Announcements

MAPOR Members meeting

Taken during annual conference – 11/17/18

The following notes were taken after the presentation of slides by council members.

• On the Cvent registration form, we should ask if the person is an early career researcher
• History of MAPOR group. Paul Lavarakas – Paul and Ipek will reach out to fellows and get things moving. They will have their first meeting in January and they will be in touch with council with an update.
• Some people wanted to add lunch to their registration after the completed their registration but could not. A request was made about having the ability for people to make changes to their registration after it has been completed.
• Thank you to Ned for articulating the inclusive nature of MAPOR.
• What will be done with MAPOR’s financial reserves?
  • A member suggested using the money towards funding more students to be able to attend MAPOR conference. Member requested that council explain what they have planned with the current reserves. Council responded that aside from the initiatives described during the president’s presentation, there was no official plan to do anything with reserves, except to set them aside.
  • Member suggested having one year of operating costs aside for any issues that might come up.
  • A previous council member explained the financial issue that came up at a conference a few years ago where multiple unexpected finances were incurred during the conference and as a result, the final cost of the conference was thousands of dollars over what was expected. This has instilled a cautious approach for all council members who went through that process.
  • Council member: We know that the updating of our materials due to the new logo change will incur some costs.
  • Council member: We should have some amount set aside in case we decide to move the hotel venue or if there are other unforeseen cost over-runs.
  • Member: We should approach Kellen or AAPOR about what a good amount of reserves should be.
  • Council member: It would be nice for us to know what other chapters keep in their reserves.
• Member: Council and other have spoken about recruiting new members. Growth for growth’s sake may not be a wise move for the chapter to take. We appreciate the friendly and welcoming nature a conference of this size allows.
• Member: Organizations benefit from being in MAPOR.
• Member: AAPOR is doing a good job with their “send a speaker” program and this would be a good opportunity for MAPOR members to join.
• Member: We had a great number of students apply for the student paper award competition. Thank you to the fellows who agreed to read papers and give feedback.

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING Notes

December 17, 2018

12:00 – 1:00 CST/1:00 pm – 2:00pm EST

 

Attendees: Kevin, Ipek, Mary, Josh, Dana, Colleen, Ned, Justine, Ashley, Ron, Josh, Sara, Allison                                                         

Welcome New Council Members: Introductions* Mary Losch, Justine Bulgar-Medina, and Ashley Hyon

Welcome to new council members. Justine will take over for communications.

• 2018-2019 Council Transition             (Ipek/All)

1. Monthly meeting schedule
2. MAPOR Google Group; Google Drive; Website; and MAPORnet
3. Committees/new roles/transition meetings

Third Monday of the month for meetings going forward. No one objects to this schedule, although we will need to move the meeting next month because of the MLK holiday. There may be other months we may need to move but we will take it one month at a time.

Ipek updated the Google group for council. New folks have also been added to the Google drive. Ipek sent an email with a link to the drive. Please let Ipek know if you do not have access.

Kevin will add new members to MAPORnet. Also will add those who provided an email in the member survey. Kevin will update. We do not remove people from this list.

Please reach out to Ipek if you would like to be added to a sub-committee. Please have your transition meeting with the person who is leaving your role soon if this has not already occurred.

• 2018 Conference Debrief             (Ned/All)
  1. All expenses paid/conference hotel receipt?
  2. Thank you notes to sponsors/any unpaid invoice?
  3. Conference overview
  4. Issues brought up at the business meeting

Expenses ave been paid and the hotel has cashed the check. Thanks to everyone for taking part in making the conference a successful event!

Allison provided thank you cards to sponsors the previous year. Allison and Ipek will meet and discuss about what to send out to sponsors.

We need to figure out if we need to add briefs or another session. Especially if we have another increase in the number of submissions. We may have another space that would provide another room next year.

What should we designate as an appropriate amount of money to set aside as “operating reserves”?. Mary: you want a minimum of a year of operating expenses set aside. Having those earmarked is a sign of a healthy organization. Kevin, Mary, and Ipek will look into how much we should set aside and what this amount should be. Can we reach out to other organizations to see how much they have set aside? After we know this we can come up with a policy, and then present it to council to vote. Ron suggests having this on the agenda for the next chapters meeting.

Patrick is pulling the presentations off the laptops and we may post these on the website.

• 2019 Conference                       (Dana/Sara)

1. Conference support committee
2. Other items

If anyone would like to join the conference committee, please reach out to Dana.

