A (tentative) schedule for SSA Canberra meetings in 2020 can be found here

UPDATE:

Although there are only three meetings left to close out the intended schedule of branch events in 2020 (please see the top of https://statsoc.org.au/Canberra-Branch-meetings), to offer some certainty for the remainder of this year the SSA Canberra council has decided that these three events will all be held online (most likely via Zoom), as has been the case for the past several branch meetings. 

While the situation in the ACT has been rather fortunate with respect to COVID19 (and let us hope it remains that way!), we and the SSA as a whole have adopted a "better safe than sorry" approach, and do not wish to put our members/attendees at risk or in an awkward position of having to choose whether to risk attending physical meetings or not. We understand that this decision means the monthly SSA meet up in person with friends and colleagues to catch up over a talk and/or dinner, which many of us sorely miss, won't be taking place for some time yet. However, we hope you understand our decision, and can bear with the "online wine and cheese" for a while longer as we work through the current challenges together 

As a heads up, the three branch meetings to round out this year are:

1. Tuesday September 29 early evening (Foreman Lecture): Anders Holmberg, Chief Methodologist, ABS
2. Tuesday October 27 early evening: Winner of the Dennis Trewin prize 2020
3. Tuesday November 24 around lunchtime (Knibbs lecture): Ray Carroll, Texas A&M University (Celebrating Alan Welsh's 60th birthday and his contributions to statistics). 

In early 2021, we will reevaluate the situation given what information is available then and go from there. If you have any questions and comments, please feel free to contact us at ssacanberra@gmail.com

NEXT BRANCH MEETING

Please see below for details of the next branch meeting, which will be the Foreman lecture hosted jointly with the ABS. Note registration is required beforehand. Please also forward the below to whoever you think may be interested.

Date: Tuesday 29 September

Time: 6pm - 7pm AEST 

RSVP: Please register in advance for this meeting at https://anu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYldOmtpz8iE9KTbK1JPzZrpNl5RumEmwaI. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the meeting. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact ssacanberra@gmail.com.

Topic: What is the difference and does it matter? Reflections on how the methodology work in official statistics relates among countries and on the Australian opportunities therein.

Speakers:
Anders Holmberg, Chief Methodologist, Australian Bureau of Statistics

Abstract:

The topic of the seminar is how statistical laws, societal structures, education systems, history and organisational culture affect how methodological work is done in official statistics. The lecture highlights both understandable and strange differences in why statistical products, despite having the same purpose, are produced in different ways in different countries. Other reflections that are made are about the national statistical offices' approaches to, and their opportunities for collaboration with others in society. This influences which questions are prioritized and how future methodological work programs are designed.

Biography:

Dr. Anders Holmberg is the Chief Methodologist/General Manager of the Methodology Division at the Australian Bureau of Statistics since September 2019. He has a background working with various types of data sources for official statistics in many different countries including Sweden, Cambodia, New Zealand and Norway. He has been a member of Eurostat's Directors of Methodology group and is still a member of the Methodology Advisory boards of Statistics Netherlands and Statistics Sweden. As a practitioner he has worked with the design and collection of sample survey data, the use of multiple administrative data sources in population censuses and administrative data about people, businesses and properties for statistical and research purposes. As one of the statisticians he also worked with the build-up of Statistics Sweden's data laboratory for research and data integration MONA, (Microdata ONline Access).

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In other SSA Canberra news:

+ Interested in more events joint with the ABS?  Then SSA Victoria will be celebrating World Statistics Day 2020 with Teresa Dickinson, Deputy Australian Statistician, who will give a lecture titled “To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved”: a maxim for official statistics? More details and registration are available at https://statsoc.org.au/event-3970322

+ Going to a conference/workshop this year? SSA Canberra is inviting early career and student statisticians who are planning to attend a conference/workshop/short course in a field related to statistics or data science to apply for financial support in the form of a "SSA Canberra registration grant". Check out https://statsoc.org.au/News-and-media-releases/9105434

+ A final schedule of the meetings for the remainder of the year is now available at the top of https://statsoc.org.au/Canberra-Branch-meetings. 

+ Are you interested in knowing more about/helping out (such as becoming a council member) with SSA Canberra? Please check out https://statsoc.org.au/Canberra or email us at ssacanberra@gmail.com

+ A social event "of a different kind" is coming to the SSA Canberra and NSW branches for the evening Wed 7 October...details at https://statsoc.org.au/event-3974771 and get hyped!