PAA Fund-Supported Activities (2008-2010)
PAA Fund-Supported Activities (2008-2010)
May 8, 2009
The PAA Board considered spending priority ideas submitted by PAA committees and the general membership and summarized by the Ad-Hoc Committee on Strategic Goals and Spending Priorities at the October 24, 2008 Fall Board meeting and the April 29, 2009 Spring Board meeting. Listed below are 22 Board-approved priorities for PAA Fund support, organized by substantive and committee areas.
International Outreach:
1. $43,400 to increase travel awards for the 2009 Annual Meeting for scholars from lower-income countries and regional population associations, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, to provide 50 rather than 25 travel awards for the 2009 meeting and $2,400 for clerical assistance for John Casterline, Chair of the International Outreach Committee (IOC). [Full amount actually now covered by a Hewlett Foundation grant awarded in November 2008] At the 2009 PAA Annual Meeting, the IOC received 164 applications (double the number for the 2008 meeting) and awarded 53 travel awards (22 for scholars from Sub-Saharan Africa).
2. $82,000 to increase travel awards from 50 to 70 to support attendance at the 2010 Annual Meeting of scholars from lower-income countries, especially Sub-Saharan Africa. Some additional monies will be requested to cover increased administrative staff time.
3. Continuing subsidy of memberships of individuals from developing countries.
Publications:
4. Up to $10,000 for 32 supplemental pages to Demography.
5. Deposit the entire contents of Demography into PubMed with a one-year lag between publications and the deposit. PAA would cover incremental costs associated with arranging for this file transfer.
Government and Public Affairs:
6. Up to $20,000 to fund two Capitol Hill briefings. The first briefing was held on February 23 2009, "The Ailing Economy: How do Census Data Help?" The purpose of the briefing was to educate congressional and Executive Branch officials on how census data are used to allocate programmatic funds, make marketing and investment decisions, and analyze developments in the U.S. housing market. Over 50 congressional staff attended. On June 5, 2009 PAA is sponsoring a second congressional briefing on population and reproductive health in Sub-Saharan Africa. The goal of the briefing is to educate Congressional staff members about three issues: (1) trends in population growth, contraceptive use, and maternal mortality in African countries, (2) the low levels of international assistance for reproductive health services (aside from HIV-related programs) in African countries, and (3) the consequences "on the ground" for family planning and reproductive health services and for women and men of these low levels of funding. Speakers from Africa will be participating.
7. Another $20,000 was approved in Spring 2009 to fund two further Capitol Hill briefings. Possible future topics include Demographics of Disaster, Effects of Economic Downturn on Well Being of Families, Impact of Retiring Baby Boomers on Workforce, or The Changing Face of China: Demographic Trends. This funding covers the costs of the speakers’ travel and lodging, presentation and promotional materials, catering, and additional PAA staff time.
8. Up to $20,000 to produce four policy-relevant fact sheets (two approved in Fall 2008 and two approved in Spring 2009). The fact sheets would be professionally produced and include appealing graphics and an attractive layout. The purpose of the fact sheets would be to demonstrate both where federal funding for research goes and how research helps to inform policy. Fact sheet topics would be based on articles that have appeared in recent issues of Demography or in other scholarly journals. Topics would be selected based on broad thematic research areas that dovetail with congressional interests, such as, Aging, Poverty, Immigration, Education, AIDS or Demographic Trends in China, India or Sub-Saharan Africa. GPAC is producing the first fact sheet to correspond with the June 2009 Congressional briefing on reproductive health in Africa.
9. Establish an award to recognize supporters on Capitol Hill and federal agencies. In light of the fact there was no cash payment associated with the award, the Board waived the endowment associated with other new awards.
10. $10,000 to sponsor American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Executive Branch fellowships. PAA would partner with AAAS to participate in their Science and Technology Policy Fellowships program to sponsor one or two fellows to work in a federal agency for a term of one year. PAA members who are early and mid-career professionals could be eligible to apply. As a partner society, PAA would conduct a separate application and selection process.
11. $8,000 for a Seminar Series for the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Working with CRS staff in the Domestic Social Policy Division, PAA staff will identify appropriate seminar topics and speakers. PAA will bring these speakers to CRS to meet with interested analysts and conduct an off-the-record briefing on the chosen topics twice a year.
