Announcements

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes– January 2022

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

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved by Unanimous consent.

  1. Conference Survey Data (Kevin)

Kevin reviewed Review of survey highlights

  • 201 surveys sent, 114 completes – 57% response rate.76% in person very

Conference Survey Highlights

Keving led a discussions about the conference survey.  Key areas include:

General conference satisfaction / attendance comparing in person vs virtual.

  • In-person more satisfied than virtual (76.1% Very Satisfied in person vs 45% Very Satisfied virtual), but the difference is less noticeable when looking at top 2 box (97.2% in person vs 87.5% virtual).

Discussion for 2022 conference in person vs virtual

  • Three main drivers for virtual attendance were concerns surrounding Covid, convenience, and scheduling.    Convenience factor is a good reason to offer a virtual offering.  10.6% would attend virtually and 9.7% would attend as a mix in the future.
  • Most people who would attend in person next year cite easing of Covid and dissatisfaction with the technology/experience as the main driver to return to in person.  
  • While the hybrid model does expand participation to those who were not able to attend, 44.4% of in person said virtual attendance ‘somewhat or significantly took away’ from the in-person experience.

Student support grants

  • 33/36 students did not participate in a student grant program
    • 21 were not aware of the program.  This provides an opportunity to educate students that funding is available.  There was general discussion about how to best reach out to students directly and/or through professors, mentors and other student organizations.  Justine mentioned that she has seen diminishing returns for communications because at some point the students are not getting/reading the alerts/emails.
    • 12 already had / didn’t need funding for the conference
    • 3 participated in the student grant program

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

  • Allyson Holbrook is working on a subcommittee for student paper, potentially adding a ‘non-student co author’ category.
  • Evgenia suggested that we should start the process for discussing how we are going to do this next year.  For example defining the amount of contribution to determine if a paper has a  ‘non student co-author’.  
  • General feedback
  1. 2022 Conference             (Leah)
    1. Conference support committee 

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.

  1. Check with hotel about 2021 contract plans
    1. Leah had questions about the level of detail of what needs to be finalized before signing the contract.  For example do we need to know if dinner would be plated or buffet, if the short course would be virtual / in person, and what the conference schedule would be. Kevin and David conveyed that the hotel is flexible and the contract is just establishing a reservation for the dates and a minimum $ spend.  Specific details will be identified later.
  1. Leah will reach out to hotel today for more details on contract and will reach out to members for ideas for speakers.
  2. Kevin – Guess is that they will secure the space and then punt the details as we get closer to conference.
  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. Checking: $25,482.49
      2. Savings: $46,971.99
    2. Membership list updates
      1. Lindsay is working on compiling a member list.  Details discussed in next month’s meeting.
  1. Tentative tasks for 2022
    1. Member survey for 2022?
      1. Details discussed in next month’s meeting.
    2. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      1. Details discussed in next month’s meeting.
    3. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms? (Will be discussed in next month’s meeting)
    4. MAPOR address ‘move’ to NORC building (Will be discussed in next month’s meeting)
      1. CVENT
      2. Chase bank
      3. IRS
  1. Communications                     (Benjamin)
    1. Spring newsletter

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.

  1. Website                           (Hillary)
    1. Updates

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.

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee
    1. Meeting on January 11

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.

  1. Sponsorship (Dana)

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.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
    1. Meeting to discuss goals for 2022
    2. Webinars
    3. Other events? 
      1. Resume review? 
      2. Speed networking?

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.

  1. Other business
    1. Mixers in 2022?

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 Council Public Meeting Minutes– December 2021

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:

  1. Welcome Executive Council! 
    1. New members: Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Ben Shapiro, Jerry Timbrook
    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. 2021-2022 Council Transition           (Kevin/All)
    1. Monthly meeting schedule
      1. January 17th is MLK day. Move to 24th?

Will meet 1/24 instead

  1. February 21st is President’s Day. Will meet 1/28 instead. 
  2. June 20th is Juneteenth. Will move to the 13th.

Kevin will send revised meeting invitations

  1. MAPOR Google Group for group email (mapor@gogglegroups.com)
  2. Google Drive
  3. Website
  4. Revisions to committee structure – Committee members/new roles/transition meetings (listed below and for discussion)
  1. 2021 Conference Debrief                         (Leah/David/All)
    1. General Discussion about the hybrid model

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.

