MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – December 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

December 14, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month is for our outgoing council for a successful MAPOR 2020, with special thanks to our Conference Chair Sara Walsh.  MAPOR 2020 was an outstanding event characterized by professional execution and collaboration.   

Agenda:

Attendees: Patrick, Stephanie, Lindsey, Dana, Bob, John, Leah, Hillary, Kevin, Evgenia, David, Justine, Sara

November meeting minutes approved.

  1. Welcome New Council Members: Introductions
    1. Bob Davis, Hillary Hanson, John Stevenson

Introductions of new and returning Council members

  1. 2020-2021 Council Transition             (Dana/All)
    1. Monthly meeting schedule
    2. MAPOR Google Group; Google Drive; Website; and MAPORnet
    3. Committee members/new roles/transition meetings (listed below and for discussion)

Proposal to keep 3rd Monday monthly Council meetings, 12:30-2:00p central.

Let Dana know if you have an alternative email you’d like to use for access to Google Drive. Also, if you need to be added to listserv. 

Review of new subcommittee structure plan (see end of agenda). 

  1. 2020 Conference Debrief                         (Sara/All)
    1. All expenses paid 
    2. Thank you notes to sponsors
    3. Conference overview
    4. Business meeting items

50% of Cadmium payment still outstanding; technical consultant (Karen Allison) has been fully paid. No other outstanding expenses.

Notes have not been send to sponsors yet. Dana will follow up with Sara.

  1. 2021 Conference             (David/Leah)
    1. Conference support committee 
    2. check with hotel about 2021 contract plans
    3. Other items

Goal is to have some sort of hybrid approach in 2021 that includes in-person component similar to past years, as well as some remote capabilities to accommodate people who can’t travel, don’t have funding support, etc.

David will reach out to Embassy Suites, to request a 90-day notice contract (instead of current 180-day window) – this would mean a decision needs to be made by end of August. We also may try to reduce the minimum room block number. 

Conference committee will decide best approach on conference technology acquisitions (e.g. purchasing Chromebooks). Will make sure it’s compatible with new tech installed in conference hotel.

Idea of recruiting speakers who have ties to MAPOR (“MAPOR roots”); try to incorporate more “methodological” component, to integrate with substantive topics; call on MAPOR Fellows for keynote; for Pedagogy hour, focus on attitudinal/communications; for short course, will review recent topics, maybe something around questionnaire design. Send David/Leah any additional ideas/suggestions.  

  1. Member Survey                                         (Stephanie)
    1. Plan to launch when?
    2. Committee to support sec-treas
    3. Next steps

Will build on work Kevin did on 2020 survey to streamline content. Obviously update to reflect virtual conference. Plan to send ~late January/early February, and continue to use Qualtrics for administration. Stephanie will work on draft with subcommittee and Dana, share update at next month’s meeting.

  1. Treasurer’s Report                               (Stephanie)
    1. Updates
    2. Membership list updates

Current balances:

Checking: $37,638

Savings:   $46,967

Stephanie will update membership list by end of December, incorporating list of members who joined through AAPOR plus results of email membership push to past members. 

  1. Communications                     (Justine)

Justine will send reminder this week to compile content for Winter newsletter, plan to circulate mid-January. Dana will review past-year content, and decide whether we will circulate 3 or 4 newsletters this year. Option to have 2 “big” ones and 2 “small” ones. 

Idea to host a “game night” or other on-line mixer

  1. Website                             (Patrick/Dana/Hillary)
    1. Updates
    2. Need to add new councilors and positions to websites
    3. Ability to upload conference presentations

Plan to link to presentations on Google Drive from website. 

Some discussion around how to best manage the website, requests for posting content, etc. Adding Dana and Hillary as resources will help. 

Cleaned up who will receive the general MAPOR emails (president@, secretary@, info@).

  1. Webinars             (Patrick/Lindsey)
    1. Plan for 2021

GoToWebinar is not as functional as Zoom, but might work well enough (to not incur Zoom license cost). We can subscribe to GoToWebinar just in the months that we need it. Plan to host two webinars in 2021. Open to ideas on topics/speakers. Will take a look at last year’s survey responses with suggestions for topics. 

  1. Other business?                                                    

Question on status of Student Fellowship announcement – it is final, Evgenia will send this week. 

Evgenia asked students for input on the conference. Results mostly positive, especially around networking opportunity. Is there a way to expand this?

Proposal of an outreach program to professors, not necessarily targeting students. Alternatively, could we think about how to maximize first-time attendee retention with MAPOR.                

John is thinking about sponsorship/fundraising strategy. Stephanie will follow up with him to review current expense/revenue spreadsheet. 

Discussion on how to better collaborate on outreach (esp. student) ideas across MAPOR, PAPOR, etc. Bob added to Outreach subcommittee. 

Next meeting will be scheduled for Jan 11.                             

Committee Composition (updated with notes from Dana’s 12/15 email)

  1. Conference (Sara, Ned, Dana, David, Leah)
    1. Hybrid format, Reusable signage, Chromebooks
    2. Speakers and conference themes
  2. Sponsorship (John and Bob)
    1. How hard of a push should we be making?
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsey)
    1. April & October
  4. Website (Patrick, Hillary, Dana)
    1. Meet to discuss website updates this week
  5. Communications (Justine)
    1. Plan on 2 larger newsletters and 1-2 smaller
  6. Sec-treas support (Stephanie, Lindsey, Hillary)
    1. Member survey revision in Feb/March
  7. Student Fellowship Program (Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)
    1. Advertising now
  8. Student/Early career programs  (Ned, Kevin, Dana, Stephanie, Evgenia, Leah)
    1. ideas of spending operational reserves on expanding reach to students and early career folks (reduce costs for short course, webinar, registration; conference travel awards) 
  9. Colleague grants/tiered registration (Ned, Kevin, Dana, Stephanie)
    1. Discuss what this looks like and for how long we continue
  10. Outreach committee (Evgenia, Lindsey, Kevin, Bob, David)
    1. Membership drive: Kevin did a cvent comparison of 2019 and 2020 conference registration, and sent a note about membership for this year.
    2. First time attendee retention
    3. Reach out to professors
    4. Focus on outreach to departments, schools and organizations we don’t see at MAPOR
    5. Mixers (virtual mixer in Feb/March)
  11. MAPOR Fellow nomination criteria (Ned, Dana, Kevin)
  12. Speed Networking (Ned, Justine)
  13. MAPOR conference attendee Code of Conduct (TBD)

