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OPEG Meeting Minutes

Past Minutes

Minutes for meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees 8-10-07 Maryhaven

Rob Fischer, Rick George, Shiloh Turner, Marsha Zabecki attended the meeting. Jan Upton and Chip Partridge participated via conference call. Kelly Burgess, Nancy Hood, Debbie Crawford, and Randy Leite were not able to attend.

Review of Minutes: May and June minutes were approved.

Treasurer's Report - Rob Fischer: Our projections last year for revenue were somewhat high, as there were fewer paid memberships than expected, but our actual expenses were lower than projected. We ended up with a positive balance of $571.90 for the year. Actual revenue was $17,944.61 and expenses were $17,372.71. Randy developed the proposed Fiscal Year 2008 using Fiscal Year 2007 figures as a guideline. The main expenditure that we keep including in the budget but have not used is a $1,200 set aside for administrative services. Sandy Lock with Child Focus had previously provided this support (e.g., OPEG mailings). In the absence of that support, we will have to rotate the burden to other Board members or outsource. Shiloh (Health Foundation) offered to do the mailings. The proposed Fiscal Year 2008 budget of $19,330.00 was approved.

Program Committee Report - Rob (since Nancy was absent):

Fall 2007 Workshop: Nancy reported to Rob and said she had a good discussion with Naomi Robbins (the keynote). They agreed on a format similar to one used with the Fall 2006 Workshop. Dr. Robbins would do the keynote presentation and then facilitate a session with small groups. One idea is to plan the small group session around the data from our last Spring Exchange. We will then have two skill building sessions that will focus on presenting data using Excel. Dr. Robbins would do a more intermediate/advanced session and the other one would be more for beginners.

Chip has been in contact with Nancy over the last two days. He planned to send out an e-mail asking for members to suggest presenters for the beginning session. Marsha volunteered to present the beginning level session. Nancy and Chip are working on a survey. We need to define differences between beginning and advanced levels. Shiloh is going to review the Excel training materials she has to see if there is anything that might be applicable for the beginning session. There was some discussion about making the skills session more integrated with coverage of PowerPoint and Word, but this is something the Program Committee should discuss further. [FOLLOW-UP: Did Chip send out a survey question regarding the possible interest in intermediate/advanced versus beginning session? UPDATE: No, it was determined that the survey was not really necessary.]

The last hour of the Fall Workshop would involve Naomi reviewing examples of presentations on which participants would like feedback on. If we do this, participants would need to submit examples in advance.

Chip will revise the Evaluation Survey and put it into something other than Zoomerang.

Nancy was pursuing Friday, May 16th for the 2008 Spring Exchange. [FOLLOW-UP: We need to get confirmation from Nancy about whether of not she succeeded is putting a hold on Friday, May 16th for the 2008 Spring Exchange. UPDATE: Yes, this date has been reserved.]

Membership Committee Report - Rob Fischer:

Randy pulled the membership numbers from past years (1999-00=38, 2000-01=46, 2001-02=35 2002-03=42, 2003-04=91, 2004-05=171 2005-06=157, 2006-07=130). We peaked at 171, and we are now down to 130.

We're still way up over the average of the previous four years, but it does raise a question about whether we have a target. We set our budget today on 140 members paying $30 each, and that is certainly reasonable based on where we have been. When we got up to 171, we were concerned that we did not know people and that the conference was too big. We are having these wild swings in the new members. We get them for one year, and then, they don't come back, but we keep mailing stuff. Does this seem like a sustainable number? The maximum allowed for the Fawcett Center is 150, and the maximum that we've had at a meeting is 115.

Perhaps when we send out "inside information" that should only go to the paid members. We would continue to send OPEG promotional materials to the larger group. We've been sending everything out to everybody. Maybe that is contributing to the "why should I be an OPEG member" issue. At the end of the June 22nd minutes, there is a summary of the discussion we had about membership issues. It is important to send out a consistent message. The PowerPoint developed by Debbie and Rick (revision of a presentation from Rob) could help with this. Some people don't have a clue about what OPEG is. Presentation outlines benefits of joining OPEG. It can also help to establish consensus among the Board. Rick pointed out that some people (especially in non-profits) don't also have a clue about OPEG, but they have a need for increased understanding of evaluation.

OPEG and AEA are among the more interdisciplinary organizations. The purpose of the PowerPoint is to raise awareness of OPEG and let people know that there is an organization for evaluation in Ohio. Rick and Debbie were planning to do quarterly presentations with groups. Jan can also add the PowerPoint to the web page. Shiloh mentioned value of presenting to foundations, especially ones in which grantees require evaluation. Rick mentioned value of presentations at statewide associations and at universities that have classes on evaluation.

There was some discussion about restricting access to the OPEG web page to members only. We could do more with the existing "Members Only" page. We should add the current Membership Directory. [FOLLOW-UP: Chip was going to prepare a version of directory that can be loaded onto the web page. UPDATE: Chip is going to still working on this.] Additional possibility is to restrict access to the workshop/exchange presentation materials. We need to send feedback to Rick and Debbie about the PowerPoint by the end of August.

Other Business:

OPEG By-Laws Review and Assignments

The Board created quite a few policies in the 1990s. Some of these need to be cleaned up. Each group will carefully review their section, have their own separate conference call, and then report back to the Board. Most changes can be approved by a majority vote by the Board. Other proposed changes will require approval by the membership (two-thirds of the votes cast). Each group should meet by next Board meeting. Some of the by-laws are very specific, and we may need to make some things more general. Think about what else we do need to do in the by-laws. Purpose of the by-laws is to provide continuity and guidance on the organization's operations as new people come onto the Board. Minutes provide details on our decisions. By-laws are a standard compilation of the end result of our decisions that should guide OPEG activities.

Newsletter

Chip sent out e-mails asking people to contact Rick if they want to possibly be featured in the newsletter to send him a brief description of their evaluation activities and to submit additional feedback about the Spring Exchange to Debbie. Rick and Debbie had planned to have a newsletter by the end of August with it scheduled to go out in early September [UPDATE: This deadline was not met, but they are still planning to get one out before the Fall Workshop.]. They are planning to do another newsletter for October that will highlight what is coming up in the Fall Workshop. Rick is planning to add a regular column of "Around the State" or "State of Evaluators." He received four responses to request for submissions.

Other Meeting Opportunities

Shiloh noted that her employer, The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, hosts an expert evaluator presentation. Unfortunately, the last one was in May, which is the same month as the OPEG Spring Exchange, but she is going to see if this could possibly be moved up to April. We could distribute that information to OPEG members. Send information for meetings of possible interest to evaluators to Jan for posting onto the web page. We want to make OPEG a repository of opportunities relevant for evaluators. We may also be able to sponsor presentations (no cost but include OPEG brochure in materials).

Another possibility is to do more informal OPEG meetings which focus on networking, but include a speaker and lunch. Rob has been working on a regional meeting in the Cleveland, which will probably take place in February.

Rob noted that about three years ago, we did an "Evaluation Basics" workshop that was well received. [NOTE: It was in November 2004, and it is probably a factor in why the membership number increased to 171.] We then applied for grant funds with the Cleveland Foundation for a half-day presentation on "How to do Evaluation," but that did not work out. If we are going to be the clearinghouse for evaluation in Ohio, we should have a team that we can dispatch that can do a presentation on basic evaluation. This could be either for a fee or free. This needs further review and we would need to find people to take this on.

Marsha pointed out that if we are going to be open to doing presentations on evaluation, we need to broaden the meaning of "program evaluation." There are agencies and other groups that would benefit from a clearer understanding of evaluation tools such as logic models. There is also misinformation about what OPEG (e.g., some think it is for mental health providers only). We also want people to understand how they can be proactive in evaluating their programs and develop relevant measures. Shiloh's Health Foundation provides a specific "Demystifying Evaluation" session for their grantees. The Greater Foundation of Cincinnati, however, does not do this. Although there may be some resources in place, there is also a need for this type of presentation/information. She would be happy to share the Health Foundation's materials if a committee is going to work on this. Rob said that this is really part of planning for OPEG's next phase. OPEG is currently healthy--we have our finances are in order, a strong active Board, two good solid events per year, the newsletter, and the web site. Nonetheless, we do want to be ready if we get a request for a presentation to explain evaluation. In addition, people don't know we are willing to do that sort of thing. We can advertise in the newsletter. We can also add a list of evaluation services to the web page:

As part of this, we could encourage them to get an organizational membership, if and when we begin to offer those.

Shiloh noted that one area of evaluation that appears to be on the cutting-edge of the field nationally is Policy Evaluation. This is something we may want to consider featuring at a workshop. This is the type of thing that can help OPEG grow and evolve, as we would be at the forefront of evaluation trends. The Spring Exchange topic went very well--the multidisciplinary approach is a big strength of OPEG.

Debbie and the Membership Committee need to review the organizational membership idea. There is consensus on the Board that we want it, but we need to figure out what is the right level. Once an organization joins, we need to determine the number of members that the membership and conference fee would cover. Need to set an amount that would be a benefit to the organization but that would not result in a substantial loss in revenue to OPEG. Need to have Randy check the number of organizations that have more than one member. What if the discount was in advance such that it would be in the organization's best interest to send participants? In addition, a benefit would be that they could send any three employees. Would anyone give us money to be an organizational sponsor? Or OPEG sponsorship could be an organizational benefit. Alternatively, organizations could pay for a table in which they would set out information. We could send out a letter to the organizations exploring their interest in an organizational membership. If employees pay for the membership, there may not be any interest. We also need to take care regarding advertising. OPEG has a policy about advertising in the by-laws, but it is currently written to apply only to consultants. This is part of the by-laws that is being reviewed, so this issue will be revisited. [FOLLOW-UP: Debbie and the Membership Committee need to review the organizational membership idea. UPDATE: Debbie asked for additional assistance as part of establishing a more formal working committee.]

Next Meeting: Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 1 p.m., conference call. [UPDATE: This was changed to October 10th from noon - 1 p.m.]

Submitted by: Jan Upton