MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – November 2019

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.


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

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 Council Public Meeting Minutes – October 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES

October 21, 2019

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

Dial-in: 1-866-215-5503; Passcode: 9109781#

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.” 

Present: Ipek, Ned, Ron, Ashley, Dana, Justine, Allison, Josh, Sara, Patrick, Colleen

Agenda:

  1. 2019 Conference               (Dana)
    1. Registration (72 registrants to the conference as of 10/18/19 at 3pm)
      1. 59 general, 16 students; 33 for lunch so far
      2. 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
      3. Friday morning working group will recap February interviewers + interviewing workshop. The working group has 15 registrants so far
    2. Conference program
      1. Two papers have been withdrawn
        1. Still need chairs/discussants (Sara) and final images (Allison)
          1. Allison says will have EOD (Dynata and U of C SLAB)
            1. Dana will follow-up if necessary
          2. Waiting for info from Frank M. as well
    3. Hotel room block 
      1. Haven’t heard from Ranka recently. Ipek suggested Dana to call Ranka as she is more responsive via phone.
        1. As of 10/7 were on track
          1. Dana will follow-up with Ranka, Jeff, Anada
          2. May need to send email to registrants
    4. Budget/estimated costs
      1. Budget will be similar to last year with some small changes
    5. Student paper competition 
      1. Received additional paper from solicitation from Dana; 3 submissions in total
        1. Have reviews back from half of fellows at this point
        2. All appear to be substantive, and so may only give one award this year
    6. Sponsor tables and info
      1. We only have one firm “yes” so far
    7. Laptops + Book raffle donations + printer/signage 
      1. Won’t be doing book raffle this year, rather next year’s registration fees will be the raffle prices. 
      2. Dana will get signs printed at Kinko’s in advance of conference
      3. Patrick will provide laptops from RTI
        1. One will have HDMI for keynote; will test built-in webcam
        2. Could get better webcam if will be doing more streaming in the future
    8. Anything else? 
      1. 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
      2. Will have programs printed and delivered directly to NORC
      3. Sara is in need of two session chairs, and Ron, Allison have volunteered
  1. Student engagement/events at the conference             (Colleen)
    1. 16 students registered so far
      1. 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
        1. Will likely have lunch at Quartino on the Saturday
        2. Happy hour was on Thursday at the Kerryman last year, with approximately 10 RSVP, 7 attendees
          1. Will open happy hour to “early career”
      2. Ipek will send an email about student activities at MAPOR and highlight free student lunch on Friday via MAPORNET and AAPORNet
  1. Other conference related updates   (Ipek)
    1. “In memoriam” session updates/plans
      1. Joe Murphy working with Tim Johnson on a tribute to John Loft
      2. Chuck Whitney (past president 1985-86) also passed during 2019 and Fellows also acknowledge this along with their tribute to George Bishop. 
    2. Fellow and student paper award announcements at Keynote
      1. Ipek will ask Nora Cate or John S. if they prefer presenting the award
      2. Ipek will share draft keynote agenda and her talk with Dana
      3. Ipek will order a plaque to be presented to the 2019 Fellow 
    3. AAPOR Booth and presentation at the conference
      1. 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    
  1. 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

  1. Treasurer’s Report               (Ipek on behalf of Kevin)
    1. Budget updates
      1. Checking: $32,755.70 (increase due to conference registration, webinar)
      2. Savings: $45,021.71
  1. MAPOR equipment inventory 
    1. Kevin will create inventory list when back in town 
  2. Registration materials/name badges + ribbon for name tags
    1. Ipek will confirm with Kevin have enough tags, ribbons
  3. Ipek will confirm with Kevin to make sure we have a certificate for the student paper competition winner
  1. Communications                     (Justine)
    1. Plans on upcoming social media postings/communication w/ members
      1. Sponsor highlights
      2. Conference related updates
    2. Social media postings at the conference 
      1. Dana will follow-up with Justine re conference-related postings
  1. Succession Planning         (Ned)
    1. 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
  1. MAPOR 2019 Election Updates   (Ipek)
    1. Ipek and Kevin meeting soon to discuss programming and schedule
  1. AAPOR Chapter Party (MAPOR representation)         (Ipek/Ned)
    1. SAPOR organizing chapter party
    2. Ned and Ipek will talk offline about being representative
  1. Anything else?
    1. Recent webinar had 27 concurrent log-ins

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – September 2019 (in-person meeting)

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE IN-PERSON MEETING AGENDA

September 16, 2019

9:00am – 4:00pm (CST)/10:00am – 5:00pm (EST)

(Breakfast will be served at 8:30am CST)

Location: 

NORC’s Chicago Downtown Office 

55 East Monroe Street, 30th Floor

Chicago, IL 60603 

Arrival to NORC: Check in and badge

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.