Council members

President – Dana Garbarski

Vice President – Kevin Ulrich

Past President – Ned English

Conference Chair – David Sterrett

Associate Conference Chair – Leah Dean

Secretary-Treasurer – Stephanie Chardoul

Associate Secretary-Treasurer – Vacant

Members at Large – Bob Davis, Hillary Hanson, Ed Ledek, Sara Walsh, Lindsey Witt-Swanson 

Sponsorship Coordinator – John Stevenson 

Webinar and Website Coordinator – Patrick Hsieh

Communications Chair – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Student Liaison- Evgenia Kapousouz

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – November 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

November 16th, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes the 2019-2020 Executive Council members.  Thank you for all your hard work during a trying year- it has been my pleasure serving with you.

Agenda:

  1. Approve September minutes          (Ned)

Ned moves to approve minutes.

Kevin seconds. 

The motion is passed and the minutes are approved. 

  1. President’s Update     (Ned)
    1. Election results
    2. Script, business meeting and slide deck (needs to be done by Saturday morning)- will circulate template later Monday

Ned will circulate template for business meeting slides. After they are completed, send them back to Ned to aggregate. He will move the slides forward during the meeting. 

  1. 2020 Conference                          (Sara/David)
  1. Registration 
  2. Contact during conference
  3. What dress-rehearsal do we need?
  4. Follow-up emails to first time attendees, early career, and students
  5. Set-up logistics and support needs. More Info about it is available in this link.
  6. Sponsor benefits
  7. Student engagement/events at the conference (Evgenia)
    1. Student fellowship program
  8. Certificate for the student paper competition winner (Kevin)
  9. Awards session (Ned)
  10. Speed networking
  11. In-memorium
    1. Mansour attending to speak for Ashley
  12. Chair assignments
  13. AAPOR @ MAPOR (Ipek)
  • Mary needs one more person to chair a session. Ned will lead a session if need be. 
  • Program is being put together by NORC group. They will hold a space open for the last sponsors who have not updated their ads or logos. 
  • Patrick is working to get the website properly updated with sponsor logos.
  • Slack is set-up. Please download if you have not already. We will use the #general channel for all communications. 
  • There are 138 registrants as of this morning – 48 are students. 
  • Ipek will present AAPOR slides before keynote. Aim to keep talk to about 5 minutes. 
  • Evgenia will announce the Student Fellowship Program. Those who are accepted into the program will receive some type of travel stipend to attend the conference. We can determine the amount at a later date. Ten fellows have agreed to take part. We will match students with appropriate fellows based on content and interest. 
  • Ned will connect award winners with Kevin so he can send the certificates and the award stipends – $500. 
  • Justine will head the speed networking group. Kevin will add her as the moderator of that session. 
  • Practice sessions have been set up for the meetings and webinars on Zoom. The host of those meetings should practice to be ready for the main events. 
  • Sara asks council members to attend some of the coffee sessions. It would be nice to spread out some EC on these events to get that “MAPOR-feeling”. 
  1. Treasurer’s Report                           (Kevin)
    1. Budget Updates

Checking: $38,351.33

Savings: $46,966.56

Current projections have the conference costing us $8,000. 

MAPOR is now the proud owner of a 5’ x 4’ storage unit in Andersonville. All of the conference materials are there. If there are other things we would like to add such as the MAPOR archives (now in NORC) Kevin can get them to the storage unit. 

  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Social media at conference

Hosts of meetings should try to post and ask other to post in sessions. 

#MAPOR20

  1. Sponsorship       (Allison/Mary)

Mary will present at the business meeting. 

  1. 2020-2021 Council Transition       (Ned/Dana)    
    1. Meeting Schedule
    2. Updating Google Groups

Dana will send out the new business meeting time. We will probably use the same time unless we hear that a new member is unable to attend at that time. 

  1. Other business?            

Next Meeting: Member meeting, Saturday November 21st 

Committee Composition: 

  1. Conference (Sara, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
  4. Website (Patrick)
  5. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – October 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

October19th, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes Sara and the conference committee for their diligent work as we draw near to the annual conference.  In addition, I’d like to recognize Patrick and Lindsey in putting together such great webinars.

Attendees: Ned, Lindsey, Patrick, Stephanie, Kevin, Ipek, Mary, Evgenia, Justine, Sara, Allison, Dana, Leah

Agenda:

  1. Approve September minutes          (Ned)

Minutes approved

  1. President’s Update     (Ned)
    1. Statement on inclusion and diversity- endorse AAPOR, https://www.aapor.org/Publications-Media/Public-Statements/AAPOR-Statement-on-Diversity,-Equity,-and-Inclusio.aspx
    2. Election launching later this month
    3. New fellow
    4. Plan for conference script, business meeting

Note that AAPOR members, as part of endorsement of AAPOR bylaws, are required to agree to the AAPOR DEI statement. Decision made to endorse official statement for MAPOR. 

Election will open October 30. New election survey is ready to go. Kevin raised issue of potential conflict of interest given he is on the candidate slate. Ipek shared her similar situation in the past, and recused herself. So, Kevin and Stephanie will work toward Stephanie being the “outward facing” Exec Council member managing the election.

Ned asked for assistance with the “script” for the Conference (esp. Keynote, but also other “transitions”)

  1. 2020 Conference                          (Sara/David)
    1. Program
    2. Latest update on remote conversion and software
      1. Plan for MAPOR days
    3. Student Paper Competition Award Updates
    4. Sponsorship benefits
  1. Moderator role; Networking lunch; Book raffle
  2. Speed networking
  3. Fellowship program
  4. Outreach to specific institutions

Newsletter content delivered to Justine. Program is formatted and draft format is ready to go. Thank you Kevin for programming Cvent registration, which should open soon, after a round of internal testing. Once registration is opened and the full program is finished, Sara will coordinate with Cadmium to establish login credentials for both presenters (to access platform and upload slides) and attendees (output list from Cvent). For all live events (short course, keynote, pedagogy, business meeting), we will use the Zoom platform, not pre-loaded into Cadmium. Evgenia offered to look into purchasing a Zoom subscription for MAPOR. Dana will start working on updating the 2020 Conference page on the MAPOR website, where the Cvent registration link will be added, and also the link to the draft program.

