OPEG Meeting Minutes
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Minutes for meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees 7-16-09 Conference Call
Rob Fischer, Nancy Hood, Shon Bunkley, Jan Upton, Rachel Holbert, Julianne Manchester, and Jerry Bean. Chip Partridge, Karen Shaner, and Susan English were not able to attend.
Review of Minutes - Jan Upton: There were no changes to April minutes. The minutes were approved as distributed. The May minutes were approved with a correction to a Membership Committee volunteer's name.
Treasurer's Report - Rob Fischer: Since Karen was absent, Rob recommended sending any questions about the budget directly to her. We are at 84 percent of our projected revenue. Karen needs to verify whether there are any outstanding expenses from the Spring Exchange. Our revenue generation for the year is nearly over. Thus, this may be where we will stand for the year. Our numbers for the Spring Exchange were lower than projected, but we were able to cut expenses (e.g., on food). Total income through June was $15, 285 and expenses were 13,566 for a net profit of $1,719. We have $19,091 in the checking account and a CD of $7,420 for a total of $26,511 in reserve. We are in good shape and meeting our goal of maintaining one year of operating expenses. This "rainy day" fund will insure against modest operational losses and enable us to do selected "special" activities. [FOLLOW-UP: Karen review of outstanding expenses and send an update e-mail to the Board.]
Program Committee Report - Nancy Hood and Shon Bunkley:
Spring Exchange Update (Friday, May 15, 2009) - Nancy thanked everyone who assisted with the event and Paypal. Paypal seemed to go smoothly and was a fantastic addition. Overall, it went well, though as usual, the evaluation results were all over the place. The Fawcett Center price increased by $75/room (total was $1,625). Customer service and food are not as good as Quest. The final attendance was down to 70 participants, whereas it has been running 90-100. The major reason is probably the economy. Positions have been eliminated and government agencies are not paying for conferences. Fawcett events overall are down. It's also possible that the topic, cultural competency, may not have been sufficiently attractive to members. Sessions that focus on skill building seem to be the most popular.
- Shon explained that following discussion about regional workshops we decided to move forward with the regular Fall Workshop at Quest. We will continue with the Evaluation Toolbox theme and will have a mix of levels-beginner and then intermediate/advanced or special topics. Last fall, we had 2-3 simultaneous sessions and recruited Ohio-based presenters. We're planning to continue with this format. Possible topics include: evaluation planning/budgeting, statistics (e.g., basic, factor analysis, and software), logic models, program design/goals, web conferencing tools, and secondary data analysis (education and/or health). Shon asked for names and topics. Chip can also review topics/presenters mentioned on evaluation surveys. Rachel also noted the importance of making presentations relevant for participants who do not do evaluation on a full-time basis. [UPDATE: Julianne added a request for presenter recommendations in the newsletter. Jan similarly posted the information online.]
Spring Exchange (5/14/10 at Quest) - The only objection with Quest was the lack of a common meeting area. They do have a large space upstairs, which is where we will meet this fall. [UPDATE: Shon reserved Quest for May 14, 2010.]
Membership Committee Report - Rachel Holbert: The Membership Committee is revising the OPEG PowerPoint and making it more focused on "Why Join OPEG." Another task for the Membership Committee will be to help Julianne with the newsletter, as it can be a very powerful tool for communicating with members. Shon originally had the idea that the Membership Committee should do more planning so that it is more organized. One question is who is in charge of the membership list? One problem is that we do not know the date when people join or renew. We need to include a membership begin and expiration date. We need to know this and could then set up an automatic reminder. Perhaps we can do this with PayPal. Karen is the one with the most up-to-date membership list. Jan has been updating the mailing list prior to events. [FOLLOW-UP: This is something that Chip should be able to set up as part of setting up the proposed online membership database. This needs additional discussion at the September board meeting.] This issue goes back to the question of "what is the benefit of OPEG." The journals are a tangible benefit of AEA. Other benefits: professional credibility, networking, access to professional development and opportunity to learn about best practices. With the exception of the journals, OPEG offers similar benefits. One possible problem is that we restrict very little. Member support is critical to our ability to provide local AEA events, the web page, and the newsletter. Maybe we can stress this more in the newsletter. We also need to emphasize our status as an AEA affiliate. Part of the reason that we have kept most of the web site open to the public is that part of our function is education, particularly to people new to evaluation in Ohio. Although OPEG membership offers some personal benefits, the big picture is that we are providing the financial and personnel support of an organization that promotes high quality evaluation statewide.
Other Business:
Newsletter - Julianne Manchester: Julianne shared plans to have regular features: a member profile article, an "Evaluator in Action" section with actual examples of how people are using evaluation, and book reviews. She will also emphasize the benefits of OPEG as outlined during the Membership Committee discussion above. Our goal is to do two newsletters each year. The summer issue will recap the Spring Exchange and advertise the Fall Workshop. The winter issue will recap the Fall Workshop and advertise the upcoming spring event. [UPDATE: Newsletter was completed in early August. It is now online http://www.opeg.org/pdf/2009-summer-fall-newsletter.pdf and a notice was e-mailed to members.]
Elections - Rob Fischer: We need to add one more person (next runner up) to Board. [UPDATE: Ann O'Connell was invited and agreed to join the Board.]
Upcoming Meeting: Friday, September 11th from 10-11:30 a.m. in person at Community Research Partners http://www.communityresearchpartners.org/.
Summary of Needed Follow-up:
1) Karen review of outstanding expenses and send an update e-mail to the Board.
2) Discussion of online membership database. This needs to be on agenda for the September board meeting. Critical fields for database (e.g., begin and end dates) and status of proposed database need further discussion.
Submitted by: Jan Upton