Tag: 2026

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

March 13, 2026

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

 Agenda:

1. Secretary Treasurer’s Report                 (Semilla/Nadia)
   • Financial updates

• Checkings: $21,261.34
• Savings: $42,226.21
• Membership list updates 

• 333 members (271 general members, 62 student members)
• Membership lists are posted in Google drive
• Membership list updates 

• Renewed CVENT contract (5 year contract – saved onto Google Drive for next TreasSec it comes up for again)
• Paid federal + state taxes 

2. Update on website enhancements and timeline (Ben/all)

Website team is currently updating content. Ben will be sending out information for the April newsletter to writers. Generally, newsletter consists of an update from the President, from the Secretary Treasurer, Any info about student fellowship information. Ben likes to get that out in April. In June there will be look and feel updates to the website, after the call for abstracts has gone out but before the deadline. Updates will be done in a step by step manner. The goal is to have a new look and feel by summer. Everyone is encouraged to contribute content for the newsletter. Please look out for an email from Ben in your inboxes for more about this.

3. Conference planning update and speaker invites (David/all)

Lindsey and Brittany are working on this. Potentially reaching out to Michael Link for a pedagogy hour. 

Erik has also sent the contact information for the stats horizon group to Lindsey. 

A possible quid pro quo for such a service could include putting an ad for them, or letting them have a booth at the conference

4. Update on online learning committee ideas/plans (Rebecca/all)

Planning on doing something related to AI for the first webinar. 

5. Discuss MAPOR at AAPOR plans (David/all)

We are going to have a table at the chapter reception. Many MAPOR council members are going to be there, and the table responsibilities can be divided. Patrick will work with an all chapter party and the rest of the members can think about the booth. Two things to consider regarding booth 1) Giveaway – last year there were a bunch of midwest related items, such as popcorn from Nebraska, ice cream from Ohio and fudge from Michigan… This approach has been quite popular. 2) We have existing buttons and mugs and we can potentially bring those as swag. For the give away we draft winners and ship them the items. Generally keep between 3 to 5 winners and up to $250. 

Contribution to the all chapter party is going to be $500 which we will keep as our contribution for now.  

6. Discuss naming of student fellows and grants (David/all)

ormer President pitched the idea of the potential of naming a student fellowship after P Lavrakas, based on his generous contributions and a way to bring more attention to the student awards and grants. However, there are two issues to consider: a) If we are considering Paul, should we be considering other people as well and b) Reached out to six former MAPOR presidents and fellows got a mixed response including the question of the naming of awards in the first place. Another thing about naming for people who are alive could be the lack of knowledge about their potential future actions. 

Objective statistics could include: Who among fellows has reviewed the most number of student paper awards, who has contributed the most by advising students work, in order to create a more objective basis for naming an award after anyone. 

Another point is whether the objective was to honor Paul or to name the student fellowship. Could we do something entirely different to honor Paul and even other past presidents and others who have really demonstrated major contribution to the association. 

Other options include doing a newsletter item for special members that include interviews and spotlight on members

7. Follow up on ways to engage more students and student fellowships (Paul/all)

   Keeping it on a rolling basis gives us more time to continue the matching process 

Brittany brought up AAPOR’s process and Paul will look into it more

We have the capacity for 9 to 10 student fellows and so far 1 has shown interest

Paul circulated ask to MAPOR list serv and LinkdIn

8. Other business

Council members

President – David Sterrett 

Vice President / President Elect – Paul DiPerna

Past President – Patrick Hsieh

Conference Chair – Lindsey 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. Miranda Kaye, and Brian Wells

Secretary Treasurer Support – Semilla Stripp, Nadia Assad

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, 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. 

