The 2022 Spring issue of the MAPOR Newsletter is now available here!
In this Issue:
- Presidential Address
- MAPOR 2022 Conference Preview
- MAPOR @ AAPOR
- Secretary Treasurer’s Report
- MAPORtraits
The 2022 Spring issue of the MAPOR Newsletter is now available here!
In this Issue:
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Dr. Stephanie Zimmer Senior Associate Abt Associates | Dr. Rebecca Powell Research Survey Methodologist RTI International | Isabella Velásquez Sr. Product Marketing Manager RStudio |
Three-part series (or any single session):
Friday, April 15th from 12-1:30 Eastern
Friday, April 22nd from 12-1:30 Eastern
Friday, April 29th from 12-1:30 Eastern
The Tidy Survey Analysis in R Workshop Series will feature 3 online sessions (1.5 hours each) on how to analyze survey data in R. The first workshop will introduce functions to obtain weighted totals and proportions from survey data, and how to conduct weighted analyses using χ-squared tests and logistic regression models. The second workshop will introduce functions to obtain weighted means, quantiles, and ratios from survey data, and how to conduct weighted analyses using t-tests and linear regression models. The third workshop will take a closer look at the survey design object and will review common probability sampling designs. We will also cover how to create replicate weights, derived variables, and reproducible research output.
All sessions will include time for exercises in breakout rooms using data from the 2020 American National Election Study and the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, so you can get hands-on experience with the functions. We will be using RStudio Cloud, so you do not need to have R or RStudio preinstalled on your computer. For the best learning experience, we recommend you have some prior experience with R and the tidyverse. You should be familiar with mutate, summarize, count, and group_by. The instructors are providing this course to obtain feedback on the material for their upcoming book on tidy survey analysis in R.
Dr. Stephanie Zimmer is a senior survey statistician with 10 years experience in survey sampling and design, survey weighting and analysis, and data management. She is an expert statistical programmer in R, SAS, and SUDAAN. She earned her PhD in Statistics from Iowa State University and her BS in Statistics from NC State. After earning her RStudio Tidyverse Trainer certification, she taught a course on tidy survey analysis in R in an AAPOR short course. She is currently a senior associate at Abt Associates.
Dr. Rebecca Powell is a research survey methodologist at RTI International. Her research interests focus on visual design of questionnaires and contact materials. Additionally, Dr. Powell is a Certified RStudio Tidyverse Trainer and has taught courses and webinars on data management in R and tidy survey analysis in R at both AAPOR and MAPOR. She has a PhD in Survey Research and Methodology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a BS and MS in Applied Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Isabella Velásquez is a content strategist, data enthusiast, and author. Her experience spans data collection, grantmaking, strategy development, and survey instrument development. She earned her MSc in Analytics and BA in Economics and East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. She currently works as a Sr. Product Marketing Manager at RStudio.
The 2022 Winter issue of the MAPOR Newsletter is now available here!
In this Issue:
MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
February 21, 2022
12:30 – 2:00 CST / 1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST
Zoom invite
Attendees: Kevin, Evgenia, Ben, Rebecca, Leah, Erin, Jerry, Justine, Patrick and Lindsey
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: This month we spotlight Leah’s efforts to engage and negotiate with the Embassy Suites staff to review and renew our contract. Thanks for making this happen, Leah! This is not the most exciting task but is necessary to ensure we have a nice cozy, place to land in November for the next three years.
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:
Contract is done. There is a new contracts folder. Patrick is trying to get Daniel Merkle for the keynote. Leah has reached out to Jolene Smyth about the short course and Jill Dever for the pedagogy hour.
is the MAPOR comms calendar for 2022. People should review, and feel free to make additional suggestions – I’m mostly basing it off of Justine’s calendar from the last couple of years, with tweaks for AAPOR in Chicago.
The newsletter will go out in March, and will include a student section, announcement for the MAPOR fellowship program, and the conference survey results as part of the letter from the president. Please have materials to Ben by March 2nd.
