2023 Annual Conference

Patrick Hsieh

48th Annual Conference

Held November 17-18, 2023 at Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown!

“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion Research”

As our research landscape continues to change and evolve since the pandemic, MAPOR hopes to broaden our pursuit of collaboration in the survey and public opinion research disciplines. To continue our learning about the changing research landscape, our conference theme asks the MAPOR community to consider the innovations and changes that have occurred in survey research in recent years. Specifically, we encourage abstract submissions on topics that cut across multiple disciplines and research contexts, such as user/respondent-centered survey design, usability of web or mobile surveys, and the ethical use of public opinion and survey data.

More broadly, we welcome abstract submissions on all facets of research related to public opinion, communication, survey research, and their methodologies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: questionnaire design; interviewers’ role in data collection; respondent behaviors; respondent recruitment for hard-to-reach populations; nonresponse or data quality assessment; total survey error; emerging technologies or methods for data collection; use of administrative records or alternative data sources for surveys; machine learning and data science; politics and public opinion; social media and public opinion; public opinion on social, economic, and political issues; cross-cultural research; and qualitative and mixed-method research techniques.

2023 Conference highlights:

Friday morning short course:
“The Mother of Invention: Design of the General Social Survey from 2020-2022 and Beyond”

René Bautista, NORC at the University of Chicago

Friday midday keynote address:

“Bridging the Gap between Theoretical Rigor and Applied Research Goals: Reflections of a Survey Researcher in the Tech Industry”

Greg Holyk, Google

Saturday morning pedagogy hour:

“Broadening the Horizon: Research and Career Development Opportunities for Social and Behavioral Scientists in the Research Industries”

Gina Walejko, Google

Erin Spottswood, Allstate/Portland State University

Caroline Smith, Morning Consult

Yu-Han Jao, Lundbeck

Register Here!Final conference programHotel reservation available here


2023 Student Paper Competition

Benjamin Schapiro

The Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research invites eligible students to enter the association’s MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition. Two winning papers, the Doris A. Graber Award in public opinion and the Allan L. McCutcheon Award in survey research methodology, will receive $500 and one free conference registration. The winning papers also will be accepted for presentation during a session at the May 2023 AAPOR conference. 

Eligibility

  • For the purposes of this competition, an eligible student is someone enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program at the time of the conference. A paper authored by more than one person is considered eligible only if all authors are students according to the above definition. Students need not be members of MAPOR. 
  • Students who have already won a MAPOR Student Paper Award are NOT eligible to submit as a sole or co-author. A student who has not won the award can submit in multiple years, but cannot submit the same paper multiple times (this would be unfair because all student paper competition entries are reviewed and provided with detailed comments by at least one MAPOR Fellow).
  • Papers submitted to this competition should be primarily students’ work, although student author(s) are encouraged to seek advice from a faculty mentor. This requirement does not preclude recognizing the faculty mentor as a co-author on a later paper that is based on or incorporates some of the work in the student paper.  In most cases the student would be first author on such a later publication.

The topic of the paper must fall under one or both of MAPOR’s general areas of scholarship, which are (1) public opinion and (2) research methods in public opinion and survey research. When submitting, the author(s) must indicate the topic for which the paper should be considered. The papers need not be quantitative nor must they report data in order to qualify for consideration in this competition. Each student may be an author on only one paper submitted to the competition.

Procedure

1. Submit an abstract to the MAPOR conference at mapor.org. In addition to a title and abstract, you will be asked to provide the name, institutional affiliation, and email address for all authors. Students must provide the name and e-mail address of a faculty mentor when submitting their abstract. Abstracts can be submitted until 11:59pm CDT on Friday, August 18th, 2023. 

2. Students whose papers have been accepted for the 2023 conference can have their papers considered for MAPOR Fellows Student Paper Competition.  Here are the requirements:

A committee composed of MAPOR Fellows will judge all papers submitted to the competition. Winners will be announced at the Friday Awards Session.

AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices

All submissions must abide by the AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics & Practices. Manuscripts that make use of survey data must include, at minimum, the information below from Section III-A of the Code:

Include the following items in any report of research results or make them available immediately upon release of that report.

1. Who sponsored the research study, who conducted it, and who funded it, including, to the extent known, all original funding sources.

2. The exact wording and presentation of questions and responses whose results are reported.

3. A definition of the population under study, its geographic location, and a description of the sampling frame used to identify this population. If the sampling frame was provided by a third party, the supplier shall be named. If no frame or list was utilized, this shall be indicated.

4. A description of the sample design, giving a clear indication of the method by which the respondents were selected (or self-selected) and recruited, along with any quotas or additional sample selection criteria applied within the survey instrument or post-fielding. The description of the sampling frame and sample design should include sufficient detail to determine whether the respondents were selected using probability or non-probability methods.

5. Sample sizes and a discussion of the precision of the findings, including estimates of sampling error for probability samples and a description of the variables used in any weighting or estimating procedures. The discussion of the precision of the findings should state whether or not the reported margins of sampling error or statistical analyses have been adjusted for the design effect due to clustering and weighting, if any.
6. Which results are based on parts of the sample, rather than on the total sample, and the size of such parts.

7. Method and dates of data collection.

All submissions must include the following:
8. The response rate and details of its calculation (if response rate is not appropriate, the refusal rate). Accurate reporting of the response rate requires consulting the AAPOR Standard Definitions (aapor.org), to identify the appropriate response rate definition. If the AAPOR recommendations are not followed, authors should explain why a nonstandard approach was employed.

9. For models fitted to the data, the equations of the models should be presented, including the numerical values of the parameter estimates, the respective standard errors, and goodness-of-fit statistics for the model.
In addition, authors need to agree to make other specific information about the study available within 30 days of any request for such materials. This information is listed in Section III-B of the Code located at aapor.org/Standards-Ethics/AAPOR-Code-of-Ethics

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – June 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

June 9, 2023

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Patrick & Jenny for getting our call for abstracts & participation out!

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. 

MAPOR Documents & Procedures 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Attendees: Paul, Justine, Patrick, Ben, Curtiss, Kevin, Erin, Rebecca, and Lindsey 

Agenda:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. New advertising locations/ideas? 
    2. Support for new programming?
    3. New sponsorships? 

Patrick put out two calls through CVent; call for abstracts and call for participation. Next week, Patrick will send the two calls through AAPORnet. Patrick and Justine will work together on an email to share with other chapters and on social media to try to draw folks to MAPOR. This can be incorporated into the newsletter.

There was a lengthy conversation brainstorming how to find folks who may not know about or think to attend MAPOR. Justine will send an email next Friday to the EC asking each of us to come up with one idea of whom to send this to. 

Patrick will talk to Jenny about getting laptops set up for the conference.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates

Checking-$20,808.18

Savings: $47,214.57

  1. Membership list updates

Lindsey will update with June AAPOR list.

All the AAPOR raffle winners have received their prizes. The reimbursement is with AAPOR.

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter–late June & mid-October?

Ben needs final versions and then it is ready. The hope is to send it the Tuesday after Juneteenth. 

  1. Website updates?

All issues have been resolved. 

  1. OLC Email credentials? 

Ben is looking into the costs for this. There are a lot of options across the seven email addresses we have. We are going to transition three mailboxes; OLC, conference, and everything else MAPOR. We’ll move from $7/month to $21/month, but Ben thinks there is a discount for paying annually.  

  1. Spring/Summer Communication Schedule (bylaws, survey, conference registration)

Ben will work on the MAPORnet listserv transition communication through the newsletter and social media. Ben will update on the website too. 

We are stepping away from Twitter. Ben will look at how to join LinkedIn. 