Remote Dial-in Information:

Join the meeting via Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/5676267335 

        888 788 0099 US Toll-free

        877 853 5247 US Toll-free

Meeting ID: 567 626 7335#

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/alX3E8aa3

Agenda: 

8:30 – 9:00am BREAKFAST

9:00 – 9:15am Welcome, Review of Agenda, and Meeting Goals (Ipek)

9:15 – 10:15am Secretary-Treasurer Updates (Kevin)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17EKguVKt6IU-s4n7sWIlHj8kMuTP6UGg/edit

MAPOR 2019 in-person meeting – 9/16/19

Secretary Treasurer agenda items

  • Overview of MAPOR finances (see slide)
    • Past expenses and revenues from 2011
    • Current and projections for 2019
  • Operating Reserves Policy
    • Established by 2019 Executive Council
      • 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. 

Slides: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s7Aq_4I3NRexS5CLOjrOi8qaidcJiwb_

11:00 – 11:10am Communication Updates (Justine)

  • 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. 

11:20 – 11:30am Succession Planning (Ipek/Colleen)

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 seconds the motion. 

Council votes unanimously to adopt the measure. 

No abstentions.

The motion is passed. 

12:00 – 1:00pm LUNCH

1:00 – 2:30pm 2019 Annual MAPOR Conference (Dana)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/170fxPS0p9G1s9ff_29WssZBzSnE1n3UdUbkCWtUgyKk/edit?usp=sharing

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. 

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – August 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING Notes
August 19, 2019

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

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.

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – July 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

July 12, 2019

11:00 am – 12:00pm CST/12:00 pm – 1: 00pm EST

Attendees: Kevin, Ipek, Dana, Ned, Justine, Colleen, Ron, Patrick, Mary, Ashley

Agenda:                                                                            

  1. 2019 Conference                                                                                                                                             (Dana)
  1. Abstract submission updates
  • Abstract Review – Next Steps
  • Student Paper Competition
  • Anything else?

We have 125 submissions for the conference. On July 1st, we had 108, so the extension pulled in a few more. Dana is reviewing abstracts and putting them into topical areas. The process is somewhat easier as we asked people to classify themselves during the submission process.  She is about 95% through the process. Rejection rate is very low; so far only 2 possible rejections based on content that didn’t seem to fit. When she has what she believes the sessions to be, she will pass it on to the conference committee for a second review within the next few days. She will call on council for assistance if any issues come up. She believes she can give people feedback about acceptance before August 15.  She is taking input from the survey about whether to make more sessions or add methods briefs. Final decisions about this will be made in the next few weeks.

Student paper competition – Dana has been in touch with Nora Kate about this process.

  1. Treasurer’s Report                                                                                                                                         (Kevin)
  1. Budget updates
    1. Checking: $18,258
    1. Saving: $45,021
  • b.       Getting back MAPOR items from AAPOR
    • Kevin and Ipek have both reached out to AAPOR about this. Waiting for their response.
  • PCI Compliance
    • Kevin submitted compliance paperwork last month. We are good until 2020.

We briefly discussed the need for PCI compliance. PCI compliance refers to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. MAPOR doesn’t collect this information directly, rather we use third party vendors to collect credit card information when we collect money for dues, webinars, and our conference. To comply with the standard, we essentially provide the compliance organization with the information concerning our payment vendors, and they ensure that those groups are compliant. This is one of the primary reasons we purchase the services of these vendors – so that they maintain a secure environment and we don’t have to deal with it.

We also briefly discussed whether we wanted to drop those other vendors – iPayment and AuthorizeNet – as Cvent now offers an integrated platform whereby they would collect credit card information for us. It is not clear how much we would save by this change, as the contract terms with Cvent will need to be renegotiated. It seems like it would make sense to only use one vendor (rather than the current three) although Kevin would prefer to do this in December or January, when we wouldn’t need to use the new system for the first time when we are ramping up for our conference. Both Jolene (previous sec/treas) and Kevin (current sec/treas) feel we should make the switch to simplify the process, we just need to commit to the (minor?) headache of making the change and adjusting to a new system. The reason we have not yet done so is because the new system is working, and we hesitate to make changes when the system currently functions. In other words, although it is complicated, it isn’t broken, so let’s not try to fix it.

