A reminder of next week's meeting:

              THE CAMBRIDGE STATISTICS DISCUSSION GROUP



               Wednesday 29th November 2006 7:15 for 7:45




                      Statistical Laboratory,
                   Centre for Mathematical Sciences,
                       Wilberforce Road
                           Cambridge




    'Aftermath' to Royal Statistical Society's report
  ('Performance Indicators: Good, Bad, and Ugly') on Performance
              Monitoring in the Public Services




                            Sheila Bird
                      MRC Biostatistics Unit



Abstract: 
After a brief introduction to the RSS report and its recommendations, 
Sheila will outline the aftermath for the RSS Working Party 
(workshops, roadshows, political and media, consultations, and 
methodological) with specific reference to criminal justice and 
'war on drugs' applications. The RSS report Performance indicators: 
good, bad, and ugly JRSS A, 168, 1-27, 2005 is freely available 
on-line at http://www.rss.org.uk/PDF/PerformanceMonitoring.pdf.


Speaker: 
Professor Sheila Bird is a Senior statistician at MRC Biostatistics 
Unit, Cambridge and visiting professor of Department of Statistics 
and Modelling Science, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. 
Previous posts at Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh. 
Co-author of Statistics and Practice and of Transplantation: Sense and 
Sensitization. Past member of Medical Section Committee (1976-1979); 
member of RSS working parties on official statistics (1989-91) and on 
drugs and drug regulation; Chair of RSS Working Party on Performance 
Monitoring in the Public Services (2003-04); member of scientific programme 
committee for RSS99 on risk and co-organiser of one-day meeting on drugs 
and criminal statistics (1999) and appraisal of cost-effectiveness (2001). 
Statistician-member of UK's appraisal committee for National Institute for 
Clinical Excellence (1999-2005), Home Office's Science and Technology 
Reference Group, scientific committee of European Monitoring Centre for 
Drugs and Drug Addiction (2001-2005), and formerly of EU's ad hoc 
BSE/TSE subgroup.


Directions: 
The main entrance is reached from Clarkson Road by going along the 
footpath to the right of the Newton Institute, and turning left through the
gatehouse towards the main building (Pavilion A), which has a glass front and
a curved grassed  roof. The main entrance is in the middle of the glass 
front. Coffee before the talk will be in the common room in Pavilion D, 
and the talk will be in Meeting Room 5 in Pavilion A. Free Parking is 
available after 5pm on Clarkson and Wilberforce Roads.




Next Meetings (2007): 
6th February - Julia Gog (DAMTP).
7th March - Zoubin Ghahramani (Engineering) on 'Retrieving Information 
using a Bayesian Model of Generalization'. 
4th April -  Matt Whiley (Amgen).


Supper: Some members eat regularly in the University Centre before
each talk meeting in the downstairs bar at 6pm. Feel free to join them.

Subscriptions: of 1 pound are now due for attending the 2006-2007 session.

Secretary: Peter Watson, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 
15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 2EF;telephone 01223 355294 Extension 801; 
E-mail [log in to unmask]