The AAPOR Journalist Education Subcommittee is working on several exciting initiatives leading up to the 2020 election. Our goal is to ensure as many reporters as possible are comfortable covering polling accurately and we want to make them aware of the tools AAPOR has to help them.
SAPOR has had an amazing start to 2019! After completing our Annual conference in October 2018, the newly elected officers assumed their roles in January and have met monthly, sometimes more, in order to plan new initiatives for SAPOR members.
This year, the luxurious feeling that arrives in June that summer is long and full of possibility was fueled by the energy from Council’s June planning meeting. The summer is being spent working out details and laying the groundwork to implement those plans. For each AAPOR committee, those efforts involve identifying committee chairs, recruiting committee members, and drafting and gaining Council’s approval for a document describing the committee’s charge.
Darrell Donakowski, long time member of AAPOR, past Director of Studies of the American National Election Studies (ANES) and former employee of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research(ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, died on Saturday, April 27, 2019. He was 51 years old..jpg.aspx "langs_mediumlarge-(1).jpg")
Kurt Lang, professor emeritus of communication and sociology at the University of Washington, died on May 1, 2019. He was 95 years old. In 1989, AAPOR awarded Kurt and Gladys its highest honor, the AAPOR Award for Exceptional Achievement in Public Opinion Research. In 1994, the Political Communication Section of the American Political Science Association bestowed upon them the Murray Edelman Distinguished Career Award.2019 has been a busy year so far for the Washington-Baltimore Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research – better known as DC-AAPOR. In March, DC-AAPOR hosted their annual Public Opinion Quarterly Special Issue Conference: “The Psychology of Politics and Elections”. The event featured presentations from the authors in the POQ special issue including: Richard R. Lau (Rutgers University), Lilliana Mason (University of Maryland), Marzia Oceno (University of Michigan), Markus Prior (Princeton University), Kathleen Searles (Louisiana State University) and Patrick D. Tucker (Yale University). Scott Keeter and Jocelyn Kiley of the Pew Research Center were the discussants. DC-AAPOR also hosted a happy hour event: “Meet the National AAPOR Executive Council” in downtown Washington, DC. Then in April, DC-AAPOR and the Washington Statistical Society (WSS) co-sponsored the seminar: “Role of Statistics in Today’s Changing Society: 2020 Census”. The speakers were Julia Coombs and Marisa T. Hotchkiss from the U.S. Census Bureau and the seminar was chaired by Martha McRoy of the Pew Research Center.
Murray Edelman tells the story of his AAPOR Presidential Address in 2001 – that part of the audience knew he was gay before he walked up on that stage, but everyone knew when he was done. He said that he worked on that speech for months, because he saw it as a real gift to address all of his colleagues that he respected so much. Murray describes this as a highlight of his career, was thrilled by the enthusiastic standing ovation, and by people, years afterwards telling him how much it touched them.
Do you have ideas or suggestions about the type of conference experience you are looking for? I’d love to hear from you! Connect with me via www.mandysha.com or tweet to @MMandySha using #aapor and #aapor2020. I really enjoy feedback that includes the why behind it and personal impact. I consider my ‘job’ as Conference Chair to be a servant leader and I serve you by giving AAPOR voices like yours a platform at the 75th annual conference. Let's make the conference fun, too!