  1. Communications                                                                                                                                          (Justine)
  1. Plans on upcoming social media postings/communication w/ members
  • Next newsletter

The Spring newsletter went out and Justine also sent materials concerning the conference abstract submission process. She plans to send a summer newsletter. Please reach out to Justine about any content you want to push for this newsletter. Justine continues to put out short engagement information on social media to “keep eyes on our account”.

Ipek suggests pushing other chapter events vis social media (specifically via Twitter) as another means of keeping folks engaged with our account.

Dana will work with Justine to send materials to be sent in segments concerning the hotel and other conference information.

  1. Sponsorship                                                                                                                                                    (Allison)

Allison will be sending materials out to our regular sponsors. If people have leads on new sponsors, please reach out to her. Allison and Ron will be sending out materials to listservs to fish for new vendors. Council will think of new potential vendors that we might reach out to.

  • MAPOR Reserves Policy Next Steps                                                                                                             (Ron)

Ron moved the adopted reserves policy document onto the drive. The next step is for EC to consider how much and how we will distribute.

Concerning how to distribute – There is overwhelming support that we should implement some type of grant program for students, although we need to continue to have discussions about how best to do so. This could be by covering student costs for hotels, or covering hotels of students in the paper competition, or it could be general travel grants for students.

Concerning how much to distribute – During the in-person meeting in September, Kevin will present a few potential scenarios for distributing grant money that is sustainable over the long-term. He suggests that we implement something where we know how much we can spend for the next 3-4 years, and we know that we can sustain that level of giving for a few years. There are a few factors that would drive the amount of money we could allot for grants.

  • How many students applied for the paper competition this year?
  • How many students regularly attend the conference?

Knowing these numbers will give us an idea about how much we might offer. Kevin would prefer to give a fixed pot of money out each year, and we would make the determination about how mush to distribute based on the number of students or applicants we expect to have. Dana will put together the number of students so we can calculate a cost per person.

It is not certain that we can do something long-term that we could implement this year. We do not want to implement something this year and then change up next year; it would probably be best if we establish a system, and then stick with it for a few years. If done this way, it would work best as an incentive to students that would could present at MAPOR this year. However, EC is open to ideas for getting funds out to support students this year.

For whatever we decide – for this year or the long term, we need to continue the conversation so we are ready to go for next year. Please continue to think of ideas about grants and how best we can incentivize more students to take part in MAPOR.

  • Executive Council Face-to-Face Meeting                                                                                                    (Ipek)
  1. 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 MAPOR Reimbursement

How does the 9-3 time work for those who will attend?

Ipek will send an email about whether or not people will attend. Please respond so that we can set expectations about the cost of the meeting.

  • Executive Council Input on Nominations and Fellows                                                                            (Ipek)
  1. Call for nominations will go out mid-August to members and fellows

Please add your nominations to the Google calendar. After EC has named potential candidates, we will call for nominations to the membership.

  • Anything else? 

Next meeting: August 19 (Monday) @ Noon CT/1:00 ET                                                                                

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – June 2019

June 17, 2019

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

Agenda:                                                                            

  1. 2019 Conference                                                                                                                                             (Dana)
  1. Abstract submission updates
  • Announcement(s)
  • Student Paper Competition
  • Meeting w/ the hotel
  • Anything else?

Ned and Dana met with folks at Embassy Suites. Meeting went well and they appreciated touching base with the staff. They mentioned to them a few changes they wanted to implement.

11 submissions to the site so far. The number of submissions is comparable to previous years. We know that most of the submissions come close to the deadline. Postings have been going out on AAPORnet and our social media. Next announcement will be the newsletter which will go out soon. We may extend the deadline if it doesn’t affect our ability to conduct the abstract review.

Conference committee will meet soon and have a few more agenda items for our next meeting.

  1. Treasurer’s Report                                                                                                                                         (Kevin)
  1. Budget updates
  • b.       Getting back MAPOR items from AAPOR

Checking: $18,306.66

Savings: $45,020.23

Kevin gave his card to Adam Thocher and asked to have the items sent to him at the UChicago Survey Lab. No items have yet arrived. Kevin will reach out to Adam to see if the items have been sent.

  1. Communications                                                                                                                                          (Justine)
  1. June Newsletter
  • Plans on upcoming social media postings
  • MAPOR Vision and Mission (Website update, Announcements to membership)

Justine has a few more social media posts to go out in the next few weeks advocating for conference submissions. If anyone has other suggestions for social media posts please reach out to Justine.

Justine will unpin the AAPOR posts and change them to posts concerning the conference.

The spring newsletter is ready in draft form and she will circulate to EC to review. ETA to go out this week. Please review and send feedback to Justine.

