About The Decision Analysis Affinity Group

The Decision Analysis Affinity Group (DAAG) is a multi-industry group of decision analysis practitioners who get together once a year to share ideas, successes, and failures. Industries represented include oil and gas, pharmaceutical, utilities, heavy manufacturing, automotive, and chemical. The annual meeting is held at a sponsoring practitioner's site. In the past five years we have had Eli Lilly, ChevronTexaco, General Motors, AT&T, Monsanto, and Decision Strategies host the conference. Each year two Chairmen are selected to oversee the conference.

The purpose of the group is to promote the use, understanding, and application of decision analysis in organizations worldwide.

History

DAAG was originally the idea of Tom Spradlin, John Palmer, and David Skinner who saw the need for a practitioner focused conference to discuss the use and implementation of decision analysis at major corporations. Through Tom Spradlin's efforts the first DAAG meeting was held in 1995 at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. The following year David Skinner, John Palmer, and Jim MacKay hosted the conference at Texaco in Houston. In one year the conference had doubled in size from the original 26 members in 1995, to 48 in 1996. Each year participation has grown and now is about 100 that attend with a total membership over 150. In 1997 Jeff Frazier hosted the conference at Monsanto in St. Louis, and in 1998 the conference was held in San Francisco at Chevron's headquarters. In 1999 the conference was hosted by AT&T and General Motors and was held in Orlando, Florida. In 2000 Nova Chemicals, TIFOE, and Transcanada hosted the conference in Calgary, Alberta and the following year, 2001, ExxonMobil hosted the conference again in Houston, Texas. In 2002 Eli Lilly was the conference host in Las Vegas, Nevada and 2003 was hosted again in Houston, Texas by Decision Strategies, Inc. In 2004 ChevronTexaco hosted the conference in San Francisco, California. DAAG 2005 was hosted by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Membership Rules

There are very few rules for becoming a member or staying a member. The main rule is that you must participate at the meetings and give as much as you take away. In doing so the meetings are filled with useful ideas and stimulating dialog. Additionally no consultants or academics are allowed unless invited by the Chairman.