OPEG Meeting Minutes

Minutes for meeting of OPEG Board of Trustees 12-4-09 Conference Call

Rob Fischer, Shon Bunkley, Jan Upton, Susan English, and Mark Carrozza. Jerry Bean, Ann O'Connell, Rachel Holbert, Julianne Manchester, and Karen Shaner were not able to attend. Note that since only five members were present, we did not have a quorum necessary for Board approval.

Review of Minutes - Jan Upton: The October minutes were provisionally approved as distributed, pending receipt of approval from one more member.

Treasurer's Report - Not available. Rob will follow-up with Karen regarding sending out and discussing the latest financial statement via email.

Program Committee Report - Shon Bunkley:

Fall Workshop (11/20/09 at Quest) Update - Overall 75 registered. Only 5-6 of those who registered did not attend. Only one of the non-attendees requested a refund. The decision was made to refund the conference fee to this individual (Karen already took care of this). Shon mentioned that we probably should include a refund policy in the by-laws. Rob noted that we also need a policy addressing fees for presenters. The total cost for the Fall Workshop for Quest and FedEx printing was $4,460. Shon was not sure how this compares with prior conferences.

Comments about the workshop were generally positive. There were two sessions, however, which generated some complaints about presenters covering too much information and consequently rushing the material. A couple of sessions included requests for more "real world examples," so this is something that we keep at the forefront in planning future conferences.

Susan noted that she thought that the icebreaker (truths and lies about their evaluation career) at lunch was wonderful. She thought that people were talking and laughing to a greater degree than usual. People seemed engaged. Jan pointed out that the people at her table did not care for the icebreaker but that the small tables at Quest likely facilitated greater conversation than usual. Rob explained that it doesn't matter if the icebreaker is viewed as valuable or not - as long as it gets people talking, it was effective. Shon said that they would likely keep some type of icebreaker. Susan suggested that we should provide a brief review of the sessions in the morning emphasizing the connection with their work. She also noted that we need to provide an opportunity for them to introduce themselves as part of encouraging participants to get to know each other. [UPDATE: On 12/14/09, Susan emailed materials to the Program Committee describing how this idea might work.] Shon thanked everyone who helped with the conference.

Jan clarified that she (as Secretary) is the point person for getting everything (including the presentations) posted onto the web page. She sends all materials to Randal, the OPEG web master. OPEG pays his company (R.Squared Communications) about $90/month to maintain the web page.

Spring Exchange (5/14/10 at Quest) Update - In the Fall Workshop feedback, there appeared to growing demand for more coverage of qualitative research. Shon mentioned that she and Nancy Hood have been exploring the theme of Mixed Methods for the 2010 Spring Exchange. Nancy spoke with Patti Lather (Ohio State University) who is working on a book called Smart Mixed Methods. Patti asked for a $1000 honorarium to be the keynote. Shon did not pursue this further, given that we have been moving away from paying honorarium. However, since there would not be any travel, the Board may want to review this further, especially given the high level of demand for coverage of qualitative research topics.

By-laws Update - Susan English:

Rachel and Ann volunteered to help Susan with the by-laws. Our purpose is to review the binder, which consists of four parts: 1) Policy Statements, 2) By-laws, 3) Code of Regulation, and 4) Role Summaries (done in 2007).

Susan requested verification that we not change Code of Regulation (dated 1991), per Steve Albanese's recommendation. Rob confirmed that this is a historical document. We can add addendum, but this is not something that we can change.

The first section is Policy Statements. This appears to be amendments approved by the membership at different times. All of these are board-approved changes. The by-laws were updated in 1989. Rob confirmed that this was the most current document. The Role Summaries were done in 2007. Susan wanted to know if this should be merged into the by-laws in some way. Rob explained that these have never been approved.

Jan explained that board members reviewed each section of the by-laws and policy statements in 2007. None of the recommended edits was ever approved. Rob and Jan recommended that we start with the 2007 edits. Jan suggested that everyone review those and send additional edits to Susan. Susan should edit and maintain the master document of the group. [UPDATE: Susan emailed all the documents to the board on 12/4/09.]

Rob suggested that we first remove the section that we are not revising, and then create two documents: 1) By-laws 2) Policies (we need to update so that they reflect what we are really doing). The "Role Summaries" should be added to the policies, as these are very detailed. We need to start with the By-laws, but we also need to make changes to the policies. Quite a few changes were suggested during the 2007 review. This is where we need to begin. Do we have policies for refunds and speaker fees? No. These need to be added.

Susan realized that each document from 2007 was from each board review group. These needed to be reviewed and integrated into a master document. She will work with Rachel and Ann on this. If Rachel, for example, could start with the By-laws, review the 2007 edits, and then put these into a single document for the board to discuss, we could go from there.

Timeframe for updating the By-laws and Policy Statements? It would be great if we could have this ready to send out in April to the members. Susan said that she would aim on sending the materials to the board by March for review. Policy Statements can be voted on by the board in April. Rob suggested that it would be good if she could provide an update at the February 12th meeting. We could then discuss the by-laws or policy statements, whichever is ready, at that time. All should eventually be posted on-line as part of having full transparency with the members.

Membership Renewal - Rob Fischer: Jan explained that the prior letter is in the Hot Items. We moved to email and web only membership renewal at least two year ago. [UPDATE: The January 2010 letter is now online on the Home Page and Hot Items pages.

Upcoming Meeting: Friday, February 12 via conference call at 10 a.m.

Submitted by: Jan Upton