Need to finalize a plan to distribute MAPOR vision and mission. This will be coming out in the newsletter, Ipek and Justine will discuss rolling this out on the website. Ipek would like to have some discussion in the newsletter about the process of how the vision/mission statement was created so members don’t feel like it came from nowhere. Justine and Mandy will work to include this.

  1. Sponsorship                                                                                                                                                    (Allison)

Allison will reach out to Ron to set up a time to meet and discuss the plan to reach out to our sponsors. This timeframe was about the time they started reaching out to sponsors last year.

  • MAPOR Reserves Policy                                                                                                                                   (Ron)

Ron, Kevin, and Mary drafted a policy for EC to review. They recommend keeping the amount for operational reserves to be somewhere between a full year of our average operating costs, or half of a full year of operating costs. The “average” would be the average operating costs from the most recent 3 past years. (For 2019, the average annual operating costs from the last 3 years is $42,712.)

Patrick wants to make sure that any amount we ultimately spend takes into consideration being able to spend funds going into the next several years. We wouldn’t want to spend all of the remaining funds after this year, and then not be able to sustain that level of spending going into future years.

Kevin notes that this policy only creates an amount that will not be spent during the fiscal year, it does not make a recommendation about how much of the remaining amount should be spent. the group of Mary, Ron, and Kevin agreed that the designation of what to spend should be determined through a separate policy. Ipek plans to discuss this in more detail with EC during the in-person meeting in September. 

Ron proposed that we change the policy to reflect that we should maintain ¾ of the average three-year operating costs to the operational reserves.

Ned seconded the motion.

Council voted majority to approve the motion.

There were no objections or abstentions.

The motion is accepted.

  • Executive Council Face-to-Face Meeting                                                                                                    (Ipek)

Ipek spoke with several EC members about having an in-person meeting and she feels a majority of the EC see value in conducting the meeting this year. Ipek will send a Doodle poll to EC about a date in September for the in-person meeting.

  • Executive Council Input on Nominations and Fellows                                                                            (Ipek)

Please add your input for nominations for EC. Should we implement the voting in Cvent or another platform? Ipek will set up a meeting for Ron, Ipek, and Kevin to discuss how we will roll out the elections. We should select the option that is easiest to implement while maintaining the security of members’ votes.

  • Next Meeting: July 15 @ Noon CST/1:00 EST                                                                                            (Ipek)
  1. Do we need to reschedule due to the ESRA Conference?

Ned and Ipek will send out a Doodle to determine the best day and time to move the meeting. Ipek will be out for two weeks, so Ned will need to chair the meeting.

  1. Anything else?                                                                                                              

Kevin received notification about re-certifying MAPOR’s PCI Certification. Ipek will an this as an agenda item for next month’s meeting and Kevin will give an update on progress.

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – May 2019

May 31, 2019

  1. MAPOR at AAPOR Recap                                                                                                                                      (All)
  1. AAPOR Official All Chapter Event (Ipek)
  1. MAPOR @ AAPOR flyer – website upload.

is ready and built into late spring newsletter; Josh can put up on website- Justine will remind

  1. Getting back items from AAPOR

still waiting to get table cloth, etc. back after the conference

  • AAPOR Unofficial All Chapter Party (Ipek)

We had 275 attendees and broke-even; MAPOR sponsored photo-booth

  • Chapter Representatives Meeting (Ned)

The other chapters requested site-licenses for software to manage their membership/emails (CRM) as well as for webinars; AAPOR was not enthusiastic about providing that software rather give advice.  MAPOR has CVENT through 2021 and so it isn’t as much an issue for us. 

  1. 2019 Conference                                                                                                                                             (Dana)
  1. Call for Conference Participation Announcements

Call for participation has been released; Dana will follow-up next week.  Dana reviewing survey results from 2018 conference to make improvements for 2019.

  • Student Paper Competition — 3rd, 2nd, 1st? Honorable mention? In the survey, student suggested this as it helps their CV.  Mary observes is a good idea since we have sufficient (20 or so) submissions
  • Abstract management system updates  Dana will be tracking abstracts by week in comparison with last year
  • Moderator role; Networking lunch; Book raffle  Dana would like to institutionalize moderator role at MAPOR as has been done at AAPOR (relatively few remarks up front/end to tie things together); Dana would like to ask long-term members or fellows to be moderators .  Dana would like to have lunch in atrium but improve “networking” component; Sara liked the small tables, but would want ways of encourage mingling say with a facilitator of note.  Dana and Ned will be meeting with the hotel in two weeks to discuss details.  Dana observes book raffle has declined in popularity and could raffle something else like free conference registration next year for a student.  Council observes that AAPOR book sale has declined in popularity as well.  We will bring this up in the conference committee, and ask in the survey next year if the change was a positive one or not. 
  1. Treasurer’s Report                                                                                                                                           (Ipek)
  1. Budget updates

Checking Account: $18,466, Savings: $45,019

  1. Communications                                                                                                                                          (Justine)
  1. Newsletter
  • Plans on upcoming social media postings

Justine is finalizing late spring newsletter.  Ipek wonders if we should re-announce on social media the call for submissions, student paper submissions; these were held-off due to AAPOR.  Justine says she will make such announcements on social media. 

