Statistics in the Community (STATCOM)
Frequently Asked Questions
Gayla R. Olbricht & Amy E. Watkins
August 2006
Basic Start-Up Questions:
Whom does STATCOM serve?
STATCOM serves government and non-profit
organizations. The clients we work for
generally do not have the funds available to hire a professional consultant,
yet have information to collect or data to analyze that would help them in
making more informed decisions about their operations. If we receive a request from a client that is
not a government or non-profit entity (e.g.,
business, academic researcher), we usually turn down these projects.
Do
clients pay for STATCOM services?
No, all work done by STATCOM is free of charge for
the client.
Who
volunteers for STATCOM projects?
Any student who is interested in serving the
community through statistical consulting projects. At
What are
the minimum setup needs for getting a STATCOM up and running?
A group of interested and motivated students is the
most vital component to starting a STATCOM.
The size of this group doesn’t need to be a big concern. Purdue’s STATCOM started with only one
student and has now expanded to over 40 members.
Finding one community project to work on is the
next step. Tips for finding clients are
given in a later section. Once the first
project is found, continue to work on finding clients one project at a time
until student membership is built up to accommodate multiple projects.
Computing facilities for analyzing data, printing
reports, etc. will be needed from the department or university.
Talking
to the department head, consulting director, or other faculty/staff members who
might serve as a resource for advice is also very beneficial and important to
the long-term success of the program.
What kind of support is needed from the
department/university to start?
In
general, department and faculty support is extremely helpful. The Purdue Statistics Department allows
STATCOM to use printers, fax machines, phones, and meeting/conference rooms in
order to provide our clients with quality services. Students could use their own resources for
analyzing data, printing reports, communicating with clients, etc., but this
could become costly to students over time.
In addition, STATCOM at Purdue has a faculty/staff advisor who
volunteers time to help edit reports and provide guidance with analysis when
needed. This was particularly helpful in
the beginning, but over time direct faculty involvement has become less and
less important.
If we
want to start our own student-driven pro bono statistical consulting program,
what should we call ourselves?
We would like organizations who are starting
programs like ours to call themselves STATCOM at Given University. For example, we call ourselves STATCOM at
Client Related Questions:
How do you find clients?
There are many ways to find clients within a community. One way is to place fliers and brochures in
governmental buildings advertising your services. Many people in the community may not be aware
of how statistics may help them. If
talking to the mayor or other officials personally is an option in your
community, then interest could be generated by explaining specific issues that
you may be able to help with. Similarly, explaining STATCOM services to school
principals and superintendents in the area may produce interested clients. If faculty or staff members have ties within
the community, they could spread the word to local organizations. After the first few projects are obtained,
other organizations may hear about STATCOM through word of mouth and will start
contacting you personally.
What happens at an Initial
Meeting with a client?
At an initial
meeting with a client, team members and the client discuss the project. The director or associate director also
attends the initial meeting to facilitate this discussion. The client is
expected to explain the project and work with the team to formulate questions
that can be evaluated using statistical methods. At this meeting, it is important to clarify
with the client what services STATCOM can and cannot provide. For example, it should be made clear that the
students working on the project are volunteering their time and thus a
reasonable timeline should be constructed.
Also, it should be emphasized that the client is entirely responsible
for decision-making based on the results you provide. After this meeting, the team members should
have enough information to translate the client's needs into a statistical
framework. Team members can then work
with the client to identify the information (data) required to answer their
questions and explain how to gather that information. STATCOM also informs the client of the
confidentiality policy and discusses whether the client wishes to keep the
project confidential or will allow STATCOM to share details about the project
with others.
Who is the primary contact for clients?
Though the director
is the initial contact for clients, after the initial meeting is complete the
client deals primarily with the team leader.
This way, the client has only one primary contact instead of
corresponding with multiple team members. All correspondence is sent through
the STATCOM email address.
Who are some of your past clients?
Some of our past clients include:
-
Elementary
schools
-
Local
symphony
-
-
State-owned
retirement home
-
Community
organization for girls.
What types of analyses do most clients
need?
The
majority of our clients need help with:
-
Summarizing
data
-
Data
visualization
-
Assessing
the effectiveness of a program
-
Analyzing
the results of a survey.
While this list covers most of our projects, we are not limited to
performing the above analyses. For
instance, in one situation, a team performed a Poisson regression to help a
client allocate resources within a library.
How do we protect ourselves from being sued by clients?