Student papers have been sent to Tom. Reviewers will give feedback by early next week. 

Speed networking: Ned will draft email to sponsors to see who is interested in being a “networker”. Once get responses to that, will organize one session and communicate to registrants. 

Student Fellowship program: Evgenia has 8 Fellows who have agreed to participate, and several more “maybe’s”. Next step is to figure out how we will announce/frame the program. For example, student is responsible for providing data for analysis. We should give guidelines for abstract format/length. Evgenia will draft text to announce at 2020 conference, then we will expect Fellows to present at 2021 conference. 

Conference production: should live production happen on-site at NORC? Sara is still considering, knows request will need to go to D. Gaylin. 

  1. Treasurer’s Report                           (Kevin)
    1. Budget Updates

Checking: $32,603

Savings: $49,966

Set deadline for Business Meeting slides by Friday (11/20) afternoon.

  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Social media leading up to conference
    3. Social media at conference

Justine will circulate draft of October newsletter later today, send comments back to her by Wednesday. Also will put out both Twitter and Facebook posts regarding conference. Hope to have new communications 1-2x per week leading up to conference. 

We should wait until everything is working/linked on MAPOR website before sending newsletter. 

During conference, idea to engage students/early career volunteers in tweeting(?).  Sara will share contact info for some participants who indicated an excitement/interest in participating.

  1. Sponsorship       (Allison/Mary)

$7250 in sponsorship funding in hand. Not bad, given the year.

When will free registration code that goes to upper-level sponsors be available (Kevin has the codes and will send to Allison and Mary)? Other than artwork, is there anything needed from sponsors for program? 

  1. Webinars              (Patrick/Lindsay)
    1. 10/21 webinar by Ana Gonzalez-Barrera 

We have 24 registrants so far for Wednesday’s webinar.  

  1. Summer/Fall 2020 Mixer           (Evgenia/Lindsay)
    1. Should we try a Zoom happy hour prior to conference?

Evgenia would like to hold a happy hour session just with students on Thursday (11/19) evening. Some Council members will plan to attend.

  1. Website              (Patrick)    

Dana and Sara will adapt conference-related pages.

  1. Other business?            

Ned should let AAPOR conference chairs (Kristen and Darby) know who won MAPOR student paper award

Next Meeting: November 16th 2020

Committee Composition: 

  1. Conference (Sara, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
  4. Website (Patrick)
  5. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – September 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ANNUAL MEETING

September 18, 2020

1:00 PM – 5:00pm (CST)/2:00 PM – 6:00pm (EST)

Zoom Invite

Attendees: Ned, Patrick, Kevin, Stephanie, David, Lindsey, Mary, Ipek, Justine, Leah, Allison, Sara, Evgenia, Dana

Agenda: 

1:00 – 1:15 pm Welcome, Review of Agenda, and Meeting Goals (Ned)

  • Focus on conference
  • A few key fall dates:
    • Announce slate 9/22
    • Fall newsletter with candidates and conference details 10/9
    • Preliminary program and registration 10/18
    • May need speed-networking in registration
    • EB deadline 10/30
    • Election results 11/14

Discussion of Student Fellowship: Idea is that one Fellow can provide guidance to one student on a specific project. Students will submit abstracts, and we’ll match with available/appropriate Fellows. The student will present at next year’s (2021) conference. Evgenia sent email to the Fellows. Some responses have already come in (both positive and hesitant). Evgenia will send a reminder next week to non-responders, but we have some Fellows we can start with and plan on running the program. Let’s keep it vague for now, we don’t know how many Fellowships we’ll accept. Proposal to have a January deadline for abstract submission, then make Fellowship decisions/matches by February. Evgenia can hold a live session during the conference to present to students.  

1:15 – 1:30 pm Secretary-Treasurer Updates (Kevin)

[see slides]

Even with conservative estimates on revenue and expenses, we basically break even for 2020. 

Guessing about conference attendance, and varying costs for registration, short course, etc. There is a trend to make these virtual events free for students (SAPOR, etc.). Idea of how to  better reach out to professors/programs who don’t currently come to MAPOR but if they did their students may be more likely. Maybe other than “free”, assign a minimal fee so that it still conveys value to participants. Discussion about how to set fees for conference and short course. Proposal to eliminate difference between early bird and late registration fees. [see further discussion later in meeting]

1:30 – 1:45 pm Council and Fellow Nominations and Election Updates (Ned)

Council nominees:

Conference chair: Leah Dean/Hillary Hanson

Vice President: Kevin Ulrich/Bob Davis

Slate needs to be announced next week.

Fellows: we’re in process of ranking 4 potential Fellows. 

Recommendation that we try to tighten up the criteria and process for Fellows after this year. Note that we need more representation of women and non-white nominees. 

1:45 – 2:00 pm Sponsorship Updates (Allison/Mary)

Received $3200 of committed sponsorships. 2 previous sponsors who haven’t responded. At least a couple academic centers who aren’t able to sponsor this year. Projecting $8000 as high end of final sponsorship revenue. 

How should we handle graphics received from sponsors? Sara will create (or identify an existing) a folder in the Google drive – put all graphics/logo’s there. Sara will also get specifications for size, image type, resolution, etc.

One observation from committee: we seem to be asking the same people every year. For next year, might be worth reviewing potential sponsors and expanding the ask. 

2:00 – 2:15 pm Communication Updates (Justine)

  • Plans on upcoming social media postings/communication w/ members
  • Communications schedule/chart
  • Next newsletter content and due dates

Planning on October newsletter. Send content week of September 28 (Justine sent reminder to Council via email). This newsletter will include fall webinar and election info. Maybe introduce the Fellowship program. Also include some virtual conference info – “what to expect”. Will supplement the newsletter with Twitter and Facebook posts. 

