MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA November 18, 2019 12:00 – 1:30 CST/1:00 pm – 2: 30pm EST
MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes 2018 – 2019 Executive Council members. Thank you all for your hard work! It has been a pleasure serving with you.
Agenda: 2019 Conference (Dana) Registration (238 as of 11/18; most likely will break last year’s record) Follow-up emails to first time attendees, early career, and students. Colleen will follow-up with students about these events. Ipek and Ned will follow-up with the others.
Add more to continental breakfast? note people who stay at hotel get breakfast. We have a larger group for the short course so may need to increase this to accommodate the increase.
Program addendum: printed or posted? We will print addendums and put them on the registration tables.
Program + signs. Should be delivered within the next day or two. Set-up logistics and support needs. We used WhatsApp in the past and we will use it again this year. Kevin and Patrick will show with the equipment and MAPOR materials around 3. Kevin will send a WhatsApp text when they arrive so folks can help bring up the materials. Dana and Colleen will do the walk through around 2:30.
Friday lunch counts and event orders. 98 for lunch.
Tables for networking events: review so we are taking the lead at a table. We have assigned a few tables and we will place people where we need them the day of the conference.
Sponsor tables. We have 5 tables confirmed. We will remove the 6th table. Counting attendees at each session. Can we have moderators report if the conference session was well attended or not attended? This may be a better way to collect this data than trying to make actual head counts. Sara and Dana will develop a form for moderators to capture this info.
Point for next council to consider: early registration from participants to prevent last minute pulling out of the conference! Other organizations handle this in different ways. Dana can look into how this is done as ASA. We put this topic on the agenda for the next meeting with the new council. Student engagement/events at the conference (Colleen) . Colleen has been in contact with student members about events. The new student liaison can assist Colleen during the conference.
Certificate for the student paper competition winner (Kevin). Kevin will pass this to John or Ipek.
Volunteers and table staffing (Kevin). Kevin has 2 students and 2 staff from his lab to help out. He may need other times for people to fill in briefly while he goes to lunch or goes to the bank to get Stephanie added to our account. Kevin will reach out via WhatsApp for assistance when it is needed.
Awards session (Ipek). Plaque is made, Ipek will bring it to conference. We are set for the keynote and the Awards ceremony.
AAPOR @ MAPOR (Ipek). AAPOR will have a table with registration. Adam Thocher will be at the conference and will be at the booth at some times throughout the conference. The AAPOR chapter and relations chair will be at the conference and will attend the business meeting for a brief presentation.
Member Meeting (Ipek)
Slide deck (Ipek, Ron, Ned, Dana, Kevin, Allison, Colleen)
Final slide section to Ipek by 2:00pm Saturday
Ipek will email the speakers to update their slides for the meeting.
2019 Council Lunch During the Conference (Ipek)
Cantina Laredo (508 N State St, Chicago, IL 60654)
November 23rd (Meet at lobby @ 11:45am)
Please RSVP with Ipek if you have not done so.
Council Contact During the Conference (Ipek/Ned)
Council Contact Document Hyperlink
Please update your name and number of the list. Ned will set up the WhatsApp group for this year. Expect an invite soon.
Communications (Justine)
Social media postings and pictures during the conference
Volunteers to assist
AAPOR 75th anniversary digital message request
We want to make sure we have an official presence on social media during the conference. Justine will be posting but needs assistance for others. Colleen and Mary will tweet out where they take part in the conference. Justine will meet with them to share access to the MAPOR Twitter account.
Sponsorship (Allison/Ron)
We are waiting for payments from 4 groups although they have all confirmed their sponsorship. Allison will follow-up with 1 more group.
MAPOR 2019 Election Updates (Ipek/Kevin)
Congratulations to our new council members!
Treasurer’s Report (Kevin)
Update
Member Survey
Checking: $55,149.33
Savings: $45,022.09
Current hotel cost estimates are lower than anticipated. Current estimates of year-end budget indicate a surplus of ~$4,000. This is primarily driven by increases in overall conference registration numbers, however unanticipated increases in the short course attendance and increased revenue from webinars also contributed to this surplus. Other expenses were lower: printing costs were lower, we only named one student paper award winner, and council meeting costs were less than anticipated.
