Announcements

2023 MAPOR Fall Webinar Series

Benjamin Schapiro

Survey Success Trilogy: Introduction to the Field, Networking, and Navigating Your Career in Survey Research

October 13th 12-1pm CT: What is Survey Research?

October 27th 1-2pm CT: How to Network in the Survey Field

November 3rd 12-1pm CT: Navigating the Survey Job Market

Register Here

Registration to this series gives you access to all three live webinars as well as access to a recording of each webinar for one price. The cost for MAPOR members is $30, $60 for non-members, and FREE for students with a valid edu email address. In addition to these amazing webinars, students who attend will be entered into a raffle for a FREE resume review by Dr. Chris Timm of the University of Nebraska.  Each webinar you attend will be another entry into the raffle, so come learn about the field and get set up for success.  7 lucky students will win this opportunity.

Please share broadly, we are hoping to especially engage students inside and outside the AAPOR & MAPOR communities.

Brad Edwards
Michelle Amsbary
Jesus Arrue		Brad Edwards, Michelle Amsbary, and Jesus Arrue
Westat

What Is Survey Research

Our first webinar, What is Survey Research? led by Brad Edwards of Westat, will provide an introduction to the field of survey research, why it is important, and what a typical day in this field looks like. Brad and two additional panelists – Michelle Amsbary (Westat) and Jesus Arrue (Westat) will also answer questions from the audience. This webinar will be held on October 13th at 12pm CT.

About the Presenters: 

Brad Edwards is a Westat Vice President and Lead Scientific/Methodological Advisor in the Survey Research Sector. He has more than 40 years of experience in survey design and project management in health and healthcare financing, aging and long-term care. Methodological interests include multimode survey design, multicultural survey methods, total survey error, survey costs, and data collector staffing and training. He has led design and implementation of major face-to-face survey methods and tools, including video interviewing, CAPI, ACASI, CARI, mobile field management systems, and performance dashboards.

Michelle Amsbary is a Vice President in Westat’s Large Surveys Practice. She holds a Masters in Survey Methodology from the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM) at the University of Maryland and a degree in Sociology from the University of Virginia. With over 25 years of experience in all phases of survey research, including survey operations management, Amsbary directs surveys in energy and voting behavior, among others. More recently she has focused on business development activities, such as proposal development and internal training efforts.

Jesus Arrue, MS, Survey Methodologist. Jesus Arrue has 7 years of experience analyzing survey data, conducting literature reviews on survey methodology topics, performing data analysis, and assisting cognitive interviews. Arrue supports a number of projects on quality improvement efforts, as well as video interviewing.

Tiffany Neman
Brittany Creel
Ned English		Tiffany Neman, Felicitas Mittereder, Brittany Creel, and Ned English
University of Wisconsin, Meta, Abt, and NORC

How to Network in the Survey Field

In our second webinar, How to Network in the Survey Field, a panel of MAPOR members with a variety of backgrounds will talk about their experiences networking and answer questions from the audience. We are excited to have Tiffany Neman (PhD Student at the University of Wisconsin), Felicitas Mittereder (Meta), Brittany Creel (Abt), and Ned English (NORC) join us for this panel. This webinar will be held on October 27th at 1pm CT.

Tiffany Neman recently obtained her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently interning as a Survey Statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies (CES), where she conducts research on unit nonresponse and panel attrition using administrative records. Her research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including Public Opinion Quarterly, Survey Practice, and Field Methods, and she frequently presents work at the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) annual conference. Tiffany also serves as the Student Representative on the executive council of the Pacific chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (PAPOR).

Brittany Creel is a Survey Research Senior Analyst at Abt Associates, based in Chicago, IL. She focuses on data collection operations, survey methodology, reporting, and data visualization. Prior to her role at Abt Associates, Brittany held research roles at Universal Orlando Resort and MMGY Global. Brittany recently began the Master of Science in Applied Data Science program at the University of Chicago. Previously, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Central Florida and completed the University of Georgia’s Principles of Market Research certificate program. When not working or studying, you can find Brittany on hiking trails with her dog, reading mystery novels, watching movies, cheering on the UCF Knights, or playing board games.

Ned English is a Principal Research Methodologist at NORC, where he has contributed to numerous studies, managed research projects, and led its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) group since 2002. English is considered a leader in address-based sampling (ABS) for single and multi-mode surveys, advising on studies across disciplines. He has also served as the lead methodologist on projects for clients such as the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute on Aging.  His work has been published in leading journals as well as book chapters and conference proceedings. English also teaches “GIS Applications in the Social Sciences” at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Prior to NORC, he worked as a GIS consultant implementing geospatial solutions for clients in the public and private sectors. He earned his M.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his B.S. in Geography from McGill University. Ned is also proud to have served on MAPOR council as President, Conference Chair, and Secretary/Treasurer over the past ten years.

Natalie JacksonDr. Natalie Jackson
Vice President
GQR

Navigating the Survey Job Market

The final webinar of this series, Navigating the Survey Job Market led by Natalie Jackson of GQR will focus on tips and tricks for cover letters and resumes, preparing for interviews (online or in-person), and other advice for ensuring a successful job hunt. This webinar will be held on November 3rd at 12pm CT.

Natalie Jackson, PhD, is Vice President at GQR. She has spent nearly two decades developing extensive expertise in survey research, methodology, and political polling. Her research on how people form opinions, as well as on the election polling and forecasting landscape has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and she has a weekly column on data politics called Leading Indicators at National Journal.  

