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ISI Director’s Message July 2011

 

At the moment of writing of this message, early July 2011, it has become evident that the ISI elected members expressed their support for the revised Statutes and By-laws. This will make it possible to submit the new Statutes and By-laws to the General Assembly in Dublin for final approval. More than 45% of the ISI elected members have voted, which shows the commitment and support of our members for the revisions and the modernization of the ISI.

This outcome is an important step forward and we are very excited about this. As soon as we have the final approval of the General Assembly, the work on the implementation of the new Statutes and By-laws will start.

 

To give an example, the ISI Executive Committee will explore the possibilities for implementing the new ‘regular membership’ category. We will think about how to reach those who could apply for this type of membership and how to make it attractive to potential members.

 

At present, the Executive Committee and the Permanent Office are working on the execution of the ‘Membership Acquisition Strategy’ aiming at recruiting more elected members and more ex-officio members for the ISI. The ISI membership may be approached with the request to help us achieve this.

 

From this year onwards the number of rounds for membership elections will increase from two to three or four. As a result of the first round of elections of this year we are happy to welcome 56 newly elected members. You will find their names and nationalities in this edition of news items. We warmly welcome all the new members, and hope they will enjoy their elected member status.  

With a bit more than one month to go till the major event of ISI, the 58^th World Statistics Congress in Dublin, it is ‘hands on’ in the Permanent Office to get all the work done. As many of our readers will know, the ISI and Sections’ are giving prizes and awards, and the ISI provides possibilities for funding for statisticians from developing countries to attend the WSC. This year the number of applications has increased by a factor 3 compared with previous years. This is good news, since it means more people are aware of the possibilities. On the other hand, we regret we will have to disappoint more applicants now. Nevertheless this development shows clearly how people are keen to attend the WSC and that many of them are recognized for their scientific work.

 

The ISI could not do this without the contributions by funds and international organizations for which we are very grateful. Also, we could not do all the work without the efforts of ISI members in the juries and selection committees; we thank them for their excellent and hard work.

 

In spite of this busy period at the Permanent Office we still managed to organize our annual ‘outing’ in May and had a trip to the city of 's Hertogenbosch. Below you will find a photo of the ISI staff in front of the Jeroen Bosch Museum.

 

The staff of the ISI Permanent Office and I look forward to meeting many of you in Dublin in August.

 

 

With my best regards,   Ada van Krimpen