6/8/08, Niagara Falls, Ontario – NASPSPA Post-conference Executive Committee (EC) Meeting

Attending: Jill Whitall (President), Deb Feltz (Past-President), Craig Hall (President-Elect), Digby Elliott (out-going Past-President), Beverly Ulrich (Past-Presidents’ Liaison), Kent Kowalski (Communication Director), Dave Sherwood (Secretary-Treasurer), Ann Smiley-Oyen (out-going Secretary-Treasurer), Julia Devonish (out-going Student Representative), and Graig Chow (Student Representative). Penny McCullagh (Conference Site Coordinator) was invited to attend to discuss conference-related items.

The meeting was called to order by President Jill Whitall at 8:25am

  1. Welcome to New Officers. Whitallwelcomed Hall, Sherwood, and Chow to the EC.
  1. Feedback on Minutes from Pre-Conference EC Meeting and Business Meeting. Smiley-Oyen requested feedback regarding a draft of the minutes from the pre-conference EC meeting and the business meeting. A final version will be emailed to the EC for any other corrections or additions.
  1. Approval of Agenda. Whitall requested additions to agenda and several items were added.
  1. Conference Report.
  2. Conference Manager’s Report. McCullagh reported that 430 people attended the conference. There were a few difficulties with the credit card processing and onsite registration, but overall the process went very well. McCullagh also reported that the hotel management was very difficult to work with; even after repetition of instructions they made many errors. Elliott was unhappy with the audiovisual equipment and support, but otherwise was pleased with the sessions and keynote speakers. Elliott will write a letter to “no show” verbal and poster presentations informing them of NASPSPA policy. If they wish to appeal they will do so to Past-President Feltz.
  1. Moderator Instruction. One comment for improvement (by EC members and conference attendees) was to more diligently inform the moderators that they need to maintain the order and timing of verbal presentations and better monitor and respond to difficulties, such as the audience being unable to hear the presenter. Feltz will encourage Area Program Chairs to select people who are willing to take charge of a session and ask them to communicate these instructions to their moderators. Instructions will also be emailed to moderators before the conference, and Feltz/Area Program Chairs will talk with the moderators at the conference.
  1. Symposia structure. It was also noted that at least one of the symposia was more of a free paper session with five speakers and no overarching introduction or reactor. Feltz and the Area Program Chairs will inform those who submit symposia of the expected format (Introduction, three 20-minute presentations, reactor, and time for interaction with audience.)
  1. Additional comments. Other comments from those attending the conference included: lighting was low in posters and size of names on nametags was too small. We discussed the low business meeting attendance, so McCullagh will look into a bag lunch for the business meeting. Elliott suggested that the money for this lunch would come from the NASPSPA money (not conference) since this is an official meeting of the organization. Other people wanted a lunch break in the programming, but Elliott pointed out that scheduling lunch breaks decreases the time available to offer sessions, thus reducing the number of free papers or symposia. It was suggested that we may need to go to 5 rooms for concurrent sessions on Friday and Saturday.
  1. Post-conference Evaluation. Ulrich questioned whether we need to re-instate a post-conference evaluation. Hall mentioned an online survey used by another organization. He will get a copy of this survey, make some changes, and send it to Feltz, who will edit the questionnaire and adapt it for our purposes. Feltz will send the questionnaire to Kowalski who will us SurveyMonkey to email the questionnaire to all members who attended the conference.
  1. Conference Sponsors. Those who talked to the conference sponsors seemed to be positive. Hall will send an email thank you to the sponsors and ask them for any suggestions for the future.
  1. Student meeting/social. Devonish noted that the student meeting and student social were not in the program. It is expected that the student meeting and social will be Friday evening, but Chow will need to get the exact information (time and location) to Feltz by the middle of March.

V.Review main roles of new members. Whitall reviewed the main roles of each position.

