OPEG Meeting Minutes

Minutes for 12/15/03 meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees, held at Maryhaven, Columbus OH.

Version 12/16/03

9:30 A.M. - Present: Steve Albanese, Tim Champney, Debbie Crawford and Rob Fischer

Not present: Tom Archer, Jennie Nickel, Robin Fenn, Rosemary Chaudry, Sandy Locke and Bob Fine

The October 17 meeting minutes were tentatively approved (no quorum).

• Steve will make some minor corrections and get minutes posted on the web site.

Treasurer’s report- Sandy was ill. She reported through Steve that OPEG’s net assets are $7,200.

Report from AEA – Debbie and Rob attended the American Evaluation Association Annual Meeting in Reno Nevada in November along with 1600 participants. They shared that it was an exciting meeting and recommend it to OPEG members for future consideration. They also attended the AEA Affiliates session. About 12 AEA affiliates from across the country attended the session. Attendees shared info about their state, regional or local affiliate and it appears that OPEG is fairly strong in membership, longevity and formal structure. Some of the issues and ideas discussed included the following.

-Arizona has three clusters. OPEG may want to reconsider regional meetings and/or training opportunities which it had undertaken at one time in the past.

-The Kellogg Foundation may fund a two-day meeting of affiliates in the spring of 2004 in Atlanta to discuss how the AEA can better support affiliates. Two representatives will be asked to attend the meeting if funding is received from Kellogg – one rep with a history of the organization and a current representative that plans to stay with the organization for a while in the future.

• Steve will draft a 2-page overview of OPEG to be shared with other affiliates and sent to the affiliate meeting if it is held in the spring.
• Rob will email Judith of the Atlanta affiliate to learn the status of the grant and spring meeting and get a format for the 2-pager.

Membership Committee Report – Thanks to Jenny, Tim and Rosemary for working on the Member Directory. Tim shared that he has the Member Directory in the desired format and it’s ready to be emailed out to current OPEG members.

• Tim will contact Jenny to ask her to send out the directory and let members know this is one benefit of OPEG membership.

Debbie presented a member outreach plan. It includes:

Articles about OPEG:

• Ohio Public Health Association Newsletter (January)

• Ohio Association of Non-Profits (deadline mid January, 250 words, reaches 750 non-profit managers/leaders in Ohio)
• Ohio City/County Management Association OCMA (city/county mangers throughout Ohio, deadline late January)

Email communications to:

• John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy L2000 alumni and present participants (about 40 mental health and substance abuse professionals - January)
• Statewide EPI group (January - 40 epidemiologists across the state with varying backgrounds – contact is Susan Tilgner, FCBH)
• Association of Ohio Health Commissioners (Susan Tilgner)
• UMADAOP Programs in Ohio (email into Beverly-Jean Pollard)

Presentation on evaluation and OPEG:

• Ohio Public Health Association Annual Meeting (May 11, Debbie Crawford and co-presenter)

Members present reviewed and approved the article Debbie had written for the outreach plan. It also includes a mailing to current and past members of OPEG to be completed by January 31 if at all possible. The mailing will also include the "Call for Papers" for the Spring OPEG Evaluator’s Exchange and the date for the spring exchange. Sandy had agreed to handle the mailing. Board members agreed at the November meeting to divide up the current OPEG mailing list to contact persons on the list to confirm mailing and email addresses where possible, and in general, share that OPEG membership information would be mailed in January. Board members present at the meeting were assigned their list of OPEG contacts.

• Debbie will send emails to OPEG Board members not present at the meeting giving them their contact assignments and talking points for the contacts with former OPEG members.
• Debbie asks Board members to get revisions to the OPEG mailing/email list to her by January 16.
• Rob volunteered to update the OPEG membership application/brochure to be used for the January mailing.
• Sandy had agreed to send the mailing on or about January 30^th.
• Debbie will contact the Ohio Council of Behavioral Health Care Providers to see if there would be an outlet for OPEG membership info.

Members discussed the need to update the OPEG member application and the possibility of changing OPEG’s name from "evaluators’ group" to "evaluation group" to increase inclusiveness. More to come on this idea in the future.

Program Committee Report – Tim held a committee meeting on 12/8 and invited several OPEG members who had expressed interest in programming. Rob Fischer attended and the two discussed several possible topics, speakers and tasks for a potential fall program event of some kind. Tim suggests we assess costs for the exchange and future events and determine "break even" points in order to target attendance. (See Program Committee minutes.) The next meeting of the Program Committee will be held on January 16 at 10:00AM by telephone conferencing. Please call Tim at 1-937-828-0004 if interested in attending the meeting by telephone.

Board members present suggested May 21, 2004 as the possible date for the next exchange. The group also discussed possible themes and speakers for other future events. One theme discussed is the evaluation-related activities that come with accreditation (COA) such as quality improvement and performance evaluation. Another option discussed is marketing OPEG to users and purchasers of evaluation services and information.

• Tim will have a draft of the "call for papers" for the spring exchange after the January 16 Program Committee meeting.
• Tim will check with the Fawcett Center on the availability of May 21 for the exchange.
• Tim volunteered to contact the Human Research Institute to explore a possible speaker on performance improvement planning.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40. Next meeting will be held on January 26 or January 30, 10 – 12, at Maryhaven, 10:30 – 12:30.

• Steve will check with other Board members to determine the best date.