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

February 13, 2026

Attendance: Alex, Benjamin, Beth, Betsy, Brian, Brittany, Caroline, Curtiss, Erik, Erin,  Jamie, Lindsey, Paul, Rebecca, Semilla

Jan minutes approved 

Agenda:

1. Secretary Treasurer’s Report                 (Semilla/Nadia)
   • Financial updates

• Checkings: $21,333.92
• Savings: $42,225.89
• Membership list updates 

• 321 members (261 general members, 60 student members)
• Membership lists are posted in Google drive
• 2026 mailing lists are created and updated in CVENT
• It looks like the 2026 membership links on website are not working – did we update to the new link?  https://cvent.me/lq3lWN 
  • Ben is making this update

2. Update on website enhancements (Ben/all)
   • Making some smaller, more book keeping updates over the next few weeks and then making main updates that we will be working on long term: 

1) Template we are happier with 

2) trying to password/member protect parts of the site so we can start to build up a media archive 

• There is a committee that is working on this – they are meeting again next week to finalize some ideas and will bring to next council
• If we cannot figure out how to password protect part of the site, we might think about moving it off of WordPress. 

3. Conference planning update (Lindsey/all)
   • Patrica Moy for keynote address on something about elections. Lindsey going to reach out to Betsy to help connect with Patricia. 
   • Michael Link for pedagogy hour on something about AI, how it is coming into our lives, leadership, etc. Lindsey going to reach out to Brittany to help connect with Michael 
   • Stats Horizons – have a lot of great stuff if the price is right. Erik does have a connection there so he is going to reach out (it has been a while). Lindsey and Erik going to sidebar about this.
   • Thinking call out April (early April might be best since some universities finish)
   • Send any ideas about topics/theme in next few weeks – don’t need to have a ton here to get things started

4. Brainstorm ways to engage more students (Paul/all)
   • Reach out to students as early as possible 
     1. Earlier call for abstracts
     2. Announcement for fellowship in mid-late March. Maybe we should do this sooner? Then this can tie into early call for abstracts.
   • More one on one outreach – both students and faculty 
   • Recognize mentors more visibly during/before conference – maybe list on program or on website along with the fellows? 
   • Naming the fellowship program after one of the previous fellows/mentors (Paul Lavrakus coming up a lot here!)
   • Can we tie the fellowship mentors into the webinars? I keep thinking about asking them to to share a favorite finding or presentation with the broader community, but that may just be more labor than appreciated
   • Make the fellowship more of a cohort – introductory webinar with ground expectations/rules, check ins throughout, meet up beforehand, etc. 
   • Different approaches for undergrad vs grad? Divide between masters and PhD students (different goals, expectations, mentorship needed).

• This is information we should get early on / in application 
• Curtiss noted we have vastly more grad (vs undergrad) students 
• Ideas for recruiting: 

• Jamie: 1) put together a video that goes on the website or is sent around to show “What is it like to attend MAPOR” — could walk through what the days look like, things in the area to do, etc. 2) hosting a webinar related to ‘best tips for presentations’ that might get students confident in attending (and presenting!) — or perhaps hosting a brainstorming session in the early spring for topics that students could consider. 
• Erik: recruited students by 1) personally emailing faculty who do public opinion research to get their advisees to come (as well as themselves) 2) emailing the abstract call to the major listservs in political science and communication, and posting on political science and communication social media pages
• Betsy: distributing a flyer/call for submissions to social science admin staff at universities (could be simple to compile that contact list). We get so much of our information from our admin stuff forwarding opportunities to the department grad students!
• Erik: send to DGSs and staff (directors of graduate studies and their program admins)

5. Other business
   • OLC is looking to do something on AI related to ethics and best practices in our field, pros and cons on different spots (where does it help vs hinder). Sourcing names from council on who can help here! 
     1. Brittany is sharing a name from UChicago Data Science 
     2. Erik has a contact (Lisa Argyle)
     3. Paul will share a substack author 
     4. Trent Buskirk

Council members

President – David Sterrett 

Vice President / President Elect – Paul DiPerna

Past President – Patrick Hsieh

Conference Chair – Lindsey 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. Miranda Kaye, and Brian Wells

Secretary Treasurer Support – Semilla Stripp, Nadia Assad

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, 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. 

GO MAPOR GO!

MAPOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

January 9, 2026

MAPOR SPOTLIGHT of the MONTH:  Our MAPOR Spotlight of the Month is for Lindsey and Beth for working on the conference attendee survey! Thanks to all for your hard work and your service to MAPOR.  

