MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – January 2019

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING Notes

January 14, 2018

12:00 – 1:15 CST/1:00 pm – 2:15pm EST

 

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

Agenda:

  1. Website                                (Josh)
    1. Updates to website
    2. Uploading conference presentations

Josh would prefer to have individuals be able to update what aspects of the website they are responsible for. Website is fully on WordPress so if you have a login, you can access and edit. Send user names and passwords to Josh if you do not have access but would like it. From there, everyone can update their portion of the site. MAPOR.org\wp-admin gets you to the login. Major changes will be made by Josh or with josh’s help, minor changes should be made by those responsible for their content.

Justine will develop some way to document the suggested changes that need to be made.

We need to make sure that the mobile views are functioning. Justine will go into the system and see if she can find locations that need to be updated and work with Josh to make appropriate edits.

Josh suggests using the standard events calendar in the website. Calendar was set up as a Google Calendar. Josh suggests getting all of our milestone events onto this calendar. Ipek or Justine will reach out to Josh to upload some significant events (EC meetings, relevant conferences, newsletters, registration dates, webinars, MAPOR conference dates, etc.). Any events that allow members to feel engaged would be helpful to add.  Dana will work with Josh and coordinate with Justine about getting the significant conference events on the calendar.

Ned will aggregate the presentations from the conference and drop them into a google calendar, which would then be linked from the website. Ned will go through and remove those who requested their presentation was not made public.

  1. Mixer   (Josh/Colleen)
    1. Date/time of the event
    2. Venue
    3. Registration/RSVP website & announcements
    4. Who is attending from MAPOR Council?

 

We would like to meet Feb 4th from 5:30-7. There are minimums set by the locations with regard to drinks or food. We need to send out an invite with an RSVP in order to get a feel for expectations. The minimums would be fine if we knew how many people were going to come.

The Jolly Pumpkin is a brewery with nice space and good food. The minimum for that space is $400 per hour. They may be willing to negotiate a lower rate given that it is a Monday evening. Justine will put together a communication to collect RSVP numbers. Josh has a draft text that we can distribute and Justine will wrap this language into an Evite.

Kevin will send the invite out via the member lists. Communications will also send out via Twitter and the FB page. We would like to have the communication completed by no later than the 15th, and send out shortly thereafter.

  1. MAPOR purchases with new logo            (Sara)

Ipek and Sara met to discuss what needs to be purchased. Vertical banner, step and repeat, tablecloth, and some give-away stuff for the conferences. She will try to get quotes for these things all together. Sara will reach out to Kevin about dimensions and the tax free documentation. She hopes to have at least the tablecloth and banner ready for the AAPOR conference.

If anyone knows of other ‘interesting’ give away items, please reach out to Sara.

  1. 2019 Conference              (Dana/Sara)
    1. Conference theme
    2. Speaker Updates
    3. Call for Conference Participation and Student Paper Competition Announcements
    4. Student Paper Competition Award Updates

We have now secured a short-course presenter. Dana is in process of securing the key-note. The pedagogy will follow after getting the key-note confirmed. Committee is working on nailing down the theme.

Announcements should be being finalized by the end of the month.

Ipek suggests raising the amount we provide to the winners of the student paper competition. We currently provide $200, which does not do much to defer student costs if they do not live in the Chicago area. Can we provide more money towards their travel or hotel costs? It would be easier to have the amount be a fixed amount, rather than having to worry about reimbursing students and passing receipts for travel, hotels, etc.

Ron proposed that we increase the amount we provide to student paper winners from $200 to $500.

Mary seconded the motion.

Council voted majority to approve.

There were no objections and no abstentions.

The motion is accepted.

  1. 2020 Conference Hotel Contract Update     (Ipek/Ron/Ned/Sara/Kevin)
    1. Proposals from Embassy, Renaissance, and Marriott
    2. Survey results re current hotel
    3. Will vote for renewal of the contract with Embassy

Marriot and Renaissance contacted us about making a bid. The sub-committee discussed the pros and cons of all of the bids. They cannot find any benefit to move to another hotel at this time. The rates are reasonable, they are lower than the other hotels, and we have had a very positive experience with their staff. The sub-committee recommends signing a new contract with the Embassy Suites for the next 3 years.

Ron made a motion for Ipek to move forward to contact the Embassy Suites and sign a new 3-year contract as long as the terms do not deviate from the proposal they provided.