Prior to joining GQR, she was Director of Research at PRRI and Managing Director of Polling at Just Capital. Earlier in her career, she held senior and management positions at the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and The Huffington Post. She is an active member for the American Association for Public Opinion Research, serves on the council for the National Capitol Area Political Science Association, and co-chairs the Careers Diversity Committee for the American Political Science Association. She is on the editorial boards of Social Science Quarterly and PS: Political Science and Politics. Natalie received her PhD in political science from the University of Oklahoma and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke University Initiative on Survey Methodology. Her BA in political science and history is from West Texas A&M University. She has just published an edited volume, Non-Academic Careers for Quantitative Social Scientists, with Springer Nature.

MAPOR 2023 Conference Call for Participation in Industry Idea Exchange

Patrick Hsieh

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s

48th Annual Conference

Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!

Call for Participation: Industry Idea Exchange Session

Extended to August 18th, 2023!

As a multidisciplinary organization, MAPOR values and considers collaboration as the bedrock of our profession and research fields. Besides the innovative research trend learning opportunity from our regular thematic sessions, MAPOR is planning an Industry Idea Exchange session during the conference to enhance our pursuit of collaboration beyond survey and public opinion research communities.

The Industry Idea Exchange session seeks to provide an engaging opportunity for connecting with organizations that conduct research such as marketing, consumers or users, audience, patients, or other social, behavioral, and data sciences research in applied contexts. Topics for the Industry Idea Exchange session may include, but are not limited to, promotion of cutting-edge research toolkits, talent acquisition for research organizations, hiring trends in labor market, and organizational branding.

MAPOR welcomes and encourages researchers, hiring and research managers, career advisors and recruiters, and job seekers working in any applied research field to participate in the Industry Idea Exchange session in our 2023 annual conference for scouting talents, identifying collaboration opportunities, and expanding professional networks.

For participation inquiries, please contact the 2023 MAPOR conference chair, Y. Patrick Hsieh at: abstracts@mapor.org using the subject line “[Industry Idea Exchange Participation] by 11:59 pm CDT on Friday, August 18, 2023.” In your inquiry, please briefly describe the discussion topics you and your organization may want to discuss with other practitioners in the session. The conference committee will orient the outreach session based on the interest and focus of the participants.

MAPOR 2023 Conference Call for Abstracts

Patrick Hsieh

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Conference Committee is hard at work planning MAPOR’s

48th Annual Conference

Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!

Call for Abstracts

Extended to August 18th, 2023!

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research’s annual conference welcomes abstract submissions on any topic related to public opinion research, communication, or survey research methodology. This year, we are accepting submissions for the following types of presentations: papers, methodological briefs, posters, and panels of papers. We are particularly interested in papers that relate to our conference theme:

“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion Research”

As our research landscape continues to change and evolve since the pandemic, MAPOR hopes to broaden our pursuit of collaboration in the survey and public opinion research disciplines. To continue our learning about the changing research landscape, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. Specifically, we encourage abstract submissions on topics that cut across multiple disciplines and research contexts, such as user/respondent-centered survey design, usability of web or mobile surveys, and the ethical use of public opinion and survey data.

More broadly, we welcome abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; respondent behaviors; respondent recruitment for hard-to-reach populations; nonresponse or data quality assessment; total survey error; emerging technologies or methods for data collection; use of administrative records or alternative data sources for surveys; machine learning and data science; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; cross-cultural research; and qualitative and mixed-method research techniques.

Submissions: Please visit the link: https://cvent.me/nwQGaq to submit your abstracts, with a limit of 300 words or fewer. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address of all authors. The same author’s name may appear as the first author on a maximum of two submissions. To allow for blind review, please remove all personally identifying information from the abstract’s text before submission.

Note to student authors: If all authors are students who will be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at the time of the conference, you may submit your paper to the MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Please visit mapor.org for details. When submitting a student paper to the competition, the student submitter will be asked to provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor. The faculty mentor will be asked to send an email of 25 words or fewer endorsing the paper when the full paper is submitted.

Panel Proposals: Panels focus on a common theme and include 4 or 5 participants. A panel proposal requires a description of 300 words or fewer discussing the issues to be addressed and their importance. Also, submissions should list the potential panelists, their institutional affiliations, email addresses, and tentative titles of presentations. Panels related to the conference theme are especially encouraged.

Submission Information: All abstracts must be posted no later than 11:59 pm CDT on Friday, August 18, 2023. Accepted papers sharing a theme will be scheduled during a paper session. Papers with more individualized topics will be scheduled during a poster session. MAPOR considers both types of presentation equally valuable. All submitters will be notified via e-mail by September 23 of their abstract’s acceptance status. For questions or problems with the submission process, please contact the 2022 MAPOR conference chair, Y. Patrick Hsieh at: abstracts@mapor.org.

Travel Grants: The MAPOR Council will be offering two types of support grants for the 2023 Annual Conference: the MAPOR Student Support Grant and the MAPOR Colleague Grant. More details on these awards can be found on mapor.org.

2023 MAPOR Spring Webinar Series

Benjamin Schapiro

Web Surveys 201: Beyond the Basics

Three-part series (or any single session):
Friday, April 14th from 11:30-1:00 CT
Friday, April 21st from 10:30-12:00 CT
Friday, April 28th from 11:30-1:00 CT

Register Here

MAPOR is excited to announce its upcoming slate of Spring webinars – Web Surveys 201: Beyond the Basics. In this three-webinar series, presenters will go beyond the basics of setting up a web survey, and explore more advanced topics: monitoring web survey data quality using paradata, detecting falsification in web surveys, and storing and retrieving survey data using SQL. These webinars will be held on April 14th, April 21st, and April 28th respectively. Read more about each webinar and note the respective webinar times below. Registration to this series gives you access to all three live webinars as well as access to a recording of each webinar for one price. The cost for MAPOR members is $20, $30 for non-members, and FREE for students.