Attendance: Lindsey, Benjamin Schapiro, Jaime, Curtiss, Beth, Betsy, Brittany Creel, Miranda, Jerry Timbrook, David Sterrett, Alexandros-Christos, Rebecca Powell, Erin Heiden, Brian Wells, Patrick Hsieh, Erik Nisbet.

Agenda:

1. Secretary Treasurer’s Report                 (Semilla/Nadia)
   • Financial updates

• Checkings: $19,060.92
• Savings: $42,225.55
• Membership list updates 

• 302 members (243 general members, 59 student members)
• Membership lists are posted in Google drive
• 2026 mailing lists are created and updated in CVENT
• The 2026 membership link is live at https://cvent.me/lq3lWN – so just need to update the links on the website to point here. Reminder that we decided to split out the membership and sponsorship links this year, so will get a sponsorship link ready. 
• Have one outstanding student travel grant to pay, and have reached out a few times. Will reach out next week once term is back in swing in case missed emails during break. 

2. Brainstorm website enhancements (Ben/all)
   • Ben thinks the biggest thing that would be helpful is to get some understanding of what an ideal website does, do we want it to be archival, content, overall what the goal of the website should be.
   • Members agreed that having archives is important to document the history as well as doing some business on the website
   • we should do a blog on the website, so we can have more control on that rather than putting ourselves at the mercy of social media. It is equal amounts of labor. 
   • visual element – a more horizontal layout would be visually more appealing.
   • Need to have flexibility about how much work needs to be put in, especially also for future council members so that we do not create too much work
   • Leveraging existing content and highlighting it can be another way to spruce up the website
   • Going through other chapters website for inspiration was suggested 
   • Also would be potentially a space to store video materials as we run out of space on zoom. 
   • Potential ideas would be some kind of member only video library
   • Communications committee will take these suggestions up in their meeting and report back 

3. Discuss conference survey results and brainstorm 2026 conference speakers (Lindsey/all)
   • Overwhelming theme – people were very pleased with the conference and appreciative of the council’s efforts. 82% of people were extremely satisfied with the conference. 
   • Potential improvements: Folks who do not stay in the hotel ask that we start a little later on Saturday and have a little extra time for lunch so people can get out and come back. 
   • People really liked the AI stuff, Keynote was well received and attendees loved the R workshop. 
   • For students: A few people were not aware of the travel grants, and one person said they were not eligible, so potentially there could be more messaging around that
   • For students paper awards: positive response overall
   • Note that as long as the paper is student led and mentor author fill out a form stating the paper is student led, the paper is eligible for student award
   • Costs – something to think about microphones in each room since it was brought up; people are less interested in morning snacks, and only about a 3rd of people seem to think swag is valuable. People are just as likely or more likely to attend next year’s conference even with the changed schedule. 
   • Short course topics: advanced methods, AI, inference of non-prob, polling were some topics suggested in survey
   • Stats horizons: an organization that offers some courses and we could ask them to do a short presentation – consisting of faculty; Or could bring someone in that could help with some co-branding. 
   • Potential keynote speakers: Michael Link, Patricia, Sunshine Hillygus (especially if we want to do an election panel type of thing) Emily Swanson from the associated press, Charles Franklin from Marquette  
   • Pedagogy ideas: How to poll in turbulent times, how to survey in difficult times. 

4. Brainstorm online learning topics (Rebecca/all)
   • Interested in different formats of things because webinars don’t always work with younger audience
   • Polling and navigating jobs were the two most popular topics. 
   • Stats horizons might want to work on the webinar series – but need to investigate costs
   • Need to think of things that apply to both students and non-students to bolster attendance
   • Items that are broader and can apply to broad audiences is stuff that does better 
   • Frank Markowitz – for non-prob panels
   • Potential conversations about mid-term elections before the elections

5. Other business

Council members

President – David Sterrett 

Vice President / President Elect – Paul DiPerna

Past President – Patrick Hsieh

Conference Chair – Lindsey 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. Miranda Kaye, and Brian Wells

Secretary Treasurer Support – Semilla Stripp, Nadia Assad

Communications Support – Benjamin Schapiro, 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. 

GO MAPOR GO!