Mary seconded the motion.

Council voted majority to approve.

There were no objections and no abstentions.

The motion is accepted.

  1. Member Survey Update                              (Kevin)
    1. Survey is closed
    2. Brief Summary of the Results

Kevin cleaned the data over the holidays. There are 165 responses in the file (155 completes and 10 partial completes). He will code the open-end concerning how best to utilize MAPOR’s current savings. He will provide a set of frequencies and a dataset by the next meeting. Ipek would like to have these sent to membership at some point, perhaps through a newsletter.

  1. Treasurer’s Report                              (Kevin)
    1. Updates
    2. Contribution from Doris Graber
    3. Membership list updates

Checking: $17,388

Savings: $45,018

Doris Graber’s son informed us that Doris made funds available for MAPOR from her estate. Kevin will inform the membership when these funds arise.

Kevin continues to add new members as they come in from AAPOR.

  1. Communications Updates                     (Justine)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Communications Plan and Schedule

Justine has put together a time-line to assist with having streamlined communications go out to members. She asks council to send suggestions for other communications which may go out during slow parts of the year to keep people connected to MAPOR. We will target for 3 newsletters throughout the year.

  1. Next Webinar             (Patrick)

Patrick and Ipek have agreement from a speaker (data visualization) although the timing is not certain. Patrick also has a new lead for a spring webinar. Please let him know if you have any other leads to follow-up with.

  1. MAPOR mission statement next steps             (Mandy)

Mandy sent a schedule to EC about next steps for this initiative. Mandy will request new inputs from council members before the next meeting.

  1. AAPOR All Chapter Unofficial Event Updates   (Ipek)

Ipek is working with folks from PAPOR to put together a mutually shared event at the next AAPOR conference. (Since Canada does not have a chapter, we will work with PAPOR to host an event.)

  1. Other business?                      

Sponsorship. Allison and Ipek have created a quick “Thank You / Happy New Year” for their contributions.         

The next EC meeting is on Feb. 18th which is President’s day. Ipek asked EC members about if this would be an issue. It seems we should keep the date for now.

To be discussed in future meetings:

 

  1. MAPOR history project      (Ipek/Mandy)

 

  1. Election software investigation         (Ron/Ipek)

 

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – November 2018 (at conference)

MAPOR Members meeting

Taken during annual conference – 11/17/18

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

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

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – December 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING Notes

December 17, 2018

12:00 – 1:00 CST/1:00 pm – 2:00pm EST

 

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

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

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

  • 2018-2019 Council Transition             (Ipek/All)
  1. Monthly meeting schedule
  2. MAPOR Google Group; Google Drive; Website; and MAPORnet
  3. Committees/new roles/transition meetings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • 2019 Conference                       (Dana/Sara)
  1. Conference support committee
  2. Other items

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

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

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

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

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

  • Member Survey Update                               (Kevin)
  1. Survey closing date
  2. Preliminary results
  3. Next steps

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

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

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

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

Checking: $17,575.52

Savings: $45,018.03.

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

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

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

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

  • Communications                             (Justine)

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

  • Website                                 (Josh)

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

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

  • MAPOR mission statement next steps              (Mandy)

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

  • MAPOR purchases with new logo          (Ipek/Sara)

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

  • Webinar              (Patrick)

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

  • MAPOR history project     (Ipek)

Ipek will reach out to Paul about the next steps.

  • Election software investigation          (Ron/Ipek)

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

 

 

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – October 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

October 8, 2018

1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – September 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

September 20, 2018

1:00 pm – 6:00pm ET/Noon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VIII. Other Business?

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

Next Meeting:

Monday October 8, 1:00 ET/Noon CT

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – May 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – July 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

July 9, 2018

1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

Attendees: Rob, Ned, Dana, Kevin, Sara, Ipek, Colleen,

* Conference Update (Ned/Dana) – We have had more submissions that previous years – 124 papers, 5 panels, 32 entries to the student paper competition. Ned will try to have papers out to reviewers by the end of the week.

No decision yet as to the cost or menus. Also no decision on table topics or affinity groups.
Conference meeting details are not yet set. We are leaning towards a half day event of only the conference committee and any Chicago-based members who wish to join. Tentatively set for end of August or September.