Twitter at the conference: Last year, tried to have someone in each session room to live tweet news. Should try to do something like this again? Maybe rather than “per session”, figure out a different format that keeps it interactive and keeps people connected. Maybe focus on “Break” periods.

2:15 – 2:30 pm Webinar Updates (Patrick/Lindsey)

Ana Gonzales from Pew will give fall webinar on new questions on Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity. October 21 is set date. Per email discussion, $20 non-members/$10 members/$0 students. Waiting to get details from Ana, then will update the website and send out to listserv. Have also asked Ana to join as a panel member for “Why Representation Matters”.

Special Note

U of Chicago Survey Lab technically closes Nov 4. (Perhaps/hopefully they will find a new home with Division of Biologic Sciences.) They are holding 4 crates (plus other stuff) of conference materials, and we need to identify a new home. Rather than relying on individuals, perhaps MAPOR should rent a climate-controlled storage unit (maybe $50/month). Council agreed that MAPOR will pursue renting a storage unit, preferably close to the Embassy Suites. Ned and Kevin will coordinate moving the material. 

2:30 – 2:45 pm BREAK

2:45 – 5:00 pm 2020 Annual MAPOR Conference (Sara)

We received ~70 abstracts (3 posters/presentation; others no preference). So, everyone was accepted. Lots of election and Census topics, also interesting topics on “representation”. 

Because there are only 4 posters, we can make them their own synchronous session. 

Lots of excitement when authors were notified of their acceptance. Feels good!

With Cadmium, got an estimate for 75 12-minute presentations, and 20 posters. Since we have extra poster slots, maybe offer to high-value sponsors (5 minute pitch videos). (NORC)

[Sara reviewed her session plan] 

Discussion of synchronous/live sessions and opportunities to interact and have Q&A, and the value of recorded presentations. When will recordings be available? What deadline do we need to give presenters regarding submission of their recorded videos (by Wednesday at the latest…)? Perhaps make videos available first during the actual scheduled session, then reserve the final 20-30 minutes for live video chat with presenters.

Maybe put more than half the presentations on Friday and make Saturday a little lighter. 

Keynote/awards at lunch on Friday; Use 3:00p time for In Memorium, speed networking, social event, etc. 

Saturday: start later (like 9:00a) with concurrent sessions (including posters); pedagogy hour over lunch; after lunch, Business Meeting – conference done by 2:30p

Ned will ask NORC to donate time to format the .pdf program (per usual)

Question on how exactly registration will work…Cvent or Cadmium? Could send to Cvent through website, but need to think about how to export registration list from Cvent to Cadmium. Target date for registration is around October 19 (once website is launched). 

Sara will identify areas where she needs help and reach out. 

Sara demonstrated a conference website with a format similar to what we’ll have. Sara will mock up tiles for main landing page and send around for feedback.

Sara will make first pass at assigning papers to sessions, then ask for feedback.

Peripheral events: 

1) Evgenia will lead a student Zoom event

2) Speed networking: Need to start identifying “employers” by mid-October, then decide how much total time we need/how many slots to schedule. Some options on how to manage the “meetings” 

3) In Memoriam: Reach out to Mansoor specifically about Ashley, but otherwise have space in the program and invite others to honor whom they want. Council members should plan to be in attendance. 

4) Business Meeting: plan to hold it as a live session. Might be easier to put together slides because we won’t have same variability around revenue and expenses. 

Revisiting conference fees: Agreement that we will have early bird rate: $50 early/$75 late.  For students, will keep registration as free for early bird, but $25 late. Short course: question on whether to record (will check with Trent); $35/$10.  Membership dues: $20/$5. Need to review earlier communications and make sure we’re being consistent, especially with students. 

5:00pm Adjourn 

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – August 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

August 17th, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes Justine for getting the fabulous newsletter out, describing our conference and call for papers in more detail.  

Attendees: Ned, Lindsey, Mary, David, Kevin, Ipek, Leah, Dana, Evgenia, Justine, Sara, Stephanie

Agenda:

  1. Approve July minutes           (Ned)

July minutes approved

  1. President’s Update     (Ned)
    1. Statement on inclusion and diversity- endorse AAPOR, https://www.aapor.org/Publications-Media/Public-Statements/AAPOR-Statement-on-Diversity,-Equity,-and-Inclusio.aspx
    2. Mid-September meeting
      1. Please respond to Doodle if you haven’t
      2. Will be heavy focus on conference program and logistics
    3. Call for nominations will go out soon to members (last year sent 8/27)

Input on nominations for fellows and executive council https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_qeEYjY2nqwVzMFohy7LCPU598xdnNhFL6DTbMrniXg/edit#gid=2

Proposal to endorse AAPOR’s statement, rather than creating our own statement for MAPOR. AAPOR’s statement is comprehensive and all-encompassing. Ned will circulate the AAPOR statement to Council and give an opportunity to endorse and perhaps add. We will discuss and finalize at next month’s meeting.

Please respond to scheduling poll by end of this week. 

Major agenda items are conference planning and finance update. Ned and Ipek will put together a draft agenda. 

  1. 2020 Conference                          (Sara/David)
    1. Abstract acceptance status notifications
    2. Latest update on remote conversion and software
    3. Student Paper Competition Award Updates
    4. Abstract review and conference program
    5. Student paper competition 
    6. MAPOR annual conference fees
  1. Moderator role; Networking lunch; Book raffle
  2. Speed networking
  3. Fellowship program
  4. Outreach to specific institutions

We’ve received 17 abstracts, which is lower than previous years. Sara will extend the deadline 2 weeks (September 4) and will increase reach out to potential participants. Sara will confirm with Tom Smith whether a 1-week extension to student paper deadline is okay. Even though we’re behind where we were last year, a last-minute push is normal. And, if we have fewer papers/sessions, it’s fine – we have strong key presentations already lined up and we can have more of a focus on those.

Conference software: two final options are Cadmium (AAPOR used) and Prestige. Had a good meeting with Prestige, big advantage is the tech support that they provide during virtual conferences. Still waiting on cost estimate. Hope to have decision made by end of this week.

Conference speakers are confirmed and have a good sense of how they will engage with the virtual interface (without knowing yet final software). 