  1. All expenses paid?
    1. Hotel – PAID
    2. Tech rental – PAID
    3. Speakers – All but one are paid
    4. Student award winners -PAID
    5. Student grants -PAID
  2. Thank you notes to sponsors

Sent

  1. Business meeting items
    1. Student Paper Criteria – Ad Hoc Committee to review criteria led by Allyson – Kevin to send some applicable Conference Survey data to committee

The conversation was around the role faculty can have on student papers. The fellows will work on this.

  1. 2022 Conference             (Leah)
    1. Conference support committee 
    2. Check with hotel about 2021 contract plans

The contract goes one more year. We will renegotiate the contract this year. 

  1. Review of Conference Survey data for next month’s meeting?
  1. Secretary Treasurer’s Report                     (Lindsey)
    1. Financial updates

Checking: $23,412.04

Savings: $46,971.60

  1. Membership list updates
  1. Tentative tasks for 2022
    1. Member survey for 2022

Worth doing, but maybe shorter than usual 

  1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
  2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?
  3. MAPOR address ‘move’ to NORC building
    1. CVENT
    2. Chase bank
    3. IRS
  1. Communications                     (Benjamin)
    1. Spring newsletter

Benjamin and Justine have met to understand what needs to happen. The plan is to have newsletters around February, April, summer, and October.

  1. Website                             (Hillary)
    1. Updates

Winners have been posted on the website. 

  1. Need to add new councilors and photos to websites

The Executive Council page is mostly updated.

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee
    1. Set meeting and goals for 2022

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.

  1. Tentative tasks for 2022
    1. Review Conference Feedback Survey for January
    2. Evaluate Student Fellowship Program
    3. Evaluate Student Grants Program
  2. Sponsorship (Dana)
    1. Sharing contact information with AAPOR?
  1. Online Learning Committee
    1. Set meeting to discuss goals for 2022
    2. Webinars
    3. Other events? 
      1. Resume review? 
      2. Speed networking
  1. Other business
    1. Mixers in 2022?

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!

2022 Student Fellowship Program

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.

2021 MAPOR Fellow and Student Paper Award Winners

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.

  • Kruthika Kamath worked with Joe Murphy
  • Rafiuddin Najam worked with Leo Jeffres
  • Robert Schultz worked with Paul Lavrakas

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes– October 2021

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:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes

Minutes approved

  1. Treasurer’s Report                 (Lindsey, Kevin)
    1. checking/savings

Checking: $40,798.78

Savings: $46,970.82

  1. 2021 Conference             (David, Leah)
    1. To do list
    2. Speed Networking (Ned, Justine)
    3. Council lunch: (Dana)

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.

  1. Sponsorship           (John, Bob, Dana)
    1. Updates

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. 

  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Updates

The newsletter will go out tomorrow. Any last minute changes need to be to her by end of the day.

  1. Website                             (Patrick, Dana, Hillary)
    1. Updates

No updates.

  1. Webinar           (Patrick)
    1. Update

The next webinar is Wednesday, October 27th. Free for students.

  1. MAPOR Fellow nomination (Ned, Dana)
    1. Update

Dana will have conversations with mentors and mentees after the conference.

  1. Student Fellowship Program     (Ned, Dana, Evgenia)
    1. newsletter item for fall,
    2. conversations with mentors/mentees after conference

Have received two applicants so far. Dana, Kevin, and Ned will review the applicants after the 24th.

  1. Colleague/student support grant (Ned, Dana)
    1. Updates

No applicants so far. Dana, Kevin, and Ned will review the applicants after the 24th.

  1. AAPOR 2022 in Chicago (May 10-13) (Kevin)
    1. Off site party
      1. What would we like to do?
      2. How much to contribute?
      3. Location ideas?
    2. Student paper competition
      1. Winner of competition from MAPOR conference will attend next AAPOR conference

Nothing to do now.

  1. Other business?                                                                                                         

Committee Composition

  1. Conference (Sara, Ned, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (John and Bob)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsey)
  4. Website (Patrick, Hillary, Dana)
  5. Communications (Justine)
  6. Sec-treas support (Lindsey, Kevin, Hillary)
  7. Student Fellowship Program (Ned, Dana, Evgenia)
  8. Student/Early career programs  (Ned, Dana, Evgenia, Leah)
  9. Colleague grants/tiered registration (Ned, Dana)
  10. Outreach committee (Evgenia, Lindsey, Bob, David)
  11. MAPOR Fellow nomination criteria (Ned, Dana)
  12. Speed Networking (Ned, Justine)
  13. MAPOR conference attendee Code of Conduct (TBD)

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!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes– September 2021

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

September 24, 2021

10:00 am-12:00 pm, 1:00– 3:00 pm CDT

Zoom invite

MAPOR MOMENT of the MONTH:  All of us for what we are about to pull off over the next two months!