  1. President-elect. Whitall will make the immediate updates to the Policy Manual, and then send it to Hall, Feltz, and Smiley-Oyen. (Any EC other member who wishes to have a Word copy of the Policy Manual should request a copy from Whitall.) Hall will then be responsible for making any further updates, and will bring a copy of the Policy Manual to the Fall EC for reference. Whitall will send a PDF of the Policy Manual to Kowalski to put on the webpage. A new responsibility for the President-elect will be to generate sponsors for the upcoming conference. Elliott (who has generated sponsor support for the previous three years) will work with Hall to make the transition. Smiley-Oyen will send the list of sponsors and their contact information to Hall. Hall will make contact with former sponsors and with potential new sponsors in the fall. Whitall will add this responsibility to the Policy Manual.
  2. Secretary-Treasurer. Smiley-Oyen and Sherwood will arrange a training session inAmes, IA by September 15th.
  3. Student Representative.Devonish rewrote Section 5.8 of the Policy Manual, which describes student responsibilities as per our discussion at the pre-conference EC meeting. Whitall will add this change to the Policy Manual. She will also add to the conference section that the student representative should work with the Past-President to determine the budget for the student meeting/social. This money will come from the conference budget. Devonish also suggested that a place and time for Thursday and Saturday evenings be designated in the conference program for students to meet informally.

VI. Old Business.

  1. Conference Manager’s Contract. Feltz reported that she and Whitall met with McCullagh regarding her rolling 3-yr contract. The contract is now extended to 2011. Feltz noted that our conference managing fee has not been increased for some time. Fees are typically a “per/attendee” fee. Currently we are paying at a $25/attendee, although the typically rate is $35/attendee. Feltz made a motion that it be increased to $35/person. Elliott seconded the motion and it was unanimously supported.
  1. NASPSPA Website. We entertained ideas for a more engaging and informative NASPSPA homepage. Rolling pictures that are representative of research by NASPSPA members received the most support, with some social pictures and (possibly) a picture from any conference sponsor be included if they wished. Kowalski will contact Kim Scott (HK) to determine if this is an option in one of the three new templates, and if so, will begin by requesting pictures from the EC, Program Area Chairs, and their committee members, and then sending out an email request to the membership. Regarding the 3 templates, Kowalski will provide the necessary information to the EC to receive feedback regarding the preferred template prior to the selection of one of the three templates.
  1. Membership Report. Smiley-Oyen questioned whether the year-end membership report should be placed in the fall newsletter or on the website. The general agreement was to treat it like the minutes, i.e., put a hot link in the newsletter and place the membership report on the website. This may need to be revisited if we find we need to prioritize the number of web pages that HK is including in the templates.

VII.New Business.

  1. Supplement Contract for Conference Proceedings. Feltz discussed the supplement contract for HK. The EC agreed that for the upcoming year we need to continue to print the abstracts, and further discuss the use of a CD to distribute the abstracts at the Fall EC meeting. Thus, we approved signing the current contract (Whitall and Hall signed the contract.)
  1. Future Conference Sites. It was decided that a question will be included in the survey going to the membership to gain their feedback regarding future locations. More specifically, the membership will be polled to determine if (after going to Austin and then Tucson) they would prefer the conference in 2011 to be in New Orleans, a resort in the Catskills (or a similar location), or Montreal.

VIII.Location and Time of the Fall EC Meeting. Several locations were discussed for the Fall EC meeting. McCullagh pointed out that there was no need to go to Austin or Tucson, as there are no decisions that need to be made. It was decided to meet in conjunction with SCAPPS to streamline the need for travel for several members on the EC. Thus, tentatively, the fall EC meeting will be held in Calgary, beginning the afternoon of Tuesday, November 4 through Wednesday, November 5. Whitall will send out a revised and more specific schedule pending the ability of non-SCAPPS attendees to travel to Calgary in time to begin the meeting in the afternoon.

President Whitall adjourned the meeting at 10:10 am.

Respectfully Submitted,

Ann L. Smiley-Oyen

NASPSPA Secretary/Treasurer

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