STATCOM at Purdue has never experienced any legality issues. We emphasize that our work is confidential and is on a volunteer basis. Since our clients are solely governmental or non-profit organizations, they are generally pleased with the help we give them. If there is ever a concern of content or quality of STATCOM’s final product, it is addressed at the final meeting. We also emphasize statistical ethical guidelines and present the results of our analysis in an unbiased manner. We leave all decision-making based on our findings to the client. We always ask for deidentification of all individuals before STATCOM receives data, in compliance with ethical guidelines. If we ever came across a project which we felt might compromise our integrity as an impartial party, we reserve the right to turn down such projects.
What final products does
STATCOM typically provide for the client?
STATCOM provides the client with a final written report. The
report should be written for an audience without any statistical expertise. With this in mind, the report should be as
simple as possible, consisting mainly of graphs, easy-to-understand tables, and
a written discussion of the results. A final meeting is set up to present and
explain the data analysis. At this
meeting, clients are able to ask questions about the analysis.
What does STATCOM expect
the client to do?
STATCOM expects the client to do
all data collection and data entry. We
expect deidentification of all individuals before we receive the data. For example, if the data consists of a student’s
grade, the student’s name must not appear in the data set we receive. Instead “Student 1” could be used. We also expect the client to educate team
members about relevant information that may be important for the analysis. For instance, when writing the report,
background information is needed to present our findings in the context of the subject
matter. If further expertise is
required, STATCOM may seek advice from other departments at
Student/Volunteer Related Questions:
How much time will each person have to volunteer?
Each student can volunteer as much time as he or she wishes. Some projects can be done with only 5-10 hours of work. Others could take much longer, perhaps 30-40 hours of work or more. With groups of 4-5 people it is easy to share the workload of a given project. This way, when students have busy schedules, others can work on the project. If there is a busy week for all students, e.g., finals week, make sure you set a reasonable completion date for the project. School work will always come first.
How does STATCOM
maintain its strength even with graduate students who are
very busy or leave due to graduation?
STATCOM at Purdue recruits new students each semester. The first open meeting of the year is dedicated to telling potential members about STATCOM and how they can get involved. We advertise this meeting around the Statistics Department and other places by placing information where interested student might notice it. With each new project, we send an email to all students in the Statistics Department asking if they are interested in working on the project. This way, even those who are not in STATCOM already have exposure to possible projects and end up joining that way.
As an organization, we try to ensure opportunities for
students to advance in leadership opportunities. Teams are carefully designed
to have students with varying levels of
experience. A team leader is an experienced consultant who is responsible
for maintaining progress on the project.
Efforts will be made to ensure there is at least one other person with
experience on the team to assist the team leader when needed. This
results in a good deal of peer mentoring, as less experienced students learn
from more senior ones and receive the training and experience they need to
later become leaders themselves. At the
top of the organization, there is an associate director, a director, and a
student advisor, who is the outgoing director. Each position is two
semesters. Those in junior leadership positions learn from more senior leaders,
and it is the responsibility of senior leaders to train and prepare junior
leaders for more senior roles. Since the
turnover is every two semesters this allows ample leadership opportunities for
all students while stabilizing STATCOM’s organizational structure for many
years to come.
How do students fit
STATCOM in with their other research and course commitments?
STATCOM is a natural way for students to apply what they
have learned from research and their courses.
It is also excellent experience in teamwork. These are two important skills all students
should have when pursuing a graduate degree.
Our members have made an effort to volunteer their time not only for the
community but to gain these skills. As
mentioned above, each student decides how much time they want to commit, and
everything in STATCOM operates within a team structure. This allows
individual team members to take 'time off' when exams, research, teaching,
family life, or other needs arise. Other
team members are able to maintain steady work on the projects.
How do you get students interested in
joining STATCOM projects?
There are many different reasons why students choose to volunteer their time working for STATCOM. Many students join to receive satisfaction from doing community service, but there are also many personal benefits as well. There is a huge learning component: in statistical methodology, consulting, oral and written communication with the general public, leadership, management of a busy organization and multiple consulting teams, the need for quality control, grant writing, fundraising, etc. Being part of a group such as STATCOM can help members with all of these skills. We try to make all this apparent when recruiting new members each semester.
What courses does a student need to be involved?
A
background in statistics in needed in order to assist with the analysis. However,
each team has varying degrees of expertise.
This allows members with less experience to learn from those who have
had many courses. Since STATCOM has been
involved in many survey analyses, a course in survey design and analysis is
helpful.
P-12 Outreach Questions:
What is
the P-12 Outreach component of STATCOM and why did it start?