Dana has reached out to a potential key-note speaker, she is waiting for a response. Pedagogy hour is waiting on the response from the key-note but she has ideas about who she will contact next.

• 2020 Conference Hotel Contract Update      (Ipek/Ned/Ron/Sara)
  • Proposals from Embassy and Marriott

Contract expires after next year. We are in the process of re-negotiating the contract with the Embassy Suites. We also have a proposal from the Marriot. We will review the contract proposal from Marriot and see what kind of offer they can make us.

Ipek will provide more info on this during the next meeting.

• Member Survey Update                               (Kevin)

1. Survey closing date
2. Preliminary results
3. Next steps

We now have 150 completes and 13 partial completes. The last reminder to non-respondents went out this morning and the survey will close tomorrow (12/18). Historically, we have had 180-190 responses to the survey, although the denominator from past years has not been consistent.

Executive council were removed from participating in the survey. The logic is that because there are so many council members, we don’t want to push the data in a more positive direction. If the membership is unhappy with something, we don’t want it watered done by our responses. Plus, council provide their input and ideas when we discuss and interpret the results.

Kevin will clean the data and think about which open ends to code. Please reach out to Kevin if you are willing to help with the coding. Ipek will check back with Kevin a week or so before the next meeting to see where he is at in the process.

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

Checking: $17,575.52

Savings: $45,018.03.

We are in good shape financially. As discussed previously, we need to think about how much we can set aside for operational reserves. We will also see what input members had in the member survey on this topic.

Cvent is offering a new service called “Cvent flex system” which could eliminate the need for us to rely on Authorize.net and iPayment – each of which take a cut of our revenue. Having funds transfer through several systems is costly and makes tracking challenging. Kevin will put together the costs associated with staying or switching to the new system. We will discuss at the next meeting.

• Mixer    (Josh/Colleen)
  1. Date/time of the event
  2. Other logistics

Next event will be in Ann Arbor – Josh and Colleen are organizing now. Originally targeted for Tuesday, February 12^th. People that Josh discussed with said the weekday/weekend date is not so much of an issue. Josh and Colleen will make a decision about the date – either the 4^th, the 11^th, or the 15^th. Some council members will be able to attend but it will depend on the date. We will make a decision by mid-January so that we can send out the communications.

• Communications                             (Justine)

Justine would like to come up with a calendar of events for the year that highlights key events throughout the year to ensure communications are going out when they need to be. We will solicit ideas from council members about other dates to go on the calendar.

• Website                                 (Josh)

Josh confirms that we can put presentations up on the website although it would take a considerable amount of time to upload each one. He suggests making a public Google drive folder where all presentations could go out and people could see them if they had the link. We need to make sure that those who said no about going public do not have their presentations go into that folder. We asked if they would be willing to have them public when they registered.

Josh would like to have a session where he can teach about how to update their pertinent info on the website, but we can do this at another time. Please reach out to Josh if you require access to editing.

• MAPOR mission statement next steps              (Mandy)

Mandy and Ipek will touch base on this before the next meeting.

• MAPOR purchases with new logo          (Ipek/Sara)

This will be an item for next month. Sara should be aware that we need to come up with a plan for purchasing updated MAPOR stuff.

• Webinar              (Patrick)

Ipek and Patrick have ideas for webinars. More on this next month. Please let Patrick and Ipek know if you have any ideas for future webinars.

• MAPOR history project     (Ipek)

Ipek will reach out to Paul about the next steps.

• Election software investigation          (Ron/Ipek)

Our rates of voting were lower this year and this is the impetus for this consideration. Ron and Ipek will discuss in the upcoming weeks about using a different software.

 

 

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

October 8, 2018

1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

Attendees: Ipek, Matt, Ned, Ron, Kevin, Josh, Sara, Jolene, Colleen, Vanessa

I. Communications update (Mandy/Vanessa)
Communications team will create a draft mission statement for MAPOR.
Vanessa will implement the changes EC suggested for the newsletter. Vanessa will add the logo to the top of the newsletter. The newsletter will go out this week. Mandy and Ron will provide a final approval of the latest changes.

II. Treasurer’s Report (Jolene/Kevin)
Checking: $22,998.79
Savings: $45,017.27
We now have 21 persons registered for the webinar.
We now have 57 persons registered for the conference – slightly above where we were at from last year.

