Twelve years ago this month, after a train trip around the country to consult with respected colleagues, I filed paperwork to incorporate Annie Searle & Associates LLC, also known as ASA.
In July of 2009, we launched the corporate website, describing both a consulting side to the firm as well as another, the ASA Institute for Risk and Innovation, devoted to impacting regulatory reform and public policy, knowing there must be a better way to think about and manage risk at the operational level in companies of all sizes. ASA News & Notes, a monthly newsletter was launched later that year: it contained a column that I have continued to write over the years, several research notes, calls for papers, and conference announcements. We have published regularly since 2009 on the second Monday of each month.
Originally, the research notes to be found in the first volumes were written by ASA interns. Since then, perhaps 90% of our published research notes came from papers written in classes that I teach to both graduate students and undergraduates. All the research notes are of outstanding quality, some focused on critical infrastructure sectors, some on specific companies, and some on issues like privacy, the first or fourth amendments, cybersecurity or artificial intelligence.
We launched the Reflections on Risk softcover book series in 2012. Late this summer we will publish 31 more research notes in a sixth volume, which will bring us to 157 research notes from over 100 authors in the past nine years. Through those years, Emily Hayes (née Oxenford) has edited each research note before it first appears on the website, then edited the collections of notes into a volume as they are published. Her commitment to the monthly newsletter and to the volumes has been absolute, and I thank her.
Though not always recognized as such, writing is a form of action. Today, we announce a call for short papers to be published in a special seventh volume in the Reflections on Risk series. Depending upon the response from a potential 100 or so authors, we will publish either late this year or early next year. If you are one of our authors, what we will be looking for is a short reflection (500 words) that could update the topic you originally wrote about; or be an entirely new reflection on an emerging risk you are seeing in your current profession. I will be sending each of you more information yet this month.
As I move to half time teaching next fall, I’ll be looking at other venues for the ASA Institute to expand the conversation around risk and innovation, ranging from podcasts, to seminars, to mini-conferences.
Though technology has made online learning possible for the past 15 months, I look forward to a time when I can see my students’ faces and body language in the classroom, when it’s possible to have something as simple as a conversation over coffee with a colleague, and when we can once again focus on improving the American condition.