OPEG Meeting Minutes

Minutes for meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees 2-13-09 Conference Call

Rob Fischer, Nancy Hood, Karen Shaner, Jan Upton, Chip Partridge, Shon Bunkley, Rachel Holbert, Julianne Manchester, Jerry Bean, and Susan English.

Welcome to New Board Members Jerry Bean and Susan English.

Review of Minutes - Jan Upton: No changes to December minutes. The minutes were approved.

Treasurer's Report - Karen Shaner:

Review of 2008-2009 YTD Budget - Karen made changes recommended in December meeting. She explained the breakout of CEUs and supplies. CEUs are now listed separately, and they are now on both the revenue and expense sides. Nancy pointed out that the projection for supplies appeared high ($800). There was some discussion about reducing supplies budget for each conference to $500. However, Rob suggested that we leave the budget as is. Last meeting, there was a question about the difference in the service fees. Quest had service fees of $800 and the Fawcett Center charged $443. However, when you add everything up, there was only ~$300 difference in the total costs of the two conferences. Karen noted that the badge holders are expensive, so if anyone sees a good price for those, let her know. Jerry mentioned that some of the educational supply stores have discounts, so Nancy said that she would follow-up on that.

Review of January Financial Statement - The year-to-date revenue is 8,278 (through January 31th), which is 46% of the projection. Year-to-date expenses are $6,781, which is 38% of that projected. Our current net is $1,497. Our fiscal year begins September 1. It was pointed out that OPEG's revenue is "bi-modal," as it is largely tied to the two conferences.

Program Committee Report - Nancy Hood:

Spring Exchange Update (Friday, May 15, 2009) - The theme is cultural competence and evaluation. Call for Proposals went out the end of January. We are accepting proposals for the theme as well as evaluation practice in general, which has worked well in the past. Chip updated the submission survey, which also worked well last time. We have a nationally (possibly internationally) known speaker, Dr. Rodney Hopson from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In addition, Betty Yung from Wright State University will be our closing speaker. Hope to get a good mix of submissions on cultural competency and evaluation practice.

Spring Exchange Mailing - The Program Committee has had numerous discussions about the mailing. Only 17 of 60 respondents indicated on the Fall Workshop evaluation survey that they had learned about the conference via mail. We wondered if doing the physical mailing to 700+ folks is worth the cost. We could do a more targeted mailing to ~250 regular members and others who have attended in past two years. Another idea (from Program Committee member Brenda Peters) is to send postcards to the whole list with an announcement at the Spring Exchange and encouraging them to visit the OPEG web site. The estimate for that would be $340 (half of the full mailing). We can emphasize membership renewal on the postcard. Jan will also post Rob's letter about membership online. Karen also suggested sending additional postcards to university offices. Jan explained that we do some of that, but no one has the time to systematically review the existing list and add addresses. She recommended that OPEG pay for some additional clerical time if we want to add addresses. Nancy said that the Program Committee could review and e-mail information to groups/offices that are not on the mailing list. Jan also noted that there was some previous discussion about establishing contact with relevant graduate departments. The postcard needs to go out by the end of March. The Program Committee will proceed with drafting the postcard. Susan suggested having Board members call/e-mail 3-4 colleagues each. We already do that, but we may want to be more systematic about reaching out to new people. Julianne mentioned the need to talk more about the newsletter, which is also an outreach tool. [NOTE: We came back to the newsletter under "Other Business," but Julianne had to leave before end of meeting, so this should be added to 4/17 agenda.]

Proposed Change to Student Registration Rate - Program Committee recommended that we lower the student rate for conferences. In the past, there has not been any student discount. The Program Committee did research on how AEA, AERA, and affiliates handle this. Most of these organizations have significantly lower rates for students. Nancy recommended that the Student Registration for conferences be reduced to $40 (previously students were required to pay the regular $75 fee) and retain the $20 student membership rate. There was discussion about student classification (part-time versus full-time). Nancy volunteered to work on the language for student status and review the need for documentation. At a minimum, we will also ask for the name of their school and department. We can use this information to target marketing to additional students. The Board approved the new rate.

Use of PayPal and Online Registration -

Jan reviewed her 2/5 e-mail to the board about the cost of PayPal. Program Committee member Brenda Peters recommended the use of PayPal, which she uses for her own business. Based on the PayPal web site, the cost of a $100 transaction will cost us $3.20 (maximum, the rate drops if total volume exceeds $3,000), which does not seem excessive. Randal, the web master, said the additional work for setting up the PayPal site should be about two hours. He charges us a non-profit rate of $60/hour, so this total should also be reasonable. The main task involved is designing the survey and setting up the PayPal html. The board approved moving forward with PayPal and online registration. [UPDATE: OPEG PayPal payments went live the first week of April. Brenda Peters set up the PayPal html coding. Karen set up the new e-mail payment address and is monitoring incoming payments. Jan designed the new web pages with input from Brenda, Karen, and Nancy. Chip set up the online registration form as an online survey. Jan coordinated development of the new pages with Randal.]

Fall Workshop Date - Nancy was holding rooms at Quest for November 13th. However, this conflicts with the AEA conference. Quest does not have any rooms available on November 6th. November 20th is available, but that is the Friday before Thanksgiving. The recommendation was for Nancy to check availability for October 30th, with November 20th being the alternate date.

Membership Committee Report - Rachel Holbert and Shon Bunkley:

Membership Survey - Rachel explained that they are running about a week behind on the survey. The plan is to develop an e-mail that will go out to everybody describing the purpose. Shon noted that she and Rachel became the membership chairs a few months ago and they want to get a better understanding of the membership so that we can target our efforts. In addition, we would like to get feedback from people who have been members but did not renew. Rob pointed out that Debbie Crawford had been Membership Chair for 5-6 years, and there have been many changes over this time, and it seemed like it would be a good time to survey the membership. Rachel also noted that surveying the membership is part of the By-laws. We are supposed to survey the members annually. The survey also provides information about OPEG's benefits, so it indirectly serves as a marketing tool. [UPDATE: Rachel e-mailed the Membership Survey to the OPEG distribution list in February.]

Other Business

Bylaws - Rob noted that he needs to send the Bylaws to Jerry and Susan. Chip sent Rob all the bylaws edits, which he is compiling into a single document. We have not edited the bylaws since the 1980s. Since we are departing from policy and practice in a number of ways, these need to be updated.

Newsletter - Julianne offered to take the lead on this. We had planned to do one prior to the Spring Exchange. Rick George had offered to continue assisting with this. We can send out an e-mail announcement about the newsletter once it is posted on the web site.

Web site development/enhancement proposal - Chip: Chip received a revised proposal. He is putting together a spreadsheet that lays out the costs. Jan explained that Randal asked about our plans. She told him that our most critical needs were the PayPal page and Membership page. Randal sent her some additional information about Ning and Drupel and recommended that we not go with Drupel. He agreed that the Membership page needs work, as well as the rest of the site. Getting PayPal up will be a major improvement. After the Spring Exchange, we will review the need for additional changes.

Next Meeting: Friday, April 17th at 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. conference call.

Summary of Needed Follow-up:

1) Nancy - Any information on discounted prices of name badge holders?
2) Nancy - Fall Workshop date (October 30th or November 20th)?
3) Rob - Needs to send the Bylaws to Jerry and Susan.
4) From 12/5/08 meeting - Program Committee (Nancy) - Any progress on developing a more formal refund policy?

Submitted by: Jan Upton