  • Rules and regulations re MAPOR Reserves                                                                                                (Ron)

Ron, Mary, and Kevin met at AAPOR to discuss a plan for MAPOR reserves, and developed a one page plan.  Suggests having either six months or one year operating expenses in reserve ($41,000 for one year based on average of past three years).  We could give more free student registrations or free hotel rooms, or free webinar access.  Council will vote on reserves policy and then consider how best to spend funds. 

  • MAPOR Vision and Mission                                                                                                                               (All)

Ipek thanks council on working with Mandy on the new vision/mission; we will be showcasing it at the newsletter. 

  • VII.               Executive Council Face-to-Face Meeting                                                                                                    (Ipek)

Ipek asks for pros/cons of face-to-face meeting.  Council seems to agree it is a real positive thing, and out-of-town people like Mary and Ron are fine with driving in if the dates work.  Ipek will circulate a doodle.

  • Anything else?                                                                                                              

Next meeting: June 17 (Monday) @ Noon CT/1:00 ET

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – April 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

April 15, 2019

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

Ned, Kevin, Ipek, Allyson, Patrick, Colleen, Dana, Mary, Josh, Sara, Justine, Mandy

Notes:                                                                

  1. Webinar (April 17)              (Patrick)
    1. Number of registrants
    2. Announcements
    3. Logistics – attendance and payment

The webinar is ready to go – there are 29 registrants for the webinar. Patrick will send out the links to registrants on Wednesday. Patrick will coordinate with the speakers to discuss the logistics. He will introduce speakers and then turn it over to them to present.

  1. MAPOR purchases with new logo                   (Sara)
    1. Updates
    2. Sending to AAPOR – Table cloth, banner, and giveaways

Sara thanks everyone for their input on the materials to purchase. All the materials have been delivered to Sara at NORC. Total cost was $1,234. Also had newly branded MAPOR giveaways delivered – total cost = $516. All of these will be sent to AAPOR by Sara later in the week in time for the AAPOR conference.

  • MAPOR at AAPOR     (Ipek)
    1. AAPOR Official All Chapter Event
      1. Table set-up and staff
      2. Raffle logistics and prices ($250 reimbursement from AAPOR)
  • 2019 MAPOR annual conference flyer & Unofficial chapter event flyer
  1. Creating MAPOR @ AAPOR documentation

Ipek asks who is available to staff the table and who is interested in doing so. Please let her know if and when you are interested.

Do people have ideas about what we can raffle? Gift cards seem like the least complicated to obtain, but lack the “Midwest” affiliation. Ron brought Kentucky bourbon once, but it can be problematic for the winner to bring back. Ipek will reach out to Ned, Allyson, and Kevin to discuss further. If others have new ideas, please let Ipek know.

Dana will coordinate with Ned about having bookmarks which advertise our call for papers. We can distribute at the MAPOR booth.

MAPOR at AAPOR list. Mandy solicited info from members, and then she went through the program to see if there were others who we could add to the list. We also added the other events (photo booth) that are MAPOR sponsored. Justine will create the template and asks for others to get another set of eyes on it for editing. Sara will assist Justine with this process.

  1. AAPOR Unofficial All Chapter Party (The Fifth Social Club, May 17 @ 7:30-10:30 PM)
    1. Photo Booth (MAPOR sponsored event)
    2. Power point promo slide for the unofficial chapter party (due 4/15)
  2. Anything else?

All members are invited to attend the “Unofficial” Chapter party on Friday night.

Ned will update the power point from last year for the slides.

We need to do a better job of getting photos of members at our events! Let’s make an effort to get some group photos this year and add them to the Google drive.

  1. Communications                             (Justine)
    1. Newsletter template/communications committee
    2. Plans on upcoming social media postings
    3. Pictures from events

Post AAPOR mini newsletter will highlight MAPOR at AAPOR. Please reach out to her if you have potential content to add for a newsletter to go out after the conference.

  1. 2019 MAPOR Conference                      (Dana)
    1. Call for Conference Participation
    2. Student Paper Competition Announcements
    3. Abstract management programming and review updates
    4. Anything else?