Historically the member survey has gone out in December or January. However, last year the member survey went out shortly after the conference. Kevin was the lead on this as the Associate Secretary / Treasurer. Without an associate, I have not had the time to push this forward and take input from council on the survey. Kevin recommended putting the survey on the agenda for the next EC. Ron suggested that we get at-large members to assist with the survey in the future.
2019-2020 Council Transition (Ipek/Ned)
Meeting schedule
Updating Google Groups
Other Business?
The IT restrictions for RTI laptops have increased since last year. Patrick will have individual log-ins for each computer and will set these up on Thursday.
Sara can help with the recording of the pedagogy hours.
AAPOR anniversary messages. AAPOR has identified a platform by which members can identify as MAPOR members and provide anniversary messages or express gratitude for AAPOR. We will make a video during the MAPOR lunch.
Next Meeting: Member meeting Saturday, November 23 at 4:30 pm
MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Moment of the Month recognizes Dana and the conference committee for their diligent work on the annual MAPOR conference planning. Also, I would like to thank Patrick for his work on organizing the MAPOR webinars.
A message from Kevin – “Big shout out to Patrick for hosting such a successful event.”
Registration (72 registrants to the conference as of 10/18/19 at 3pm)
59 general, 16 students; 33 for lunch so far
16 for short-course (room can do 35 in classroom style; could convert to theater style if get to close or go over); we expect another ten from Amerispeak at least
Friday morning working group will recap February interviewers + interviewing workshop. The working group has 15 registrants so far
Conference program
Two papers have been withdrawn
Still need chairs/discussants (Sara) and final images (Allison)
Allison says will have EOD (Dynata and U of C SLAB)
Dana will follow-up if necessary
Waiting for info from Frank M. as well
Hotel room block
Haven’t heard from Ranka recently. Ipek suggested Dana to call Ranka as she is more responsive via phone.
As of 10/7 were on track
Dana will follow-up with Ranka, Jeff, Anada
May need to send email to registrants
Budget/estimated costs
Budget will be similar to last year with some small changes
Student paper competition
Received additional paper from solicitation from Dana; 3 submissions in total
Have reviews back from half of fellows at this point
All appear to be substantive, and so may only give one award this year
Sponsor tables and info
We only have one firm “yes” so far
Laptops + Book raffle donations + printer/signage
Won’t be doing book raffle this year, rather next year’s registration fees will be the raffle prices.
Dana will get signs printed at Kinko’s in advance of conference
Patrick will provide laptops from RTI
One will have HDMI for keynote; will test built-in webcam
Could get better webcam if will be doing more streaming in the future
Anything else?
Dana suggests going to lunch tables to lead conversations with people may not necessarily know, so that is a true “networking” lunch; will be a way to bring in new people
Will have programs printed and delivered directly to NORC
Sara is in need of two session chairs, and Ron, Allison have volunteered
Student engagement/events at the conference (Colleen)
16 students registered so far
Ned, Ipek, or Dana will send note to early career people about Sara’s early-career panel as well as events that Colleen is planning
Will likely have lunch at Quartino on the Saturday
Happy hour was on Thursday at the Kerryman last year, with approximately 10 RSVP, 7 attendees
Will open happy hour to “early career”
Ipek will send an email about student activities at MAPOR and highlight free student lunch on Friday via MAPORNET and AAPORNet
Other conference related updates (Ipek)
“In memoriam” session updates/plans
Joe Murphy working with Tim Johnson on a tribute to John Loft
Chuck Whitney (past president 1985-86) also passed during 2019 and Fellows also acknowledge this along with their tribute to George Bishop.