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
    1. Fellowship program updates

One student is deferring to next year because she cannot attend the conference this year. A student from last year is deferring until next year because of family issues. They are struggling to match one of the students after reaching out to four different people. Paul will email the EC to see if anyone else has ideas. The remaining three are matched and already working with their mentors. The committee is getting ready for the travel grants and colleagues grants. 

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 

Kevin is ramping up to recontact the usual suspects and reach out to new folks too.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
  2. Integrating fall resume/PD into the conference

They are looking at doing the resume review and will work to flush this out. 

  1. Other ongoing business
    1. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan for upcoming elections 
    2. History of the EC List
    3. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC
    4. Bylaws
    5. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?

Need to figure out where to store MAPOR stuff and who can get it to and from the conference. Lindsey will reach out to Justine too to get it on her radar. 

Council members

President – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean

Past President – Kevin Ulrich

Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh

Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar

Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich

Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom

Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro

Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo

Proposed Committees

Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise 

Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin

Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair),  Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook

Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom

Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – May 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

May 19, 2023

11:30 – 12:30 CST / 12:30 pm –1:30pm EST

Link: Click here to join the meeting

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Curtiss, Paul, Patrick, and Jenny for the Student Fellowship and Conference Speakers planning/launches!

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. 

MAPOR Documents & Procedures 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Attendees: Justine, Paul, Jenny, Lindsey, Leah, Jerry, Rebecca, Erin, and Patrick

Agenda:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Support needs & update
    2. Call for participation
      1. Any outstanding decisions/opportunities for feedback? 
    3. New advertising locations/ideas? 
    4. Speed networking/resume review/OLC integration at conference? 

Patrick asked for thoughts on extending the pedagogy hour to 75 or 90 minutes. If we extend it, he has one more, potential pedagogy hour panelist. We could shorten lunch before and refreshments after or make the Q&A part of the refreshments to make room for a 75-minute pedagogy hour. Lindsey mentioned that we will pay for travel, hotel, registration, and expenses for each person on the panel. We’ll want to make sure all of that is in the conference registration costs. 

We’ll have an immemorial session. 

The feedback for the networking over the break will need to be more organized. Jenny will think through how to possibly do this differently this year. We also discussed having more of a company forum instead of speed networking.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. $21,645.72 checking
      2. 47,214.15 savings
    2. Membership list updates
      1. There were no AAPOR membership updates in May, so Lindsey will update the list when it becomes available in June. 
    3. AAPOR Wrap-up
      1. Lindsey reached out to the MAPOR/AAPOR reception winners. She has heard from three, and those are ordered and two are on their way. Once, they are all ordered, Lindsey will send the receipts to AAPOR for reimbursement. 
      2. Kevin has the raffle entries and will share them with Lindsey to add to the mailing list. 
    4. Cvent contract
      1. Signed and paid
  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Website updates
    3. Spring/Summer Communication Schedule (bylaws, survey, conference registration)
  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
    1. Fellowship program updates

Five student fellows, three are matched to a MAPOR fellow

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 
  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
  2. Spring 3-part series on Web Surveys was held in April

We need to get a new email address for them that they can send from. Justine will schedule a meeting with Ben to get this worked out. 

The spring webinar was a success. They will send Lindsey information to pay the honorarium. 

The fall webinar series will be around resume review.

  1. Other business
    1. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan for upcoming elections 
    2. History of the EC List
    3. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC
    4. Bylaws
    5. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?
    6. Note: Lindsey filed our taxes earlier this year, working on tax exemption status in IL.

Justine has a survey programmed. The OLC will send new questions to add. Then, it will go out in June. 

Council members

President – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean

Past President – Kevin Ulrich

Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh

Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar

Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich

Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom

Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro

Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo

Proposed Committees

Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise 

Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin

Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair),  Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook

Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom

Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – April 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

April 14, 2023

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to the OLC as they kickoff yet another successful series!

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. 

