The question of official recognition within NZSA beyond the Campbell Award and Life Memberships is raised for discussion elsewhere in this Newsletter. The Education subcommittee has been very active, and with their assistance (and as in line with a resolution passed at the AGM) I have sent a letter to the Minister of Education expressing NZSA’s concern at the proposed changes to 7^th Form Statistics.

The Survey Appraisals and Public Questions Committee has been exploring the need for and cost of Public and Professional Liability insurance, and working on a submission requested by the Review panel for Stage 2 of the current Review of Official Statistics, being undertaken by the State Services Commission, Treasury and Statistics NZ.

The NZSA will be part of a four person joint committee with the Australians through SSAI to look at the question of advantages and disadvantages of electronic only publication of the ANZJS – the NZSA representatives are Russell Millar and Murray Jorgensen.

And the Science Fair season is upon us again, with the considerable organisation that this involves for NZSA, with various people being called to act as judges for the Statistics prizes for the individual Fairs.

All of these issues, with one exception, are running smoothly or are discussed in greater detail elsewhere in this Newsletter. The SAPQC is the possible exception. The liability insurance question will be reported back to Exec at the next meeting, and the legal opinion recommended at the AGM seems likely to be sought after that meeting.

The other SAPQC matter is our response to the Review of Official Statistics. This review raises a number of issues which, given the percentage of the members of NZSA who are involved directly or indirectly in Official Statistics, will have considerable potential impact. Stage 2 of the Review involves a "Top Down Review of Official Statistics". Changes in technology and in the roles of the various government departments and agencies have led to the need for a thorough review. The draft Review report, on which NZSA has been asked to comment, recommends the formation of an overview body (OSAC). This recommendation is a welcome one. To ensure technical issues are adequately addressed however, it will be imperative that some of the members of OSAC are statisticians experienced in design and analysis of surveys and administrative data collections. The open question is whether NZSA should request that it be officially represented on OSAC. I would welcome your comment on this question and ask that it be sent either directly to Alistair Gray, the SAPQC Convenor, or via me (S.J.Haslett@massey.ac.nz).