Dr. Steven Snell
Principal Survey Methodologist
Goldman Sachs

Front End Survey Development For Data Quality

Our first webinar, Front End Survey Development For Data Quality,  Steven Snell from Goldman Sachs will cover advanced web survey options that will allow you to monitor and improve the quality of your data. Examples include page/block timers and built in items to assess response validity. This webinar will be held on April 14th at 11:30am CT.

About the Presenter:

Steven Snell, PhD, is Principal Survey Methodologist at Goldman Sachs, where he leads a research center of excellence to provide guidance to strategic research projects across the firm. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, he led research consultancies at Qualtrics and Duke University, advising hundreds of survey research projects in brand, product, employee, customer, and marketing research for B2B and B2C clients. Steve’s expertise in survey and market research include questionnaire design, concept and product testing, segmentation, experimental design, brand tracking, and longitudinal research.

He holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton University and attained further training in survey methodology as a postdoctoral fellow at the Initiative on Survey Methodology at Duke University. Steve is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research and AAPOR’s Pacific chapter as well as the Market Research Council, where he serves on the executive committee as Secretary/Treasurer.

Ms. Emily Geisen
Senior Product XM Scientist
Qualtrics

Detecting Fraudulent Data in Web Surveys

In our second webinar, Detecting Fraudulent Data in Web Surveys, Emily Geisen from Qualtrics will share recent research and developments related to identifying and preventing fraudulent responses. Topics include digital fingerprinting, bot detection, attention checks, inconsistent data, speeding, NLP, and AI. This webinar will be held on April 21st at 10:30am CT.

About the Presenter: 

Emily Geisen is a survey methodologist and Senior Product XM Scientist at Qualtrics. She helps develop Qualtrics products and tools for researchers and insights professionals. Her current projects include fraud detection for online panels, usability testing, and accessible survey design layouts. Prior to her current role, she was a senior manager in Qualtrics Sample Science and Delivery unit, where she oversaw a team of project managers responsible for running 150 online sample projects per week. Ms. Geisen is the Editor-in-Chief of Survey Practice. She teaches Questionnaire Design at the University of North Carolina and she teaches Usability Testing for Survey Research at the International Program in Survey in Data Science. She is the author of the 2017 book, Usability Testing for Survey Research.

Dr. Scott Adams
Analytics and Insights Leader
National Business Furniture

Demystifying SQL

Interested in learning how to store your survey data in something a little more sophisticated than an Excel spreadsheet, but aren’t sure where to start? In our final webinar, Demystifying SQL: Learning a Lingua Franca for Data Professionals, Scott Adams, Analytics and Insights Leader at National Business Furniture, will walk you through the basics of using SQL (one of the most common programming languages for working with databases of structured data). After completing this webinar, you’ll learn the uses for SQL and be able to write basic SQL queries. No experience with SQL is required! This webinar will be held on April 28th at 11:30am CT.

About the Presenter: 

Scott A. Adams is an Analytics and Insights Leader for National Business Furniture (NBF), where he leads efforts to enhance marketing activities using advanced analytics, data visualization, and machine learning. Prior to joining NBF, Scott worked as a data scientist at several different organizations, including Nielsen and Northwestern Mutual, and taught data analytics courses to aspiring data professionals. Scott earned his PhD in Sociology, with a concentration in Survey Research and Methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2016 and currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife Liz and feline companion, Zazzles.

2023 Student Paper Competition

Benjamin Schapiro

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research invites eligible students to enter the association’s MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Two winning papers, the Doris A. Graber Award in public opinion and the Allan L. McCutcheon Award in survey research methodology, will receive $500 and one free conference registration. The winning papers also will be accepted for presentation during a session at the May 2023 AAPOR conference. 

Eligibility

  • For the purposes of this competition, an eligible student is someone enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program at the time of the conference. A paper authored by more than one person is considered eligible only if all authors are students according to the above definition. Students need not be members of MAPOR. 
  • Students who have already won a MAPOR Student Paper Award are NOT eligible to submit as a sole or co-author. A student who has not won the award can submit in multiple years, but cannot submit the same paper multiple times (this would be unfair because all student paper competition entries are reviewed and provided with detailed comments by at least one MAPOR Fellow).
  • Papers submitted to this competition should be primarily students’ work, although student author(s) are encouraged to seek advice from a faculty mentor. This requirement does not preclude recognizing the faculty mentor as a co-author on a later paper that is based on or incorporates some of the work in the student paper.  In most cases the student would be first author on such a later publication.

The topic of the paper must fall under one or both of MAPOR’s general areas of scholarship, which are (1) public opinion and (2) research methods in public opinion and survey research. When submitting, the author(s) must indicate the topic for which the paper should be considered. The papers need not be quantitative nor must they report data in order to qualify for consideration in this competition. Each student may be an author on only one paper submitted to the competition.

Procedure

1. Submit an abstract to the MAPOR conference at mapor.org. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address for all authors. Students must provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor when submitting their abstract. Abstracts can be submitted until 11:59pm CDT on Friday, August 18th, 2023. 

2. Students whose papers have been accepted for the 2023 conference can have their papers considered for MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition.  Here are the requirements:

A committee composed of MAPOR Fellows will judge all papers submitted to the competition. Winners will be announced at the Friday Awards Session.

AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices

All submissions must abide by the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices. Manuscripts that make use of survey data must include, at minimum, the information below from Section III-A of the Code:

Include the following items in any report of research results or make them available immediately upon release of that report.

1. Who sponsored the research study, who conducted it, and who funded it, including, to the extent known, all original funding sources.

2. The exact wording and presentation of questions and responses whose results are reported.

3. A definition of the population under study, its geographic location, and a description of the sampling frame used to identify this population. If the sampling frame was provided by a third party, the supplier shall be named. If no frame or list was utilized, this shall be indicated.

4. A description of the sample design, giving a clear indication of the method by which the respondents were selected (or self-selected) and recruited, along with any quotas or additional sample selection criteria applied within the survey instrument or post-fielding. The description of the sampling frame and sample design should include sufficient detail to determine whether the respondents were selected using probability or non-probability methods.

5. Sample sizes and a discussion of the precision of the findings, including estimates of sampling error for probability samples and a description of the variables used in any weighting or estimating procedures. The discussion of the precision of the findings should state whether or not the reported margins of sampling error or statistical analyses have been adjusted for the design effect due to clustering and weighting, if any.
6. Which results are based on parts of the sample, rather than on the total sample, and the size of such parts.

7. Method and dates of data collection.

All submissions must include the following:
8. The response rate and details of its calculation (if response rate is not appropriate, the refusal rate). Accurate reporting of the response rate requires consulting the AAPOR Standard Definitions (aapor.org), to identify the appropriate response rate definition. If the AAPOR recommendations are not followed, authors should explain why a nonstandard approach was employed.

9. For models fitted to the data, the equations of the models should be presented, including the numerical values of the parameter estimates, the respective standard errors, and goodness-of-fit statistics for the model.
In addition, authors need to agree to make other specific information about the study available within 30 days of any request for such materials. This information is listed in Section III-B of the Code located at aapor.org/Standards-Ethics/AAPOR-Code-of-Ethics

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – June 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

June 9, 2023

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Patrick & Jenny for getting our call for abstracts & participation out!

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 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Attendees: Paul, Justine, Patrick, Ben, Curtiss, Kevin, Erin, Rebecca, and Lindsey 

Agenda:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. New advertising locations/ideas? 
    2. Support for new programming?
    3. New sponsorships? 

Patrick put out two calls through CVent; call for abstracts and call for participation. Next week, Patrick will send the two calls through AAPORnet. Patrick and Justine will work together on an email to share with other chapters and on social media to try to draw folks to MAPOR. This can be incorporated into the newsletter.

There was a lengthy conversation brainstorming how to find folks who may not know about or think to attend MAPOR. Justine will send an email next Friday to the EC asking each of us to come up with one idea of whom to send this to. 

Patrick will talk to Jenny about getting laptops set up for the conference.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates

Checking-$20,808.18

Savings: $47,214.57

  1. Membership list updates

Lindsey will update with June AAPOR list.

All the AAPOR raffle winners have received their prizes. The reimbursement is with AAPOR.

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter–late June & mid-October?

Ben needs final versions and then it is ready. The hope is to send it the Tuesday after Juneteenth. 

  1. Website updates?

All issues have been resolved. 

  1. OLC Email credentials? 

Ben is looking into the costs for this. There are a lot of options across the seven email addresses we have. We are going to transition three mailboxes; OLC, conference, and everything else MAPOR. We’ll move from $7/month to $21/month, but Ben thinks there is a discount for paying annually.  

  1. Spring/Summer Communication Schedule (bylaws, survey, conference registration)

Ben will work on the MAPORnet listserv transition communication through the newsletter and social media. Ben will update on the website too. 

We are stepping away from Twitter. Ben will look at how to join LinkedIn. 

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
    1. Fellowship program updates

One student is deferring to next year because she cannot attend the conference this year. A student from last year is deferring until next year because of family issues. They are struggling to match one of the students after reaching out to four different people. Paul will email the EC to see if anyone else has ideas. The remaining three are matched and already working with their mentors. The committee is getting ready for the travel grants and colleagues grants. 

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 

Kevin is ramping up to recontact the usual suspects and reach out to new folks too.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
  2. Integrating fall resume/PD into the conference

They are looking at doing the resume review and will work to flush this out. 

  1. Other ongoing business
    1. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan for upcoming elections 
    2. History of the EC List
    3. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC
    4. Bylaws
    5. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?

Need to figure out where to store MAPOR stuff and who can get it to and from the conference. Lindsey will reach out to Justine too to get it on her radar. 

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

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – May 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

May 19, 2023

11:30 – 12:30 CST / 12:30 pm –1:30pm EST

Link: Click here to join the meeting

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Curtiss, Paul, Patrick, and Jenny for the Student Fellowship and Conference Speakers planning/launches!

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 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Attendees: Justine, Paul, Jenny, Lindsey, Leah, Jerry, Rebecca, Erin, and Patrick

Agenda:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Support needs & update
    2. Call for participation
      1. Any outstanding decisions/opportunities for feedback? 
    3. New advertising locations/ideas? 
    4. Speed networking/resume review/OLC integration at conference? 

Patrick asked for thoughts on extending the pedagogy hour to 75 or 90 minutes. If we extend it, he has one more, potential pedagogy hour panelist. We could shorten lunch before and refreshments after or make the Q&A part of the refreshments to make room for a 75-minute pedagogy hour. Lindsey mentioned that we will pay for travel, hotel, registration, and expenses for each person on the panel. We’ll want to make sure all of that is in the conference registration costs. 