Jolene recommends placing a small note about Cvent being down on our website. Jolene will email Josh about the down-time.Kevin recommends shortening the conference/member survey. The survey was distributed to members last week. Please review and make suggestions to cuts or edits to Kevin by October 29th. This will provide enough time for us to make revisions before the launch immediately after the conference on November 19th.

III. Webinar Update – web-enabled? (Patrick) No update at this time.

IV. Sponsorship Update (Allison)
New sponsors would need to get to us by the 15th of October in order to make it into the conference program.

V. Election (Ron)
We have candidates. They are in the newsletter and Josh will soon get them up on the website.
Voting will take place October 26th through November 5th. Ron will draft the messaging for the invitation to vote and send to Jolene to distribute.

VI. Mixer (Josh/Colleen)
Is anyone aware of other major conferences in spring that we do not want to overlap? If so, please send these to Colleen.

VII. Conference (Ned/Dana)
Preliminary program has launched!
We need people to start booking rooms. Starting now, we will begin to request a booked room update from the hotel so we know where we stand with our block.
Matt and Ipek suggest asking the hotel to scan their bookings for that weekend so that we get credit for people who booked directly from the hotel site. Jeff Rodriguez (Ranka’s fill in person) has been very responsive so far.
Making final plans to secure discussants now.
Ron will be in communication with Allison about giving sponsors the appropriate credit for conference events.
Kevin and Ned will be in contact about scheduling the delivery of the MAPOR equipment – overheads, printer, signage, etc.
Student engagement: We will continue the Saturday lunch. We will also put together a happy hour for the Thursday before the conference. We will have student tables as well during the lunch.
Kevin will follow up with Jolene about getting a student ribbon for name badges.
Colleen would like to include early-career folks to the “student” events.

Next Meeting: Monday November 12, 1:00 ET/Noon CT

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

September 20, 2018

1:00 pm – 6:00pm ET/Noon

I. Communications Discussion (Mandy/Vanessa)
Communications plan has been distributed. A primary component is trying to get a synergistic plan to send out communications. There is an understanding that some communications are known in advance – such as communications about the conference – and other messaging is more reactive or impromptu. A challenge for the communications team will be to determine which communications can be sent as they come up whereas other communications should be coordinated so that they have a similar voice and message.
Social Media outreach. Communications team recommends ads via Facebook to increase followers. The cost could be as low as $200 to start. Twitter and Facebook account have been refreshed with the new logo.
MAPOR has a new logo! Feedback has been very positive. Note that there are different styles of the logo – banner, newsletter, logo only – in a folder on the Google drive.
MAPOR values. Communications team recommends putting together a mission or vision statement for the organization. EC suggests getting feedback from members. Could be done at the next business meeting? AAPOR has a “mission and goals” page on their website. Perhaps we can use this as a starting point to draft a vision statement for MAPOR? Ron recommends soliciting feedback from the fellows who have long standing ideas about what values MAPOR has held important over the years.
Set deadline at end of September for having a draft of the next newsletter. We will roll out the official logo in the newsletter. Also make announcement about the next webinar (October 17th). Newsletter isscheduled to be sent about a week before the webinar.
Making the webinar web-enabled. Could be a format so that when people open the announcement, the newsletter is there. There would be a cost involved with this. Newsletter could also be in pdf format. We will put this on the agenda for the next EC meeting. Josh will help inform us with what is doable and present options at the next meeting.
Surveyfest – the week before MAPOR on the UIC campus. Ipek will be speaking about MAPOR during the meeting and asks the communications committee about the types of things that we can push out during this meeting. Can we print out pamphlets for the MAPOR conference?

II. Sponsorship Update (Allison)
Allison asks for contacts with specific organizations who have not yet provided funds. We have currently received about $15,000 from sponsors. Allison is working to establish deadlines for sponsors; deadline for artwork (Oct 1), date registration opens (within next week).

III. Treasurer’s Report (Jolene/Kevin)
$45,016 savings. $18,131 checking.
Registration is very close to being open. Do we want to ask people if we can provide their abstract online or should we just tell them we will do so?
Please send receipts to Jolene about travel for the in-person meeting.
Jolene needs links and info for bios for EC candidates.
Survey will be sent out to members shortly after the conference this year. Kevin will distribute survey to members before the next meeting.

