OPEG Meeting Minutes

Minutes for meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees 4-27-09 Conference Call

Rob Fischer, Nancy Hood, Karen Shaner, Jan Upton, Chip Partridge, Shon Bunkley, Rachel Holbert, Julianne Manchester, and Susan English. Jerry Bean was not able to attend.

 

Review of Minutes – Jan Upton: No changes to February minutes. The minutes were approved as distributed.  

 

Treasurer’s Report – Karen Shaner:  

 

Review of March Financial Statement – The year-to-date revenue is $8,280 (through March 31^th), which is 46% of the projection. Year-to-date expenses are $7,071, which is 39% of that projected. Our current net is $1,209. Karen made a payment to Kinko's of $410.76 on 4/3/09 for the Spring Exchange postcard. This will be reflected in the April Financial Statement. About Only 28 have registered (24 of these were online: 18 Paypal and 6 registered online and then mailed in the payment). There is a problem in that PayPal allows a transfer of only $500 per month from the OPEG checking account. Karen is exploring ways to override this limit. Part of the problem has to do with the mailing address that is associated with the account and correcting this will required a letter signed by all board members. Chip mentioned that Karen might want to sign-up for paperless statements so that we can prevent possible erroneous mailing of any bank statements to the old address. 

 

Spring Exchange Financial Statement – Karen will prepare a statement comparable to the one that Randy did for the May conference.

 

Program Committee Report – Nancy Hood:

 

Spring Exchange Update (Friday, May 15, 2009) – May 1 is the early bird date. There is usually a flurry of registrations in the last few days. Nancy was optimistic that 80-90 would register. Nancy reminded everyone to send the announcement to personal contacts. She also submitted it to the Ohio Public Health Association, which posted it.

 

She found lower cost name badge at about half the cost of the last conference. Participants from past events have asked if we could share a list of attendees (name, organization, and e-mail). The board agreed that this would be fine.

 

Betty Yung, closing speaker for the Spring Exchange, is on jury duty all of May. She has to call in every Friday to check her assignment. Nancy asked Betty if there is a colleague that could stand in for her. Nancy is going to give Betty another day for a possible suggestion, and then Rob can contact possible substitutes should Betty not be able to make it. Another possibility would be to have one of the existing presenters do the closing session.  [NOTE: Betty attended, so this was a moot issue.]

 

Julianne asked if we should add a list of resources on cultural competency to the Spring Exchange packet. Nancy will ask the keynote about this and will remind presenters to include a list of references in the materials. Most presenters who are covering cultural competency are probably already planning to do this in their sessions.

 

Fall Workshop Date – Nancy scheduled Quest for November 20^th. There were a number of conflicts with other dates—this the Friday before Thanksgiving. [NOTE: We need to discuss status of this given lower than desired turnout at Spring Exchange. This issue needs to be included on agenda of July board meeting.]

 

Program Committee – Two new people are close to committing to serving on the committee.

 

New Registration Process – Everything appears to be going smoothly. There has been a learning curve for Karen, but she thinks that it is going to streamline the process once she can merge the existing spreadsheet format with PayPal.

 

Membership Committee Report – Rachel Holbert and Shon Bunkley:

 

Membership Survey – There were 81 respondents. Rachel e-mailed the survey to everybody for whom we had an e-mail address—member, former members, and conference attendees. Only one respondent in the non-member group emphasized the need for a strong connection with the American Evaluation Association (AEA). The biggest difference between members and non-members is where they are employed. Half of the current members who responded to the survey are in the central region. Rachel expressed concern about whether we are connecting with the people in outer regions. The conferences are in Columbus. There has been an ongoing conversation about offering regional events. It’s a great idea but finding the time and energy to do them has been a problem. Rob noted that the Arizona affiliate, for example, has three major cities. They technically have three regional affinity groups, but only one of them meets regularly.

 

There was discussion about the availability of regular online communication such as a listserv and the amount of work required. Jan will add web page links to Evaltalk, Evalbusiness, and the OPEG listserv http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OPEG/summary onto the OPEG web site to encourage additional online networking. People can join Evaltalk without being a member of AEA. Chip can also send this information to the distribution list. We could add a listserv “opt in” option to the membership form to remind people of this network option.

 

We need more communication with members beyond announcements about the two events. Rob mentioned doing an on-line letter along the lines of the one from AEA. Julianne offered to take lead on developing an online newsletter that would go out approximately bi-monthly. We could include summaries from program and membership committees. This could keep members informed and possibly generate more volunteers. Members also could forward this to others who might have an interest in evaluation, thereby contributing to getting the word out about OPEG.

 

Other Business

 

Spring Exchange Business Meeting – Rob will send out a business meeting agenda for the Spring Exchange. Karen will present a brief financial report. Nancy will talk briefly about the Program Committee’s activities. Rachel will present on the Membership Committee and ask how many are new attendees. Chip will present the election results.

 

Elections – Chip –

 

President: Rob Fischer

 

Vice-President: Shon Bunkley

 

At-Large (2 positions): Jerry Bean, Mark Carozza, Susan English, Shawn M Fitzgerald, Ann O’Connell, and Brenda Peters

 

Awards – Rob:

 

There were not any award nominees from the member nomination process. Thus, board members nominated the following awardees who were then unanimously selected. 

 

Recognition Award: Dee Roth.  Dee previously received the recognition award, as its very first recipient in 1985. The board recommended that the new award specifically recognize Dee’s “Long-term service to the organization.”

 

Service Award: Marsha Zabecki

 

Summer Workshop – Chip: Ann O’Connell has volunteered to do a Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) workshop in August. If the arrangements are confirmed, we will announce this at the Spring Exchange.

 

Upcoming Meetings: Friday, May 15^th at Spring Exchange luncheon.  Friday, June 26^th from 10 -11:30 a.m. Conference call. Last session with old board members but will invite newly elected members. [NOTE: This is being rescheduled for a date in July. There were no new board members.]

 

Summary of Needed Follow-up:

 

1) Fall Workshop – Need to discuss its status.

 

2) From 2/13/09 meeting – Rob needs to send the Bylaws to Jerry and Susan.

 

3) From 2/13/09 meeting – Rob needs to provide update on status of revisions to by-laws.

 

4) From 12/5/08 meeting – Program Committee (Nancy) – Any progress on developing a more formal refund policy?

 

Submitted by: Jan Upton