Sara, Ned, Mary, and Allison meet to discuss sponsorship. With either software platform, there are some good options for how to integrate sponsors (“commercials”, sponsoring individual sessions, etc.). The cost of an “exhibit hall” is too much, but we could schedule a “session” for a vendor or sponsor if they prefer.  

For “live” sessions, we will need to identify moderators, to manage questions and discussions. Whether we have “discussants” is still up in the air. If so, might be good idea to run a training or practice session for the moderators/discussants. For poster sessions, Sara is thinking about how to engage Fellows to provide support to poster presenters.

  1. Treasurer’s Report                           (Kevin)
    1. Budget Updates

Checking: $35,598

Savings: $45,025

Kevin received a $440 check from AAPOR for people who became members through their website. He will deposit to savings this week. And, Kevin received new list of members from AAPOR to add to our database. 

For next meeting, Kevin will prepare cost scenario tied to virtual conference. Mary reported that sponsorship commitments seem to be down from last year – too early to make final prediction. 

  1. Communications                     (Justine)

Justine will amplify the call for submissions to social media, highlighting the extended deadline. Then will add additional touches as we get closer to September 4.

  1. Sponsorship   (Allison/Mary)

Notifications/requests went out to previous sponsors last week. Mary will give 2 weeks before she follows up with non-responders. 

  1. Webinars            (Patrick)
    1. Fall:  AAPOR short course or other presenters?

Lindsey reviewed AAPOR presentations and sent some ideas for follow up. Two topics are identified, but will take some work with presenters to make them effective topics for a MAPOR webinar. Patrick prioritizes “practical take-aways” for our attendees. 1) How to measure Hispanic ethnicity? (build on Census presentations) and Measuring perception of discrimination (Pew experimental questions); 2) [???]

Patrick will send out a description of topics for Council review and discussion. He is prepared to go ahead with the “ethnicity” topic for the fall webinar (mid-October) but he needs to work with Census/Pew to modify their AAPOR presentation to make it more relevant for our audience. 

  1. Summer/Fall 2020 Mixer           (Evgenia/Lindsay)
    1. Should we try a Zoom happy hour?

Evgenia attended the PAPOR event in Zoom (about 20 people attended). Introductions, 2 Truths and a Lie, then small break-out rooms to play another game. It went well, and MAPOR could do something similar. Evgenia will send around a proposal/recommendation. Target on timing will be early October. In addition, we’ll do some sort of “get togethers” tied to the Conference in November.

  1. Website              (Patrick)    

Link to the current newsletter is posted.

  1. Other business?            

Evgenia is trying to find email addresses of the Fellows to contact them regarding mentorship program. Such a list exists – Sara will post it in MAPOR drive. 

Next Meeting: Annual meeting in mid-September!

Committee Composition: 

  1. Conference (Sara, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
  4. Website (Patrick)
  5. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – July 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

July 20th, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes Sara and the conference committee for their diligent work on the upcoming MAPOR conference, and releasing the Call for Participation last week!  I’d like to also thank Patrick for taking on extra responsibility with the website.  

In attendance: Ned, Lindsey, Leah, Kevin, Evgenia, Patrick, Justine, Mary, Sara, Dana, Stephanie

Agenda:

  1. Approve June minutes           (Ned)

June minutes approved

  1. President’s Update     (Ned)
    1. Sad news about Ashley
    2. Statement on inclusion and diversity
    3. Mid-September meeting; virtual with actual happy hour if feasible?  
      1. Will send Doodle 
    4. Input on nominations for fellows and executive council https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_qeEYjY2nqwVzMFohy7LCPU598xdnNhFL6DTbMrniXg/edit#gid=2

Should MAPOR craft our own statement of inclusion and diversity? It’s something we believe in, and our recent conferences have focused on that. Should we align on AAPOR’s statement? If any Council members are interested, reach out to Ned.

Last year Council met in mid-September to finalize plans for conference. We should do same thing virtually this year – think about how the rest of the group can help with conference planning. (FYI, AAPOR Council meeting is September 14 & 15)

Continue to think of potential names for Exec Council and Fellow nominations. 

  1. 2020 Conference                          (Sara/David)
    1. Latest update on remote conversion and software
    2. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements launched
    3. Student Paper Competition Award Updates
    4. Abstract management programming and review updates
      1. Next step for abstract review, program compilation
  1. Moderator role; Networking lunch; Book raffle
  2. Speed networking
  3. Fellowship program
  4. Outreach to specific institutions

Call for participation was distributed. Confusion about how abstracts@MAPOR.org email address works… Team will trouble shoot ☺

The Cadmium quote MAPOR received is significantly higher than AAPOR quote, but it includes features we don’t need, will look for ways to cut. Meeting/demo scheduled for Friday (7/24). Sara will try to check in with Kristin O prior to the meeting, to get feedback on AAPOR experience. Leah had several groups respond to her, but two of them are not really what MAPOR needs. Prestige is the one group with whom we’ll move forward – Leah is setting a meeting with them next Wednesday. Several Council members will join both meetings. 

Conference program: Burton Reist from Census giving pedagogy hour. Evgenia, Justine, and Sara are working on organizing a session on “representation”…recorded presentations, then all presenters will come together for discussion/live Q&A. Who publishes in our academic journals? What are demographics? Leah is talking with a sociologist working in area of health disparities; Sara talking with communications professor on representation in the media; also exploring connection with Barbara Riesman (UIC) on topic of LGBTQ+ representation. Sara is excited that the virtual format is allowing this flexibility and experimentation on content. 

Evgenia started list of potential university departments – should we send the call for participation to these departments? Evgenia will send emails and copy Sara.

Later will discuss Speed Networking and In Memoriam sessions.

Idea to organize presentations by topic, rather than trying to fit them together by “session”. 

Idea of pairing students with Fellows/mentors to work on specific projects. We’ll work to identify mentors, will announce program at Conference, and teams have ~10 months to complete projects and present at 2021 Conference. Evgenia will draft descriptive email, and Ned will send to all Fellows to gauge interest. 

  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Summer newsletter launch
    2. What other communications in spring on our news, including social media postings?

Justine has content, is working on newsletter. Also working on FB and Twitter updates.