MAPOR will communicate with fellows after the abstracts have been received so the fellows can be chosen based on the abstract topics.
The committee had a kick off meeting a couple weeks ago. Ideas include resume reviews, speed networking, lunch and learn. They plan to have three to five events a year, including an event or two that cater to students or mid-career. Their next step is to set up a regular meeting schedule and work towards something in April. If you have any ideas, please send them to the committee. Justine will send Lindsey a question for the membership survey.
Kevin sent Allyson the survey responses on why people did not apply for the student paper. She may have a question to add to the Member survey. Kevin will pass that along to Lindsey.
Kevin will reach out to John to see if Madison is ready for a mixer.
Council members
President – Kevin Ulrich
Vice President / President Elect – Justine Bulgar-Medina
Past President – Dana Garbarski
Conference Chair – Leah Dean
Associate Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh
Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson
Website Coordinator – Hillary Hanson
Sponsorship Coordinator – Dana Garbarski
Student Liaison – Evgenia Kapousouz
Communications Chair – Benjamin Schapiro
Members at Large – Bob Davis, Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, David Sterrett, Jerry Timbrook
Committees
Conference Committee – Leah Dean (Chair), Patrick Hsieh, David Sterrett
Online Learning Committee – Justine Bulgar-Medina (Chair), Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook
Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Bob Davis (Chair), Evgenia Kapousouz
Secretary Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Kevin Ulrich
Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Justine Bulgar-Medina, Evgenia Kapousouz
AAPOR Conference Committee – TBD
GO MAPOR GO!
MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES
Bob Davis
January 24, 2022
12:30 – 2:00 CST / 1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST
Zoom invite
Attendees: Kevin Ulrich, Leah Dean, Benjamin Schapiro, Jerry Timbrook, Evgenia Kapousouz, Hillary Hanson, Erin Heiden, Y. Patrick Hsieh, Rebecca Powell, Justine Bulagar-Medina, Bob Davis, Dana Garbarski, David Sterrett
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to new members Erin, Ben, Rebecca, and Jerry. Welcome aboard and we appreciate your willingness to serve on the council!
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.
Meeting notes:
Meeting started 12:30PM Central
Approved by Unanimous consent.
Kevin reviewed Review of survey highlights
Conference Survey Highlights
Keving led a discussions about the conference survey. Key areas include:
General conference satisfaction / attendance comparing in person vs virtual.
Discussion for 2022 conference in person vs virtual
Student support grants
Evgenia observed that this survey only addresses those who did come, not those who didn’t come so we are not informed to their reasons for not participating. Dana also observed that putting this on the survey increases awareness of the program.
The results on the survey regarding the amount of out of pocket expenses student incurred was discussed. Evgenia brought up that the need for money will vary greatly depending on the student’s location. For example student’s in Chicago will not incur hotel expenses. Patrick suggested that since the average out of pocket cost for students was $66 ($91 for those who spent some money) some students were likely not including hotel expenses in their calculations. Kevin suggested that we may want to consider breaking out the expenses by category in the future.
Student paper
Leah researched the costs for maintaining Zoom licenses year round for the conference. The base pricing is $150 / year / license ( e.g. 4 = $600 / year, 5 = $750 / year). This includes 1 GB cloud storage per license. There are additional add ons for more than 100 participants – $50 per month more to expand to 500 participants. This ‘large meeting’ feature can be activated on a month-month basis. In addition there are expanded cloud storage options available that can be activated per month. Rough estimate is that a year round Zoom license will cost $1000 / year to maintain Zoom as a sustainable add on. This was provided for informational purposes only and was not voted on or approved by the council. We will have a more formal proposal as we get closer to the annual conference.
Benjamin will circulate a draft of the spring newsletter to council by the end of the day today. Will be reaching out for specific content for February newsletter. Potentially it will be postponed pending member survey results.
