Abstract

Formal Advisory Committees can play an influential role in developing, creating, and improving the statistics that inform government policies across many disciplines of today’s society. These committees may be organized on different models across countries and operate under different procedures. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has an advisory committee on technical matters and a separate committee focused on data presentation. In addition, a separate committee provides technical advice to three agencies that provide economic data. This session will be set up as a panel discussion with NSO leaders from BLS and other offices who oversee the work of a technical advisory group for their organization or their country. The participants will briefly describe how their advisory group functions, how members are selected, how the agenda is set for meetings, how NSO staff participate, how recommendations are made and acted upon, and how feedback is given to both the NSO and the advisory committee or group. After the panelist’s presentation, the chair will act as a moderator and will entertain questions among the panelists and then invite dialogue between the audience and the panelists.