June Faculty Meeting Update:

Good News

Nate Mercado (http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/NateMercaldo) joined our department on Monday. Please stop by his office, invite him to lunch, and help him get oriented to Vanderbilt.

Bad News

Chuan Zhou is leaving our department to relocate in the Seattle area. We are all sad to see him go. We wish you the very best Chuan!

Cody Hamilton has decided not to come to Vanderbilt. His primary reason is that he and his wife wish to remain in Orange County, California.

PEOPLE

Recruiting We need to increase our recruiting efforts above the existing high levels. We have an immediate need for a faculty member who will work on the CTSA. Please be in touch with your contacts to find people who will apply. We will be recruiting at JSM in August.

Ongoing training There will be a supervisor retreat; the date and location will be announced in the near future. Supervisors will have the opportunity to learn ways to improve their supervisory skills. The TWiki has been updated with a section on "How to Supervise". If you would like to see specific skills addressed in the training, please email Robert Greevy and these suggestions will be included in the training.

Department gathering Frank and Liana are opening their home this Friday night for a department gathering.

SERVICE

The issue has arisen about who may help a PI with a grant application. Any faculty member is free to work with a PI on an application. Before doing so, however, please contact Frank, since larger issues may need to be considered, such as encouraging a department to join the collaboration plan. Beware of PIs who are shopping around for biostatisticians. If your contribution to the grant application warrants a designation of co-investigator, please ensure you are listed as such.

All faculty members need to make time available for helping junior biostatisticians. If your supervisor does not spend sufficient time teaching and mentoring you, let your supervisor know exactly what you need.

Dan Ayers is working on guidelines for reallocation and reassignment within our department. Please email him your suggestions, which he will present to the Allocation Committee.

The Partners in Health Campaign ends 6/30. We now have 48% participation. You can earmark your contribution to our department, the contribution can be used for rewards and recognition. The amount is less important than the fact that our department have a high participation rate in this campaign. Please seriously consider participating.

QUALITY

Everyone needs to continuously work on improving writing skills and carefully proofreading anything that is sent outside our department. Peggy is searching for ideas on how to get department members more interested in improving writing skills. Chun Li is going to share his writing secrets with the rest of us. We need to reinvigorate the writing training.

The orientation packet is much improved over recent years and Puzzlers need to be added. Comprehensive solutions have been worked out for the three puzzlers posted here (http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/Puzzlers). We need more biostatisticians to contribute puzzlers/projects with solutions for continuing education of biostatisticians.

The VUMC Community Survey results will be available 6/5/08.

Mario Davidson is Chair of the Recognition and Rewards program. You can now nominate faculty and staff via dbconnect.

GROWTH

Chang Yu will submit an R21 this month.

Mike Stein has received a major grant. Patrick is the Biostatistics Core Director.

There are offices in the 2525 building that our department can use. We do not want one or two members of our department to be isolated there but if you have thoughts on how a group could move there, please share your ideas with Linda.

We are projecting that our department will grow to 140 people by 2013.

FINANCE

Our budget was increased by 26% from the previous budget.

Life is good! Thank you for all that you do.

Regards, Communication Improvement Team

Frank Harrell, Yu Shyr, Dan Byrne, Linda Stewart