Fellow and student paper award announcements at Keynote
Ipek will ask Nora Cate or John S. if they prefer presenting the award
Ipek will share draft keynote agenda and her talk with Dana
Ipek will order a plaque to be presented to the 2019 Fellow
AAPOR Booth and presentation at the conference
AAPOR MCR chair Tamara Terry and Kellen staff Adam and Eric will be there with the booth; Tamara will present on AAPOR membership at business meeting
Sponsorship (Allison/Ron)
Ron suggests acknowledging sponsors earlier in conference, based on feedback from Question Pro
Could have a “meet the sponsors” table at lunch
Ipek will thank the sponsors before the keynote
Justine and Allison will thank sponsors individually via social media, and tagging them
Treasurer’s Report (Ipek on behalf of Kevin)
Budget updates
Checking: $32,755.70 (increase due to conference registration, webinar)
Savings: $45,021.71
MAPOR equipment inventory
Kevin will create inventory list when back in town
Registration materials/name badges + ribbon for name tags
Ipek will confirm with Kevin have enough tags, ribbons
Ipek will confirm with Kevin to make sure we have a certificate for the student paper competition winner
Communications (Justine)
Plans on upcoming social media postings/communication w/ members
Sponsor highlights
Conference related updates
Social media postings at the conference
Dana will follow-up with Justine re conference-related postings
Succession Planning (Ned)
Ipek and Ned meeting this week to discuss plan for succession in appointed positions (Student Liaison, Webinar Coordinator, Sponsorship Coordinator etc.) as well as newly elected positions
MAPOR 2019 Election Updates (Ipek)
Ipek and Kevin meeting soon to discuss programming and schedule
AAPOR Chapter Party (MAPOR representation) (Ipek/Ned)
SAPOR organizing chapter party
Ned and Ipek will talk offline about being representative
Upon entering the building, take the bank of elevators marked with NORC’s logo directly up to the 30th floor and sign-in with our receptionist. You will be required to sign the log book and show a valid government ID when checking in. You will be given a visitor badge to wear throughout the day. Please sign-out and return the visitor badge at the end of your visit.
75% of MAPOR’s annual average expenses for the most recent three years.
Calculated by the Sec/T in December of each year
The 2019 ORP limit is $32,034 (Based on ~$62k in savings)
Operating Reserve – Annual Distribution limit
For 2020, I recommend we distribute $7,000 (see slide)
Based on a projected deficit for 2019
Assumes we will again return a small surplus in years going forward
From 2015 and up (after the large deficit year, and after are established with the Embassy Suites) we have averaged a surplus of $4,700. My calculations average a $2,100 surplus
I am starting with a savings amount of $62,000. This was the amount in our accounts as of mid-December 2018, the time when we would be calculating the distribution limit going forward.
Based on forecasting, we could distribute this amount and be under the ORL for the next 4 years (assuming assumptions hold true)
Recommendations
Council should commit to spending a specific amount each year
Secretary Treasurer calculates the Operating Reserves amount each December, from there S/T makes a recommendation for an amount to spend that is reasonably sustainable for the next three years
But reasonably sustainable, I mean that if this amount were distributed for the next 3 years, the reserves will still be above the limit as determined by the ORP
EC creates an ad-hoc position or committee to oversee the identification of winners and distribution of grants each year
I recommend that the dollar amount of the grants be stable. This ensures that students will know how much they would receive if they decide to apply so that they can calculate the benefit to them. I recommend that the number of students who receive it could change each year.
Grants Committee
Tasks:
Determine how much to distribute per grant
What are the average students costs for an MAPOR visit?
Hotel, food, registration, short course?
Transportation, other?
Determine how people will be eligible and win – What is the process?
Essay?
Do they need to present something at the conference?
Who will read and make the final determinations – committee
All students in student status in Fall, or can they be graduates from the past year or some other reasonable timeframe? Essentially making it a student / early career grant?
Some type of hardship grant? MAPOR Colleague Grant (get rid of the stigma)
Maybe only 1 or 2 a year?
Open to any members who can convey inability to pay
By valuing diversity we should open up the ability to attend MAPOR to anyone who is unable to do so
Create notifications, deadlines
Emails describing the grant or scholarship
Deadline for submission, deadline for notifications.
Tax considerations?
Is this a necessary consideration?
I don’t know how this works, but we need to be aware of it. How do other organizations handle tax dealings with grants?
(As secretary treasurer, I would recommend that the administrative burden for EC is reduced as much as possible. For example, I would not recommend a system where we reimburse students by asking them to provide receipts. This is a significant drain on resources and time.)
(I would also recommend that we distribute uniform amounts. If people are being paid differentially, people may want to game the system, and we don’t want to deal with that. It also changes the number of people you give grants to, complicating the process further.)
Cvent “Onsite premium”
Event in a box
Ipads, printer, scanner, and print materials are shipped to the site
Tech support available for set up
4 minutes to set up – “Plug and play”
Functionality
Allows for streamlined means to handle registration and sign-in on-site, the badging of attendees, and real-time tracking of check-in process
Allows for a conference mobile app for attendees to navigate the conference
Paperless program someday?