  1. Sponsorship     (Allison/Mary)

Once we have a selected conference platform and understand how it works, we can define how the different levels of sponsorship will look. Then will reach out to existing sponsors, and think about who we can add. Idea to frame sponsorships as not just supporting the conference but also supporting students/the future of social science research/etc. 

How to handle vendors and a virtual “exhibit hall”?

  1. Treasurer’s Report                           (Kevin)
    1. Budget Updates

Checking: $35,765

Savings: $45,025

Not much change in our accounts. Need to make some sort of announcement about Doris Graber contribution – wait until conference, put a note in program, and also at business meeting?

MAPOR is PCI compliant for the year. 

  1. Webinars            (Patrick)
    1. Fall:  AAPOR short course or other presenters?

Lindsey offered to finish reviewing the AAPOR presentations, and see if she finds anyone to recommend. The last webinar had a very technical focus; maybe use COVID as a topic? 

  1. Summer/Fall 2020 Mixer           (Evgenia/Lindsay)
    1. Should we try a Zoom happy hour?

Maybe connect with PAPOR and get input on how their Happy Hour worked. Evgenia will follow up with Bob Davis.

  1. Website              (Patrick)    
  1. Other business?            

No other business.

Next Meeting: August 17th 2020 at 12:30 CST

Committee Composition: 

  1. Conference (Sara, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
  4. Website (Patrick)
  5. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – June 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

June 15th, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes council for participating in the VAPOR event last week, and providing the best trivia questions!  

Attendees: Ned, Lindsay, Mary, Leah, Ipek, David, Allison, Patrick, Evgenia, Justine, Edward, Kevin, Sara, Stephanie

Agenda:

  1. Approve May minutes           (Ned)

Minutes approved

  1. President’s Update     (Ned)
    1. MAPOR at AAPOR 
    2. Planning for bigger meeting (was at NORC last year)
    3. Input on nominations for fellows and executive council

All-chapter party went pretty well. Each chapter gave a 1-minute presentation, then chapter trivia game. Seems like we could replicate this for our own virtual conference.

Usually we have a larger in-person meeting in the fall to plan the conference. Even if we can’t be in-person, should we plan on a longer Exec Council meeting in September to help with planning? One question is the timing of the call for abstracts – extend a bit? If so, have longer meeting in late September…

 Note that we need to start thinking about nominations for fellows and exec council. Ned provided link to master spreadsheet – add to it if you have ideas. 

  1. 2020 Conference                          (Sara/David)
    1. Latest update on remote conversion and software
    2. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements
    3. Student Paper Competition Award Updates
    4. Abstract management programming and review updates
  1. Moderator role; Networking lunch; Book raffle
  2. Outreach to specific institutions

Conference committee met last week. 1) Will schedule a call with anyone on Exec Council who attended the AAPOR conference, to collect impressions on software (Cadmium) and format. 2) Leah has reached out to several other vendors (Subversive, Prestige, 4th Floor Creative). Prestige seems like it could be a good option and they can schedule another demo of others want to check them out. Meet with 4th Floor Creative tomorrow to explore options and pricing. Prestige and Cadmium have similar prices. Discussion of whether to record all presentations or to also incorporate some live interaction. Seems like recording is better for the presentations – removed connectivity issues and requires less “moderation”. We need to think about the “chat” feature and be clear on how to use it, etc. And, if pre-recorded, what is the value of grouping into “sessions”? 3) Launch call for participation late June – will keep it similar to prior years, just remind people of virtual considerations (may need to pre-record, post earlier than conference dates, etc.). 4) Looking at conference theme, add panel on Why Representation Matters in Research… women, people of color, LGBTQ, etc. Sara is asking for input and suggestions on panel members. 5) Student paper competition will be announced at same time as call for participation – need to review language to address virtual format. How many awards? Let’s wait and see how many papers are received. 

  1. Treasurer’s Report                           (Kevin)
    1. Budget Updates
    2. Impact of conference switch

Checking: $35,946.36

Savings: $45,024.65

We believe costs for a virtual conference will be low, although calculating whether we can break even will depend on a few variables.

  1. Sponsorship: If we can maintain a fair percentage of our sponsors, we will be able to tolerate high conference costs and still break even. However, given the financial situation of universities and organizations at the moment, we expect that sponsorship will decrease this year.
  2. Attendees and Membership: We expect that attendance to the conference will be lower than previous years.  This may have an adverse effect on membership, as I assume a lot of folks will not renew their membership unless they attend the conference. If we keep costs low, perhaps we can increase attendance??
  3. Software costs: This is still unknown, although costs reported from AAPOR were about $15k for their virtual conference. This is a tolerable amount for us, and we should be able to get a rate that is well below that as we will have a much smaller conference than AAPOR.

Also, keep in mind that our finances are very strong. We intended to spend up to ~$8k this year on travel awards which we will not need to spend this year. Overall, we could absorb a big hit for the conference (~10-20k) and still be strong financially.  

  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Newsletters for 2020: May/June (Spring), (October)  Fall
    2. What other communications in spring on our news, including social media postings?

Usually spring newsletter goes out right before AAPOR. Justine will finish the draft and send it around for review. Will include survey results, etc. Will try to include some concrete info on virtual conference. Think about timing with call for abstracts.

  1. Webinars            (Patrick)
    1. Fall:  AAPOR short course or other presenters?

Nothing is set yet. Considering October date for webinar, so have a little time to finalize plans. Something on COVID-19? Could we merge with virtual conference?

  1. Summer/Fall 2020 Mixer           (Evgenia/Lindsay)
    1. Should we try a Zoom happy hour?

Something to consider for fall. We may be able to have an actual happy hour, depending on situation.  

  1. Past President                 (Ipek)
    1. Student award subcommittee 

With virtual format, need to re-think these awards and how they’re structured. For next year (2021), think about travel awards and maybe also diversity awards. Idea of “fellowship” award that matches students with mentors, they work together on a project. Evgenia will draft a timeline for consideration.

  1. Sponsorship       (Allison/Mary)

Would be helpful to know more about the format of the conference, before we draft our “ask” for sponsorship. Hard to know how many universities will be constrained by spending freezes.  Edward offered to join the Sponsorship team.

