July 14, 2023
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Paul & Curtiss for
their work matching student fellowships and supporting our amazing MAPOR students!
MAPOR Mission Statement
We provide high-quality educational and conference programs to encourage scholarly exchanges across
disciplines and geographies, broaden member access to mentors and resources, and bolster
opportunities for leadership and innovations. We join forces with AAPOR, academic institutions, and
government and industry employers to develop a thriving community that supports all MAPOR
members, including students, scholars, and professionals in every stage of their career.
MAPOR Vision Statement
MAPOR is a leading voice in public opinion, survey, and social science scholarship, methods, and practice
among regional professional associations. We are an inclusive and supportive community that enables
our diverse members to achieve their educational, professional development, and networking goals.
MAPOR Documents & Procedures
a. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
b. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
c. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-
sheet/
Agenda:
Attendees: Jenny, Justine, Ben, Jerry, Lindsey, Patrick, Leah, and Rebecca
I. Approval of last meeting’s minutes
Approved
II. 2023 Conference (Patrick)
a. New advertising locations/ideas?
b. Support for new programming?
c. New sponsorships?
d. Hotel Check-in
e. New storage location near hotel?
We have a new point of contact at Embassy Suites. Patrick shared with the new contact that we do not
expect major changes from last year so to use that as a template. Patrick had a panel member from All
State lined up, but Allstate said no. Instead, Patrick got Yu-Han Jao from Sumitomo Pharma America to
join the panel again.
We discussed registration costs, which were $100 in 2022. We discussed increasing the registration costs
for non-students by $10 and students by $5 to help cover additional speaker costs through the panel.
Patrick is teaching a course this fall, and asked if we could comp these students registration to attend the
keynote and such. Justine suggested they volunteer in some capacity if they don’t pay. Jerry shared that
AAPOR has a one-day experience for students in fields that are not traditionally part of our industry. He
suggested we have a form to make it a formal process and limit it to ten students a year or something like
that. Rebecca pointed out that AAPOR is a longer conference than MAPOR and many MAPOR attendees
already only attend for a day. She suggested allowing them to attend Friday afternoon or something like
that. Ben suggested we sit on this a bit and have more time to think through the details. Ben also
suggested that we offer it to all juniors or seniors in undergrad and 1st year grad students regardless of
program. We will discuss this more next month.
Patrick sent two emails to AAPORnet; call for abstracts and trying to get outside industry people. The
abstract deadline is July 28th but will likely move to August 4 or 7. Patrick and Jenny will plan to sift
through abstracts the end of August or middle of September.
Kevin is currently overseeing the MAPOR storage unit but is rolling off council. Justine found a storage unit
near the hotel for $40/month. She tried finding space at NORC, but they are looking at downsizing space.
She is worried that if we stick it in a NORC office now, it may get lost, so a new storage unit is best. Justine
and Lindsey will work with Kevin to move MAPOR stuff.
III. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report (Lindsey)
a. Financial updates
i. Checking: $20,243.20
ii. Savings: $47,214.95
b. Membership list updates
i. 395 Total
ii. 311 non-students
iii. 84 students
iv. Need to add July membership
Lindsey will look at 2022 costs for the travel scholarships, speaker costs, and other expenses to get a sense
of our annual budget and how much we can afford to comp in membership, webinars, and conference.
IV. Communications & Website (Benjamin)
a. Newsletter–mid-July & mid-September, mini pre conference
b. Website updates?
c. OLC Email credentials?
d. Spring/Summer Communication Schedule (bylaws, survey, conference registration)
We have three emails set up through Go Daddy (admin, abstract/conference, and online learning). Ben will send
Rebecca and Patrick their credentials. Ben isn’t confident that it is working correctly, so he is going to test
further. There is a security certificate for the website that has expired. Ben is working on it. Ben didn’t know the
meeting minutes were uploaded to the website. He has that up-to-date now.
We have a lot of communications that need to go out for the member survey, bylaws revision, conference, and
council nomination. He would like to discuss timeline and possibly overlapping some of it. Justine will think
through the timeline more. She does want bylaws to be its own effort. Justine will talk with Kevin and Lindsey to
determine what goes into the bylaws vote.
Justine added questions to the survey on how members want MAPOR to communicate them.
V. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
a. Fellowship program updates
They are doing great things!
VI. Sponsorship (Kevin)
a. Reaching out to new possible sponsors? A section in the newsletter?
Kevin will start on this soon. Justine suggested we start showcasing our sponsors in newsletters.
VII. Online Learning Committee (Justine)
a. Integrating fall resume/PD into the conference
The OLC will have a three-sessions webinar in the fall. It will be student focused, including Intro to the field,
resume and CV review, and networking leading into the conference. They will reach out to departments to
recruit registrants. Curtiss will give his student perspective to the OLC next week. AAPOR is working on a list of
academic programs that we can use to fill in gaps. Jerry will reach out to a career advisor at the University of
Nebraska to hopefully raffle off some of her time to review a resume. We discussed routing registration
through Google forms or something like that to avoid the $5 Cvent. We could also say this is free on behalf of
Nora Cate and the spring webinar speaker who donated her spring honorarium. They are thinking about
changing webinar registration to four registration types; students-free, MAPOR members-$30, non-members-
$60, non-member who become members-$50 ($30 for the webinar and $20 for the membership, so $10
discount if they become members).
The member survey currently has questions asking for OLC topics for future webinars. The OLC would like to
focus on the public opinion side of the industry next. They have also thought about skill-based webinars, like
how to put together a webinar or writing effective abstracts. They have discussed the spring webinars being
more everyone focused and fall being more student focused.
VIII. Other ongoing business
a. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan for upcoming elections
b. History of the EC List
c. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC
d. Bylaws
e. Tentative tasks for 2023
i. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
ii. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?
Three positions are up for election this fall; VP/President-Elect, Associate
Secretary/Treasurer, and Associate Conference Chair.
Justine is worried about filling the OLC Chair as an electable position because we already
struggle to fill elected positions. Lindsey said that the OLC has taken MAPOR
membership value, exposure and additional members to a new level and deserves a
higher role. Lindsey also suggested putting together how many hours a month are
involved with each of the positions to have when we approach people to run. Ben made
the point that we don’t have time to get the bylaws changed and then someone elected
into this position this fall. Justine shared the concern that if we male the OLC Chair
position electable we will be expected to make the communication position an electable
position too. Ben asked if we can define the OLC chair role if we decide to add it as an
electable position in the bylaws. Rebecca said the OLC has detailed documents on what
the OLC chair does. Patrick suggested we float it at the business meeting and then if it
seems well received we do a bylaw change next year. There was push back on doing
bylaw changes two years in a row. Because we do not have time to pass the bylaws
change and get an OLC chair elected this year, we would have three positions to fill each
year moving forward if we make the OLC chair position a two year term. Justine will put
together level of effort for the open positions.
Please share nominee ideas with Justine.
Council members
President – Justine Bulgar-Medina
Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean
Past President – Kevin Ulrich
Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh
Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar
Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson
Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich
Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom
Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro
Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo
Proposed Committees
Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise
Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin
Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair), Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook
Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom
Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina
Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean