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.