We’ll have an immemorial session. 

The feedback for the networking over the break will need to be more organized. Jenny will think through how to possibly do this differently this year. We also discussed having more of a company forum instead of speed networking.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. $21,645.72 checking
      2. 47,214.15 savings
    2. Membership list updates
      1. There were no AAPOR membership updates in May, so Lindsey will update the list when it becomes available in June. 
    3. AAPOR Wrap-up
      1. Lindsey reached out to the MAPOR/AAPOR reception winners. She has heard from three, and those are ordered and two are on their way. Once, they are all ordered, Lindsey will send the receipts to AAPOR for reimbursement. 
      2. Kevin has the raffle entries and will share them with Lindsey to add to the mailing list. 
    4. Cvent contract
      1. Signed and paid
  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Website updates
    3. Spring/Summer Communication Schedule (bylaws, survey, conference registration)
  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
    1. Fellowship program updates

Five student fellows, three are matched to a MAPOR fellow

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 
  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
  2. Spring 3-part series on Web Surveys was held in April

We need to get a new email address for them that they can send from. Justine will schedule a meeting with Ben to get this worked out. 

The spring webinar was a success. They will send Lindsey information to pay the honorarium. 

The fall webinar series will be around resume review.

  1. Other business
    1. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan for upcoming elections 
    2. History of the EC List
    3. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC
    4. Bylaws
    5. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?
    6. Note: Lindsey filed our taxes earlier this year, working on tax exemption status in IL.

Justine has a survey programmed. The OLC will send new questions to add. Then, it will go out in June. 

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

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – April 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

April 14, 2023

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to the OLC as they kickoff yet another successful series!

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 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Agenda:

Attendees: Ben, Justine, Curtiss, Leah, Lindsey, Jenny, Paul, and Patrick

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. AAPOR and MAPOR Code of Conduct–Bylaws Update      (Justine)

Lindsey and Justine are monitoring the AAPORnet debates, and Lindsey will get an update at the AAPOR Chapter meeting later on 4/14. We will need to take a vote on the bylaws anyway for a few small changes. We need to think about how we will transfer the information from council to council. One idea is to share a password protected document with important account passwords and if anyone is not allowed to be a MAPOR member due to conduct issues. 

Justine would like to send a survey, bylaws election and MAPOR at AAPOR in a call to action email. 

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Support needs?
    2. Short course instructors 
    3. New advertising locations/ideas? 

The keynote speaker is confirmed. Patrick has some pedagogy hour speakers confirmed and hours in the works. He is working on short course leaders preferably someone non-academic and not on the frequent fliers list, but we can also stick with the tried and true for the short courses. Ideas welcome!

Justine wants to try to spread the word on the MAPOR conference at AAPOR about how we are trying to cast the net past the typical group and push “MAPOR as a state of mind.” We discussed different ways to circulate the MAPOR conference through a flier or word of mouth at the conference.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. Checking: $20,855.46
      2. Savings: $47,213.79
    2. Membership list updates
      1. Lindsey will get the April members added in the next week.
    3. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
        1. Done
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?
        1. We increased our registrants for this contract and will add to the May ’23-April ’24 contract. Then, we can move the membership to Cvent. Once that is all working well, we can cancel the other platforms.
      3. Tax Exempt status: Lindsey will move here soon.
  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Website updates
    3. MAPOR @ AAPOR

The newsletter is in the works and will go out in April. 

  1. Survey Subcommittee       (Justine)
    1. Any questions for submission? Please send suggestions by EOD April 19th.

Justine will send out a draft soon. Please let her know if there are any questions/topics you would like included. The plan is to send it in a couple weeks.     

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)

We have received four applications. Feedback from past students has been positive. Next, they will work on the student matching and then work on the student travel piece. Paul will send another reminder about the student fellowship application process again. 

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 

No updates.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
  • The Spring Webinar series kicks off today! We’ve already had a lot of feedback that the topics are super interesting to folks. In addition, we’ve pulled together some numbers for you on the Spring series versus the Fall series. 
  • As of today, we have 42 registrants for the Spring series ($740 gross revenue; $140 net)
    • Breakdown:
      • 16 students ($0)
      • 10 MAPOR members ($200)
      • 18 Non-MAPOR members ($540)
    • $600 in expenses for honoraria ($200 x 3 speakers)
    • $140 net
  • For reference, the Fall Webinar series, at its conclusion, had 51 registrants ($670 gross; $70 net)
    • Breakdown:
      • 11 students ($0)
      • 13 MAPOR members ($130)
      • 27 Non-MAPOR members ($540)
    • $600 in expenses for honoraria ($200 x 3 speakers)
    • $70 net
  • We recognize that the goal of the webinars isn’t to drive income, but we’ve been having internal conversations about the registration cost of the series, as we want to ensure that it’s at least self-sustaining in the future. We’ll use these numbers to guide decisions about the cost of future series.
  • We’re starting to flesh out the Fall webinar series. We’re envisioning this as a student-focused series, with topics directly related to current students and those making the transition from academia to the workplace.

Now that we are running these through Cvent, we will want to consider charging students at least $5 to pay for the Cvent fee. We discussed maybe adding $5 to the student membership fee. 

  1. Other business
    1. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan
      1. Start thinking!
    2. History of the EC List
    3. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC

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

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – March 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Benjamin for taking over the website and getting all our updates through for the EC page!

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 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Attendees: Justine, Kevin, Patrick, Benjamin, Jenny, Curtiss, Erin, Rebecca

Agenda:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

The meeting minutes from February were approved. 