* Communications Update (Mandy/Vanessa) – Mandy sent an update that was distributed by Ron to council members.
The logo vote is still very close. The reminder will go out tomorrow morning at 8am. We expect a decent response after the reminder is sent. Kevin will follow up with the issues experienced by some members.

* Sponsorship Update (Allison) – Allison is out although Ron mentions that soon we will begin to solicit previous sponsors for the upcoming year.

* Treasurer’s Report (Jolene/Kevin) – No update at this time. The only change in accounts should be from the renewal of our Cvent license ~ $1,025.

* Website (Josh) – Colors will be dependent on the logo vote. See bylaws update for discussion on the discussion forums.

* MAPOR History Group (Ron) – Paul Lavrakas is working on the history but it will not be done in time for this year’s conference.

* Webinar Update (Patrick) – From Patrick’s email: “Michael agrees to give the webinar and can do it in early October as we have planned. If we have another newsletter going out in August, I will reach out to him for promotional info. If not, then I’ll contact him in August to finalize the schedule. I have the video recordings of the last two webinars that I organized. They are uploaded to the MAPOR drive already. I cannot recall on top of my head whether we have recordings before those. I have no objection to putting them up for sale, whatever EC decides is fine with me.”

* Bylaws Update (Ron) – We will send out call on Cvent and send link to bylaws page. The bylaws will be up with tracked changes and another document will be posted with the justification. There will be a discussion on the website where people can put up comments. Under the current bylaws we need to set up the notification 20-40 days prior to the actual vote. Ron is working on the language for the email and will work with Josh to set up the links. Ron will work with Kevin to get the notification out.

* Election (Ron) – Under the current bylaws we need to get a slate of candidates out to members by November 13th to 18th. The vote would be October 26th to November 6th. Ron will draft a call to members for suggestions for candidates and will work for Kevin to get this out.

* Face to Face Meeting/Mixer (All) – No date yet set for a mixer. We may be able to set one up in Ann Arbor, Michigan in September. Colleen is reviewing the calendar to see what other events might correspond in September which we could align with a mixer.

Next Meeting: Monday August 13, 1:00 ET/Noon CT

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – August 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES

August 13, 2018

1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

Attendees: Jolene, Ron, Ned, Mat, Mandy, Vanessa, Josh, Colleen, Sarah, Ipek, Allison, Vicki Pineau (AAPOR)

Agenda:

  • SurveyFest2018 (Vicki/Audris) – AAPOR will be holding an event November 3rd at the University of Illinois in Chicago to attract students to the field. AAPOR is looking to MAPOR for speakers for a panel or other involvement such as helping with advertising or registration. Ipek, Patrick, and Kevin are interested in participating. Colleen is also able to help out. Ipek and Vicki will work to integrate the volunteers into the planning meetings.
  • Conference Update (Ned/Dana)– MAPOR received 132 submissions, up 32 over last year.  Abstracts were reviewed by a team of EC members. Ned and Dana will inform authors of acceptance this week. The interviewer working group is planned again this year. Ned is checking on the need/desire for a second working group.  The goal is to launch the conference registration page before August 31 and to work on creating the program in September.
  • Communications Update (Mandy/Vanessa) – MAPOR will start using the new logo on the website and social media accounts.  The next newsletter will come out in the fall, likely October.  The EC is working on content now.
  • Sponsorship Update (Allison) – MAPOR sponsors have committed about $12,000 for the conference and payment is coming in now. Allison continues to work with the conference committee to incorporate sponsor artwork into the program.
  • Treasurer’s Report (Jolene/Kevin) – Checking: $14,592.24. Savings: $45016.55 .  Jolene and Kevin are working on building the conference registration site.
  • Website (Josh) – Josh is updating the website as needed, including adding the new logo.
  • Webinar Update (Patrick)– Patrick is working on finalizing the Fall webinar.
  • Bylaws Update (Ron) – All proposed changes in the bylaws were approved. Ron will update the official documents with the changes and date of change and work with Josh to get the website updated.  Josh is also tracking down historic bylaws documents.
  • Election (Ron) – The call for nominations yielded 2 self-nominations and one other-nomination.  Ron will start contacting people to gauge interest.  The slate of candidates will be presented to the membership by September 18th. Ron will work on this in the coming weeks.
  • Face to Face Meeting (9/20) / Mixer (All) – Josh and Colleen are working on the Mixer plan, including looking for a date in October to have the mixer in Ann Arbor and thinking through options for having relevant organizations sponsor the mixer and then attend to interface with students.  In this way, MAPOR can help students and potential employers connect.
  • Other Business? – The agenda for the face-to-face meeting in September is under development, but much of the meeting will focus on conference planning. Local (to Chicago) EC members and the conference committee will attend in person.  Everyone else will join electronically to minimize travel expenses.

