OPEG Meeting Minutes

October 1999 Meeting Minutes

DATE: October 1, 1999

OFFICER: Roland Winburn

TIME: 9:30 AM

SECRETARY: Candace Peters

PLACE: Delaware/Morrow ADAMHS Board

PRESENT: Hal Farrier, Sandra de Ortega, Candace Peters, Robert Swisher, Steve Albanese, Robert Fine

ABSENT: Gary Timko, Craig McGuire, Jim Healy

GUESTS: None

AGENDA ITEM: Announcements

The Youngstown State evaluation conference was discussed. Dr. Alshultz and John Myers made presentations. Sandy de Ortega and Eric Mundy made a presentation based on a paper about collaborative evaluation. Their paper has been accepted and will be presented at the AEA conference.

The committee talked about membership. The book for this years members is missing several members who are known to have paid. Further discussion was tabled until Membership Committee report.

Mr. Swisher talked about the Binge Drinking Initiative and the shift in emphasis to sustaining and strengthening coalitions. The project received a $227,000 federal Department of Education grant. A large part of the grant will be an expansion of the evaluation of the project.

Mr. Fine talked about the ODADAS evaluations being completed. There will be an evaluation of TASC this year. The therapeutic community evaluation on Tapestry and Pickaway has been completed and showed a lower rearrest rate. ODADAS is undertaking a comprehensive needs assessment for substance abuse in the state.

Mr. Winburn talked about Barry Kibble and his work on performance based evaluation. Mr. Kibble was suggested as a speaker for the spring conference. He has been working with a number of agencies in Ohio on results mapping.

The AEA Conference on November 2 was discussed and wether a OPEG should sponsor someone to go to the conference. The budget had allocated $500 for the President or Vice President to go to the AEA conference. The Board voted that due to the budget shortfall, no money would be given for this purpose.

ACTION ITEMS: Program Committee will investigate the feasibility of Mr. Kibble as the spring speaker.

AGENDA ITEM: Minutes

None.

AGENDA ITEM: Treasurer's Report

Mr. Farrier handed out the current report with one correction. The Board also looked at the end of fiscal year report which indicated that expenses exceeded revenues last year. Account balances showed a loss of $4,000 during the last year. A discussion ensued regarding the CD and its monthly renewal. Mr. Farrier wanted to be able to reduce the CD account when necessary to keep the minimum balance in the checking account and pay bills. The current balance on the CD is $11,392. A draft budget was presented but not discussed. It was determined it would be discussed at the Fall Exchange business meeting. Mr. Winburn was unable to get the tax information to Mr. Farrier at this time due to the accountant not having given the information back as yet. A question arose of whether we even needed to submit the tax information given the small amount of money handled by the organization. It was decided that we needed to track the information and set up the financial information in accordance with IRS regulations.

MOTIONS:

1. Mr. Farrier made a motion to receive the Treasurer's Report. Seconded by Mr. Albanese. The motion passed unanimously.
2. Mr. Farrier mad a motion to "Reduce the CD account to cover anticipated expenses while maintaining a balance of no less than $10,000." Mr. Swisher seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

ACTION ITEMS: Mr. Farrier will move money as needed for the payment of obligations. The budget was tabled to the next meeting.

AGENDA ITEM: Communications Committee

Ms. Peters discussed the new website which is located at http://www.opeg.org. The Board discussed putting member profiles on the web. Ms. de Ortega volunteered to write a list of questions so members could be interviewed. Ms. Peters suggested putting the profiles in the newsletter. A new news letter should be designed during December.

ACTION ITEMS: Ms. de Ortega will design a profile questionnaire for members. Ms. Peters will place profiles in the upcoming newsletters. A draft of the next newletter will be available in December

AGENDA ITEM: Membership Committee

Sabina Zunguze resigned from the Board and as Chairman of the Membership Committee. Mr. Winburn and Mr. Farrier were to have met with her to get the records and other information regarding membership. Mr. Winburn said that he would be unable to meet with her until November. He would meet with her before the next meeting.

The Board discussed the number of active members. The total number of members is unclear although it may be around a 100 based on the dues receipts. Mr. Winburn would like to target increasing membership to about 225 for the next year. Mr. Swisher suggested that the Board may want to send a questionnaire to members who did not pay dues to determine why they dropped out. The Board discussed that the reason we may not have many members is that professionals who do evaluation do not know what OPEG does. There is a lack of communication. The number of members dropped off when the Fall Exchange went from 2 days to one day. The following strategies were discussed: newsletters, brochures, contacting universities for promoting the organization, an early bird membership rate, convert the membership form to envelope so easy to mail, and followup the member interest cards from spring conference. The Board will continue with the web, newsletter, individually contact people to be new members, focus on universities, review the membership fee structure, get members not on the board involved in committee work, look at the structure of conferences, and develop an easy mail in membership form. Mr. Winburn will talk with Ms. Zunguze prior to taking action on appointing a Membership chair.

ACTION ITEMS: Mr. Winburn will meet with Ms. Zunguze to get the membership records. Mr. Winburn will have a Membership Committee Chair by the next meeting. The Membership Committee will plan a membership campaign and have a report ready for the next Board meeting. A final year end report will be drafted for next meeting

AGENDA ITEM: Conference Committee

Mr. Timko was not present to discuss the Fall Exchange. Mr. Winburn reported that only one proposal for a presentation had been received to date for the Fall Exchange. It was determined that timing a call for papers at this time for a conference to be held November 19 was not feasible. There was discussion on whether the fall exchange should be cancelled. An issue discussed was whether there was a need to at least have a statewide membership meeting. The lack of papers was a major reason for not having the conference and the need to actively solicit papers from the universities rather than just sending a call for papers. Changing the agenda for the Fall Exchange to be a presentation from one of the Big 8 auditing firms with discussions following on program auditing was proposed. The Board decided there was insufficient time for this to be planned and implemented for the Fall Exchange.

The Board discussed changing the format of the Spring Conference to at least a two day conference. The theme would be "Performance Auditing and Program Evaluation: Can We Bridge the Gap?" Potential speakers for the conference included Dan Flannery from Kent State on anti-violence, Ed Latessa or Betsy Fulton from University of Cincinnati on criminal justice evaluation, and Mr. Kibble as discussed earlier. The keynote for the conference could be a panel of presenters who would talk about evaluation into the new millennium. The spring conference should combine the concepts of both training and paper presentations.

MOTION: Mr. Albanese moved that the fall conference be combined with the spring conference and the activities be incorporated into at least two days. Ms. de Ortega seconded. The motion passed.

ACTION ITEMS: Ms de Ortega will take membership brochures to AEA. Ms. de Ortega will contact Mr. Timko to cancel the fall exchange and reschedule the spring conference to a three day event on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Mr. Timko will be asked to have a Conference Committee meeting as soon as possible to plan the conference. The Conference Committee will have proposals and speakers at the next Board meeting. Program Committee will e-mail Board Members for speaker approval

AGENDA ITEM: New Business

The Board discussed the 98-99 fiscal year report. All officers were to have a report available for the next meeting regarding their activities this past year. The Board discussed the possibility of having regional board meetings during the coming year rather than having all the meetings in Delaware. Ms. de Ortega would write an article on the AEA conference for the next newsletter. The Board wants to concentrate on membership development during the next year.

ACTION ITEMS: Officers will have final reports at December meeting.