Dana has received feedback on ‘a’ and ‘b’ items. John and Nora Cate from UW will be running the student paper competition this year.

Kevin and Dana have the abstract site up. Please go through the survey and provide feedback if you have not already done so.

Abstract site is usually launched around May 1st.  Link to abstract site on webpage. After this is tested, communications and sec/treas send out to all of the communication channels (MAPORnet, friends of MAPOR, social media, etc.).

Call for participation and Student paper competition – Ipek asked webmaster to put these in pdf on the website and abstract put up the abstract management link. Dana will use the same process.

Dana will work with Josh to get the information up on the web.

Dana will reach out to Kevin about making changes to the abstract submission survey.

Early career question on the abstract submission site. Please provide feedback on the wording and how this can be used.

  1. Secretary-Treasurer’s Report                                                (Kevin)
    1. Budget updates
    2. Survey updates

Checking: $18,658

Savings: $45,019

Kevin has created the summary from the survey based on feedback from EC. Kevin will work with Justine about getting the summary out to membership in a newsletter. In next year’s survey we will inform members that we would like to publish the results. EC feels there are privacy issues if we publish the full data without first informing participants that we intend to do so.

  • Rules and regulations re budget and reserves     (Ron)

Mary, Kevin, and Ron met to discuss. Kevin will go through the past 2-3 years of budgets to determine what a full year of costs have been for us. The three of them will meet at AAPOR to discuss, then Ron will draft a policy. It may include language that states the sec treasurer will occasionally re-evaluate what average expenses are.

  • MAPOR Vision and Mission              (Mandy)
    1. MAPOR Vision and Mission Project Draft Versions

Mandy solicited feedback from past presidents and fellows. Their feedback and direct quotes are annotated on the Google document. Specifically, EC discussed:

  • Put research excellence first
  • Diversity refers to the membership, not necessarily methods
  • MAPOR’s identity and geography

Mandy will implement this next round of changes and distribute to EC.

 

Next meeting: May 20 (Monday) @ Noon CT/1:00 ET

Ipek will send an email with a Google poll to discuss moving this date as many EC members will not be able to attend.

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – March 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

March 18, 2019

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

Attendees: Ipek, Josh, Kevin, Mandy, Colleen, Dana, Ashley, Justine, Allison, Ron, Patrick

Notes:                                                                

  1. Ann Arbor Mixer (March 25)                   (Josh/Colleen)
    1. Registration/RSVP #s
    2. Announcements/Reminder Emails to the attendees
    3. Venue/Payment/Other logistics (food/drinks/name tags/etc..)

Currently have 20 registrants for the event. We expect more people will RSVP after the newsletter goes out. Justine will update Josh about the number for the event as we get closer. The venue said these numbers would be pretty easy to handle. Colleen will bring the table cloth and be there to help set it up. Please send Kevin digital copies of any receipts you get from purchases for the event. We will send another round of messaging to members. The newsletter goes out next week, and the social media has been refreshed. Kevin will send the friends of MAPOR list to Colleen and Josh in an attempt to identify and contact any other organizations or individuals who are in the area.

  1. Webinar (April 17)              (Patrick)
    1. Announcements
    2. Logistics

Web page hass been updated, it will all be published this week. Patrick will send the materials to Kevin so that he can distribute. Patrick will reach out to Justine to cover social media. We will be sure to stagger communications over the next 4 weeks.

  • Communications                             (Justine)
    1. Newsletter
      1. Sponsorship information confirmation
      2. Publication and Announcement Schedule
    2. Pictures from events
    3. Communications Plan

A draft of the newsletter has gone out. Please provide feedback to Justine if you have not so by tomorrow morning. The newsletter is planned to go out tomorrow.

Concerning future newsletters – If you have images from other events, please send these to Justine to add to future newsletters as they take away from some of the whitespace on the pages.

Justine wants to make sure that the benefits of membership are up to date.

Justine will send a link to a folder where people can send updated headshots for future publications. The headshots in the current issue are pulled from older newsletters – they may be outdated or of lower quality.

  1. 2019 Conference                                (Dana)
    1. Conference theme:
      1. Where Methods and Substance Meet: Reflecting the Present and Shaping the Future of Public Opinion and Survey Research
    2. Speakers
      1. Brady West, Barbara Anderson, Justine Bulgar-Medina
    3. Reorganization of Conference directory on MAPOR Google Drive
    4. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements
    5. Discuss potential conference tweaks based on survey data for feedback (below)

Dana is drafting the call for papers and the student paper competition documents.

