News from COPAFS

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conference room was once again filled with analysts and statisticians as the September 10 COPAFS meeting got underway. Executive Director Ed Spar focused his introductory remarks on the budget situation for our statistical agencies. Common in election years, a continuation budget was approved that delays substantive action on the 2005 budget until January when a new Congress will direct the traffic. The Census Bureau has since indicated that in the absence of firm appropriations to adequately fund the American Community Survey (ACS), steps would be taken to move ahead with the traditional long form for 2010, with a corresponding canceling of the ACS entirely. Continued...

BLS Releases Time Use Survey Results

On September 14, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) quietly released the first results of a scheduled ongoing estimate of time spent by Americans in various activities, cross-tabulated by demographic and labor force characteristics, by weekend/weekday status, and over time. American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data are collected continuously by telephoning the estimated 2,200 households per month that have just completed their participation in the Current Population Survey (CPS) panel. Once a household is selected, a reference person is designated at random and assigned a reference "day." The reference day is always the previous 24-hour period, such as Tuesday the 5th when the contact is made on Wednesday the 6th. Interviews are conducted by telephone in English or Spanish, with basic information carried over electronically from the CPS. This ingenious method is cost effective, as well as efficient from the standpoint of the information that is available for use. Continued...

First-Time R. Thayne Robson and Fellow Awards Presented at Fall Conference

The AUBER board of directors recently created two new awards to honor members who are long-time supporters and leaders of the association: the R. Thayne Robson Award and the AUBER Fellow Award. The award recipients were announced by Richard Wobbekind, Chair of the Commendations Committee, at the awards luncheon at the annual conference in Tucson. Continued...

Building Partnerships for the Future:
AUBER's 58th Annual Conference Recap

AUBER's 58th annual conference, held in Tucson, October 17-19, will go down in the AUBER history book as one of our most successful and fun conferences to date. The conference program, organized by Janet Speyrer, University of New Orleans, and Rennae Daneshvary, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was diverse and interesting. Session topics ranged from land use and the environment to how AUBER units earn money, border issues, and enhancement and promotion of economic outlook conferences. In addition, sessions were held on the U.S. economic forecast, the use of federal statistics, how to get the most out of the BLS web site, successful center marketing practices, tips on effective publication and web site design, competitiveness and innovation in key business sectors, and much more. Continued...

Research Communicators Corner

The Mission for Montana

The fall 2004 AUBER conference was without a doubt successful on all levels. Each event, speaker, and session was informative and useful. A special thanks to all those who planned, presented, and had any hand in the Tucson conference.

Now, the question is this: how do you top a conference like the one in Tucson? The answer is to start planning now to make the fall 2005 AUBER conference in Missoula, Montana, even better. Continued...

AUBER Conferences in 2005

Spring Conference

The NABE/AUBER 21st annual policy conference will be held Monday and Tuesday, March 21 and 22, at the Marriott at Metro Center in Washington, D.C.

Fall Conference

AUBER's 59th annual fall meeting will be held in Missoula, Montana, October 8-11, 2005. Continued...

A Message from the Membership Committee

As AUBER's Vice-President for 2005, my duties include being the chair of the Membership Committee. I have established three priorities for the committee during the coming year.

• Repeat an analysis conducted a few years ago which identified the units that have dropped out of AUBER, and find out why they left.
• Conduct a number of web-based surveys of AUBER members. Rather than a single large member survey right before the fall meeting, I plan several (much shorter) surveys throughout the year. This should reduce respondent burden and elicit more information. At least one of these surveys will concern the characteristics of the units (employment, funding, etc.) so that we can once again construct a profile of AUBER members. If any of you have suggestions for other surveys, just drop me an e-mail at Paul.Polzin@business.umt.edu.
• Continue to identify potential new members for AUBER.

Paul Polzin
University of Montana

Member News

New Director at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Center

William Killingsworth was recently named the director of the Center for Management and Economic Research (CMER) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Killingsworth also directs UAH's Office for Economic Development (OED).

Through CMER and OED, the university provides a strategic set of business services, including lean manufacturing, six sigma and quality processes, market opportunity analysis, organizational design, training programs, IT analysis and design, supply chain optimization and integration, and innovation and new product management.

2004-2005 AUBER Officers

The AUBER Newsletter is a quarterly publication of the Association for University Business and Economic Research.