Next Meeting: Thursday September 20th during the half-day in-person/conference call meeting (12:00 Central).

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – June 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

June 11, 2018

1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

Attendees: Ron, Jolene, Ned, Patrick, Matt, Ipek, Josh, Colleen, Vanessa, Allison

 

Agenda:

  1. MAPOR @ AAPOR – Reviewed MAPOR’s presence at AAPOR, including our social media present. Several people were tweeting regularly though out the conference and our presence seemed strong.  Ron is following up with AAPOR to make sure that MAPOR materials used at the conference are shipped back on time for the MAPOR conference in November.
  2. Conference Update –
    • Abstract submission numbers this year are comparable with where they were at this time last year.
    • The student paper call is out and reminders to submit student papers will be coming around soon. Council voted on a policy to provide conference registration and luncheon tickets for up to three co-authors in the case of winning papers that have multiple authors.  No change was made to the monetary award amount for winning papers.
    • Council agreed to keep conference fees for 2018 the same as 2017. It was noted that fees have not changed for several years now. They may have to be increased in the future depending on sponsorship and hotel contracts.  Fees for the luncheon have not yet been set; they will be set after meetings with the hotel in which food prices will be determined.
  3. Communications update – Through an EC vote, council has narrowed down the new logo designs to the top few. These will be presented to the membership for a vote in the coming weeks.  Vanessa has been working on coordinating MAPOR social media and is getting infrastructure in place for the EC to use for this purpose.  The June newsletter will be coming out very soon.  It is being finalized now.
  4. Sponsorship update – We are gearing up to start the sponsorship drive for 2018.
  5. Treasurer’s report –
    • Checking: $12,850
    • Savings: $45,015
    • Jolene has updated our PCI compliance documents. EC reviewed MAPOR’s Credit Card Processing Security Policy (i.e., a policy about how we keep credit card information secure) and voted on one small update (i.e., allowing the associate conference chair to have access to Cvent).
    • The EC briefly discussed needing to update some of our materials with the new logo when it is settled upon and to think about the budgetary needs for doing so. No decisions were made at this point.
  6. Website – It was suggested that we need consistent colors (i.e., branding) across all of our communications. We decided to base our colors on the outcome of the logo vote.  We also discussed a couple of changes for the website.  Josh is getting feedback about the website from members and making changes as needed.  Other EC members have access and editing rights to add content to the website, including to an events calendar that we will use to keep membership up to date on important upcoming events.
  7. MAPOR History Group – This group of Fellows is working on compiling MAPOR history and will let the EC know soon if they will have content on time for the upcoming conference.
  8. Webinar update – Patrick has identified a speaker that all of the EC were very positive about for the fall webinar and is working to confirm the speaker’s willingness and availability. More on this soon.
  9. Bylaws Update – The EC will call a special e-meeting for a bylaws vote in the coming weeks.
  10. Face-to-Face meeting/mixer
    • To balance the benefits of a face-to-face meeting with the costs, the EC agreed to have a face-to-face meeting in Chicago this summer with the president, conference committee, and EC members from the Chicago area there in person and others from outside the Chicago area joining by telephone or electronically to save travel costs. We are looking into dates, times, and meeting software for this meeting.
    • Ron suggested exploring Ann Arbor as a possible mixer location for the fall to try to spread the location around and reach members outside Chicago. EC members are looking into the feasibility of this idea.
  11. Other business – Ron asked the EC members to be thinking of nominations for office and ideas for Fellows as he’ll want our ideas on this soon.

 

Next Meeting: Monday July 9, 1:00 ET/Noon CT

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – April 2018

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MONTHLY MEETING NOTES

April 9, 2018

1:00 pm – 2:30pm ET/Noon – 1:30 CT

 

Attendees: Ron, Matt, Jolene, Vanessa, Sara, Kevin, Josh, Colleen, Dana, Allison

 

Agenda:

I. 2018 Conference Update (Ned/Dana)

  1. Student activities?

  2. Abstract management software update (Matt)

Conference support committee met last week. They discussed with AAPOR representatives how AAPOR sets up roommate matching and they are exploring how to implement a similar system for MAPOR members.