She would like to enable something in Cvent so that persons have the ability of people to characterize their paper topic when they submit. Kevin believes this should be doable.

Also, it would be great to have persons be able to select whether or not they would like to be put into a methodological brief. Some of the methods papers from last year were not quite suitable to be presented in the methods format.

Dana has rewiewed the Member Survey responses about what we should do in case we have a record number of submissions. She will make decisions based on this feedback as well as the number of registrants we receive. We may not be able to accommodate what people want if we don’t have the physical space to do so.

Dana re-organized the conference subgroup folder. She sorted things into content groups by year. Please be aware that things have been moved if you are searching for something and can no longer find it.

One issue we have is the lack of organization on the drive. Ipek is open to suggestions for a volunteer or a committee to take a look at re-organizing the drive.

Some people feel they might be seeing other things than others when in the drive. Patrick explained that it is very possible that some folders have been created by individuals and there are only individual level permissions which do not align with the current EC.  So, it is very possible that some EC see a different folders when they log in. Ipek will put more thought into this and we can discuss during the next meeting.

  1. Treasurer’s Report                               (Kevin)
    1. Budget updates

Checking: $18,931.66

Savings: $45,019.11

Illinois non-profit report has been filed.

Federal report has been filed.

  1. Review the Conference and Member Survey data                               (Kevin)
    1. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jMZa2Oz53UVoj4kCImCB_069FAZsgiXU
    2. What are interesting findings we can distribute to members? Anything surprising? Should we make the entire dataset available?

Kevin reviewed some of the high level findings of interest. It seems that in previous years, we have provided a summary of some of the interesting findings and then provided links to the survey data. Kevin will work to put something together that can be distributed to all members.

 

Sara gathered quotes from 4 Imprint, UPrinting, and a local vendor, Chicago Signs and Printing.  Chicago Signs and Printing and UPrinting were both less expensive, but Chicago Signs and Printing has limited stock and UPrinting had inconsistent reviews online in terms of product quality and customer experience. 4Imprint had more options to choose from, their sales rep was very knowledgeable about the products, and 4Imprint was the only vendor who provided me with an actual quote (not an email or verbal quotes) and followed up with me.  I think 4Imprint is the best choice- although they are more expensive, I think we’re paying for higher quality products  and they will be the easiest to work with. I’d like council’s approval to move forward with placing an order with 4Imprint. As for tchotchkes, I’ll look through the goodies on 4Imprint’s site. Justine suggested lanyards, so I’ll check work on those next once we get the big order out.

  • AAPOR All Chapter Unofficial Event    (Ipek)
    1. Photo Booth

The photo booth is a go.

  1. Rules and regulations re budget and reserves     (Ron)

Ron reached out to multiple other chapters, but only one chapter sent their policy about the guidance. It may be that other chapters just don’t have a policy. Based on anecdotal evidence, it seems that one year of reserves is the a reasonable and common nest egg. Ron will work with Kevin and Mary to draft a document for MAPOR.

  1. MAPOR Vision and Mission              (Mandy)
    1. Draft MAPOR Vision and Mission:

Mandy solicited feedback and asked for further clarification concerning feedback from the Google document. Next steps will be for Mandy to reach out to former EC and fellows to solicit feedback and ideas. Mandy will work to refine the vision and mission, then present another round to EC to vote.

 

Next meeting: April 15 (Monday) @ Noon CT/1:00 ET

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – February 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES
February 18, 2019
12:00 – 1:30 CST/1:00 pm – 2: 30pm EST

Attendees: Ipek, Kevin, Mandy, Dana, Justine, Ned, Sara, Colleen, Josh, Ron, Patrick

I. 2020-2022 Conference Hotel Contract Update (Ipek)

Executed Hotel Contracts are located in the Contracts Folder of the google drive.

Thanks to the subcommittee for reviewing the hotel contracts! We now have executed contracts for 3 additional years at the Embassy Suites. The contact is available on the Google drive. Please contact Ipek if you have any questions about the contract.

 

II. Ann Arbor Mixer: New date (March 25) (Josh/Colleen)
a. Venue
b. Registration/RSVP website
c. Announcements

Date is now set for March 25th due to weather and travel considerations. Top floor of Jolly Pumpkin in downtown Ann Arbor is now booked. Kevin will send his credit card information to Josh to secure with the vendor.

Colleen and Justine will have registration site ready by end of the week. Colleen will send out the registration info with who will send out what after she receives the materials.

 

III. Webinar (April 17) (Patrick)

Date is set for April 17th. Patrick is getting bio and head shots from presenters – Trent and Antje.
Patrick will send info to Kevin and put it up on the drive so Kevin can ensure that that Cvent is ready to accept people signing up.