The STATCOM P-12 Outreach program
is an effort to increase interest and achievement in statistics at all
pre-college levels in
If interested in starting a P-12
program in your department, it is beneficial to learn about others who might
already be doing such work. If your own
department has someone who is already involved in P-12 Outreach work, perhaps
you can volunteer to help with their activities. If no one in your department is involved in
P-12 Outreach and you would like to take the lead in starting such an effort,
you could look for someone in another department who may be able to give you
guidance about where to present activities, types of activities they do,
etc. Faculty, staff, or other students
who may have children in the local schools may have good contacts with local
teachers.
What
types of activities does the P-12 Outreach program provide?
STATCOM P-12 Outreach has presented activities at
public events and also in classroom settings.
At public events, we usually run a booth with some interactive statistics
activities such as the Monty Hall Problem, the Probability of Winning a Lottery
Game, Deal or No Deal, and M & M bar graphs. Some public events we have participated in
include: the Indiana State Fair, Purdue
Homecoming and Purdue Spring Fest. The
classroom activities are catered to a particular age group. Some past activities include the Secretary
Problem, a sampling game, and an estimation game.
Organizational Questions:
Why have a STATCOM directory?
The STATCOM directory is an easy way to share a large amount of information with many people. The shared directory allows team members to work and save all materials in a common place. With this type of teamwork, it is helpful to have a place where everyone has access to all the same information. It also serves as a way to keep records about our clients from year to year. Only STATCOM members have access to the shared directory.
Why have a common e-mail address that all e-mails go through?
It is also beneficial to have a common e-mail
address that all client-related e-mails are funneled through. This helps to
ensure continuity of contact information for clients hence if they want to
contact STATCOM in the future, the email address will be the same regardless of
which students are currently working with STATCOM. It also allows the director to monitor progress
of teams while keeping records of communications with all clients.
How do you decide who will be a team leader/director?
In the beginning, the person who took the most initiative was considered the team leader. As our organization grew in number of members and number of clients, we decided a director would help us stay organized. The director helped organize the teams and oversaw all current projects. The director also handled the initial contact with all clients. We also decided team leaders would generally be those who had the most experience by either working on other STATCOM projects or having some other consulting experience. As we continue to grow, we have certain procedures for appointing new directors and certain criteria for team leaders. Please see our Procedures Handbook for complete details of all STATCOM positions.
What information do you keep/record?
We keep record of all STATCOM members. We record their name, degree objective (M.S. / Ph.D.), if they have been a team leader before, how many projects they have worked on, projects they are currently working on, whether they are currently active, etc. This information allows us to make staffing decisions based on experience and gives us a list of students who are available to work on projects. We also keep record of all STATCOM clients. We record date of initial contact, contact person, contact email address and phone number, description of project, etc. These allow us to keep track of past and current projects efficiently. We are also able to determine if we have worked with this client previously or perhaps worked on a similar project in the past. In addition to this information, we also keep meeting records for all regular member meetings and all officer meetings. By recording this information, we are able to look back on past meetings and see what was done and what needs to be done in the future.
What is the purpose of regular member meetings?
STATCOM
members meet monthly to discuss projects and potential project proposals. Members
are free to ask any questions they have regarding their current projects and
get input from others on subjects such as survey design, data analysis, use of
statistical software, etc. During these
meetings we also invite students from within and outside the current membership
to present their research on statistical methodology or an example of a
completed data analysis or consulting project.
This way, members are learning alternative methods for analysis that
could be applicable to them in the future.
What kind of forms/documentation do you
use?
All members
sign a confidentiality form before working on a project. Team leaders also fill out bi-monthly progress
reports to track the development of each project.
The
team members fill out an initial meeting handout for the client that details
what services STATCOM provides and gives them a list of team members working on
the project. A satisfaction survey is
also sent to the client once the project is completed.
Other Questions:
Is STATCOM funded?
STATCOM is not currently funded. The operation is completely based on donated time, both from students as well as staff and faculty. The Statistics Department allows the use of computing facilities. In the past, they have paid for printing of publicity brochures, business cards, and refreshments. Lately, however, we have applied for grants through the university to cover some of these expenses. In particular, we have received grants to purchase postage materials and STATCOM laptops that are used to give presentations.
In March 2006, we received significant funding from the American
Statistical Association through a Member Initiatives Grant to support the
development of pro bono consulting programs at colleges, universities, and ASA
Chapters. This allows us to work with students such as yourself and to serve as
a resource to you as you get started in community service work.
While all students volunteer their time, STATCOM at Purdue has now grown to the
point that its leaders make a significant time commitment. For that reason,
we are now actively seeking funding to support our directors.
What is STATCOM's
affiliation with Purdue?
We are listed as an official student organization at