MAPOR Documents & Procedures 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Agenda:

Attendees: Ben, Justine, Curtiss, Leah, Lindsey, Jenny, Paul, and Patrick

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. AAPOR and MAPOR Code of Conduct–Bylaws Update      (Justine)

Lindsey and Justine are monitoring the AAPORnet debates, and Lindsey will get an update at the AAPOR Chapter meeting later on 4/14. We will need to take a vote on the bylaws anyway for a few small changes. We need to think about how we will transfer the information from council to council. One idea is to share a password protected document with important account passwords and if anyone is not allowed to be a MAPOR member due to conduct issues. 

Justine would like to send a survey, bylaws election and MAPOR at AAPOR in a call to action email. 

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Support needs?
    2. Short course instructors 
    3. New advertising locations/ideas? 

The keynote speaker is confirmed. Patrick has some pedagogy hour speakers confirmed and hours in the works. He is working on short course leaders preferably someone non-academic and not on the frequent fliers list, but we can also stick with the tried and true for the short courses. Ideas welcome!

Justine wants to try to spread the word on the MAPOR conference at AAPOR about how we are trying to cast the net past the typical group and push “MAPOR as a state of mind.” We discussed different ways to circulate the MAPOR conference through a flier or word of mouth at the conference.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. Checking: $20,855.46
      2. Savings: $47,213.79
    2. Membership list updates
      1. Lindsey will get the April members added in the next week.
    3. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
        1. Done
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?
        1. We increased our registrants for this contract and will add to the May ’23-April ’24 contract. Then, we can move the membership to Cvent. Once that is all working well, we can cancel the other platforms.
      3. Tax Exempt status: Lindsey will move here soon.
  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Website updates
    3. MAPOR @ AAPOR

The newsletter is in the works and will go out in April. 

  1. Survey Subcommittee       (Justine)
    1. Any questions for submission? Please send suggestions by EOD April 19th.

Justine will send out a draft soon. Please let her know if there are any questions/topics you would like included. The plan is to send it in a couple weeks.     

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)

We have received four applications. Feedback from past students has been positive. Next, they will work on the student matching and then work on the student travel piece. Paul will send another reminder about the student fellowship application process again. 

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 

No updates.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Justine)
  • The Spring Webinar series kicks off today! We’ve already had a lot of feedback that the topics are super interesting to folks. In addition, we’ve pulled together some numbers for you on the Spring series versus the Fall series. 
  • As of today, we have 42 registrants for the Spring series ($740 gross revenue; $140 net)
    • Breakdown:
      • 16 students ($0)
      • 10 MAPOR members ($200)
      • 18 Non-MAPOR members ($540)
    • $600 in expenses for honoraria ($200 x 3 speakers)
    • $140 net
  • For reference, the Fall Webinar series, at its conclusion, had 51 registrants ($670 gross; $70 net)
    • Breakdown:
      • 11 students ($0)
      • 13 MAPOR members ($130)
      • 27 Non-MAPOR members ($540)
    • $600 in expenses for honoraria ($200 x 3 speakers)
    • $70 net
  • We recognize that the goal of the webinars isn’t to drive income, but we’ve been having internal conversations about the registration cost of the series, as we want to ensure that it’s at least self-sustaining in the future. We’ll use these numbers to guide decisions about the cost of future series.
  • We’re starting to flesh out the Fall webinar series. We’re envisioning this as a student-focused series, with topics directly related to current students and those making the transition from academia to the workplace.

Now that we are running these through Cvent, we will want to consider charging students at least $5 to pay for the Cvent fee. We discussed maybe adding $5 to the student membership fee. 

  1. Other business
    1. Future EC recruitment ideas–starting to plan
      1. Start thinking!
    2. History of the EC List
    3. Passing the baton–documentation from EC to EC

Council members

President – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean

Past President – Kevin Ulrich

Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh

Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar

Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich

Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom

Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro

Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo

Proposed Committees

Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise 

Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin

Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair),  Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook

Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom

Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – March 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to Benjamin for taking over the website and getting all our updates through for the EC page!