12. $4,000 to establish an undergraduate or graduate summer internship program in the PAA/APC Office of Government and Public Affairs. The intern would attend congressional hearings, NIH advisory council meetings, coalition meetings, conduct research, and work on projects to further the mission of the office. The summer internship program would provide emerging leaders from the PAA community with the opportunity to learn firsthand about how federal policy and programs are formulated and how researchers can play a role.
13. $2,000 for professionally designed and produced materials (banner, brochure, tabletop signs) for GPAC to use at events such as the booth at the PAA annual meeting, the annual CNSF Exhibition, and Capitol Hill seminars.
Committee on Population Statistics (COPS):
14. $4,500 for each of two training workshops on the Census and other federal data sets (or $9,000 total) at the 2009 and 2010 Annual Meetings (one half-day workshop at each meeting). COPS conducted a Census/American Community Survey half-day workshop on the Wednesday preceding the 2009 PAA meeting in Detroit. About 36 people had signed up by two weeks prior to the meeting.
15. $20,000 for a “Census@School” Program. The Census@School Program (http://www.censusatschool.atu.ac.uk) is an internationally-developed school program for grades 4 through 12 that is now fully operative in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa and Japan. It has been successfully demonstrated that the program improves the understanding of school age children of surveys and censuses as well as their collective statistical literacy. This program would provide a comprehensive introduction to students throughout the U.S. to surveys and censuses and issues related to data collection and handling. Through analyzing their own data, students learn about the results of surveys and statistical concepts, and they also learn about children from other places as they expand their analyses nationally and internationally. PAA would partner with the American Statistical Association (which has already committed $20,000) to pilot this program with 13 public middle schools in Washington, DC where the ASA Office of Statistical Education has established contacts.
Applied Demography:
16. $2,500 to expand both the print and online versions of the Applied Demography newsletter. The bi-annual newsletter serves to link applied demographers to the PAA by encouraging paper submissions and attendance at the annual meetings.
17. $3,500 to support the Applied Demography reception and Applied Demography Breakfast. The reception provides a unique opportunity for students and professionals to network in an informal atmosphere, learning about jobs and internships. The Applied Demography Breakfast meeting, currently paid for by registration fees, provides a similar function. $2,500 would be used for both travel/honorarium support of the breakfast meeting speaker and to pay for, or at least subsidize, the cost of the breakfast for qualified students.
18. $5,000 for travel awards for international applied demographers to attend the PAA Annual Meeting. The awards would strengthen links among applied demographers working primarily with U.S. data and issues and those whose work is primarily outside of the U.S. Applied demography is enriched by collaboration among those approaching similar issues in different cultural contexts. These awards are complementary to those from the International Outreach Committee, which focuses on support for non-US. academicians.
Research seed grant program:
19. $50,000 to issue a request for member-initiated proposals that address the PAA's strategic objectives through small conferences, study groups, training or other activities. This approach has been very successfully adopted by the Society for Research in Child Development. PAA’s strategic objectives are: a) promoting and supporting demographic research and training; b) expanding the public profile of the PAA; c) broadening the international activities of the PAA; and d) promoting the integrity of population data. Conferences or study groups might be aimed at the first goal and priority would be given to initiatives that will result in intellectual products or reports that would be broadly disseminated. The third objective argues for a priority associated with activities involving individuals or institutions outside of the United States.
Mentoring:
20. Up to $3,000 to expand mentoring contact for early-career professionals at the annual meeting. The existing mentor lunch would focus on post-docs, assistant professors and their nonacademic equivalents and a new event, perhaps a breakfast or reception, would be developed for current graduate students (and consider a focus on academic and non-academic careers).
Outreach:
21. Up to $30,000 for adding material to and considering user-friendly revisions to the PAA website. An element of the website redesign should be to host web-based appendices to articles published in Demography and to provide periodic data on the volume and nature of use. The Board established an Ad-Hoc Committee on the PAA Website to guide these changes. [Full amount actually now covered by a Hewlett Foundation grant awarded in November 2008]
Development:
22. Up to $60,000 to support: i) a part-time clerical person to help track contacts, send thank-you letters to donors, etc.; ii) a part-time executive-level staff to coordinate and implement the PAA fundraising effort. [Full amount actually now covered by a Hewlett Foundation grant awarded in November 2008]
