Here's the charter for the newly created SPAIG Committee, an official committee of the American Statistical Association:

Statistics Partnerships Among Academe, Industry, & Government Committee

Type: Current

Authorization: The Statistics Partnerships among Academe, Industry, and Government (SPAIG) group was formed in 1995. The Committee on Committees approved a revised version of the proposed charge in March 2000. The petition for formal committee standing was made at the March 31-April 1, 2000, Board meeting.

Composition: Nine appointees serving rotating three year terms with one member from each sector appointed annually. The chair will also rotate through the three organization types. The Chair of the Academic Program Representatives, the Chair of the Corporate Member Representatives and the Chief Statistician of the Office of Management and Budget or a designate thereof will serve as ex-officio members.

Charge: Identify, lead, and promote initiatives that foster partnerships between academe and business, industry, & government (B/I/G).

Examples of such initiatives include:

· Establish a partnership award recognizing successful partnership efforts between academe and B/I/G.

· Promote periodic JSM sessions that focus on partnership case studies and other relevant partnering.

· Recommend and support periodic salary surveys of B/I/G statisticians.

· Develop a "How To" manual on short-term visits between statisticians in Academe and B/I/G.

· Maintain a SPAIG web site to communicate partnership activities, progress on SPAIG initiatives, the partnership award program, and other SPAIG information.

Operating Procedures Implied by the Charge:

1. Develop and implement procedures for a partnership award program to recognize successful partnership efforts between academe and Business/Industry/Government, select award recipients, and periodically review award selection criteria and modify as appropriate.

2. Sponsor a JSM session at least every other year that focuses on partnership case studies and other relevant partnering.

3. Establish guidelines for conducting periodic salary surveys of B/I/G statisticians and communicating the survey results.

4. Establish and maintain a manual on how to achieve short-term visits between statisticians in Academe and B/I/G.

5. Formalize the operation of the existing SPAIG web site and its linkage to the ASA web site.

6. Establish a mechanism for reviewing existing SPAIG initiatives and establishing new initiatives.