  1. Website              (Ashley/Patrick)                        

Nothing new to report.

  1. Other business?            

Ideas to help students: speed networking, webinar to help with preparing CV or preparing for interviews, etc. 

Next Meeting: July 20th 2020 at 12:30 CST

Committee Composition: 

  1. Conference (Sara, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
  4. Website (Ashley, Patrick)
  5. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – May 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

May 18th, 2020

12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Moment of the Month is to recognize Sara, David, Dana, Patrick, and Leah for their work starting to adapt our 2020 conference to a remote platform.  This will be our largest undertaking of 2020 and they have gotten off to a great start thus far.

Attendees: Ned, Patrick, Evgenia, Kevin, Ipek, Lindsey, David, Mary, Edward, Leah, Dana, Allison, Stephanie

Agenda:

  1. Approve April minutes           (Ned)

Approved.

  1. Presidents Update     (Ned)
    1. MAPOR at AAPOR- likely Zoom Chapter event 6/10 at 5:00 or 6:00 EST
      1. MAPOR Zoom backgrounds? 
    2. Good news from hotel (Amada)    

Hotel is not imposing any penalty for canceling 2020 conference – good news! 

Ned received info on the AAPOR chapter events, he will follow up. There will be some sort of interactive activity, based on chapter teams. We should put some effort into publicizing event. June 10, 7:00p eastern.

  1. 2020 Conference                          (Sara/David)
    1. Latest update on remote conversion
      1. Messaging for members
    2. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements
    3. Student Paper Competition Award Updates
    4. Abstract management programming and review updates
  2. Moderator role; Networking lunch; Book raffle

We want to use a vendor/contractor for providing virtual conference tools. Talking with JSM and AAPOR to learn from their experiences (Ipek will start an exchange with AAPOR/Delia). Trying to keep this more “dynamic” than a long webinar… How to integrate speed networking? How to simulate “coffee breaks”? 

Sara drafted message to membership announcing virtual conference. Should we include specific dates? Does it make sense to keep the Friday/Saturday schedule? We should keep it reasonable and determine capacity, then craft call for participation based on that capacity. Important to have ability to record (or, pre-record) sessions – at least keynote and pedagogy sessions. 

Need to keep in mind University spending restrictions. Members may not be able to charge even a lower registration fee. We should make decisions that assume small amount of revenue coming in. And assume “transient” attendance at sessions. 

Next steps: 1) we need to get a sense of costs associated with conferencing tools, then develop a few budget options; 2) send message announcing virtual conference ASAP – and, how do we quickly gauge interest in joining the virtual conference?; 3) in June, send call for participation, which should include a cost estimate for participants; 4) finalize plan for fellowships, to match students with mentors – to increase interaction around conference

  1. Treasurer’s Report                           (Kevin)
    1. Budget Updates
      1. Potential remote conference impact

Checking: $37,085.76

Savings: $45,024.30

Doris Graber gift will be earmarked for Annual Student Paper award.

MAPOR finances continue to be very strong. Over the past 5 years we have averaged an annual surplus of ~$6,500. Prior to COVID-19, we planned to spend an additional ~$8,000 this year towards student awards and travel grants. Initial projections estimated that we could absorb these costs for several years. Due to COVID, Kevin ran projections for dropping the conference this year. The bottom line is that the overwhelming majority of our costs are driven by the conference. He estimated conservative projections for revenues – membership (50% reduction), sponsorship (50% reduction), webinars (100% reduction) and conservative projections for costs. Under these assumptions, MAPOR would generate a small surplus for the year ~$1,200.  If we lose all sponsorship for the year, we would run a deficit of ~$4,500.  If we lose ALL revenue for 2020, essentially not collecting any membership fees for 2020, we would run a deficit of ~$7,000. Even the worst case scenario is tolerable over the long term and does not threaten the financial security of the organization.

Virtual Conference.

CVENT can host virtual events but the software is not a conference hosting platform. They need to be integrated with another software to host the event.

CadmiumCD – This is the software that will be used by AAPOR for this year’s annual conference. Kevin reached out to them to schedule a demo and discuss this as a software to host our conference. One benefit of using the software would be that those who register and use it for AAPOR would be familiar with the platform. In addition, we would be able to obtain insight and experience from those who are hosting the AAPOR conference. Potential costs are unknown at this point. Kevin assumes the estimate of cost would be based on the products we would select and use.

  1. Webinars            (Patrick)
    1. Fall:  AAPOR short course or other presenters?

Nothing new to report. Depending on how virtual conference comes together, perhaps skip the fall webinar. Still plan to “scout” from AAPOR. According to our survey, many members are interested in “survey methods” as a webinar topic. 

  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Newsletters for 2020: May (Spring), (October)  Fall
    2. What other communications in spring on our news, including social media postings?

Wait until next month to publish “spring” newsletter, when we have details of conference further along.

  1. Summer/Fall 2020 Mixer           (Evgenia/Lindsay)
    1. Should we try a Zoom happy hour?

Let’s see how AAPOR goes…  One idea is to identify a smaller group, like students, to have a virtual happy hour/meeting. Use something like “hangouts”, or breakout rooms, to connect in smaller settings.

  1. Past President                 (Ipek)
    1. Student award subcommittee 

Nothing new to report.

  1. Sponsorship       (Allison/Mary)

On hold until we know a bit more about our conference format. And, keeping in mind university spending restrictions. Think about how we can leverage new “on-line” format to highlight sponsors.

  1. Website              (Ashley/Patrick)                        

Nothing new to report.

  1. Other business?            

Evgenia finished analysis from member survey. How to disseminate results? Include summary stats in spring/summer newsletter, highlighting what’s the same, what changed, etc. 

Next Meeting: June 15th 2020 at 12:30 CST

Committee Composition: 

  1. Conference (Sara, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
  4. Website (Ashley, Patrick)
  5. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)

GO MAPOR GO!

