith and Chris Skinner will be held in Southampton, UK, 8‐10 July 2021. See the August 2020 IASS Newsletter for full details.

63rd ISI World Statistics Congress will take place 11-15 July 2021 and will be virtual.  Website: https://www.isi2021.org/

Joint Statistical Meetings 2021 will take place 7 -12 August in Seattle, USA. Website: https://www.amstat.org/ASA/Meetings/Joint-Statistical-Meetings.aspx

2021 Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference will take place 7-9 October in Pittsburgh, USA. Website: https://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/wsds/2021/

 The Survey Research Methods Section (SRMS) of the ASA Information on activities of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA) are available at: https://community.amstat.org/surveyresearchmethodssection/home