OPEG Meeting Minutes

August 2003 Meeting Minutes

Minutes for 8/22/03 meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees, held at Maryhaven, Columbus OH.

10:30 A.M. - Present: Steve Albanese, Tom Archer, Tim Champney, Debbie Crawford and Jennie Nickel. Not present: Robin Fenn, Craig McGuire, Rosemary Chaudry, Sandy Locke and Bob Fine

The July 11 meeting minutes were approved.

Treasurer's Report

The Financial Summary prepared by Sandy in July was reviewed. Sandy confirmed that no 990 filing was necessary for OPEG at this time because the gross receipts are less than $25,000. A net loss of $846.71 was reported for the Spring Exchange. Prior to the exchange, the Board had discussed the possibility of losing a small amount of money but the group agreed that the exchange was important to build membership and member benefits. Overall, the evaluations from the event were positive and board members felt it was a good use of OPEG funds. The group discussed raising the cost of the exchange $5 - $10 per registrant. In the future, budget figures will be put together prior to the event if possible.

Membership

Jenny has prepared a group email with some 96 current and past OPEG members. The group discussed using email and the web site to get news out to members.

Tim has taken over working with the web master on the OPEG web site.

Promoting OPEG to several organizations was discussed - with a large mailing slated by January. Mailing costs will need to be assessed. Tim already has the membership for the ODMH OPER mailing list (300) to help promote OPEG.

Tim contacted ODMH/OPER to see if we can have a booth at the Nov. 12 & 13 Research Results Briefing. While exhibitor booths are all reserved by other groups, they agreed to let us distribute materials.

In relation to building membership and member benefits, the group agreed to a goal of at least 2 member events in 2004.

Program Report

Craig (V.P.) has resigned from the OPEG Board because of time constraints. The by-laws state that a new board member can be appointed to fill his slot.

Debbie referred the group to the OPEG survey results and members who offered to assist with OPEG events and trainings. This group could be the start of a program committee once a Program Chair is established.

Communications/Web Site

Tom and Tim have been working on ways to update the website. Several non-working or dated items were identified and Tim asked Randall Rust, the web master, to correct them. Additional updates include posting new minutes, the OPER Nov. conference info, the American Evaluation Association annual meeting in November and the member directory info. Others? Tim will also contact the OPEG survey respondents/members who expressed interest in assisting with OPEG's web site and newsletter.

AEA Affiliation

Steve received an invite for OPEG to participate in AEA's work around building AEA affiliate capacity. OPEG is one of 14 state/regional evaluation associations and may be invited to attend a conference in 2004 if funding is received on the project from the Kellogg Foundation. AEA has asked if OPEG can send a representative to a 90-minute session on affiliation capacity building to be held at AEA's annual meeting in Reno, Nevada. The Conference will be held from November 5-8, 2003 with professional development workshops preceding and following the conference itself on November 3-5, and November 9.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 12:20. Next meeting will be October 17, 2003, at Maryhaven, 10:30 - 12:30. (Back-up date based on other Board member availability is October 24.)