Minutes of the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Florida Chapter of the ASA
 


The annual chapter meeting was held February 12 and 13, 1999 on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.  We had two invited speakers, five student papers, and three other contributed papers presented.  Two venues were used for the
meetings, Reitz Union and the beautifully-restored Griffin-Floyd Hall.  The Friday evening banquet was held at the University
Centre Hotel adjoining the campus.  At the first annual Student Paper Competition, the winner of the $100 prize was Marc Loizeaux (FSU).

The outgoing chapter president, Dr. Lora Bohn, called the meeting to order at 8:30 A.M.  The sizable turnout (22 attendees) for
this early morning meeting prompted several members to suggest a similar scheduling next year.

Dr. Matoteng Ncube distributed minutes from last year's meeting at University of West Florida.  After the minutes were approved, Dr. Ncube donned his treasurer's hat and reviewed the 1998 chapter budget.  He reported a year-end balance of $3443.08, consisting of $1352.27 in the checking and $2090.81 in the savings account.  Postage expenses were minimized by expanding email communications and information dissemination through our marvelous chapter web page (http://stat.fsu.edu/flasa/index.html) maintained by Dr. Jayaram Sethuraman, outgoing chapter vice president.  The financial report was unanimously approved.

A discussion ensued about whether to begin collecting dues from non-chapter members at the annual meetings while attendees
register.  Dr. Sethuraman also suggested we encourage attendance and chapter recruitment from the University of South Florida and Tampa Bay area colleges.

Dr. Bohn reported on minor start-up problems associated with the student paper competition.  Some of the presenters were enlisted just prior to the meetings.  She suggested that faculty encourage their students to submit their entries earlier next year.

Dr. Sethuraman volunteered Florida State University for the year 2000 chapter meetings.  A formal motion was made and approved to meet next year in Tallahassee.

The chapter members thanked the outgoing officers for their yeoman service during the past year and for putting together
another successful meeting.  The new slate of nominees was presented, and the following officers were elected for 1999:

 Dr. Jayaram Sethuraman, FSU, Chapter President
 Dr. Matoteng Ncube, UWF, Chapter Vice-President
 Dr. Mark Soskin, UCF, Chapter Secretary-Treasurer

Dr. Kenneth Portier, Council of Chapters Florida representative, reported on ASA COC activities.  The ASA strategic plan is in its second year.  Dr.  Portier cited a nine percent growth in ASA membership to nearly 17,700.  Half of these 1653 new members joined up via the ASA web page.  He also announced progress on the Statistician-In-Residence Program
(www.amstat.org/oppportunities/resident.html), ASA web site enhancements and rapid data updating, centralized e-mail lists,
conversion of COC slide shows to multimedia format, traveling courses, a national database for statisticians, opportunities for
state chapter to promote quantitative literacy at the K-12 level, and a proposed conference on enhancing undergraduate majors in
statistics (contact: Judy Dill at www.amstat.org).

Finally, Dr. Portier announced that the International Journal of Statistical Education has been acquired by the ASA.  This
refereed journal will continue to be published on the web but will charge a $10 annual fee.  As the ASA's first electronic
journal, the IJSE deserves our support during this critical transitional phase of its development.  A discussion followed
about the trend toward electronic publishing, its advantages to our profession, and ways to deal with the lost advertising
revenue versus printed journals.

Greater participation by the chapter in supporting statistics-related statewide student competitions.  The chapter
voted to contribute $100 to the Sunshine State Scholars program. Dr. Soskin suggested that future consideration be given to
establishing statistics prizes to students in the Florida State MathCounts, Science Fair, and Mu Alpha Theta competitions.

The Business Meeting adjourned at 9:20 A.M.  See you all in Tallahassee next year.

Reported by:

Mark Soskin
Secretary/Treasurer