Agenda:

Morning session 10am-12pm

Attendees: Dana, Lindsey, Kevin, Leah, David, Ned, Hillary, John, Sara, Patrick, and Evgenia

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes

Approved

  1. Treasurer’s Report                 (Lindsey, Kevin)
    1. checking/savings

Checking: $37,552.18

Savings: $46,970.44

  1. Sponsorship           (John, Bob, Dana)
    1. Updates

There are spreadsheets in the Google Drive sponsorship folder with information multiple people need. Everyone has paid. John went through the spreadsheets and folders to show others in the EC where relevant information is for them. 

Discussed encouraging sponsors to share information about internships. The sponsors will be updated on the website on 10/1.

  1. 2021 Conference             (David)

We will offer a hybrid format for all aspects of the conference except possibly giving feedback or asking questions during the sessions. The member survey showed a 50/50 split between attending in person and attending virtually. Hoping for 160 registrants. Planning for five session blocks, which is the usual amount, with four sessions per block. Each room will have a Zoom link and function as a webinar using the computer’s camera and microphone. 

Virtual presenters will present live through screen share. MAPOR will provide practice sessions so virtual presenters can try things out and ease concerns. Virtual presentations can go first in the session so if there are any issues, the virtual presenters have time in the session to fix their issue and still present before the session is over.

All sessions will be recorded to watch later for all conference goers, virtual and in-person. As a result, we will need to communicate with presenters that they cannot opt out of sharing their presentation. The presentations will be saved onto the Zoom cloud and then moved to the MAPOR share drive. Patrick feels the Zoom files will be small enough to save on the MAPOR share drive without incurring costs. 

Each session will have a “normal” moderator and also a tech moderator. No discussants this year. MAPOR will require that pre-recorded presentations need to be recorded using Power Point or Zoom. 

The food type options will stay the same, but more items may be individually wrapped. Hotel staff may have servers at the Friday buffet. MAPOR will subsidize the Friday lunch, but there will be a fee ($30) for the lunch for non-student attendees. There will be an open bar and appetizers during the happy hour.

All in-person participants will have to upload their vaccination cards and sign a waiver. Masks will be required. The rooms will have half the number of chairs as normal, the chairs will be spaced out, and we will not allow standing room. 

Presenters need to have a final decision on whether they are presenting in-person or virtually by 10/19. Attendees will decide when they register if they will attend in-person or virtually, but we will allow folks to change to the other format after registration if requested. All cost reimbursements will be handled at the conference. If they got the early bird rate when they first registered, they will get the early bird rate for the format they ended up using.

David will work with DTP (?, the printer) to format and print the program. Kevin will do inventory on the storage unit to determine what else is needed.

David will group presentations together for sessions based on content rather than format. David will see if the three posters want to switch to methodological briefs. 

Lunch 12-1pm

Afternoon session 1-3pm

  1. Finish 2021 conference items                                                                                       (David)

Speed networking will likely be hybrid and its own session. We will hold the resume workshop outside of the conference. 

Technology moderators will be in the room to troubleshoot tech issues, so the traditional moderator can focus on their usual responsibilities. Both moderators will be in-person. Virtual council members can also pop in and out of multiple sessions to make sure everything is working from the virtual-side. 

Dana will take the lead on selecting and purchasing computers for the conference. Also, we need to purchase Zoom licenses and Microsoft Office licenses. David will see if we can purchase our own lapel microphones or if we have to rent the hotel’s.

  1. Webinars           (Patrick)
    1. Ideas for webinar in  October
    2. update on new tech/methods for fall

Justine will do a webinar in October on SOGI questions. Patrick is hoping to get someone else to take over this role.

  1. MAPOR Fellow nomination criteria (Ned, Dana)
    1. Update (Ned)

We reviewed the process Ned proposed. Council members should send Ned nominations by 10/1. Then, Council will vote on their first, second, and third choices the following week. 

  1. AAPOR regional Chapter Representative Meeting – 9/9/21 (Kevin)
    1. Accounting for dues from national
      1. We need to send ACH form to AAPOR MCR
      2. We need to provide feedback on dues procedure
      3. Designate communications person for chapter rep listserv

Kevin and Dana will be the representatives.

