1. AFFILIATES ANNUAL MEETING. You will receive details later this week, but plans for an annual meeting suited to the Year of the Affiliate are in the final stages. Here is an outline:

March 3
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AM: Affiliates Problem Morning, similar to the problem day last year. One presentation, on data quality, is already set. Affiliates will be invited to volunteer others.

PM: NISS Software Afternoon. Within the past several years, NISS has developed several software packages that have, to date, only been available for web download. This session will introduce the packages, a service available only to affiliates. I expect presentations on four existing packages, one for data swapping, two for bioinformatics, one for model validation, as well as an outline of a potential package for statistical disclosure limitation for microdata.

March 4
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8-9 AM: University Affiliates Breakfast

9:30 AM-12 N: Reports and three-minute madness, plus formation of cluster breakout sessions representing particular interests of sets of affiliates

12-1:30 PM: Lunch with NISS and SAMSI postdocs

1:30-2:45: Cluster meetings, focusing on what activities NISS should conduct (workshops, proposals, ...) during the upcoming year that would interest and benefit the cluster

2:45-3:30: Cluster meeting reports, discussion, ....

3:30 Adjourn

2. TOTAL SURVEY ERROR WORKSHOP, to be held in Washington on March 17-18, 2005. Information and on-line registration are available on the affiliates web site, at http://www.niss.org/affiliates/totalsurveyerrorworkshop200503/main.html

3. AJL REMINDER. Send material for the Affiliates Job Listings to Katherine Kantner (kak@niss.org). The AJL is located on the NISS web site at http://www.niss.org/affiliates/ajls.html

4. 2005 AFFILIATES EVENTS

- SAMSI Undergraduate Workshop (2/18-19/05, NISS/SAMSI)

- SAMSI Workshop: Data Assimilation--Issues, Challenges and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2/22-25/05, Los Angeles; hosted and co-sponsored by IPAM)

- Affiliates Problem Morning and Software Afternoon (3/3/05, NISS)

- Affiliates Planning Meeting (3/4/05, NISS)

- Workshop: Total Survey Error (3/17-18/05, Washington)

- Workshop: Overarching Issues in Risk Assessment (4/28-30/05, Ames, IA; hosted and co-sponsored by Iowa State University)

- Workshop: Latent Variable Models and Survey Data for Social and Health Sciences Research (5/4-6/05, Montreal; hosted and co-sponsored by the Canadian National Program on Complex Data Structures)

- SAMSI LVSS Closing Workshop (5/19-21/05, RTP)

- SAMSI CompBio Closing Workshop (5/22-24/05, RTP)

- SAMSI Data Assimilation Summer School (6/12-23/05, Boulder, CO; hosted and co-sponsored by NCAR)

- Workshop: Statistical Disclosure Limitation for Geospatial Data (Spring 2005, NISS)

- Technology Day: Metabolomics (Spring 2005, NISS)

- JSM Affiliates Meeting (8/7/05, Minneapolis)

- SAMSI NDHS Kickoff Workshop (9/11-14/05, RTP)

- SAMSI Financial Mathematics, Statistics and Econometrics Kickoff Workshop (9/17-20/05, RTP)

Affiliates reimbursement accounts may used to attend all of these events.

5. POSTDOCTORAL APPOINTMENTS. NISS has project needs and funds to make several postdoctoral appointments between now and next summer. Areas include digital government (data confidentiality, data integration and data quality), dynamics of social networks, education statistics, software engineering, statistical disclosure limitation for geospatial image data, and bioinformatics. Involvement with SAMSI programs is possible. Please make students and young colleagues aware of these wonderful opportunities. Information and a downloadable announcement are available on the NISS web site, at http://www.niss.org/postdoc_info.html

In particular, there is a unique opportunity for a postdoctoral fellow to join the NSF-funded NISS project "Dynamics for Social Networks Processes: Comparing Statistical Models with Intelligent Agents."

5. SAMSI PROGRAMS FOR 2005-06. SAMSI will conduct 2005-06 programs on

- Astrostatistics (Spring, 2006). See http://www.samsi.info/200506/astro/astro-home.html

- Financial Mathematics, Statistics and Econometrics (entire year). See http://www.samsi.info/200506/fmse/fmse-home.html

- National Defense and Homeland Security (entire year). See http://www.samsi.info/200506/ndhs/ndhs-home.html

Opportunities for participation are available for those at all career stages.