Annual cost of software and rentals
Current annual fee for Cvent is $1,300 (Our contract is for $1,000 for 200 persons and we pay a per-person amount for beyond 200 registrants.).
An additional ~$2,300 per year.
$985 for the rentals
~$1,200-1,500 for the software licensing
Pros
Significant time burden reduced for Sec Treas.
Dramatically improves the professional look of our sign-in
Using an app would reduce cost for printing the program
Sign-in and registration on-site is greatly streamlined
Tracking of people who have arrived
Up to date check-in and costs
Cons:
It ain’t cheap.
I believe it needs a hardline to the internet – not sure if we can get that from the hotel
Payment services
Currently we use three services (see slide)
Cvent
iPayment
Authorize.net
Average cost of current deductions is approximately 11%
Kevin called Cvent and negotiated a “rates and fees review”
I expect reductions to drop down to about 6%
Cvent services is supposedly flat fee of 3.95% from all transactions
No monthly fee
No annual fee
They do ‘hold’ funds for the month vs. immediate transfer to our account
10:15 – 10:30am BREAK
10:30 – 10:45am Council and Fellow Nominations and Election Updates (Ipek)
Ipek has finalized the slate and nominations have now been accepted. Ipek will work with Kevin to send communications about the slate in the next few days.
The fellow has been selected based on the input from Executive Council.
10:45 – 11:00am Sponsorship Updates (Allison)
Sponsorship has reduced slightly this year. We had one sponsor drop from gold to silver. Allison is working other contacts for new sponsors. Council will assist with additional personal contacts where we might reach out for new sponsorship opportunities.
Allison has questions about the tables at the conference and the requirements for artwork and advertisements for the program. Artwork should be submitted by October 1st.
Kevin will check up on the code for sponsors.
Allison will reach out to Josh to get the logos updated for the website.
Allison and Ron will meet to discuss the specific events and which sponsors will be credited for sponsoring.
Plans on upcoming social media postings/communication w/ members
Communications schedule/chart
Next newsletter content and due dates
Justine and Ipek put together a condensed time frame that details regular communications from MAPOR. It seems that 3 newsletters a year seems like a good mix. It aligns well with content in relation to when the conference takes place.
If we want to promote webinars, we might consider having a mini-newsletter to promote it. Perhaps sometime in the spring? Alternatively could be sent after the AAPOR conference.
Current schedule is not conducive to real-time information – job postings, job fairs, etc. This information is more conducive to be sent via social media.
Could we add a section about ‘member updates’? Staff transitions, promotions, etc. We would need to actively solicit that information from members.
Presidential addresses need only be included when there is substantial information to convey. Justine’s calendar allows us to have a more structured newsletter schedule, as well as an understanding about targets for content.
Should we consider a different communication medium? Instagram? Instagram also allows to push out simultaneously with Facebook. We would need to think about what the content would be sent on this platform- obviously it needs to visual only.
Succession planning for MAPOR communications position. We need to think about how we could enact this. A year of transition would be helpful now that communications coordinator has become a more involved position.
October 1st is the target date to send out the next newsletter.
11:10 – 11:20am Webinar Updates (Patrick)
October 9th is the next webinar. Info will go out to AAPORnet next week. Patrick has recruited a new speaker for the spring webinar. He will work with communications to set the date and publicize this when need be next year.
Colleen has two potential candidates who may be interested in the student coordinator role. Both are from Michigan and have two years remaining in their program. Colleen will follow up with connections at Nebraska to see if they have interested students. Ipek will reach out to contacts at UIC as well.
Ipek will aggregate the list of nominees and ask council to rank them. Ned will take over some of the oversight for this because the next coordinator will be on his tenure’s council.
11:30am – 12:00pm Guidelines on “in memoriam” sessions/events/activities (All)
Two MAPOR fellows passed away this year and we would like to think about guidelines for how we can designate a time to honor their contributions in the future.
We would like to make a space available for people to be able to memorialize those who have passed. Depaul can be made available from 2:30 (during the refreshment break) through 4:15. The time covers the refreshment break so that people who are presenting in the last session can have time to join if need be. The room could be available for the entire time of the session for those to speak about past members. The time and room will be in the program as “In Memoriam”. This will allow anyone who wishes to honor past members, a designated space and time for this process.
