MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
December 12, 2025
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Spotlight of the Month is for Conference Chairs Beth
and Lindsey and the entire supporting crew who made the Conference a successful event! Thanks to all
for your hard work and your service to MAPOR.
Attendees: Alexandros, Benjamin, Beth, Betsy, Brian, Brittany, Caroline, Curtiss, David, Erik,
Erin, Jamie, Lindsey, Miranda, Nadia, Patrick, Paul, Rebecca, Semilla
Agenda:
I. Welcome Executive Council!
a. New members: Nadia Assad, Miranda Kaye, Jaime Faus, Brittany Creel, and Betsy
Broaddus,
b. Introductions
II. MAPOR documents and procedures
a. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
b. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
c. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-
sheet/
III. 2025-2026 Council Transition
(David/Patrick/Paul)
a. MAPOR Google Group for group email (mapor@googlegroups.com)
b. Google Drive: MAPOR
- David wants to make sure to focus on committees this year – goal to get people allocated to
committees today or in next few meetings. See bottom of minutes for - Everyone should have access to Google Drive – Erik and Miranda still need to get access, email
did not go through. Shared emails with Ben in chat so should be all set - Picking things to prioritize as a group. Website (look and feel, content).
IV. 2025 Conference Debrief (Beth/Lindsey/Erik)
a. General Discussion
- Received a few emails from fellows and longer time members and all said we did a great
job, wanted to pass along. Not a lot of negative feedback, folks seemed happy to gather. - Total of 192 attendees, an increase compared to last year. Highest since pre-Covid
- Beth and Lindsey are touching base to make sure everything is handed off, and working
on some documentation on the process to pass along to future folks. - Folks asked about sharing slides – is this something that MAPOR could host ($$ because
a lot of space)? Can we loop in with OLC? Can we just depend on emails (warn
presenters)? - From website perspective – Benjamin would prefer a rolling option (like host
2025 until 2026 conference).
b. All expenses paid? Still 1 outstanding travel grant
i. Hotel – yes
ii. Tech rental – yes
iii. Speakers – yes (many just wanted conference reimbursed)
iv. Student award winners – Mia will comment
v. Student grants – Mia will comment
c. Business meeting items
- Discussants came up both in business meeting and in survey. Back in the day, every
session had a moderator and a discussant. It is 2x as many people who we need to help,
and it is a lot of work to provide discussants. - We have a questions on this year’s survey asking presenters if they could have provided
their presentation to the moderator a week in advance so we’ll have some data on that - Ideas (pros)
- Targeted panels
- Discussant track and non-discussant track and see how people opt-in
- Get it on registration to get sense on who would be interested on both ends and
potentially try to pair them. View it as experimental and not make any promises. - Panel of best student papers with discussants
- Reasons not to (cons) – logistics!
- Sometimes ran out of time, not enough time to present research as-is, so would
need to be longer sessions. Eats into Q&A time. - Do we think presenters might have trouble getting their presentation ready early
enough for discussant review? - A lot of conferences have done away with them.
- Complication on planning – need slides earlier, coordinate discussants, etc.
- Hard enough to get list of people to review papers
- Maybe in our upcoming member survey we ask how valuable MAPOR-driven matching
paper reviews could be a standalone service to members, outside of the conference and
asynchronous
d. Conference survey - The conference survey has been sent out and we already have almost 70 responses
already. All very positive about the experience. - Having the conference a week earlier next year – so far 40% of responses so far say more
likely to attend, and just 10% say less likely. That is good news. - Have some questions about cost increases – 80% of current respondents are OK with
that. Had increased non-student cost a few times, might need to do it again. - Questions about value of things during conference – coffee/tea most valued (60%), other
values are microphones, afternoon snacks. Open bar less than 50%. Low value is
morning snacks, swag (less than 20%)
V. 2026 Conference (Lindsey)
- Please share with Lindsey on ideas for speakers and what we want to do to continue recruiting
new students.
VI. Secretary Treasurer’s Report (Semilla/Nadia)
a. Financial updates
● Checkings: $21,375.06
● Savings: $42,225.17
b. Membership list updates will come in January
- Make sure to connect with comms committee re: mailing list
VII. Communications/Website (David/Benjamin)
- Reach out to Benjamin if you are interested in helping here. We want to decide WHAT to focus
on, so can meet to decide which priorities to tackle once we have committee formed.
a. Headshots for new members/Other missing information
i. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J1W22JfNCYXZWKij3EKNo7LaD-
FlwTY_rzUb2pBFQSA/edit?usp=sharing
b. Jaime, Betsy, and Brittany joining committee
c. Website overhaul
d. New EC googlegroup: mapor_ec@googlegroups.com - Limited to council
VIII. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul/Curtiss)
- Mary and Curtiss hoping to have a debrief – might need to be slightly different format this year
due to circumstances with new fellow. Might not be able to do it, so maybe we can spread work
around to other fellows (or perhaps discussants!) - Process really kicks off in March (pairing students with new fellows), and pairing abstracts with
reviewers near conference - Happy to have folks on to help!
IX. Sponsorship (Patrick)
X. Online Learning Committee (Rebecca)
a. Ideas for this year
- Want to figure out how to archive some of the webinars/stuff this year. Right now we
have them saved off on Zoom, but goal is to make these free and available to members
long term. High on list of to do’s!
b. Can share ideas that come out of survey
XI. Other business
Council members
President – David Sterrett
Vice President / President Elect – Paul DiPerna
Past President – Patrick Hsieh
Conference Chair – Linsdey Witt-Swanson
Associate Conference Chair – Erik Nisbet
Secretary-Treasurer – Semilla Stripp
Associate Secretary-Treasurer – Nadia Assad
Sponsorship Coordinator – Patrick Hsieh
Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom and Betsy Broaddus
Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro
Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Brian Wells, Alexandros Gkotinakos,
Beth Fisher, Carolina Smith, Miranda Kaye, Jaime Faus, Brittany Creel, and Betsy Broaddus
Proposed Committees
Conference Committee – Lindsey, Erik, Beth, David
Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair), Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook
Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom
Secretary Treasurer Support – Semilla Stripp, Nadia Assad
Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Brian Wells, Jaime Faus, Brittany Creel, and
Betsy Broaddus
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.