MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH: Our MAPOR Spotlight of the Month is for Beth and the conference
committee for the steady working on the 50th anniversary event and the annual conference planning! 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.
Attendees: Semilla, Patrick, David, Alexandros, Rebecca, Curtiss, Evgenia, Jenny, Erik, Paul, Erin
January meeting minutes approved.
Agenda:
I. 2024 Conference Debrief (Jenny/Beth/Leah)
a. Thank you notes to sponsors?
- Unsure, Patrick will check in with Leah
II. 2025 Conference and contract renewal (Beth/Jenny/all)
a. Updates on contract renewal?
- Contract would be for 2026-2028. If we can decide on a couple they can lock in those weekends
for a few months until we make our decision. - Agreement that these are the four dates we should focus on moving forward.
2026 2027 2028
Date of
Thanksgiving
Nov 26 Nov 25 Nov 23
Option 1
(current)
Fri Nov 20 – Sat Nov 21
$244 King
$264 D/D
Fri Nov 19 – Sat Nov 20
$249 King
$269 D/D
Fri Nov 17 – Sat Nov 18
$254 King
$274 D/D
Option 2 Thu Nov 19 – Fri Nov 20
$219 King/$239 D/D
Thu Nov 18 – Fri Nov 19
$225 King/$245 D/D
Thu Nov 16 – Fri Nov 17
$231 King/$251 D/D
Option 3 Fri Nov 13 – Sat Nov 14
$229 King/$249 D/D
Fri Nov 12 – Thu Nov 13
$235 King/$255 D/D
Fri Nov 10 – Sat Nov 11
$242 King/$262 D/D
Option 4 Thu Nov 12 – Fri Nov 13
$199 King/$219 D/D
Thu Nov 11 – Fri Nov 12
$209 King/$229 D/D
Thu Nov 9 – Fri Nov 10
$219 King/$239 D/D
- Conference poll results were split between days of week, but people prefer a week earlier. But
keep in mind that these are only among folks who were at the survey. Key is people who aren’t
attending but would if we moved it. Some more notes on member surveys at bottom of minutes. - Goal is to get a survey out in Feb, have feedback by the next time we meet in March. Concern
here is that the hotel might not be able to hold – prioritize holding weekend options (Option 1
and Option 3) for now.
b. Conference support/50th committee? - Reached out to vendors
- Will have meeting with conference support committee next week to keep on planning
- Important to figure out timelines for decisions here, too. Jenny said it was very late last year for
most things (dinners, etc.). The one thing that we would need to know as early as possible would
be if we need to cut down to 1 day (but that is the worst possible option for everything). - Can have less programming if need to and have more conversation, safe space, discussions, etc.
if needed. Therapy dogs!
III. Secretary Treasurer’s Report (Semilla/Lindsey)
a. Financial updates
- Checkings: $20,749.41
- Savings: $42,221.76
b. Membership list updates - 299 total members
- 256 non-students, 43 students
- Will be working on taxes this coming month
- Still awaiting sponsorship money from RTI – get
IV. Communications/Website (Benjamin)
a. Officer page updated
- Officer pages are updated, reach out to Ben if need anything else there.
- Stay tuned for more updates here
V. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Curtiss)
- Nothing to report. But will probably get things rolling for March soon.
VI. Sponsorship (Leah)
- Leah checking in with Justine about thank you notes for 2024 sponsors
- Leah is going to coordinate a handoff between 2024 and 2025 sponsorship. Have some more ideas for
new sponsors and things still a big unknown with the current climate. - Talk about some plans for a scaled back 50th/conference in case sponsorship is not where it has been in
past years due to changes in federal funding.
VII. Online Learning Committee (Rebecca)
a. Updates on events?
- Had a great discussion talking about ideas for OLC. Going to focus in on Spring on something
related to polling – combination of webinars that might be more webinar series on polling. - Crumbling blue wall (focus on Midwest)
- More knowledge transfer from members
- David going to join next meeting to add some ideas about speakers and specific topics
- Should the audience be members or more broad to attract new people? Goal might be a
combination with some webinars that are more public facing and some that are more internal. - Does OLC need anything on the membership survey? Yes, Rebecca will send Patrick some ideas
about what type of topics people want to see in the coming year. Will send it in next week or so.
VIII. Other business (Erik)
a. concerns on the impacts of recent government changes for the organization
- Erik noted that AAPOR is seeing at least a 30% drop in attendance and $300k in the hole and is
looking to combine conferences with WAPOR to shore them up a bit (likely will not happen).
What are the implications for MAPOR? - Jenny noted that a big hit to attendance is from federal employees. MAPOR likely does not have
as big of a presence from federal employees. Should go through the list of attendees to see if
anyone is a federal employee. - Hard to understand downstream effects on federal grants and funding and companies who use
that for funding professional development. People might have to dramatically cut down
attendance or might be fine, it is hard to say right now. Very, very unknown and the timeline of
figuring this out is unclear. - MAPOR would likely be less impacted since it is much lower cost to the company (or individual).
- Academic side is also very unknown with grant funding.
- Do we want to add a question to member survey getting at this? Ask about changes to federal
funding impacting your plans to attend, add as a reason for folks who are not likely to come, etc. - Thinking through plans for scaled back 50th in case sponsorship is lower
b. Membership and 2024 conference survey update - Send out to MAPOR list (or friends of MAPOR).
- Survey has follow ups for folks who could not attend conference – why, would changing date
change things, etc. - Should we ask follow ups about folks who only went to 1 day of conference? It seems like this is
not super common (especially this year). But it might be harder for companies (e.g., NORC) to
cover 2 work days if we move to a Thurs/Fri option. So it might be worth asking. - Suggestion to incorporate specific cost information that Jenny shared into the survey (Q12).
- Add in a question about how likely you are to go. Could do a grid of likelihood to attend x date
options (include hotel rate). - 30-40% of attendees use room block (closer to 40% use hotel in general)
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