Ron moves that we designate a space and a time at the conference every year for members to be able to commemorate members who have passed away in the previous year.
Mary suggests that we should be very thoughtful about when we decide to have discussants or not. They should be selected so that they add value to the session. They should have some special insight concerning the content.
We will also revisit the guidelines for discussants. We would like to draw attention to the revised guidelines and make sure potential discussants are aware that we are ‘raising the bar’ for the obligations of discussant. We will assign chairs for all sessions, and we will hand pick potential discussants.
Dana will reach out to the hotel and ask for an estimated budget for the conference.
Networking lunch:
We will again have “The Grand” for the lunch option.
We will probably use savings to pay for students lunch during the network luncheon. This will most likely result in more student attendees at the lunch hour. When reporting to the hotel, we will determine how many people pre-register for lunch and then add ten additional spots for late attendees who register at the conference.
Sponsor registration – Kevin will begin to program the conference registration page and get the code for sponsors.
Kevin to check on links for conference registration and give links to Dana.
We need to add a question in the conference registration to ask about early career (within 5 years post terminal degree graduation) or student status.
Dana will reach out to students who submitted papers to give them a heads up about the conference. We want to do this in order to keep students in the know. She will send a general message about student lunch and other student events.
Student paper award submissions have been made. They have been sent to John Stevenson although he is currently on vacation.
Network luncheon. We will have the table topics at the registration table, and try to inform students and early career people about what the topics will be. We would like to keep it informal rather than having people sign up for specific topics.
2:30 – 2:45pm BREAK
2:45 – 3:45pm 2019 Annual MAPOR Conference Working Session (Dana)
3:45 – 4:00pm Other topics/Closing
4:00pm Adjourn
Codes for registration:
Sponsr19
Speaker19 (lunch included)
We get three room nights comped.
Speakers book their own hotels, they don’t have to pay. But they provide their credit card numbers for incidentals.
The hotel let’s us know when we have to pay for the rooms of the speaker.
Agenda:
2019 Conference (Dana)
Abstract acceptance status notifications
Abstract review and conference program
Student paper competition
MAPOR annual conference fees
Anything else?
Abstract notification sent this weekend. 3 rejected, 105 accepted. 13 posters. There may be one methodological brief session. TBD. The conference committee will make final determinations soon.
Dana expects that the length will give each speaker 12 minutes per session – we will have speakers for sessions with less papers. Dana feels like the sections we have now are sensible and group well together. We may end up moving a few around, we will discuss during the in-person meeting next month.
The student paper competition notices have been sent. These are due next month and Dana is in contact with those students to be sure they are ready for the paper deadlines.
Fees – Conference fees last year were $125 general, $100 for early bird. Students $75 or $50 for early bird. Short course $50. $40 network lunch, $15 lunch for students. Ipek feels that unless something drastic occurs we should keep costs flat. Ned – AAPOR has tried to keep conference flees flat as well. Kevin feels that in general our costs will be flat and therefore we do not need to increase fees. The only additional costs for this year will be for the MAPOR banners and tablecloth that needed to be purchased for the new logo. We will have costs for an in-person meeting this year as well, although the costs for this year will be lower than many in-person meetings as a majority of EC members are already in Chicago.
Dana has tried to balance sessions but we have the ability to use 5 rooms concurrently this year. There is only one room that we will block for a session because we need time to turn over the room after the short-course. This was based on a request from members to have a classroom style layout for the room for the short-course.
Email from MAPOR Fellows regarding an “in memoriam” session at the annual conference (All)
(See attached)
Two fellows have passed away this year. Both were very active and significant MAPOR members. Fellows have asked to have a time to recognize John Loft and George Bishop during our conference.
Council suggested a few ideas that might work, given that it is already too late to add another session to the conference. Coffee break? Poster as memorial to members who have passed?
We don’t want to have one person overshadowed by others who are memorialized. The issue council is facing is trying to be consistent with memorializing members.
Council agrees that for this year, having a space available during the coffee break will allow members to talk about past members. It is also important that any type of memorial should be voluntary – that all members should not be required to attend – for example if we had it during the keynote or other all-member event.