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. 

MAPOR Documents & Procedures 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Attendees: Justine, Kevin, Patrick, Benjamin, Jenny, Curtiss, Erin, Rebecca

Agenda:

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

The meeting minutes from February were approved. 

  1. AAPOR and MAPOR Code of Conduct–Bylaws Update      (Justine)

Justine will send out a formal email about what we are proposing to change. Council will discuss in the April meeting proposed changes. 

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)

EC discussed the appropriate number of people to be on the careers panel. 3-5 persons seems like a reasonable amount. 

Justine – Could the fall webinar tie into the conference programming? 

How can we make MAPOR a place that is useful for people looking for jobs but at the same time be useful for folks who are hiring organizations? How can we make MAPOR the Midwest hub for hiring? 

Networking opportunities at the conference – this can tie into messaging for potential new sponsors –  That MAPOR is an ideal location for them to spotlight their organizations to early-career and students. 

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report   (Lindsey)                

Checking as of today: $21,001.20

Savings as of today: $47,213.39

We have 379 members to date with 296 general members and 83 student members. We should get a new list from AAPOR again in the next week or so, but the number of new members usually gets very small at this point.

Both the federal and state taxes are done. 

I have reached out to Cvent to see if we will need to purchase additional registrants to move webinar registration and non-conference and non-AAPOR membership into Cvent, and if so the pricing options. Even if we do, I suspect it will still be cheaper than continuing with our current set up of two credit card vendors but will keep everyone updated.

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Website updates

The website is now updated! 

Kevin has access to the MAPOR Google account. Kevin will provide the password information to Benjamin so we have this stored after EC transitions.

Benjamin sent out a schedule for deadlines for upcoming newsletters. He would like drafts of materials to be sent within the next two weeks. 

  1. Survey Subcommittee       (Justine)

Justine is reviewing materials and will send a calendar invite out soon for people to take part in making this happen.     

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)

Committee continues to modify language for Fellowship program. Trying to get a wider ranging messaging for why people should apply. Draft sent to Justine, we should be able to distribute soon. 

Committee is planning to reach out to Fellows to learn who might be interested in participating this year. 

  1. Sponsorship (Kevin)
    1. Reaching out to new possible sponsors?  A section in the newsletter? 

No updates at this time. 

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Rebecca)
    1. April/spring webinar

Speakers for the upcoming webinars have been confirmed. Committee is working to get headshots and bios and content ready to get into the upcoming newsletter. 

April 14th is the first session. “Web surveys 2.01 – Beyond the Basics.” 

Next webinar will conflict with EC meeting. Justine will consider moving the meeting. 

  1. Other business

Rebecca suggested adding the Chair of the Online learning Committee as an elected position. We will discuss this further in thinking about changes to the Bylaws. 

Council members

President – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean

Past President – Kevin Ulrich

Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh

Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar

Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich

Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom

Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro

Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo

Proposed Committees

Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise 

Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin

Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair),  Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook

Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom

Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – February 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

February 27, 2023

12:30 – 2:00 CST / 1:30 pm – 3:00pm EST

Link: MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  The MAPOR spotlight of the month goes out to all the teamwork and tag-teaming we’ve been working on, especially Lindsey, Patrick, Benjamin, Rebecca, Erin, & Jerry to get webinars posted, websites reworked for hosting, emails updates, AAPOR meetings attended–thank you to everyone!

MAPOR Documents & Procedures 

  1. Vision and Mission Statements: https://www.mapor.org/about/mapor-mission-vision/
  2. Bylaws: https://www.mapor.org/bylaws-as-amended-august-10-2018/
  3. Robert’s Rules of Order: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/roberts-rules-of-order-cheat-sheet/

Agenda:

Attendees: Lindsey, Ben, Leah, Curtiss, Erin, Jenny, Patrick, Justine, Kevin, Paul, Rebecca, and Jerry

  1. Approval of last meeting’s minutes 

Approved

  1. New meeting time!  The votes are in–lunch on Friday was well received.  Between email and votes, 8 of us weighed in with a preference and the general consensus is the second Friday of the month wins.  We’ll start in March (given February was another moved meeting due to a Federal holiday). 
  1. AAPOR and MAPOR Code of Conduct  (Justine/Lindsey/All)
    1. Recent AAPOR meeting made it known that we can’t simply adopt their code of conduct, so we’ll need to review and borrow/adopt language (while inserting “MAPOR”) as it fits our organization.  Basically, we can’t just say “we subscribe to the rules of AAPOR” as our formal approach.
    2. We need to ensure our adoption is consistent with our bylaws, and doesn’t require sharing to/from AAPOR on any actions we take.

We will have to change our bylaws because our bylaws specifically reference AAPOR bylaws. We will need a membership vote to change our bylaws. AAPOR can answer our questions but are otherwise disconnected. We need to make this change as soon as possible. We will need to develop a process so that if anyone is ever removed from MAPOR members we have a process for making sure they do not pay for MAPOR membership through AAPOR and refunding their money if they do.  Kevin suggested reviewing the bylaws to see if there is anything else we want to change while we are going to the work of a bylaw vote. Rebecca mentioned the need for a stop gap so we have something in place before the spring webinar goes live. 

MAPOR officers are covered under AAPOR liability insurance, but not MAPOR itself. AAPOR will let the chapters know what price range we should expect. We need to get our own liability insurance as an organization.

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
    1. Conference support committee 
    2. Check with hotel about 2023 contract plans
    3. Support needed to think about speaker invites, new sponsors under the ‘bridge across the industry’ approach? 

“Of Intersections and Opportunities: Exploring the Potentials of Public Opinion (and Survey) Research” is the proposed conference title. Feedback included dropping the parentheses/survey piece, adding “Communications Research” and adding something career specific to the title if the conference will strongly look at career trajectories. 

Patrick is considering Dan Merkle (ABC) and Gina Walejko at Google for Keynote. Patrick would like speakers who have a survey methodology background but work at organizations that have not traditionally conducted surveys. Justine proposed having a speaker that is early or mid-career to better resonate with MAPOR’s student population. Gina is his first choice for the pedagogy hour. Jenny will share some names with Patrick. Patrick wants a panel for Pedagogy hour. Paul suggested Elliott Morris with YouGov. 

Patrick proposed using a short course slot for a networking event. There was concern about changing the conference schedule. Patrick will move forward with the typical short course schedule, but will look at reworking speed networking. 

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report (Lindsey)                
    1. Financial updates
      1. Checking: $21,008.66
      2. Savings: $47,213.03
    2. Membership list updates
      1. General members: 291
      2. Students: 81
      3. Total: 372
    3. Tentative tasks for 2023
      1. Not for Profit Annual Report filing
      2. Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?

Lindsey will add the new, February members through AAPOR. She’ll pay taxes this week. She hasn’t had a chance to work on getting more routing through Cvent to drop the other credit card platforms. 

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
    1. Newsletter
    2. Social Media posts
      1. Update/continue conversation about preferred platforms and questions in survey
    3. Website updates–any update?
      1. GoDaddy & WordPress updates
      2. Login info tracking/sharing
      3. Online Learning getting needed access?
    4. Google Groups
      1. Updating membership (add new folks, remove old folks)
      2. Confirming access MAPOR Google Group for group email
      3. Google Drive:

Ben will get the newsletter going so we can promote the spring newsletter, give a heads up on the bylaws vote, and preview the conference. 

We can ask members on which social media platforms they see our content as part of the membership survey and then adjust our social media approach. 

Ben shared concerns about the website. The set up isn’t ideal and a long-term concern. 

Ben needs head shots from a couple council members to update the EC website. Justine asked to prioritize posting about the spring webinar and getting the online learning committee access to email. 

Some people are not getting MAPOR Google Groups emails.

  1. Survey Subcommittee             (Justine)
    1. Timeline & Staffing

Justine will think about when to send this out so it doesn’t get overshadowed by the bylaws vote or vice versa. Then, everyone will have at least a couple weeks to request questions. 

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
    1. Planning initial meeting? 

They have the structure and invitation ready to hopefully include in the newsletter. They are playing with the idea of giving a support grant for fellows to do the fellowship program. Kevin shared that fellows haven’t expressed financial concerns as their reason for not being able to take part in the program. Instead, the committee will focus more on learning the student’s research interests. They will also look at including information about past student participants in the newsletter and MAPOR, AAPOR, and JPSM listservs so students see the program as something for them. 

  1. Sponsorship
    1. Kevin sent out thank yous to Gold earlier, all in process? (Kevin)

Kevin will thank the silver sponsors and let them know that they will be mentioned on the spring newsletter.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Rebecca)
    1. Goals for 2023
    2. Requested resources/access update 
    3. Sharing out recordings–modified Zoom recording?  Box?  Google Drive?

The spring webinar will start April 14th and be up to three weeks long. It may include three technical areas possibly including data falsification, collecting paradata, and Excel to SQL. They need suggestions for the data falsification webinar, but they have ideas on the other two. There was discussion about having a Qualtrics employee show how to collect paradata through Qualtrics, but others shared how we may be able to reframe it to make it work. 

They want the fall webinar to be student focused with an overview of the field, putting together a resume, and similar topics. We discussed wanting these webinars to be useful to students at different places in their program.

  1. Other business
    1. In-person or virtual mixers in 2023?

We discussed removing this item from the agenda moving forward. No one is dying to organize a party. 😊

Council members

President – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean

Past President – Kevin Ulrich

Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh

Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar

Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich

Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom

Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro

Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo

Proposed Committees

Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise 

Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin

Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair),  Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook

Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom

Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean

MAPOR Council Public Meeting Minutes – January 2023

Benjamin Schapiro

Note: The group will vote on changing the meeting schedule (starting in March, since January/February were both holidays and moved already). 

MAPOR moment of the month recognizes the OLC for their work on the recent series and upcoming planning to expand the reach of MAPOR events.  It’s been very well received!

  1. Conference Member Survey Planning (Justine/Leah/Patrick)

The small team will meet in the next month to move this forward on the survey generally, Patrick and Leah to let us know what they need.

  1. 2023 Conference             (Patrick)
  2. Conference support committee 
  3. Check with hotel about 2023 contract plans
  4. Skipping virtual components moving forward 

No updates from conference on contract needs, but Patrick will confirm logistics in coming months with hotel and ensure everything is all set (Leah did sign the next 3-year contract last year).

Leah & Patrick to meet and map out a planning timeline for the coming year.

Patrick may reach out for support on speakers and presenters from the council.  The current  idea is to focus the conference on broadening the connection between sectors of survey research (marketing, consulting, academic). 

One opportunity and challenge will be many classically trained or practicing methodologists have left our traditional spaces and employers for industry jobs such as Meta or Google.  They aren’t attending the conferences like MAPOR any more, so we’ll need to capture them.

Patrick to use ad-hoc conference support group (Jenny, Paul, etc.) to help connect with key folks and plan.

  1. Secretary / Treasurer’s Report (Lindsey)                
  2. Financial updates

As of 2/24/23

Checking: $21,008.66

Savings: $47,213.03

  1. Membership list updates
    1. With the initial AAPOR list and list from the conference, we have 372 members (291 General, 81 students).
  2. Tentative tasks for 2023

Not for Profit Annual Report filing

Cvent billing – Should we drop our other platforms?