  1. AAPOR and MAPOR Code of Conduct–Bylaws Update      (Justine)

Justine will send out a formal email about what we are proposing to change. Council will discuss in the April meeting proposed changes. 

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)

EC discussed the appropriate number of people to be on the careers panel. 3-5 persons seems like a reasonable amount. 

Justine – Could the fall webinar tie into the conference programming? 

How can we make MAPOR a place that is useful for people looking for jobs but at the same time be useful for folks who are hiring organizations? How can we make MAPOR the Midwest hub for hiring? 

Networking opportunities at the conference – this can tie into messaging for potential new sponsors –  That MAPOR is an ideal location for them to spotlight their organizations to early-career and students. 

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                

Checking as of today: $21,001.20

Savings as of today: $47,213.39

We have 379 members to date with 296 general members and 83 student members. We should get a new list from AAPOR again in the next week or so, but the number of new members usually gets very small at this point.

Both the federal and state taxes are done. 

I have reached out to Cvent to see if we will need to purchase additional registrants to move webinar registration and non-conference and non-AAPOR membership into Cvent, and if so the pricing options. Even if we do, I suspect it will still be cheaper than continuing with our current set up of two credit card vendors but will keep everyone updated.

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Website updates

The website is now updated! 

Kevin has access to the MAPOR Google account. Kevin will provide the password information to Benjamin so we have this stored after EC transitions.

Benjamin sent out a schedule for deadlines for upcoming newsletters. He would like drafts of materials to be sent within the next two weeks. 

  1. Survey Subcommittee       (Justine)

Justine is reviewing materials and will send a calendar invite out soon for people to take part in making this happen.     

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)

Committee continues to modify language for Fellowship program. Trying to get a wider ranging messaging for why people should apply. Draft sent to Justine, we should be able to distribute soon. 

Committee is planning to reach out to Fellows to learn who might be interested in participating this year. 

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 

No updates at this time. 

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Rebecca)
    1. April/spring webinar

Speakers for the upcoming webinars have been confirmed. Committee is working to get headshots and bios and content ready to get into the upcoming newsletter. 

April 14th is the first session. “Web surveys 2.01 – Beyond the Basics.” 

Next webinar will conflict with EC meeting. Justine will consider moving the meeting. 

  1. Other business

Rebecca suggested adding the Chair of the Online learning Committee as an elected position. We will discuss this further in thinking about changes to the Bylaws. 

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

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – February 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

February 27, 2023

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

Link: MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to all the teamwork and tag-teaming we’ve been working on, especially Lindsey, Patrick, Benjamin, Rebecca, Erin, & Jerry to get webinars posted, websites reworked for hosting, emails updates, AAPOR meetings attended–thank you to everyone!

MAPOR Documents & Procedures 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Agenda:

Attendees: Lindsey, Ben, Leah, Curtiss, Erin, Jenny, Patrick, Justine, Kevin, Paul, Rebecca, and Jerry

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. New meeting time!  The votes are in–lunch on Friday was well received.  Between email and votes, 8 of us weighed in with a preference and the general consensus is the second Friday of the month wins.  We’ll start in March (given February was another moved meeting due to a Federal holiday). 
  1. AAPOR and MAPOR Code of Conduct  (Justine/Lindsey/All)
    1. Recent AAPOR meeting made it known that we can’t simply adopt their code of conduct, so we’ll need to review and borrow/adopt language (while inserting “MAPOR”) as it fits our organization.  Basically, we can’t just say “we subscribe to the rules of AAPOR” as our formal approach.
    2. We need to ensure our adoption is consistent with our bylaws, and doesn’t require sharing to/from AAPOR on any actions we take.

We will have to change our bylaws because our bylaws specifically reference AAPOR bylaws. We will need a membership vote to change our bylaws. AAPOR can answer our questions but are otherwise disconnected. We need to make this change as soon as possible. We will need to develop a process so that if anyone is ever removed from MAPOR members we have a process for making sure they do not pay for MAPOR membership through AAPOR and refunding their money if they do.  Kevin suggested reviewing the bylaws to see if there is anything else we want to change while we are going to the work of a bylaw vote. Rebecca mentioned the need for a stop gap so we have something in place before the spring webinar goes live. 

MAPOR officers are covered under AAPOR liability insurance, but not MAPOR itself. AAPOR will let the chapters know what price range we should expect. We need to get our own liability insurance as an organization.

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Conference support committee 
    2. Check with hotel about 2023 contract plans
    3. Support needed to think about speaker invites, new sponsors under the ‘bridge across the industry’ approach? 

“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion (and Survey) Research” is the proposed conference title. Feedback included dropping the parentheses/survey piece, adding “Communications Research” and adding something career specific to the title if the conference will strongly look at career trajectories. 

Patrick is considering Dan Merkle (ABC) and Gina Walejko at Google for Keynote. Patrick would like speakers who have a survey methodology background but work at organizations that have not traditionally conducted surveys. Justine proposed having a speaker that is early or mid-career to better resonate with MAPOR’s student population. Gina is his first choice for the pedagogy hour. Jenny will share some names with Patrick. Patrick wants a panel for Pedagogy hour. Paul suggested Elliott Morris with YouGov. 

Patrick proposed using a short course slot for a networking event. There was concern about changing the conference schedule. Patrick will move forward with the typical short course schedule, but will look at reworking speed networking. 

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. Checking: $21,008.66
      2. Savings: $47,213.03
    2. Membership list updates
      1. General members: 291
      2. Students: 81
      3. Total: 372
    3. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?