Committee has ideas for invited panels and other sessions submitted by members. History of MAPOR, Women in Leadership, and Early Career Panel are current possibilities.

Colleen would like to make sure that all student opportunities are well advertised to students. This might also be a good thing to do for persons who are attending the conference for the first time. We could ask if people are registering for the conference for the first time during registration, and send an email specifically to them and students.

Committee feels they are on track for this year’s conference.

Abstract management software – Committee has looked around for other options and followed up with other organizations about what they use. There are multiple options out there – the roadblock seems to be the cost; they are not cheap. Committee will send a summary to council soon about what they feel are the best options.

 

II. MAPOR @ AAPOR   (All)

Council decided to not bring shwag to the PAPOR event because we think people will be focused on networking and not on picking up stuff.

There is support to have a raffle for students – potentially a gift card or cards. EC decided that two, $150 gift cards would be appropriate. Ron will review with AAPOR about what they can re-imburse and make a decision about what to buy.

Ron will follow-up with Ned and Ipek about what they have in their inventory and get back to Kevin about what to send to AAPOR. Kevin will also check the inventory at UChicago and report back to Ron.

 

III. Communications Update         (Mandy/Vanessa)

  1. Doris Graber Memorial for MAPOR website

  2. Doris Graber Memorial at UIC (Ron)

  3. Power point promo for PAPOR reception at AAPOR

  4. Social media engagement        (Vanessa)

Mandy is working to get quotes and comments for the memorial for the website.

Paul Lavrakas will speak about Doris on behalf of MAPOR at the UIC event. Ron and Tim will work with Paul to put together something appropriate.

Vanessa distributed the social media engagement plan to EC which outlines recommendations for actions to be performed in the next few months.  Vanessa will organize these materials to a “social media materials” in the MAPOR Google drive.

Council moved to vote and approved $500 for the MAPOR logo refresh. Vanessa will follow up with the designer about ideas.

 

IV. Treasurer’s Report           (Jolene)

  1. Current update

Savings account: $45,015

Checking account: $12,609

Jolene filed the annual report and 990 form.  

MAPOR will receive $940 from AAPOR for folks who updated their MAPOR membership when they registered for the AAPOR conference.

 

V. Website (Josh)

  1. Site refresh update

The Beta of the new website is up and is open for EC review. Josh can create accounts for anyone who needs to be an editor on the page. Council members had a few quick suggestions for changes but so far the page is looking great.

Photos – What can we do to promote people taking photos at the presentation? Ron will put this on the agenda for the next council meeting. Perhaps we could have a photo contest and provide a small prize for the best photo?

 

VI. MAPOR History Group (Mandy)

Ron sent Paul an email about an update. Although we know Paul has been in contact with some of the fellows, no material has been distributed.

 

VII. Bylaws update (Ron)

Ron has aggregated the materials we need to present when we have the electronic vote. The electronic vote can be done through CVENT. Ron will work with Jolene get that set up.

 

VIII. Sponsorship update (Allison)

No new update at this time.

 

IX. Member benefits  (All)

  1. 2018 Mixer? (F2F meeting?)
  2. Webinar 2?
  3. Other things survey suggests?

We may have a mixer, and are open to considering other locations outside Chicago. We asked about what other conferences MAPOR members attend in the annual survey, perhaps we could use this as a resource to find a location for another mixer this summer?

Council is interested is hosting another webinar. We need to follow-up with Patrick to inquire about any leads. We asked about potential topics in the member survey – this could be a resource for new potential webinar ideas?

The value of a face-to-face meeting is not known at this time. Ron will follow-up with Ipek and Ned about the need to conduct a face-to-face as a lot of the benefit of the face-to-face is in assisting the conference chair.

 

X. Other Business?   

We would like to post meeting minutes to a place that is accessible to all members. Going forward, the secretary-treasurer will post the meeting notes to the Google drive, informing EC to make any edits or changes before a certain date. After the date has passed, the minutes will be posted to a page on the MAPOR web page.

                                                                                                    

Next Meeting: Monday May 14, 1:00 ET/Noon CT