Going forward, we will have an ‘in memoriam’ session that is blocked every year for members to be able to speak about past colleagues. We know there are many past MAPOR members who pass away every year, this gives all members the opportunity to speak about any person in the field who passed away. MAPOR is an organization of members, it is not composed of just past MAPOR presidents or fellows.
Ipek will reach out to fellows and let them know of these decisions. We will need to dedicate a little more time to finalizing the logistics of this. More discussion at in-person meeting for guidelines.
Treasurer’s Report (Kevin)
Budget updates
Getting back the MAPOR banner from AAPOR
CVENT “Onsite Premium” software
Transitioning the management of collecting funds from our third party vendors to CVENT (one-stop shop)
Checking: $24,370
Savings: $45,021
Checking has gone up because we are bringing in money from Sponsorship.
Kevin sent another reminder email to Yvonne about the banner. Received an out-of-office email saying she will return this Wednesday.
Kevin went to a demonstration of CVENT’s “Onsite Premium” software at McCormick place last week. The software offers an integrated way for the Secretary Treasurer to handle the registration, sign-in, and badging of conference attendees. Software also includes the ability to have a conference application and would allow us to ultimately remove a paper conference program. The software is very sharp and reduces burden for the Sec/Treas. Although it comes at a price. The cost would be an additional $2,300 per year. Our current cost for CVENT is about $1,300 annually (Our contract is for $1,000 for 200 persons and we pay a per-person amount for beyond 200 registrants.). It is possible that we could use this software for one year and then not re-use for the next to see how it goes. We can postpone this decision until after the in-person meeting. Kevin will provide a pros and cons at the next meeting and we will make a decision at that time.
Transitioning of payment services to CVENT. CVENT could handle the processing of our payments so that we could eliminate the need to use iPayment and authorize.net. However, Kevin has run preliminary calculations and it seems that continuing with what we have is the least expensive method. Kevin will utilize the figures sent to him from CVENT and determine what is most cost effective. The decision to go forward with this change should be driven by one question – would the new method (using CVENT’s Payment Services vs iPayment and authorize.net in conjunction with CVENT) be less expensive for us overall?
Communications (Justine)
Plans on upcoming social media postings/communication w/ members
Next newsletter content and due dates
Justine and Ipek will meet soon to discuss what we want to put out in upcoming communications to members. Justine is putting together scheduled communications that convey information on the conference. If Council has any other information they would like to convey, please speak with Justine.
Ipek suggests putting together something to publicize benefits to sponsors.
Sponsorship (Allison)
Allison requested that EC members think about any other leads for sponsorship and send those to her. She is working on the current sponsors and following up with them. Ron is going to put out some information to other listservs to see if we can recruit any other sponsors.
Executive Council Face-to-Face Meeting (Ipek)
Date & Time: September 16, 2019 (Monday), 9:00am to 3:00pm
Location: NORC’s downtown office (55 East Monroe Street, Chicago, IL 60603)
Travel Plans and RSVPs
Ipek will send out an email with logistics and an agenda soon. Follow-up with Ipek if you have any suggestions for agenda items.
Webinar Plans (Ipek/Patrick)
Patrick following up with NORC folks to have a data visualization webinar in October. It looks like this is going to happen.
Patrick has another lead, Rebecca Powell, about a webinar in R. Patrick will talk with her about conducting this in the spring of 2020. This was fall to the next webinar coordinator.
Ned asks what Patrick feels is the optimal number of webinars per year. Patrick believes that 2 webinars a year seems like a reasonable amount.
Patrick is rotating off the council in the fall and we will need to think about who might be the next in line to be the webinar coordinator. (In the past, MAPOR council has offered this to persons who were in ‘at large’ council member positions.)
Election and Executive Council Input on Nominations (Ipek)
Call for nominations will go out soon to members
Potential Council and Fellow Candidates List from past years and the nominations so far from this year. Please include your nominations (if any): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_qeEYjY2nqwVzMFohy7LCPU598xdnNhFL6DTbMrniXg/edit#gid=1
The current list is available on the Google drive if any members want to nominate others for positions. Ipek will send the communication to Kevin about a call for nominations from members. This will go out this week or next.