IV. Webinar Update (Patrick)
Josh needs to make sure the registration is set for the webinar.

V. Election (Ron)
We have candidates for the election. Election date is set for 10 days before conference.

VI. Mixer (Josh/Colleen)
Suggestion has been made about having the mixer in Michigan after the conference. Nov 29 or December 5. It could also be set for sometime in February or March to break up the year? Colleen and Josh will meet again and set a firm date in the next few weeks.

VII. Conference (Ned/Dana)
Consent. We have about 14 people who did not give consent to have their abstract posted online. We will not post abstracts this year.
Photos and consent. If we have someone taking photos for the website or Facebook, we will let those persons know to inform their photo subjects that they intend to take photos for the web. We will remove the question from the registration page.
Jolene will verify that persons wish to be added to MAPORnet during the registration process.

****At this point, EC on phone left and those in-person attendees continued conference planning and logistics.

VIII. Other Business?

Conference planning:
Student working group will not be a registration item.
EC worked with Ned to begin grouping papers into sections that grouped well together. Ned will put together the first draft of grouped topics then distribute to conference committee. We will target to have a draft of the program by the end of the month.
Ned will communicate with speakers about re-imbursements.
Jolene will activate the registration after final changes have been made. We will soft launch with EC members registering and reporting any problems they find. If no changes to be made, we will send communications about open registration.

Next Meeting:

Monday October 8, 1:00 ET/Noon CT

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING Notes
May 14, 2018
1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

Attendees: Ron, Kevin, Jolene, Josh, Sara, Allison, Ned, Ipek, Colleen, Patrick, Vanessa, Dana

I. MAPOR @ AAPOR
Kevin sent the MAPOR materials to the hotel in Ron’s name. Ron will speak with Adam about having them shipped back.
Jolene has the gift cards and will bring them along.
Jolene printed out the MAPOR at AAPOR highlights and will bring them.
MAPOR will be displayed at the PAPOR happy hour event.
Photos have been posted on the Facebook page in the past. Jolene will make a folder on the Google drive and we can dump all photos there. Photos can also be posted using the hashtag #MAPOR@AAPOR.

II. Conference Update (Ned/Dana)
Soft launch went out on the 1st and the notification went out on the 2nd. Perhaps the week after AAPOR would be a good time to send the next reminder. Deadline to submit is June 30th. Ned will have bookmarks printed to distribute at the conference.
Ipek suggest that we stagger our communications schedule so that different media send notifications on different days. Ipek will work with Ned to determine a staggered schedule.
Ipek has spent some time looking into other management software, at this time we cannot find something that is affordable and easy to use for just abstract management. We will have to wait until after the conference to make a decision about a new software. Current CVENET contract is a 5-year contract – locked in until 2021.

III. Communications Update (Mandy/Vanessa)
Logo – The new designs are in. We will list our top 5 as comments in the pdf and send them back to Vanessa.
Social media calendar is up in the Google drive. Vanessa requests more content sent to that folder. Colleen can put some tweets out from the handle. Vanessa can retweet other tweets sent from the conference. Sara can also send out some tweets from the handle. Use #MAPOR@AAPOR if you tweet at the conference.
June 4th is the deadline for the newsletter. If you are writing for the newsletter, please get it to Mandy before then.

IV. Treasurer’s Report (Jolene)
Checking account – $13,182
Savings account – $45,015

V. Website (Josh)
Website is up. Josh is making sure that material from the old site is now up on the new site. Josh is working to implement other services such as capturing photos to the website.
A place has been created to post minutes. It might be hard to see now because there is only one set.
Currently Josh is the only editor, we should think about having other editors. It would be better if we posted material, rather than having the pdf up as a link. He recommends having people those who are creating the content to post the material to the site. **In thinking about transitioning tasks when we transition staff, this should be added so that we continuously update these permissions.

VI. MAPOR History Group (Mandy)
No update at this time. Ron will contact Paul to learn about what the timeline is.

VII. Sponsorship update (Allison)
Nothing new at this time. Although we will soon want to get on sponsors radars.

VIII. Member benefits (All)
We should think about a date for the face to face meeting. Ron will put together a few dates for the next meeting to talk about nailing down a specific date. Ron will send an email to council members to determine alternative locations for the meeting. We could then move to schedule the mixer at the same time and location.
Webinar – Kristen Olson might be a person to consider. Ron will reach out to her. We should also review the member survey for other ideas. Fred Conrad was also interested when approached by Colleen. She can reach out to him later in June.

Next Meeting: Monday June 11, 1:00 ET/Noon CT