Technical Affairs

Mike Aamodt, Associate Editor

Several times over the past year, IPMAAC members received a survey asking you to rate how well IPMAAC was performing in several areas. The results of this survey will form the basis for this month's Technical Affairs Column.

Results of the 1999 IPMAAC Membership Survey

We received surveys back from 77 IPMAAC members, far fewer than we had hoped. As you can see from Table 1, most of the surveys were returned either through regular mail or by fax. The "typical respondent" was a white male with a master's degree in some field of psychology who had been a member of IPMAAC for at least 6 years.

Table 1: Who Responded to the Survey?

	N	%
Response Method
Mail	35	45.5
Electronic (ECN)	17	22.1
Conference	14	18.2
Fax	11	14.3
Sex
Male	39	52.7
Female	35	47.3
Race
White	65	87.8
African American	6	8.1
Hispanic American	1	1.4
Asian American	1	1.4
Other	1	1.4
Highest Degree
Doctorate	23	31.1
Masters	44	59.5
Bachelors	7	9.5
Years as an IPMAAC Member
1	7	9.2
2	4	5.3
3	6	7.9
4	8	10.5
5	5	6.6
6 - 10	11	14.4
11 - 15	13	17.1
16 - 20	14	18.4
21 - 25	8	10.5
Field in Which Degree Was Earned
IO Psychology	18	35.3
Psychology	10	19.6
Public Administration	7	13.7
Political Science	5	9.8
Human Resources	3	5.9
Educational Psychology	2	3.9
Business Administration	2	3.9
Other (1 person per field)	4	7.8

The Annual Conference

As shown in Table 2, the majority of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with the length of the conference, time of year in which it is held, and the cost of the conference fee and hotel. The location of the conference didn't seem to make much difference in the likelihood that a member would attend. However, several of the written responses suggested that an "entertainment location" such as Las Vegas or Jamaica would be difficult to sell to their bosses or the public. There were enough respondents indicating concern about conference length and hotel cost that the Board will monitor these concerns for future conferences. Interestingly, 17% of our members receive no reimbursement from their employer for attending the conference and another 7% receive reimbursement for only 15-40% of their conference expenses. The Board has changed marketing plans based on the comments about the brochure.

Table 2: The Annual Conference

Current length of conference
Too short	0.0%
About right	68.0%
Too long	32.0%
If we started the conference on
Less likely to attend	22.7%
As likely to attend	58.7%
More likely to attend	18.6%
Best time for the conference is:
June	59.2%
March, April, May	8.5%
July, August	15.5%
September, October	9.9%
Winter (Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb)	7.0%
Cost of the Conference
	Conference Fee	Hotel Rates
Way too low	1.4%	0.0%
Too low	6.8%	4.1%
About right	71.6%	64.9%
Too high	18.9%	27.6%
So high I can't attend	1.4%	1.4%

Conference Location
	Major City	Entertainment City	City with Character
Less likely to attend	3.9%	19.7%	7.9%
As likely to attend	76.4%	65.8%	72.4%
More likely to attend	19.7%	14.5%	19.7%

The ACN and ECN

As you can see from Table 3, respondents were quite happy with the Assessment Council News and the ECN (the IPMAAC web page). After playing with the numbers a bit, it appears that about 96% of the respondents read the ACN and 53% visit the IPMAAC web page.

There were two areas of the ECN -- employment opportunities and conference proceedings -- that received lower grades than the other areas. To improve these areas, it is important that IPMAAC members submit their job openings to the ECN and conference presenters submit their conference papers to the ECN (I know I forgot to send my papers from the 1999 conference). Bill Waldron can't keep the ECN current if we don't send him the information he needs!

Table 3: Grades for the ACN and ECN

	Grade
	GPA	A	B	C	D	F	n
Assessment Council News
Physical appearance	3.51	62.2%	29.7%	5.4%	2.7%	0.0%	74
Overall content	3.48	53.4%	42.5%	2.7%	1.4%	0.0%	73
Contribution to professional development	3.11	33.8%	45.9%	17.6%	2.7%	0.0%	74
President's Message	3.17	33.3%	50.7%	15.9%	0.0%	0.0%	69
Technical Affairs Column	3.47	54.8%	37.0%	8.2%	0.0%	0.0%	73
Legal Affairs Column	3.47	53.4%	41.1%	4.1%	1.4%	0.0%	73
News of the Councils Column	3.14	38.5%	38.5%	21.5%	1.5%	0.0%	65
Practice Exchange Column	3.21	40.3%	41.8%	16.4%	1.5%	0.0%	67
Calendar of Events	3.38	47.7%	44.6%	6.2%	1.5%	0.0%	65
Information about the annual conference	3.56	65.7%	25.7%	7.1%	1.4%	0.0%	70
Electronics Communications Network
Appearance	3.46	56.1%	36.6%	4.9%	2.4%	0.0%	41
Ease of navigation	3.50	62.5%	27.5%	7.5%	2.5%	0.0%	40
Overall content	3.41	59.0%	25.6%	12.8%	2.6%	0.0%	39
Links to related web pages	3.36	57.6%	24.2%	15.2%	3.0%	0.0%	33
Conference proceedings	3.15	40.7%	44.4%	3.7%	11.1%	0.0%	27
ACN on-line	3.41	63.0%	18.5%	14.8%	3.7%	0.0%	27
Employment opportunities	2.84	32.0%	24.0%	40.0%	4.0%	0.0%	25
Bookstore	3.08	36.0%	44.0%	12.0%	8.0%	0.0%	25
Recent journal contents	3.23	40.9%	45.5%	9.1%	4.5%	0.0%	22
Documents and files	3.48	57.1%	33.3%	9.5%	0.0%	0.0%	21