Hillary – New members will be updated today on the council page and will apply WordPress updates.
The question came up as to whether Hillary should be applying updates to the WordPress database / addons. Patrick (2021 webmaster) informed the council that each month you log in there will always be messages to upgrade and spam messages. He spent time last year reducing the number of plugins to only those used by the website. The webmaster should feel free to accept updates unless you see something that requires additional payments.
Bob & Evgenia met with Mentors / students to discuss the experience with the MAPOR Fellowship program. The overall experience was positive. Bob will meet with 1 more mentor later today and will provide a more detailed report. In general the timing of the program was sufficient, although Evngenia proposed that we need to balance giving the students more time to apply (potentially accepting applications into March or April) against having enough time in the program to deliver something for the conference in November. Bob suggested providing additional structure would help the program. Evgenia added that the structure still needs to be flexible to allow room for individualization.
Sponsorship calendar doesn’t really start until June. John will provide additional notes to allow documentation to stand alone as it move from past president to past president.
We are going to start with speed networking as our first event for Feb/March. Goal for committee is to do something every 4-6 weeks in spring, slow down in the summer and pick up in fall.
Timing is uncertain. Kevin challenged the group to think about how can we piggyback to other events / conferences. AAPOR has so much built around it already we should think about other conferences with which we can have a breakout dinner. Justine added that we can consider adding on to virtual events in addition to in person.
New Business
Patrick led up a discussion about potentially adding job announcements as a service to our sponsors.
Kevin – Concerned about timeliness of information and suggest that we post to AAPORnet. Evgenia posed that rather than posting information we post the job application directly so that if the job is closed the link will say so. Benjamin added that we could consider using social media but we should also consider the implications of MAPOR providing an ‘endorsement’ of the position and how it might upset some people / companies. Kevin suggested that we might be able to mitigate this through the inclusion of a disclaimer. The net recommendation was that we should steer these opportunities to AAPORnet and MAPORnet.
Meeting adjourned at 1:21PM Central
Council members
President – Kevin Ulrich
Vice President / President Elect – Justine Bulgar-Medina
Past President – Dana Garbarski
Conference Chair – Leah Dean
Associate Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh
Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson
Website Coordinator – Hillary Hanson
Sponsorship Coordinator – Dana Garbarski
Student Liaison – Evgenia Kapousouz
Communications Chair – Benjamin Schapiro
Members at Large – Bob Davis, Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, David Sterrett, Jerry Timbrook
Committees
Conference Committee – Leah Dean (Chair), Patrick Hsieh, David Sterrett
Online Learning Committee – Justine Bulgar-Medina (Chair), Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook
Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Bob Davis (Chair), Evgenia Kapousouz
Secretary Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Kevin Ulrich
Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Justine Bulgar-Medina, Evgenia Kapousouz
AAPOR Conference Committee – TBD
GO MAPOR GO!
MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
December 20, 2021
12:30 – 2:00 CST / 1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST
Zoom invite
Attendees: Kevin Ulrich, Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Leah Dean, Y. Patrick Hsieh, Benjamin Schapiro, Rebecca Powell, Erin Heiden, Hilary Hanson, Justine Bulagar-Medina, Bob Davis, Jerry Timbrook, Dana Garbarski, and Evgenia Kapousouz
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Spotlight of the Month is for Conference Chairs David Sterrett and Leah Dean 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:
Will meet 1/24 instead
Kevin will send revised meeting invitations
A conference evaluation survey was sent the week after the conference. The survey had a 57% response rate. Leah would like to have Zoom licenses year-round to better facilitate the hybrid model going forward. This would allow keeping the recordings up longer than three months. Zoom could replace Go to Webinar as well. There was discussion about maybe upgrading one Zoom account to be able to host more users if needed. There could also be additional fees for storing recordings. PAPOR has a PAPOR channel to share recordings after the conference. The Conference Committee will get more information about the costs of keeping Zoom regularly, so the Council can discuss more next month.
