MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
April 4, 2025
12:30 – 2:00 CST / 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Spotlight of the Month is for the Online Learning Committee
for the launch of the 2025 Spring Webinar Series! Thanks to all for your hard work and your service to MAPOR.
MAPOR Mission Statement
We provide high-quality educational and conference programs to encourage scholarly exchanges across
disciplines and geographies, broaden member access to mentors and resources, and bolster opportunities for
leadership and innovations. We join forces with AAPOR, academic institutions, and government and industry
employers to develop a thriving community that supports all MAPOR members, including students, scholars, and
professionals in every stage of their career.
MAPOR Vision Statement
MAPOR is a leading voice in public opinion, survey, and social science scholarship, methods, and practice among
regional professional associations. We are an inclusive and supportive community that enables our diverse
members to achieve their educational, professional development, and networking goals.
Agenda:
Attendees: Semilla, Alexandros, Benjamin, Beth, Brian, David, Lean, Crutiss, Erik, Erin, Patrick, Jenny, Lindsey,
Rebecca
Minutes are approved – note edit of $1000 commitment to AAPOR party (corrected from $500).
I. Secretary Treasurer’s Report (Semilla)
a. Financial updates
● RTI sponsorship check? YES
● Checkings: $23,086.47
● Savings: $42,222.43
b. Membership list updates
● 358 total members
● 305 non-students, 53 students
II. 2025 Conference and contract renewal (Beth/Jenny/all)
a. Updates on contract renewal?
- Need to make a decision soon about the dates or we might lose them. Do we want to
wait until we have the membership survey back, at risk of losing some options? Could
use the post-conference survey as a gut-check. - Don’t want to wait to decide since the survey is not even out yet. We are comfortable
NOT using the survey as a deciding factor and making a decision as a group. - People during the conference said to move it, choice in Oct was by far the least popular.
Discussion during the business meeting seemed in favor of moving to an earlier
weekend. - Consensus that we want to move it a week earlier and to keep it Fri/Sat
- Curtiss said from student perspective – moving a week earlier is great, keeping
Fri/Sat is better - This is a commitment to all 3 years (2026-2028).
- MOTION TO APPROVE MOVING THE 2026-28 CONFERENCE DATE UP 1 WEEK (2ND WEEK
OF NOVEMBER) - ALL IN FAVOR, motion approved
- We are CUTTING this question from the membership survey.
b. Conference support/50th committee?
c. Planning ahead for the conference support from AAPOR experience
d. Membership and 2024 conference survey update - Set with pedagogy hour. Email out to Ron Santos about being the keynote speaker.
- Beth is working on moving the call for abstracts up a little earlier.
III. Communications/Website (Benjamin/Patrick)
a. Membership survey will launch ASAP https://us1se.voxco.com/SE/1215/MAPOR2025/)
- Patrick about done with edits from Lindsey and Jenny and then will work with Ben to
send the invitation out via MAPOR outlook. - Will be out sometime today. Ben and Patrick staying on to work on logistics.
b. Other Updates? - Microsoft is moving to 2-factor authentication for our MAPOR accounts. Oof. Figuring
out a long term solution. - For the moment, if you need access to MAPOR account. send a message to Ben
- If you need access to OLC, send a message to Rebecca
- If you need access to Abstracts, message Beth
- If we come up with 1-2 months of regularly scheduled content then we will reach people.
Do we want to do this and make an effort here? - Lindsey – priority should be the newsletter for members. David, seconded.
- Alex volunteered to help with newsletter, outreach
- Not mutually exclusive – can do both newsletter AND social media
- Benjamin will send out newsletter next week once member survey is ready
IV. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Curtiss)
a. Updates on events?
- Curtiss has announcements ready to go, will share with Benjamin for both website and
newsletter
V. Sponsorship (Leah)
a. Updates on events?
- Goals:
- Reorganize corporate sponsorship tiers to include sustaining sponsor and add separation
at lower tiers so folks won’t balk with all the goings-on. - Add individual level sponsorships: similar tiers system that emphasize every bit counts
- NOTE – tier is more than cost of what you are getting
- Look into corporate matching at some point
- Bump up the tiers more $$$
- Action item – make name of tiers cuter / more fun
- i.e., A little generous / Somewhat generous / Very generous / Extremely
generous - Needs
- CVENT sponsorship pages for individual and corporate (or same as long as we have way
of indicating if it corporate or individual and works in CVENT), update website page - Do we want to increase the number of conference registrants for higher tiers this year? Rebecca
makes the point we would need to maintain in the future. - Leah looking into historical usage of these free registrations from sponsors
- Option for it to be one-off rather than policy change
- Commercial sector, market research, consulting firms good target for sponsorship but do not
have a lot of presentations usually, so might not need the registrations - Will likely have lower sponsorships this year, would like to put this out to membership sooner
rather than later for longer runway (comes from Leah/Patrick) - Should launch corporate/individual at same time, but
VI. Online Learning Committee (Rebecca)
a. Updates on events?
- Have a full series ready to go, first one is next 4/11, 4/25, 5/2 .
- Announced on AAPOR and AAPORNET – expand to networks. Free for MAPOR members, you can
join to get a discount. A lot of registrants already, including some paid.
VII. Other business
a. AAPOR All chapter party sponsorship discussion and decision
- Discussion of offsite vs onsite, big party.
- Do we want the $1500 vs $1000 vs $500 donation?
- Money will not be a deal breaker one way or another, but we would be able to use that
$500 in other ways e.g., bring more folks to MAPOR - MOTION TO SPONSOR MAPOR ALL-CHAPTER PARTY WITH $500.
- VOTED: unanimous in favor of motion
- Patrick will communicate to AAPOR.
Council members
President – Y. Patrick Hsieh
Vice President / President Elect – David Sterrett
Past President – Leah Dean
Conference Chair – Beth Fisher
Associate Conference Chair – Linsdey Witt-Swanson
Secretary-Treasurer – Semilla Stripp
Sponsorship Coordinator – Leah Dean
Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom
Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro
Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Brian Wells, Erik Nisbet
Alexandros Gkotinakos, Evgenia Kapousouz
Proposed Committees
50th/Conference Committee – Beth, Justine, Leah, Kevin
Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair), Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook
Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom
Secretary Treasurer Support – Semilla Stripp
Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Brian Wells