  1. Conduct policy
    1. Do we post conduct policy on our website?
    2. When do members accept conduct policy?

We need to add the AAPOR conduct policy to our website. Lindsey will add agreeing to the AAPOR code of conduct when paying for a MAPOR membership through the MAPOR website or through conference registration.

  1. AAPOR 2022 in Chicago (May 10-13) (Kevin)
    1. MAPOR will not have an on-site EC meeting at AAPOR
    2. AAPOR will re-imburse $250 for raffle
    3. MCR will be in touch about set-up and shipment of materials to Chicago
    4. Off site party
      1. What would we like to do?
      2. How much to contribute?
      3. Location ideas?

MAPOR will contribute the same amount as in past years. No one else had thoughts about this.

  1. Student paper competition
    1. Winner of competition from MAPOR conference will attend next AAPOR conference
  2. Other business?                                                                                                         

Committee Composition

  1. Conference (Sara, Ned, Dana, David, Leah)
  2. Sponsorship (John and Bob)
  3. Webinar (Patrick, Lindsey)
  4. Website (Patrick, Hillary, Dana)
  5. Communications (Justine)
  6. Sec-treas support (Lindsey, Kevin, Hillary)
  7. Student Fellowship Program (Ned, Dana, Evgenia)
  8. Student/Early career programs  (Ned, Dana, Evgenia, Leah)
  9. Colleague grants/tiered registration (Ned, Dana)
  10. Outreach committee (Evgenia, Lindsey, Bob, David)
  11. MAPOR Fellow nomination criteria (Ned, Dana)
  12. Speed Networking (Ned, Justine)
  13. MAPOR conference attendee Code of Conduct (TBD)

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!

October 27 Webinar

Considering Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Research

Justine Bulgar-Medina, Ph.D.
Research Methodologist at NORC at the University of Chicago

October 27th, 12-1 pm central time

ADMISSION (Pandemic Special): 
$20 for non-members
$10 for MAPOR members
Free for student members

Register here

Please join us for an informative and interactive presentation on crafting questions to measure Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) in surveys. SOGI is measured in a variety of ways across surveys and research studies, but which SOGI question, or set of questions, is best for your study or target study population? Justine Bulgar-Medina, Ph.D. is a Research Methodologist at NORC and has dedicated much time and research to address this question. Justine will share her knowledge on the evolution of work on measurement error in SOGI populations in the MAPOR fall webinar on October 27th.

About Justine: In addition to her work at NORC, Justine also teaches courses in research methods and public policy at Northwestern.  Prior to joining NORC & Northwestern, Justine was a faculty member at Merrimack College where she taught courses in research methods, statistics, public policy and criminology. Justine completed her doctoral work in Sociology & Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Justine’s work focuses on looking at measurement error in surveys, especially measurement error in minority and multiple minority areas, with a focus on culturally responsive and inclusive approaches.  She has presented on these topics at several conferences (including MAPOR and AAPOR), as well as offered short courses for UNC’s Odum Institute.  Along with other researchers in the field Justine has been active in organizing AAPOR panels on SOGI populations.  

Candidates for Office – 2021-2022

We are pleased to present the candidates for 2021-2022 MAPOR Executive Council, shown in alphabetical order by position as follows (click each name for the candidate’s biography): 

Vice President/President Elect       

Justine Bulgar-Medina

David Sterrett

Associate Conference Chair  

Y. Patrick Hsieh

Benjamin Schapiro

Associate Secretary-Treasurer

Lindsey Witt-Swanson

As per Article IV: Section 2 of our bylaws “any group of at least twenty-five (25) members entitled to vote at any annual or special meeting of the members may nominate another candidate or candidates for office by so notifying in writing the President within twenty (20) days after the delivery, mailing or e-mailing of such names.” Please note that any candidate must be current AAPOR and MAPOR members and you should check that they are willing to serve. The deadline for adding candidates to the ballot is October 12, 2021.

The election will take place from October 29 – November 9, 2021. 

David Sterrett – Candidate for Vice President/President-Elect

David Sterrett is a Senior Research Scientist in the Public Affairs and Media Research Department at NORC at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on political attitudes, survey methodology, and the public’s news habits. Prior to joining NORC in 2014, he received his PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

David has enjoyed attending every MAPOR conference since 2011, and he served as the student liaison for the executive council when in graduate school. He is currently the MAPOR Conference Chair. David also enjoys attending AAPOR conferences and is currently serving on the AAPOR Membership and Chapter Relations Committee.