  1. Communications & Website                     (Benjamin)
  2. Newsletter
  3. Social Media posts
  4. Website updates


Benjamin, Patrick and Justine to meet to discuss.  Benjamin will be taking on the leadership of both roles, and we’ll have a supporting team.


We’ll also be working to ensure that all access and passwords are centralized and part of the annual council transition plan so that they don’t fall to one person repeatedly, or are held by one person (in the event they’re unavailable).  

We’ve started a google doc with all the accounts we hold and password info/password owners.  This will fall to website and communications to pass on to successors.  

We need to decide on whether we will use Facebook and/or Twitter moving forward to connect with our membership.  Let’s make this a point of discussion next month.  Benjamin notes that we’re not particularly productive on social media, so pivoting is unlikely to have a key impact.  We can ask folks what they want to see on the survey.

We will have a spring newsletter in March or so, Benjamin to put it together and make the call for submissions in late January/early February.

  1. Member Survey Subcommittee
  2. Timeline & Staffing (Justine)

We have a small subcommittee that will work on this over the next month or two for March launch.

  1. Awards, Grants, and Support Committee (Paul & Curtiss)
  2. Planning initial meeting? 

Nothing yet, will be meeting and working on this.

  1. Sponsorship
  2. Kevin sent out thank yous (Kevin)

Kevin has them out to Gold and will be sending to the rest in the coming month.  

This spring we’ll also work on targeting new potential sponsors.  This is a good opportunity to overlap with the goals this year and theme of the conference of expanding our networks and reach.

  1. Online Learning Committee           (Rebecca)
  2. Goals for 2023
  3. Requested resources/access update 
  4. Sharing out recordings–modified Zoom recording?  Box?  Google Drive?

OLC has been hard at work getting the January webinar up and running.  Upcoming webinars and series are in the works, and looking to offer hands-on training (e.g., software like Excel🡪SQL), where the complicated topics are made accessible for folks.  Other topics may include cover letters, presentations at conferences, etc.  There is also a clear targeting of students, although an attempt to focus on all MAPOR populations.  

OLC would like access to an email address (Patrick and Benjamin will work on this) and more control over comms generally, so there’s less go-betweens with other folks and the process is more streamlined.  OLC could also use a space to easily share edited (Zoom recordings often start before the actual session with content needing to be removed) with attendees, espeically when we’re doing extended sessions/registering folks across a series.

OLC and Patrick will communicate around topics so that OLC doesn’t step on the toes of conference planning.

  1. Other business
  2. In-person or virtual mixers in 2023? — TBD

Google account clean up: if you add things to the drive from your own Google account, it takes up your space.  If you do it via MAPOR, it goes against MAPOR space only.  This is key, especially with large files like recordings!   We might want to look into another storage/file option as well.  Even folks who are long off council have significant memory being used in their own accounts.

Council members

President – Justine Bulgar-Medina

Vice President / President-Elect – Leah Dean

Past President – Kevin Ulrich

Conference Chair – Patrick Hsieh

Associate Conference Chair – Jenny Marlar

Secretary-Treasurer – Lindsey Witt-Swanson

Sponsorship Coordinator –Kevin Ulrich

Student Liaison – Curtiss Engstrom

Communications & Website Chair – Benjamin Schapiro

Members at Large – Erin Heiden, Rebecca Powell, Jerry Timbrook, Paul DiPerna, Shalise Ayromloo

Proposed Committees

Conference Committee – Patrick, Jenny, Shalise 

Membership Survey Committee–Justine, Leah, Lindsey, Curtiss, Benjamin

Online Learning Committee – Rebecca Powell (Chair),  Erin Heiden, Jerry Timbrook

Awards, Grants, and Support Committee – Paul DiPerna, Curtiss Engstrom

Secretary-Treasurer Support – Lindsey Witt-Swanson, Justine Bulgar-Medina

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, Curtiss Engstrom, Leah Dean