Kevin will share the survey data with the Council. One respondent asked why the conference was held on Friday and Saturday instead of Thursday and Friday. Council discussed the pro’s and con’s of each. Dana suggested decoupling the short course from the conference to wrap the conference up earlier on Saturday before the parade crowds develop. We discussed the networking lunch and how to make it more about “networking” than hanging out with your friends. Also, discussed coupling lunch with the awards or the short course.
Sent
The conversation was around the role faculty can have on student papers. The fellows will work on this.
The contract goes one more year. We will renegotiate the contract this year.
Checking: $23,412.04
Savings: $46,971.60
Worth doing, but maybe shorter than usual
Benjamin and Justine have met to understand what needs to happen. The plan is to have newsletters around February, April, summer, and October.
Winners have been posted on the website.
The Executive Council page is mostly updated.
Kevin suggested meeting earlier in the year while all their thoughts around the student paper are fresh and to get the student fellowship evaluation and 2022 application process going.
Council members
President – Kevin Ulrich
Vice President / President Elect – Justine Bulgar-Medina
Past President – Dana Garbarski
Conference Chair – Leah Dean
Associate Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh
Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson
Website Coordinator – Hillary Hanson
Sponsorship Coordinator – Dana Garbarski
Student Liaison – Evgenia Kapousouz
Communications Chair – Benjamin Shapiro
Members at Large – Bob Davis, Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, David Sterrett, Jerry Timbrook
Committees
Conference Committee – Leah Dean (Chair), Patrick Hsieh, David Sterrett
Online Learning Committee – Justine Bulgar-Medina (Chair), Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook
Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Bob Davis (Chair), Evgenia Kapousouz
Secretary Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Kevin Ulrich
Communications Support – Benjamin Shapiro, Justine Bulgar-Medina, Evgenia Kapousouz
AAPOR Conference Committee – TBD
GO MAPOR GO!
Deadline extended!!
The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research is excited to announce its open call for proposals for the 2022 Student Fellowship Program. This is a unique opportunity for students to work with a MAPOR fellow and receive guidance on the development of an original research project. Students selected to take part in the program will be matched with a MAPOR fellow based on the topic of their abstract. The MAPOR Executive Council will choose up to 4 proposals for participation in the program and the selected proposals will be accepted for presentation during the 2022 MAPOR Conference. Each selected student will be awarded $250 and the conference registration will be waived for the authors of the selected proposals.
Eligibility
All students enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program on April 17th, 2022 are eligible to participate in the program. If more than one author plans to collaborate, please make sure that all authors are students. The topic of the proposed papers should be related either to public opinion or survey methodology. If the students propose a quantitative study, please, make sure you have access to the data before you submit a proposal. Membership in MAPOR is not required to participate, but students are expected to be MAPOR members at the time of the conference. Preferably, students can submit one proposal as the primary author. Preferably, the participants will attend the conference in person. Students who will be selected for the Student Fellowship Program will not be eligible for the student paper award during this year, but they will be eligible for travel awards.
Procedure
To be considered please submit a proposal to the MAPOR Executive Council for the Student Fellowship Program. The proposal should be between 500 and 1000 words. It should include a very brief literature review and an importance statement. If the proposal is quantitative, please make sure you identify and describe the dataset. Send the proposal by 11:59 CDT, Sunday, April 17th, 2022. In the email include a subject line that says “MAPOR Student Fellowship Program”. In addition, the student should identify a faculty mentor and ask them to write a letter of recommendation. Both the student proposal and the letter of recommendation should be sent to Kevin Ulrich, ulrichkv@uchicago.edu. The selected students for the Fellowship Program will be announced by May 1st.