Lindsey will add the new, February members through AAPOR. She’ll pay taxes this week. She hasn’t had a chance to work on getting more routing through Cvent to drop the other credit card platforms. 

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Social Media posts
      1. Update/continue conversation about preferred platforms and questions in survey
    3. Website updates–any update?
      1. GoDaddy & WordPress updates
      2. Login info tracking/sharing
      3. Online Learning getting needed access?
    4. Google Groups
      1. Updating membership (add new folks, remove old folks)
      2. Confirming access MAPOR Google Group for group email
      3. Google Drive:

Ben will get the newsletter going so we can promote the spring newsletter, give a heads up on the bylaws vote, and preview the conference. 

We can ask members on which social media platforms they see our content as part of the membership survey and then adjust our social media approach. 

Ben shared concerns about the website. The set up isn’t ideal and a long-term concern. 

Ben needs head shots from a couple council members to update the EC website. Justine asked to prioritize posting about the spring webinar and getting the online learning committee access to email. 

Some people are not getting MAPOR Google Groups emails.

  1. Survey Subcommittee             (Justine)
    1. Timeline & Staffing

Justine will think about when to send this out so it doesn’t get overshadowed by the bylaws vote or vice versa. Then, everyone will have at least a couple weeks to request questions. 

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
    1. Planning initial meeting? 

They have the structure and invitation ready to hopefully include in the newsletter. They are playing with the idea of giving a support grant for fellows to do the fellowship program. Kevin shared that fellows haven’t expressed financial concerns as their reason for not being able to take part in the program. Instead, the committee will focus more on learning the student’s research interests. They will also look at including information about past student participants in the newsletter and MAPOR, AAPOR, and JPSM listservs so students see the program as something for them. 

  1. Sponsorship
    1. Kevin sent out thank yous to Gold earlier, all in process? (Kevin)

Kevin will thank the silver sponsors and let them know that they will be mentioned on the spring newsletter.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Rebecca)
    1. Goals for 2023
    2. Requested resources/access update 
    3. Sharing out recordings–modified Zoom recording?  Box?  Google Drive?

The spring webinar will start April 14th and be up to three weeks long. It may include three technical areas possibly including data falsification, collecting paradata, and Excel to SQL. They need suggestions for the data falsification webinar, but they have ideas on the other two. There was discussion about having a Qualtrics employee show how to collect paradata through Qualtrics, but others shared how we may be able to reframe it to make it work. 

They want the fall webinar to be student focused with an overview of the field, putting together a resume, and similar topics. We discussed wanting these webinars to be useful to students at different places in their program.

  1. Other business
    1. In-person or virtual mixers in 2023?

We discussed removing this item from the agenda moving forward. No one is dying to organize a party. 😊

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

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – January 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

Note: The group will vote on changing the meeting schedule (starting in March, since January/February were both holidays and moved already). 

MAPOR moment of the month recognizes the OLC for their work on the recent series and upcoming planning to expand the reach of MAPOR events.  It’s been very well received!

  1. Conference Member Survey Planning (Justine/Leah/Patrick)

The small team will meet in the next month to move this forward on the survey generally, Patrick and Leah to let us know what they need.

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
  2. Conference support committee 
  3. Check with hotel about 2023 contract plans
  4. Skipping virtual components moving forward 

No updates from conference on contract needs, but Patrick will confirm logistics in coming months with hotel and ensure everything is all set (Leah did sign the next 3-year contract last year).

Leah & Patrick to meet and map out a planning timeline for the coming year.

Patrick may reach out for support on speakers and presenters from the council.  The current  idea is to focus the conference on broadening the connection between sectors of survey research (marketing, consulting, academic). 

One opportunity and challenge will be many classically trained or practicing methodologists have left our traditional spaces and employers for industry jobs such as Meta or Google.  They aren’t attending the conferences like MAPOR any more, so we’ll need to capture them.

Patrick to use ad-hoc conference support group (Jenny, Paul, etc.) to help connect with key folks and plan.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report (Lindsey)                
  2. Financial updates

As of 2/24/23

Checking: $21,008.66

Savings: $47,213.03

  1. Membership list updates
    1. With the initial AAPOR list and list from the conference, we have 372 members (291 General, 81 students).
  2. Tentative tasks for 2023

Not for Profit Annual Report filing

Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
  2. Newsletter
  3. Social Media posts
  4. Website updates


Benjamin, Patrick and Justine to meet to discuss.  Benjamin will be taking on the leadership of both roles, and we’ll have a supporting team.


We’ll also be working to ensure that all access and passwords are centralized and part of the annual council transition plan so that they don’t fall to one person repeatedly, or are held by one person (in the event they’re unavailable).  

We’ve started a google doc with all the accounts we hold and password info/password owners.  This will fall to website and communications to pass on to successors.  

We need to decide on whether we will use Facebook and/or Twitter moving forward to connect with our membership.  Let’s make this a point of discussion next month.  Benjamin notes that we’re not particularly productive on social media, so pivoting is unlikely to have a key impact.  We can ask folks what they want to see on the survey.

We will have a spring newsletter in March or so, Benjamin to put it together and make the call for submissions in late January/early February.

  1. Member Survey Subcommittee
  2. Timeline & Staffing (Justine)

We have a small subcommittee that will work on this over the next month or two for March launch.

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
  2. Planning initial meeting? 

Nothing yet, will be meeting and working on this.

  1. Sponsorship
  2. Kevin sent out thank yous (Kevin)

Kevin has them out to Gold and will be sending to the rest in the coming month.  