2020 Annual Conference

Why Representation Matters

November 20-21, 2020

Conference Chair: Sara Walsh, NORC at the University of Chicago

Associate Conference Chair: David Sterrett, NORC at the University of Chicago

Our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider why representation matters in the work we do everyday. Why do we value representation and why do we strive to achieve it in our polls, our study samples, and in our research design? Where does representation factor into our interviewing and research teams? Why do we place a premium on representative data? We think about representation continually in our daily work and for our conference, let’s gather together and center our discussion on Why Representation Matters. Our conference will feature many interesting sessions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. We are looking forward to seeing you in November at the conference!

–Sara Walsh, 2020 MAPOR Conference Chair

Click here to view the Final Conference Program!

Information about our past conferences can be found here.

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – April 2020

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
April 20th, 2020
12:30 – 2:00 CST/1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Moment of the Month is for everyone who contributed to our huge webinar, blowing-out all records. Special thanks to Patrick for organizing that and making it happen during COVID-19.

Attendees: Ned, Justine, Kevin, Ipek, Stephanie, Patrick, Mary, Sara, Leah, Ashley, David

Agenda:
I. Approve February minutes (Ned)

February minutes approved. No March meeting/minutes.

Leah Dean (new member): starting at RTI DC office next week. Volunteering as ad-hoc member of exec council.

II. MAPOR at AAPOR (Ned)
a. Actually may be something
i. Meetings being set-up
Might be something virtual, in conjunction with the AAPOR virtual conference. Is there interest from the chapters to have a mini virtual meeting? Ned supports some type of MAPOR participation – he will continue to join discussions, see how it evolves, and report back.

III. Treasurer’s Report (Kevin)

Checking: $28,562.66
Savings: $45,023.94

Doris Graber listed MAPOR as a remainder beneficiary in her trust. Kevin has been in communication with the legal group distributing the funds for the last few weeks. They indicated the amount to be distributed to MAPOR will be approximately $7,500, which is almost twice their original estimate. They will be sending a check to Kevin within the next week however Kevin may not be able to get the check until the stay at home order has been lifted.

Membership list updates:
334 Members
76 students (23%)
258 non-students (77%)
Tax filing:
MAPOR non-profit status for state and federal is up to date for the year.

Membership survey: 153/528 = 29% RR, AAPOR RR2 (2 partial completes)

Kevin cleaned the dataset and posted a copy of the data to the Google drive. There is an SPSS file available and he will post an excel file today. Kevin asked if someone was willing to create set of response frequencies for the data. An example from last year is posted with this year’s results.

IV. Webinars (Patrick)
a. HUGE Spring webinar with Rebecca Powell
b. Fall: AAPOR short course or other presenters?

Final count was 238 registrants (~127 through AAPOR email); peak 144 attendees (~120 attendees stayed through the end of the session). Comments from people at small local gov’t offices who expressed strong interest in learning R. Variety of fed agencies – FDA, USDA, Census. Overall, a successful publicity event.

AAPOR will still have on-line short courses, so MAPOR could pick one to use as our fall webinar. Also, some suggestions for topics came through member survey.

V. 2020 Conference (Sara/David)
a. When do we come up with a remote plan?
i. Hotel implications?

Discussion: Need to come up with remote plan soon. We need to investigate hotel contract to see by which date we have to make decision. Contract language is not clear. We need to be cautious and not assume we can move forward as normal. Multiple options to consider: keeping dates but going virtual, rescheduling to later date, just skipping the 2020 conference. Need to keep in mind restrictions that universities are putting on travel and non-essential expenditures. Kevin will reach out to CVent and see what solutions they might have for virtual conference hosting. Discussion that we should decide on format before sending out first invitation for participation – need to think about what content is most appropriate for the MAPOR membership (may be different than AAPOR). Should we do a brief survey to members, on the topic of virtual conference? Consensus is that we don’t want to open up to too much input.

Motion to change 2020 conference to remote format. Approved by Council.

Ned will contact hotel.

Will decide on messaging to membership soon – will send out early May.

Discussion about free registration for students, increased emphasis on paper competitions, etc.

b. Speaker Updates: Trent Buskirk has agreed to lead our short course on interactive graphics with R (shout out to Patrick for suggesting him!) and Claudia Deane , VP of Research and polling expert at Pew will lead our keynote (shout out to Jenn Agiesta for suggesting her!)! Sara is still working on a pedagogy hour speaker – like to build on the theme of measuring identities and making research more inclusive and have been looking for folks who work in measuring demographics such as race. If anyone on council has seen or heard of any interesting presentations please reach out!

c. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements – will be working on this towards the end of the month.
d. QUESTION: should the call for participation address or include a tentative plan? Eg, we plan to move forward with our schedule as usual (or do we build in more time for abstracts?
e. Student Paper Competition Award Updates – will be included in above announcements. Maybe send separate communication to MAPOR and AAPOR listservs after announcements go out?
f. Abstract management programming and review updates

VI. Communications (Justine)
a. Newsletters for 2020: May (Spring), October) Fall
b. What other communications in spring?

Will include some data from member survey, updates on the decision to go to virtual conference, small segment on MAPOR to AAPOR. Maybe delay the Spring newsletter a bit, until we have more solid information.

VII. Summer/Fall 2020 Mixer (Evgenia/Lindsay)
a. Ann Arbor in August or September?

No discussion today. We’ll see how things evolve. Glad we fit in our Chicago event!

VIII. Past President (Ipek)
a. Student award subcommittee

Will continue paper competition. If virtual conference is free, no compelling reason to pursue making awards.

Evgenia will continue to update the university list, to try to target departments for membership.

IX. Sponsorship (Allison/Mary)

How much drop will there be in sponsorship? Maybe not a big concern because we won’t need as much sponsorship if we don’t have in-person conference. We need to consider how best to frame sponsorship requests – what is compelling in the environment of a virtual conference?

Usually the push for sponsorship is summer, and the goal is to get funds in time to prepare paper conference program.

X. Website (Ashley/Patrick)

Nothing to report.

XI. Other business?

Discussion of communication with members in general – make sure we have solid information before we share it.

For May meeting, Kevin will prepare a review of the budget, and what the impact may be on not holding an in-person conference.

Committee Composition:

I. Conference (Sara, Dana, David)
II. Sponsorship (Allison, Mary)
III. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsay)
IV. Website (Ashley, Patrick)
V. Student Award (Ipek, Ned, Kevin, Dana, Evgenia)