The Strategic Plan

As shown in Table 4, IPMAAC did a good job of meeting its strategic goals. Areas for improvement seem to be in marketing our training workshops and training capabilities, producing special reports, and contributing to public policy formation.

Table 4: Did We Accomplish Our Strategic Plan?

	Grade
	GPA	A	B	C	D	F	n
The Annual Conference
1 Content of 1999 conference	3.27	42.4%	44.1%	11.9%	1.7%	0.0%	59
2. Content of 1999 workshops	3.32	48.6%	35.1%	16.2%	0.4%	0.0%	37
3. Host activities fostered networking	3.04	33.3%	39.2%	25.5%	2.0%	0.0%	51
4. Efforts to market the 1999 conference	3.24	39.7%	44.4%	14.3%	1.6%	0.0%	63
Professional Development
5. Skill and knowledge development	3.24	41.7%	44.4%	9.7%	4.2%	0.0%	72
6. Marketing training workshops	2.66	17.7%	45.2%	22.6%	14.5%	0.0%	62
7. Publicizing training capabilities	2.55	13.4%	44.8%	25.4%	16.4%	0.0%	67
8. Timely communication about assessment	3.25	40.3%	45.8%	12.5%	1.4%	0.0%	72
Facilitation
9. Contribution to public policy	3.03	32.3%	38.7%	29.0%	0.0%	0.0%	62
10. Keeping members informed	3.31	38.9%	52.8%	8.3%	0.0%	0.0%	72
11. Encouraging professional dialogs	3.18	46.4%	30.4%	18.8%	4.3%	0.0%	69
12. Encouraging interaction through electronic and print media	3.38	53.6%	33.3%	10.1%	2.9%	0.0%	69
13 Producing special reports	2.68	17.5%	44.4%	27.0%	11.1%	0.0%	63
14. Promoting sound and innovative practices in personnel assessment	3.13	34.8%	44.9%	18.8%	1.4%	0.0%	69
15. Recognizing contributions and added value of assessment professionals	3.32	39.4%	53.0%	7.6%	0.0%	0.0%	66

Respondent Comments

Several of the respondents wrote the following comments on their surveys.

Annual Conference

"Lets have more of the old-timers do more to interact with the newbies. It often seems polarized."

"Attendance depends 100% on state training funds and policy. Quality of the conference is an essential. Location needs to appear to be secondary. Hawaii is a no-no."

"I didn't attend this year's conference. Personally, to benefit the members, I would like to see combining this conference with IPMA's international conference. Now a days, we wear so many hats that we would benefit from a broader conference. It's too costly to attend both (i.e., limited public funds)."

"Include families in more events."

"Great opportunity, but cost prohibits annual attendance. Our agency rotates the opportunity among staff members."

"Move the conference time to the fall away from SIOP."

"I would like to see a regular conference schedule be Friday morning to Sunday noon. Shorter and weekend travel will cut costs."

"Beach theme makes it harder to sell management to let me attend."

"Usually good."

"Please keep the dates the same from year to year - easier to plan. this year it is too close to ICACM which I am attending for the first time and can't go to both. However, I know I'll miss being at IPMAAC."

"Best event for public sector assessment professionals to keep up-to-date and network."

"Consider the Northwest as a site - Seattle, Portland or British Columbia."

"Insufficient number of handouts and lack of information on handouts."

"I come for the conference, not the location. This is an excellent conference for me. Please tell the speakers in advance how much time they will have and stick to it."

"Excellent opportunity to stay informed on a variety of issues."

"I would have preferred not having a beach chair on the front of the program. With a tight agency budget, it is difficult to ask for travel approval when it looks like a vacation."

"Have a conference handbook with all presentation slides. I am glad that I attended. Please, please, please ask presenters to bring copies of the slides/presentation. I took a lot of notes!"

"I did not like to have missed so many good presentations."

"More handouts please."

"Unfortunately, (the 1999 conference) didn't product enough sessions of interest."

"Our session and another session were changed, yet we were not notified ahead of time resulting in last minute changes."

"At this point, I don't think I'd come to another conference - not enough material presented. Also, don't have exhibits in open breezy atrium."

"I was not notified of change in time of half-day workshop. I liked the shorter break periods. There was not much to do in St. Pete Beach (other than the beach)."

"Cities of character are of most interest to me, regardless of the three categories suggested above, e.g. San Francisco, New Orleans, and Charleston more than NY, Chicago, and LA."