This spring we’ll also work on targeting new potential sponsors.  This is a good opportunity to overlap with the goals this year and theme of the conference of expanding our networks and reach.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Rebecca)
  2. Goals for 2023
  3. Requested resources/access update 
  4. Sharing out recordings–modified Zoom recording?  Box?  Google Drive?

OLC has been hard at work getting the January webinar up and running.  Upcoming webinars and series are in the works, and looking to offer hands-on training (e.g., software like Excel🡪SQL), where the complicated topics are made accessible for folks.  Other topics may include cover letters, presentations at conferences, etc.  There is also a clear targeting of students, although an attempt to focus on all MAPOR populations.  

OLC would like access to an email address (Patrick and Benjamin will work on this) and more control over comms generally, so there’s less go-betweens with other folks and the process is more streamlined.  OLC could also use a space to easily share edited (Zoom recordings often start before the actual session with content needing to be removed) with attendees, espeically when we’re doing extended sessions/registering folks across a series.

OLC and Patrick will communicate around topics so that OLC doesn’t step on the toes of conference planning.

  1. Other business
  2. In-person or virtual mixers in 2023? — TBD

Google account clean up: if you add things to the drive from your own Google account, it takes up your space.  If you do it via MAPOR, it goes against MAPOR space only.  This is key, especially with large files like recordings!   We might want to look into another storage/file option as well.  Even folks who are long off council have significant memory being used in their own accounts.

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

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – December 2022

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Spotlight of the Month is for Conference Chairs Leah and Patrick and the entire supporting crew who made the Conference a successful event! Thanks to all for your hard work and your service to MAPOR.  

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. 

Agenda:

Attendees: Justine, Ben, Curtiss, Kevin, Rebecca, Leah, Paul, Patrick, Lindsey, and Erin

  1. Welcome Executive Council! 
    1. New members: Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom, Shalise Ayromloo, Jenny Marlar
    2. Introductions
  1. MAPOR documents and procedures
    1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
    2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
    3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/
  1. 2022-2023 Council Transition           (Justine/All)
    1. Monthly meeting schedule
      1. MLK day meeting has been moved
      2. President’s Day meeting has been moved
      3. Juneteenth meeting has been moved

 

  1. Proposed committees/Revisions to committee structure (listed below and for discussion)
    1. Communication/Website

Updates website, maintains technical assets, oversees and disseminates newsletter

  1. Ongoing Online Learning Committee Updates

We discussed a new ad hoc group to take on the membership survey, which would be chaired by Justine and include Lindsey, Curtiss, someone from the communication committee, and Leah.

  1. 2021 Conference Debrief                         (Leah/Patrick/All)
    1. General Discussion about the hybrid model

Leah does not believe the virtual presentations are worth continuing. Presenters appreciated it, but it was a struggle on the moderator side. Patrick is likely not going to include the virtual presenter options in 2023. Need to consider if short course ideas will bring in enough participants to pay for the speaker costs. Also discussed raising the short course rates again to pre-COVID rates. Otherwise, everyone was happy with the speakers and happy to be back in-person. For next year, try to stop using Lakeview. It’s either too hot or loud.

  1. All expenses paid?
    1. Hotel
    2. Tech rental 
    3. Speakers 
    4. Student award winners
    5. Student grants 

Everything is paid but one speaker. Lindsey will pay her this week. 

  1. Thank you notes to sponsors 

Kevin will send out thank you’s. 

  1. Business meeting items?

Some members suggested moving the lunch back to conference space. We have membership survey data showing people like the atrium. Maybe add MAPOR table tents and make sure there are enough tables and chairs when the conference begins. 

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Conference support committee 
    2. Check with hotel about 2021 contract plans
    3. Review of Conference Survey data for next month’s meeting?

Patrick wants to reach out to research organizations who do not typically need attend. 

  1. Secretary Treasurer’s Report                     (Lindsey)
    1. Financial updates
      1. Banking: $18,735.05
      2. Savings: $47,212.24
    2. Membership list updates
    3. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Member survey for 2023?
      2. Not for Profit Annual Report filing

Lindsey hope to works on the membership list between Christmas and New Year’s. Lindsey’ 2023 goals are to submit and get approval for the State of Illinois tax exemption and get the remainder payment scenarios into Cvent so we can cancel Authorize.net and iAccess.

The group approved contributing $1,500 for the AAPOR All Chapter Party.

  1. Communications/Website               (Benjamin)
    1. Engagement plan/strategy 
    2. Spring newsletter
    3. Updates with new members

Benjamin needs a log in to Word Press. We need to have a conversation about whether we continue with Twitter. Justine and Ben will determine the 2023 newsletter timings. We also discussed sending mini-newsletters instead of the four, traditional newsletters. Kevin will think about what that means for sponsorships.

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee
    1. Set meeting and goals for 2023
    2. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Review Conference Feedback 
      2. Evaluate Student Fellowship Program
      3. Evaluate Student Grants Program
  1. Sponsorship   (Kevin)
  1. Online Learning Committee   (Rebecca)
    1. Set meeting to discuss goals for 2023
    2. Webinars
    3. Other events? 
      1. Resume review? 
      2. Speed networking?

Rebecca asked for an online learning committee email address. Lindsey offered to host a Cvent training. Patrick will see to whom he designated the webinar email address. Lindsey can create a Cvent account with it when all the members of the committee have access to the email address. We discussed having a central place for account passwords. 

  1. Other business
    1. Mixers in 2023?

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 

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

GO MAPOR GO!