Thanks to the work of our many volunteers, both on the executive and on the board of directors, the year has gone very well. I'd like to list a few of the year's highlights.
New staff at the SSC office
Last fall, we recruited Mr. Clayton Forrest as administrative assistant, replacing Marie-Pierre Nantel who resigned in May 2022. Following the October meeting, the board of directors voted a supplementary budget for the recruitment of an executive director (equivalent to 1 day per week) to replace Shirley Mills, who has volunteered in this position for 12 years. In early January, Jack Gambino, former president of the SSC, accepted the position. We are delighted. We are also fortunate to be able to count on Larysa Valachko, as associate executive director (equivalent to 4 days a week). Larysa has already worked in the SSC office and we are delighted to have her back. The addition of these people has enabled us to catch up on backlogs and complete service requests that had been outstanding for some time.
Thanks to Shirley, Wendy, Patrick, and Angelo for agreeing to help with recruitment.
Educator awards
Thanks to the excellent work of the statistics education committee, and especially to Wesley Burr, we were able to complete all the steps required to award two new education prizes this year: the SSC Early Career Educator Award and the SSC Distinguished Educator Award.
SSC annual meeting
Our annual conference (SSC 2023) was finally held in person, from May 27 to 31, 2023 at Carleton University. It was a huge success, thanks to the tremendous work of the organizing committee, cochaired by Shirley Mills and Yiqiang Zhao, and the scientific program committee, chaired by Sévérien Nkurunziza. The number of registrations was around 620, with over 380 presentations, two case studies with 16 teams as well as a job fair and the awards ceremony. I would like to acknowledge the work of some 40 volunteers as well as the SSC office staff, Jack Gambino, Larysa Valachko, Michelle Benoit, and Clayton Forrest. Many thanks to the bilingualism committee (chaired by Thierry Chekouo) for providing the French translations of the abstracts and other documents. The success of this congress would not have been possible without the collective work of several people, notably, Nadia Ghazzali (meeting coordinator) as well as the various SSC committees and SSC sections, and the support of members of the executive committee and board of directors. Special thanks to INCASS for sponsoring and partnering our annual conference. We would also like to acknowledge the support of many other sponsors, including Carleton University, the Bank of Canada, Springer, the Government of Canada, and Alberta Health Services. We are grateful to the sponsors of the career fair and the data providers for the case studies. On behalf of the SSC, I would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of this annual meeting.
CSSC annual conference
The 11th Canadian Conference of Students in Statistics (CCSS) was held in person on May 27, 2022. Congratulations to the organizing committee, cochaired by Vanessa McNealis (McGill University) and Luke Hagar (University of Waterloo), for organizing this successful event.
JSM 2023 in Toronto
The SSC is sponsoring several invited sessions for JSM 2023 to be held in Toronto, August 5–10, 2023. I would like to thank Derek Bingham for serving as our representative on the WSJ 2023 program committee. I invite you to attend the meeting, and don't forget to visit our booth and attend the SSC’s reception (details to come). We also need volunteers to manage the booth for 1–2 hours.
Departing executive and board members
Grace Yi's term as past president comes to an end. Thank you, Grace, for your dedication and outstanding work. The terms of Patrick Brown (treasurer) and Nadia Ghazzali (program coordinator) are also coming to an end. Thank you, Patrick and Nadia, for your essential contribution to the SSC. I'd also like to thank the board members I've had the pleasure of working with over the past 2 years, whose terms are coming to an end: Wilson Lu (Atlantic), Johanna Nešlehová (Quebec), Denis Talbot (Quebec), Kelly Burkett (Ontario), Zhihui Liu (Ontario), Melody Ghahramani (Manitoba – Saskatchewan – N.W.T. – Nunavut), and Jinko Graham (Alberta – British Columbia – Yukon). Thank you all for your dedication and hard work.
As president, I feel privileged to have had the support and guidance of Grace Yi and Shirley Mills, two extraordinary people who are totally dedicated to the SSC. I was also fortunate to be able to count on the excellent work of Henrik Stryhn as executive secretary. Without Henrik, my tenure as president would have been far less easy. It has been an honour to participate in the life of the SSC as president, and I thank you for your confidence.
Bruno Rémillard
Past President of the SSC