Dana Garbarski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago. In 2018, she started a 3-year concurrent position as the Farrell Endowed Assistant Professor in Gannon Center for Women and Leadership. In this position, Dana is in charge of developing programming for faculty at her university that aids in fostering their research and professional development, in direct alignment with the goals of MAPOR Council’s updated Mission and Vision statements. As a sociologist, Dana’s research goals are to examine and inform the valid and reliable collection of survey data on health and well-being, with an intersectional focus on dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexuality. Her methodological focus is on survey methodology, as surveys are a core methodology through which social, behavioral, and medical researchers learn about the health and well-being of populations. Her work has been published in several journals in the fields of sociology, public opinion, survey research, and health. Dana has been a member of MAPOR since moving to Chicago in 2014. She has been serving on MAPOR Council since November 2015, first as a member-at-large and member of the MAPOR Conference Committee, then as Associate Conference Chair (2018) and now Conference Chair (2019). In addition, she organized the 2017 Interviewer-Respondent Interaction Working Group meeting at the MAPOR conference, and planned, organized, and moderated a panel on Women and Leadership in 2018. Dana has enjoyed working with and learning from the many wonderful volunteers on MAPOR Council and is looking forward to continuing her MAPOR service as Vice President/President-Elect.
Stephanie Chardoul is the Director of Survey Research Operations (SRO) at the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center (Institute for Social Research). She started in her current Director position February 2019, but has been with the Survey Research Center since 1990. During her tenure at SRC, she has been the Manager of the Survey Services Laboratory (telephone facility and more), a Survey Director, Director of the Project Design and Management Group (project managers and directors), and Director of Proposals (new project intake and design). Her substantive interests include cross-cultural survey methods, building survey research infrastructure, and mental health. Her presentation at MAPOR last year was on using event history calendars to improve recall and reporting rates on a survey of mental health in Nepal. Stephanie has been a member of the Data Collection Coordinating Centre for the long-running World Mental Health Survey Initiative (30+ countries, since 1999), and is the Director of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) Training Centre. As SRO Director, she leads a department of 170 full-time staff and up to 1000 interviewers across the country. Throughout her career, Stephanie has been involved with both IFDTC and AAPOR, and more recently has become active with MAPOR and AASRO and values these organizations especially for their smaller size and opportunities for learning and sharing.
Lindsey Witt-Swanson has been with the Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR) at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln for eight years. As the Associate Directors, Lindsey assists clients and researchers with their research and evaluation projects, ensures that BOSR is utilizing the most up-to-date methods and knowledgeable of changes in the field, oversees BOSR’s staff of 125 employees, and is responsible for BOSR’s financial health and growth. Lindsey currently serves as the chair of the Survey Committee for the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations (AASRO) and co-treasurer for the International Field Directors and Technologies Conference (IFD&TC). Lindsey has been a member of AAPOR and MAPOR since joining BOSR. Lindsey received her BA in Political Science at Creighton University and her MS in Survey Research and Methodology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Y. Patrick Hsieh is a research survey methodologist and digital sociologist in the Survey Research Division at the RTI International. International. His expertise includes developing mixed-method research, designing social media campaign for sample recruitment, and integrating digital technologies and technology-enabled research practices, such as crowdsourcing and citizen science, into survey methodology to improve research design and data quality. Patrick has served on the MAPOR Council as the webinar series coordinator since 2016 and is a member of MAPOR Conference Committee since 2018. He also assisted the AAPOR Education Committee’s Diversity Subcommittee to organize and host the very first SurveyFest in Chicago in 2018. Patrick earned his Ph.D. in media, technology, and society at Northwestern University’s School of Communication in 2014, prior to joining RTI International. Patrick’s dissertation has won the best student paper award of MAPOR in 2013 and he has been attending MAPOR since then. He looks forward to continuing his MAPOR service as Associate Conference Chair.
David Sterrett is a Senior Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. He has attended and presented at the last eight MAPOR conferences, and served as the student liaison to the MAPOR executive council from 2013-2014. David is involved in AAPOR as well, presenting regularly and is currently serving on the Education Committee. In addition, David is a past member of the AAPOR Transitions from Telephone to Mixed Mode Survey Taskforce and past chair of the Chapter Liaison Subcommittee of the Membership and Chapter Relations Committee. David’s research focuses on political attitudes, survey methodology, and the public’s news habits. His research has been published in journals including Public Opinion Quarterly, Digital Journalism, and Political Behavior. He earned his PhD. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University.