 

IV. Communications (Justine)
a. Newsletter
b. Updates to the website calendar
c. Communications schedule

New communications schedule is up on Google docs. Justine will distribute the communications schedule to EC for review. Please update other communications and let Justine know if you make changes so she is in the loop. Justine is working on the newsletter to go out at the end of February. Columns are due to Justine for the newsletter by next Monday, 2/25. Justine will distribute to EC for editing before it goes out to the membership.

 

V. 2019 Conference (Dana/Sara)
a. Conference theme
b. Speakers
c. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements
d. Student Paper Competition Award

Confirmed the keynote speaker. Dana is working with the subcommittee to wordsmith the conference theme but feel they are close to having it finalized. From there we will think about going after someone for the pedagogy hour. The subcommittee has ideas on potential speakers.

Dana will also review the survey results to see if there are any tweaks or other considerations to be made. Kevin will be sending these out soon.

Paper award competition amounts have been changed and should be reflected in future conference materials. The amount was upped to $500. Dana will be sure to highlight this in messaging going out in the newsletter.

 

VI. Treasurer’s Report (Kevin)
a. Budget updates

Checking: $17,320.74
Savings: $45,018.77

990 Federal has been submitted. Kevin will submit Illinois report before the next meeting. He will reach out to Joe Murphy about getting this submitted.

Kevin will send out the survey results to EC well before the next meeting so that they can review beforehand.

 

VII. MAPOR purchases with new logo (Sara)
a. Bringing with us to AAPOR – Table cloth, banner, and giveaways

Sara has one quote from “For Imprint” – Step & Repeat, Banner, and tablecloth. She is waiting for another bid from another vendor. She will get a tablecloth with an open-back. There are options for full-color and B/W. After she gets the next quote she will send these to EC to get input. The turn-around time to have these printed is very quick; about 8 days. The cost for all materials should be around $1,000.

Ipek wondered if it would be cheaper if we got give-aways from these same vendors. Sara wants to get the bid for the big stuff first, then she will look into the costs for the give-aways. The current bid is in a folder on the drive.

We usually ship these materials to AAPOR around April for the conference. Our deadline would be to have these before that date. Kevin will make sure we meet the deadline to sending these to AAPOR.

 

VIII. AAPOR All Chapter Unofficial Event (Ipek)
a. Sponsorship/Photo Booth

There will be an informal, all-chapter event on Friday night. The organizing chapters for the event are MAPOR and PAPOR, although all chapters provide sponsorship. MAPOR sponsored $1,500 for the photo booth last year and if we sponsored it again this year the cost would be the same.

Ipek requested feedback if we should sponsor the photo booth again this year. Ron and Kevin both audibly supported the idea.

Ron moved that we again provide $1,500 sponsorship for the photo booth at this year’s AAPOR conference.
Dana seconded the motion.
Council voted in favor.
There were no objections and no abstentions.
The motion is accepted.

Ipek will inform AAPOR about our support for the photo booth. Ipek will forward the invoice to Kevin to pay.

 

IX. Rules and regulations re budget and reserves (Ron)

Ron looked into what an appropriate amount of money would be to have in reserves. He reached out to the chapters and to Adam at AAPOR to see if they have guidance about how much we should have in reserves. Ron will touch base with Kevin and Mary. He is waiting to hear back from the other chapters.

Kevin notes that members were surveyed as to how they think funds should be spent. The survey results will be available soon to EC.

 

X. MAPOR Vision and Mission (Mandy)

Mandy has the inputs provided on the MAPOR vision and mission statement. She will take these and come up with 3 different versions for EC, past-presidents, and fellows to review. We will have a 3-week period of review. By the end of April we will have a completed visions and mission.

Mandy will revise the timeline materials to reflect that we will be soliciting feedback from key persons for their feedback, to include members of previous ECs.

Mandy moved to approve the timeline and plan for the MAPOR vision and mission statement (pending some changes to the notification plan which she outlined to EC).
Ron seconded the motion.
Council voted in favor.
There were no objections and no abstentions.
The motion is accepted.

MAPOR History update. Paul is moving forward with the project and he has contacted all of the fellows and he is getting more replies as time goes on.

 

XI. Other business?

Kevin would like to discuss swapping Cvent over to their new product. “Cvent FLEX System”. Kevin will provide a description of the pros and cons for EC to discuss at the next meeting, as well as a description of the cost implications.

Meeting adjourned.

Next meeting: March 18 (Monday) @ Noon CT/1:00 ET