News Briefs

Cast your ballot now in the 2008 election of officers and the board of directors. Ballots and instructions, plus candidates’ statements, were mailed and e-mailed in early June. You must vote no later than Monday, July 7, and you must include your name with the paper ballot, which should be returned in the special envelope mailed with the instructions. The URL for the electronic ballot was mailed in the letter from NABE. See details of the slate in this issue .

NABE turns 50 this year, and we want to hear your recollections for a special anniversary history project. Send your observations, experiences, and most poignant memories of your time with NABE via e-mail or postal mail no later than July 15. Feel free to relate your recollections to economic events and include photos, if you have them. All submissions will be shared online. Send your submissions to: Pam Ginsbach pamg@bpf.net . Questions? Please contact NABE at 202-463-6223 or nabe@nabe.com.

Mark your calendar for “Econometrics for the Business Analyst” scheduled for Aug. 19-22 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, with instructor Dr. Oral Capps. For details and registration go online: http://nabe.com/skills200808/index.html. And sign up for the session on "Advanced Statistical Techniques for Economic Forecasting" on Oct. 27-30 in San Francisco. Registration available soon.

Membership in NABE’s Get Connected program continues to grow, adding early and mid-careers professionals who will take part in a unique mix of networking and programs. Watch for the official launch of the mentoring program this summer, according to Chris Swann, the NABE board member leading the Get Connected team. For more information or to join Get Connected go here. Or you can contact Swann at 202-606-9233 or cmswann@aol.com.

Join the July 2 teleconference on “Where We Stand on the Financial Crisis” hosted by the NABE Financial Roundtable at 3 p.m. Eastern. The speakers are Peter Hooper, Deutsche Bank Securities; Scott Pardee, Middlebury College; and Charles Peabody, Portales Partners. Robert T. McGee, U.S. Trust and Bank of America Wealth Management, will moderate. Registration is available online. Learn the results of NABE’s Industry Survey in a July 21 teleconference set for 11 a.m. Eastern. Watch for details on the website and sign up for the call here.

NABE held its third Media Seminar for journalists and journalism students in Washington, D.C., on May 8. Board member Stuart Hoffman, chief economist, PNC Financial Services, welcomed the participants to the half-day program held at the headquarters of the National Federation of Independent Business. Donald Marron, member-designate of the Council of Economic Advisers, gave a background briefing on key economic statistics. Board member Catherine Mann, Brandeis University and the Peterson Institute, presented data on international trends; former Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Deborah Klein focused on employment and related statistics; and NABE News editor and former economics reporter Pam Ginsbach made a presentation on inflation measures. The NABE Foundation sponsored the seminar.

The May 2008 NABE Outlook Survey received a tremendous amount of media coverage on its release date of May 19, and continues to be mentioned in a variety of media reports, including articles on such topics as GDP growth, recession fears, and commodity prices. Survey spokesperson Lynn Reaser of Bank of America has done 14 interviews about the survey with broadcast outlets thus far—she has discussed it on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Nightly Business Report, Bloomberg TV’s On the Economy, and the Neil Cavuto program on FOX Business Channel, and has done radio interviews about it with the BBC World Service, National Public Radio, CNN Radio, AP Radio, Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Bloomberg Radio, Voice of America’s Asian Broadcast Radio Service and English Language Broadcast Service, ABC News Radio, KTRH Radio (Houston), and CBS Radio (Baltimore affiliate). Original reports of the survey have also appeared in dozens of outlets around the world.

The April 2008 NABE Industry Survey has received outstanding media coverage since its release on April 21, according to Melissa Golding, NABE press officer. Survey spokesperson Ken Simonson of the Associated General Contractors of America did 11 interviews with broadcast outlets (the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, CNN Radio, Biz Radio Network (Houston-Dallas-Fort Worth), AP Radio, CBS News Radio, Marketplace's Morning Report, Bloomberg Radio, Voice of America Radio, Reuters Television, CNBC's Squawk on the Street, and Bloomberg TV’s On the Economy. Among the print and wire service outlets that published articles were the Associated Press, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Thomson Financial, AHN, US News & World Report, The Edge Daily (Malaysia), the Detroit News, Editoweb Magazine (France), the Nashua Telegraph, the Rocky Mountain News, Haaretz Daily (Israel), the Financial Express (India), and Newsday