OPEG Meeting Minutes

Minutes for meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees 9-11-09 Community Research Partners

Rob Fischer, Shon Bunkley, Rachel Holbert, Jerry Bean, Susan English, and Ann O’Connell met in-person. Karen Shaner, Jan Upton, Julianne Manchester, and Mark Carrozza participated via conference phone.

Introductions: Ann O’Connell and Mark participated in their first Board meeting. Chip Partridge stepped down from the Board. Since Mark Carrozza had the next highest votes at the last election, he was invited to serve on the Board, and he accepted.

Review of Minutes – Jan Upton: There were no changes to the July minutes. Rob mentioned that all the minutes are available on line for new members who want to find out about recent Board actions.

Treasurer’s Report – Karen Shaner:

Review of August 2009 Financial Statement - August is the end of our fiscal year. For revenue, we were at 84 percent. For August, we had an administrative expense of $2,080 ($80 for coffee/refreshments at summer session and $2,000 for web site project that Chip is doing). Rob explained the background of the “administrative support” category. Chip presented a proposal for updating the online member communication such that we would have more of an interactive contact database. Rob asked if we made money on the conferences. Total of revenue from conference ($12,252) plus CEU fees ($234) is $12,486. The conference expense total was $10,729. Thus, the net from the conferences was $1,991. The total income for the year was 15,288 and the total expense was $15,911, resulting in a net loss of $623. Because of the web site project, expenditures exceeded revenue in 2008-2009. The web site project is an investment in OPEG’s infrastructure. It is not an operating expense. It is a one-time expenditure. As we go forward, we should recoup some of this, as we may be able to reduce some of our web maintenance costs in the future. The other benefit is to streamline communication with members, so that we can more effectively track membership. As it is now, member communication is a huge burden on the Secretary and other members. Specifically, Jan and Chip have been doing a great deal of behind-the-scenes work, and by making this enhancement, we will hopefully reduce burnout of board members.  

Review of 2009-2010 Proposed Budget – The membership is based on 140 at $30/member ($4,200). Conference fees are based on 170 per $75/participant ($12,750). This past year, we only had 90 paid members. We were at 160 members three years ago. Group recommended reduction in projected number of members (changed to 100 members/$3,000). Board recommended that conference projection be reduced to 160 participants/$12,000. Brief discussion about whether or not to eliminate mailings. Decision was to continue postcard for each event ($900/year, reduction of $600). Keep web expense (1,080). Reduced conference call fee ($700). Recommend reduction of administrative support from $500 to $200, and with the CiviCRM web site support ($300), that is the $500 we’ve been budgeting for administrative support. We cut about a $1,000 from the Executive Committee, and we need to cut about another $1,000. We may be able to reduce conference expenses (e.g., afternoon snacks at events). Discussion about payment of event cost for invited presenters (Fall Workshop only). Reduce Fall Workshop speaker cost from ($1,100 to about $200—not to be paid out but cover lunch expense for presenters). Proposed budget should be down to about $15,500, and expenses/revenue should balance.

Program Committee Report – Shon Bunkley:

Hierarchical Modeling Free Summer Workshop (August 18, 2009) – Ann O’Connell taught the class. Shon attended and said it was excellent. Fifteen members participated in the session. This is the second summer that we’ve offered free training for members. Ann suggested that we begin charging a nominal fee such as $15-20/person and provide snacks. People brought their own computers and the room at the Center for Learning Excellence worked well. Jerry noted that we could probably offer a basic statistics class each year. Jerry, Chip, and Ann appear willing to continue offering “stat series” sessions.  

Fall Workshop (11/20/09 at Quest) – We have nine presenters lined up. Topics include evaluation planning, GIS Mapping, statistics (basic and advanced), needs assessment, case studies, and web-based tools. Jim Altschuld is the developer of a needs assessment kit and asked if he could sell kits at the conference. The Board agreed that would be fine but emphasized that individuals selling products are completely responsible for setting up the process for selling the goods.  OPEG takes no responsibility should any materials be lost or stolen. It would also be nice if he donated a kit for the end of the conference auction. Each block of presentations will be 1.5 hour, and Shon is planning to schedule three tracks within each block.

Spring Exchange (5/14/10 at Quest) – Shon has officially scheduled the conference at Quest.

American Evaluation Association (AEA) Update – Rob Fischer: We received a letter from Susan Kistler asking us if we wanted to have affiliate ribbons for OPEG members to wear at the AEA conference. AEA can also do a mailing to Ohio-based AEA members, but AEA has to approve this in advance. There are members in AEA from Ohio who are not in OPEG and there are OPEG members who are not in AEA. The latter often view OPEG as sufficient, and many OPEG members are not full-time evaluators. The major benefits of AEA are the publications and annual conference. Julianne did a nice job of emphasizing our connection with AEA in the newsletter. The newsletter also brought three new volunteers to the Program Committee. If there are any OPEG members presenting at AEA, we should make other members aware of this. [UPDATE: Jan updated the OPEG home page with language from the newsletter and the new OPEG Introduction PowerPoint that emphasizes our affiliation with AEA. Jan also added an announcement about the upcoming AEA conference and listed OPEG members who are presenting at AEA in the “Hot Items” section of the web page.]

Membership Committee Report – Rachel Holbert: Membership Committee prepared new OPEG Introduction PowerPoint. [UPDATE: This is now on the OPEG home page.] It would be nice if this could be more interactive. Great idea for the future. The committee is also working on recruiting new members as well as encouraging former members to rejoin.

By-laws Update – Rob Fischer: Rachel mentioned that she needs a new Bylaws document. Rob is going to send out the electronic version. Susan volunteered to help Rob with updating the bylaws.

Newsletter – Julianne Manchester: Summer/Fall 2009 is now online. Julianne is planning next one for February/March. Nice timing for communicating about events and staying in touch with members.

Web Site Update – Rob Fischer: Rob will ask Chip to e-mail everyone an update about his progress.  

Upcoming Meeting: Friday, October 23^rd via conference call at 10 a.m.

 

Submitted by: Jan Upton