Page 476 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS355 Jean-Louis B.
These eight recommendations (among over 85 specific recommendations) are
still topical forty years after their presentation.
3.1. The decade between 1969 and 1979 that ended by the presentation of
these recommendations in Manila has seen important changes in the ISI
governance:
 After 1975, it was decided that the term of ISI Presidents will be
limited to two years, but the Presidents will be elected two years before
the beginning of their term and serve as President Elect; an Executive
Committee and a Council replaced the Bureau.
 The creation of sections (now associations) was encouraged; among
them sections dealing with some aspects of official statistics: in 1973
International Association of Survey Statisticians (IASS), in 1985
International Associations for Official Statistics (IAOS) and in 1995 the
Irving Fisher Committee on Central Banks Statistics. The Presidents of
sections may participate in ISI EC and Council meetings as observers.
Before the creation of IAOS, there were other ISI sections dealing more
or less with official statistics, for instance, IASS or IASC (International
Association for Statistical Computing) Statisticians). These other sections
are grouping statisticians interested by the development of methods in
their domain. The objective of IAOS was different: several people insisted
on giving to this new section the name of International Association for
Official Statistics and not International Association of Official Statisticians.
That means that we hoped that IAOS would be open not only to official
statisticians but also to the users of official statistics and more generally
to all those who are interested by the role of statistics in the society. These
goals are still very relevant after 35 years. I was one of the founding
persons of IAOS with Vera Nyitray, President in 1985 of the Központi
Statisztikai Hivatal (KSH – Central Bureau of Statistics); she was also happy
to create an independent forum where statisticians coming from both
sides of the Iron Curtain may discuss in a neutral place and a scientific
atmosphere.
3.2. In 1979, it was decided to build a set of ethical principles and good
practices and a committee in charge of preparing an ISI Declaration on
Professional Ethics [6] was established. One of the first attempts to
formalise ethical rules was certainly the ASA Code of Conduct for
Statisticians adopted in 1979 by the American Statistical Association under
the leadership of W. Edwards Deming (now, after a revision in 1989, the
ASA Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice). W. E. Deming was also, with
Roger Jowell (UK), one of the promoters of the ISI Committee. These two
codes are very general and apply not only to official statisticians but also
to the statistical community at large (academic statisticians, researchers,

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