NZSA Conferences

NZSA Conferences are intended to provide members of the New Zealand Statistical Association a chance to meet up, share ideas, and statistical expertise in a conference setting. Conferences include talks, the presentation of NZSA Awards, and the Annual General Meeting of the Society.

• NZSA Conference, December 2024 – save the date announcement
  The School of Mathematics and Statistics at Victoria University of Wellington is pleased to host the New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA) 2024 Conference from Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 December 2024. The conference will be held in-person, on the Victoria University of Wellington Kelburn Campus. For more information please see the conference website.

Previous NZSA Conferences

John Revfeim, in a 1966 article republished in The History of Statistics in New Zealand (pp219-221) edited by Stan Roberts, wrote:

The major activity of the Association has always been the Annual Conference that has been held in the Botany Lecture Theatre of Victoria University College, the Carter Observatory Boardroom, and since 1954, in the Lecture Hall of Wellington Public Library. To these will be added, in 1966, the Shell Theatrette. Since this is a statistical history it can be recorded that the charge for hiring a room at the Carter Observatory in 1949 was 5/- and that the profit made on morning and afternoon teas was 9/6.

In 1951 Mr I D Dick advised that the Applied Mathematics Laboratory of the DSIR expected to hold a seminar on the day following the 1952 Conference and that a small number of Association members would probably be invited. An outcome of this was the omission of mathematical papers at this, and subsequent conferences, since the Applied Mathematics seminars have continued to he held in conjunction with the conference. However, the responsibilities of the Applied Mathematics Division extend beyond mathematical statistics and the seminars, accordingly, incorporate a large proportion of mathematical physics and other non-statistical subjects. Methodological papers have, therefore, been reintroduced into the conference programme which tries to strike a balance between the theoretical and practical.

In 1965 the Operational Research Society of New Zealand cooperated with the Association in providing speakers for an additional day’s session on operational research topics. A similar joint meeting of the two bodies is planned for 1966.

The arranging of speakers for the annual conference has been a matter of varying difficulty for members of the Committee. Some papers are offered even after the circulation of a tentative programme; ” Thank you for your notice of the proposed July meeting. I wondered if there is still room on the programme for a short contribution which I would entitle …’. On one occasion an eminent overseas statistician’s presence in the country happened to coincide with the conference, and consequently, the name of Professor S S Wilks appeared on the programme in 1956. Most speakers, however, select themselves by their activities in fields of research and application of statistics whose verity is demonstrated by the list of titles. The return of a New Zealand statistician from work or study overseas has often brought him an invitation to speak.

Soliciting on the Committee’s behalf may be carried out by ‘reliable agents’ in other countries, as witnessed by the following extract from a letter to the Secretary.

Everything is fixed up: I wrote to the management and got a nice letter back. It is perfectly all right with them that he should talk and I don’t think that you need to worry about travelling expenses or anything like that; especially if you were to see their new offices …

Alternatively, the Secretary may send out a double purpose account.

Not only did I forget to collect some subscriptions from you when you were down in November, but I also overlooked asking you about giving a paper at the Conference in July this year ‘

Having settled the speakers in the programme, the next step is to ensure a good supply of listeners. This mainly falls to current members; the following are examples of approaches used with members ‘in arrears’ and prospective members.

In enclosing a copy of this year’s conference programme we would bring to your notice the pleasure we gain in having you as a member of our Association. We can assure you that this pleasure and our funds would increase together if we could see you at some of our meetings and collect from you some of your outstanding subscriptions ‘

Anyone may come to any of the sessions on this programme, the only risks being the possibility of having to pay sixpence for morning and afternoon tea and small chance of being badgered into joining the Association. ‘

Besides the formal presentation of papers at the conference and the business of the Annual General Meeting of the Association, the gathering in one place of like-minded persons stimulates much informal discussion. New entrants to the circle of applied statisticians may feel as the writer of the following did:

Please allow me to say how very much I appreciated the honour of participating in the proceedings of the Annual Meeting. Furthermore I thoroughly enjoyed all the papers and I feel that the cordiality of the reception afforded me could not have been surpassed. It was a grand show.

Doubtless the introduction of a cocktail party into the Conference Programme in 1955 may have coloured the writer’s memories.

Up until 1964 summaries of papers presented were sent out to members some six months or so after the conference. The delay is partly due to the process of extracting summaries from speakers, where many stalling tactics may be brought into play.

I regret that since returning last month I have been smitten with flu ‘ Asian, Polynesian and plain ordinary New Zealand ‘

I must admit that the principal reason has been my dislike of work of any description ‘

In 1965, summaries were sent out before the conference thereby giving some members more information on the content of the papers so that they could better select the sessions of direct interest to them. A few stalwarts, of course, attend all sessions.