Students’ responsibilities
The selected students will be responsible for their communication with their mentor. MAPOR Executive Council will suggest a communication plan. However, the students that will be selected for the Student Fellowship Program can suggest a different communication plan if they wish. Both the student and the mentor should agree upon the communication plan in writing and the communication plan should also be emailed to Kevin Ulrich. The students are expected to work on the paper with the guidance of the mentor. In addition, the students who will be selected will be required to present their paper in MAPOR 2022.
If you have any questions, please email us at ekapou2@uic.edu.
MAPOR is pleased to announce our newest MAPOR Fellow—Allyson Holbrook of the University of Illinois—Chicago. Congrats, Allyson!
We would like to congratulate our 2021 Student Paper Award Winners:
Doris A. Graber Award for Best Public Opinion Paper
Eileen Wu from Northwestern University for her paper “The Moderating Role of Democratic Governance in the Association between Personal Values and Political Ideologies”
Allan L. McCutcheon Award for Best Methodology Paper
Micha Fischer from the University of Michigan for his paper “Parametric and Tree-Based Models for Missing Data Imputation”
We would also like to recognize our 2021 MAPOR Student Fellowship participants and thank our MAPOR fellows for their mentorship.
The Fall 2021 MAPOR newsletter is now available here!
MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
October 18, 2021
12:30– 2:00 pm CDT
Zoom invite
MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH: Ned for creating and executing the MAPOR Fellows Hall of Fame voting procedure!
Attendees: Kevin, Lindsey, Bob, Dana, Leah, Hilary, Ned, John, Patrick, David, Justine, and Evgenia
Agenda:
Minutes approved
Checking: $40,798.78
Savings: $46,970.82
50 registrants so far with a mix of in-person and virtual. The luncheon has 16 people so far and the short course has 11 people. 14 rooms sold for Thursday and Friday and 10 for Saturday.
The program is soon to the printer. David and Leah will work on communicating with speakers. We need a Zoom Events account and five licenses at $99/each. David will purchase them in a week. We will need a plan to pull down the recordings, because the storage rates with Zoom are expensive. Looking at storing them through Google Drive or Box. Dana purchased laptops for the conference. David will look at wireless headsets to purchase for the conference. We discussed having speakers wipe down the headsets when they are done. We will have Clorox wipes for people to use. Food options are in flux until the registration numbers are finalized. In the meantime, we are planning on the standard continental breakfast on Friday and Saturday, the grand buffet for the Friday luncheon, brownies, cookies, and coffee for the break Friday and Saturday, and appetizers and the beer, wine, and soft drink package for the Happy Hour. The hotel is not requiring that we fill a certain number of rooms. David will also work on updating signs.
Speed networking is scheduled for 10:15am to 11:45am on Saturday. Evgenia will send an email to students and early career folks about the Thursday night dinner, and can mention the speed networking session. There are currently seven participants and five participants to represent organizations. Justine will reach out to organizations as well. Ned and Justine will brainstorm the technical needs for speed networking.
John told folks about the Crunch Analytics sponsorship offer. We will see if they email back. All sponsors have paid. Three sponsors might want tables.
The newsletter will go out tomorrow. Any last minute changes need to be to her by end of the day.
No updates.
The next webinar is Wednesday, October 27th. Free for students.
Dana will have conversations with mentors and mentees after the conference.
Have received two applicants so far. Dana, Kevin, and Ned will review the applicants after the 24th.
No applicants so far. Dana, Kevin, and Ned will review the applicants after the 24th.
Nothing to do now.
Committee Composition
Council members
President – Dana Garbarski
Vice President – Kevin Ulrich
Past President – Ned English
Conference Chair – David Sterrett
Associate Conference Chair – Leah Dean
Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson
Associate Secretary-Treasurer – Vacant
Members at Large – Bob Davis, Hillary Hanson, Ed Ledek, Sara Walsh
Sponsorship Coordinator – John Stevenson
Webinar and Website Coordinator – Patrick Hsieh
Communications Chair – Justine Bulgar-Medina
Student Liaison- Evgenia Kapousouz
GO MAPOR GO!