"I am less likely to request travel approval by my employer when the conference is advertised as a vacation. The 1999 conference brochure was beautiful, but it embarrassed me. It is more difficult to "sell" the idea that my attendance at a conference will be beneficial to the organization when the brochure cover is a beach chair in the sand."

"I wold prefer a more subtle approach to the advertising. I am required to "justify" travel request with a memorandum to which I usually attach copes of course descriptions, etc. In this case, every course description is accompanied by a photo of the beach chair, or a little illustration of a palm tree or sunglasses, or the note "Remember: Conference is Florida Casual.""

"Thanks for putting on a very good conference."

"Increasingly, too many vendors selling their stuff rather than providing good content."

"I am allowed to attend one conference per year and I usually opt for SIOP. Several members of our staff attend IPMAAC and the conference is consistently outstanding."

"I wish I could go more often, but it is difficult with kids in school in early June. also, my employer pays so little of the costs, so I have to pick and choose what I attend due to out-of-pocket expenses."

"I'm sure that next year's conference, held in D.C., will at least be a better environment for everyone. I hope there are improvements in the availability of food, etc. to participants as well as the quality of the presentations."

"This was the best IPMAAC conference ever! The casual dress made everyone more friendly and less stuffy. Great location, great organization, and great people! I'm not look forward to D.C. - seen it once and seen enough of it."

"Two major areas of concern regarding this year's conference: the facilities were substandard. the conference hotel was not very nice, there was a lack of food at breaks (whey did we pay all that money if we didn't get a continental breakfast every morning?), and the break area was practically outside, in Florida, in June. The environmental conditions were not very conducive to a good conference. Also, many of the presentations were not useful. the topics sounded promising, but the presenters and the information presented was very disappointing. I saw a lack of true research among the presenters, which concerns me."

"I have been to a lot of conferences and this location was my favorite."

Assessment Council News (ACN)

"Information on what the feds are doings is not very relevant to most members."

"Timeliness could improve."

"Only scan the newsletter for highlights."

"Great newsletter! Keep up the good work!"

"Excellent job."

"Very useful."

"Excellent."

"I enjoy the HR Humor column."

"Enjoy receiving and reading each one!"

"I read ACN as soon as it comes. Please change the color of paper. The gray is very hard to read."

"I like it. I don't care for the self-conscious utterances when authors talk about technical issues (e.g., stats) in article (e.g., for "nerds"). Whether "self-conscious" utterances gets to the issue or not, my point is that I don't care for apologizing for being professional."

Electronic Communications Network (ECN)

"Wonderful work"

"A tremendous site for volunteer effort."

"Love the IPMAAC list"

"Our churning electronics makes me partial to online items that can be printed rather than downloaded. Hope we can move to better use but I think others may share the preference."

"Job postings are easier to search in SHRM web page."

"Listserv very useful."

"The List-Serve is the best practice exchange I've seen - terrific."

"Hope to tap in soon."

"I would like more information on how to use it."

"If this (ECN) refers to the listserve, I like it. If not, I haven't used it."

"I hope that more will be put on-line. More legal news, more trends in selection, training, and educational information."

Public Policy

"I am concerned by our willingness to exchange valid selection for affirmative action. What other compromises will follow? We need to hold up a standard and while compromise is inevitable - don't buy into the selection quality slippage."

Overall

"IPMAAC is doing a fantastic job. The web site and listserv are terrific. The newsletter is wonderful." Please send money to the state so I can enjoy more of it in person.

HR Humor

This piece of HR humor was sent by ACN reader Maria Pearson.

One day while walking down the street, a human resource manager was tragically killed after being hit by a city bus. Her soul arrived in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter. "Welcome to Heaven." said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had an HR Manager make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," said the HR Manager. "Well," said St. Peter, "I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're doing to do is give you a realistic job preview and let you spend one day in Hell and one day in Heaven. Then, you can choose where you want to spend eternity."

And with that St. Peter put the HR Manager in an elevator and sent it down to hell. The doors opened and she found herself stepping onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all of her IPMAAC friends, dressed in fine evening wear and cheering for her.

They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where they enjoyed an excellent steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil (who was actually a really nice guy), and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing.

She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved good-bye as she got on the elevator. The elevator went rose to the Pearly Gates and she found St. Peter. "Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he said.

So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds, playing the harp, and singing. She had a great time and before she knew it, her 24 hours were up. "So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity," St. Peter said.

The HR Manager paused for a second and then replied, "We'll, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in hell." St. Peter then escorted her to the elevator and again she went back to hell. When the doors of the elevator opened, she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth She saw her IPMAAC friends dressed in rags, picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks. The Devil came up her and put his arm around her.

"I don't understand," stammered the HR Manager, "yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now, there is a wasteland of garbage and all my IPMAAC friends look miserable."

The Devil looked at her and smiled. "Yesterday you were an applicant and we were recruiting you. Today, you are one of our employees."

Mike Aamodt, a Professor of Psychology at Radford University serves as our Associate Editor for the Technical Affairs column and as our unofficial humor editor. If you have a technical question you want answered/discussed, wish to comment on this month's article, or want to share a humor item please contact Mike. He may be reached by email (maamodt@runet.edu), phone (540) 831-5513 or fax (540) 831-6113.