Committee Reports:

What’s been going on and how you can help

The committee chairs have provided you with an update on the activities that have taken place during the first half of 1996. We have also provide a brief explanation of the pupose for each committee and the membership opportunities section will give you some idea of what committee members are expected to do over the course of the year.

This section will also let you know what you can do to help out-even if you are not an "official" committee member. Please read through this information and decide where your time, efforts, expertise and interests can be used most effectively (Note: it can be with more than one committee).

We all need your help. Committees are the work horses of volunteer organizations like ours. Your help can be as simple as a nomination or providing a question or topic for discussion/consideration to the more complex review of papers submitted for the student competion or helping to prepare the conference program and host committee activities. (Articles for the ACN are always welcome and a good choice. Sorry, the Editor couldn't resist.) The point is that there is something here to fit everyone's interests and busy time schedules. We've listed the names of the 1996 and 1997 chairs so you know who to get in touch with to volunteer. To borrow from Jim Johnson's article in the February ACN, JUST DO IT!

Conference Program Committee

Purpose: To plan and organize IPMAAC's annual conference including arranging for keynote speakers, preparing the call for proposals, reviewing submitted proposals, creating the final conference program, and developing conference promotional materials.

1996 Activities: The 1996 Conference is scheduled for June 23-27 in Boston. The conference includes a full program of pre-conference training sessions, concurrent sessions, and invited speaker sessions. Invited speakers include Dr. Robert Guion, Dr. Lyle Spencer, Dr. Michael Campion, Dr. Marvin Dunnette and Dr. Leaetta Hough. New for this year is the Foundations Track with half-day tutorials on job analysis, alternative testing methods, and designing work simulation exercises.

Membership Opportunities: There are many opportunities for member involvement including developing conference sessions, evaluating proposals, coordinating conference activities with other professional organizations, and assisting with conference promotion.

1996 Chair: Kristine Smith

1997 Co-Chairs: Mike Willihnganz and David Dye

Conference Host Committee

Purpose: The host committee is responsible for arranging conference related activities. The host committee also makes available nonconference activities to attendees and their companions. The host committee serves as the liaison between IPMAAC conference attendees and the host city. The committee ensures that all attendees enjoy both conference and nonconference activities. If the host committee does its job well, people will want to attend next year's conference and invite others.

1996 Activities: To date, the host committee has developed activities for the Boston conference. These include Boston Red Sox tickets, a guided tour of the Freedom Trail and a reception at the Computer Museum. In addition, the host committee will make available lists of restaurants and attractions to attendees. For traveling companions, the host committee will make available information about daytime activities.

Membership Opportunities: Each host committee member is expected to work a ½ day at the host table. The host table serves as central place to obtain information about the host city. Committee members are also expected to participate in getting information about or procuring activities for attendees and their traveling companions. While people attend IPMAAC to learn more about testing and assessment and see old friends, who wants to go to a BORING conference? The host committee ensures that attendees enjoy the city as much as the conference. Host Committee members benefit by meeting almost all conference attendees and learning more about the host city (whether they live their or not).

1996 Committee Chair: Warren Bobrow

1997 Committee Chair: Mabel Miramon

Bemis Memorial Award Program

IPMAAC is one of the sponsors of the Stephen E. Bemis Memorial Award and as such we have a nominating committee and a representative to the selection committee.

Bemis Award Nominating Committee

Purpose: To solicit, gather, and review nominations for the Bemis Memorial Award in order to prevent a short list of nominees to the IPMAAC Board of Directors for final selection of the IPMAAC nominee for the award.

1996 Activities and Membership Opportunities:

(Editor's Note: Anne Soileau had already sent a committee report for the June ACN when she found out about this article. The information she sent has all the information we wanted to provide in this article in a slightly different format. I refuse to punish someone who gets things in early by asking him/her to redo them. Instead I'm including Anne's report as it was submitted.)

Once upon a time in a land where oil was king and downsizing and reinvention were unheard of, the Louisiana Department of Civil Service had a little money to spend. In those days Jim Johnson came to Louisiana to teach a workshop on experience and training ratings, Al Maslow came to teach us about multipurpose job analysis, and Steve Bemis came to develop and validate the Professional Entry Test (which we are still using today).

Knowing these guys has been a real treat, and chairing the Bemis Award Nominating Committee has been quite an honor. I worked with Steve and later got to know his delightful wife, Millie, at the 1995 IPMAAC Conference in New Orleans and I knew exactly the kind of person we were looking for to nominate for the 1996 Stephen E. Bemis Memorial Award.

The outstanding members of the 1996 Nominating Committee (Nancy Abrams, Sue Christopher, Bruce Davey, and Anita Ford) received many good nominations and selecting a single individual as IPMAAC's nominee was difficult, however we feel we surely nominated a winner this year. Our nomination was sent to the Bemis Selection Committee in March and the winner of the award will be announced at the conference in Boston.

If you would like to help us find the 1997 nominee or if you would like to nominate someone for the 1997 award, please contact Anne Soileau. (Editor's Note: Anne's address, phone/fax numbers and net address appear in the board and committee chair list located in this copy of the ACN.)

1996 Chair: Anne Soileau

1997 Chair: Anne Soileau

Bemis Board & Selection Committee - IPMAAC Representative

Purpose: Represents IPMAAC in the handling of Bemis Foundation business and acts as our voting member on the award selection board.

1996 Activities: Our vote for the Bemis Memorial Award selection was made and the winner of the award will be announced at the conference in Boston.

Membership Opportunities: This is a solitary position and there are no direct membership opportunities in this area. If you have an individual you wish to nominate for the Bemis Award please contact the Bemis Award Nominating Committee.

1996 IPMAAC Representative: David Dye

1997 IPMAAC Representative: Harry Brull

Continuity Committee

Purpose: To develop an understanding of the purpose and operations of the organization, to develop objectives and operating budget for the coming year, and to maintain the IPMAAC procedures manual.

1996 Activities: Paul has been working on the following: the IPMAAC budget and strategic plan for 1997, training policy issues for presentation to Board, and conference fee structure issues and considerations for the Board. He has also selected the 1997 committee chairs whose names appear in this article.

Membership Opportunities: This varies from year to year. The committee is chaired by the President-Elect and he/she will determine the need for committee members based on the tasks on which he/she is working. You may assist by helping the President-Elect out when he/she calls requesting assistance and by informing him/her of issues that you feel should be raised during the coming year.

1996 Chair: Paul D. Kaiser

1997 Chair: President-elect

IPMAAC Nominations and By-laws Committee

Purpose: Propose candidates for President-Elect and the Board of Directors; research, formulate and propose changes to the IPMAAC by-laws.

1996 Activities: Nominations were made and gather for President-Elect and a seat on the Board of Directors. Ballots were mailed last month and must be returned to IPMA by May 28. Election winners will be announced at the conference in Boston.

Membership Opportunities: If you have suggestions for changes/additions to the by-laws or wish to nominate someone for the position of President-Elect or the Board of Directors please contact the committee chair.

1996 Chair: Jim Johnson

1997 Chair: Past-President (Marianne Bays)

Professional and Scientific Affairs

Purpose: The Professional & Scientific Affairs (PSA) Committee is relatively new. It was instituted as a focal point for identifying issues of importance to the membership and determining and pursuing means of disseminating information on these issues.

1996 Activities: Our activities mirror our purpose. On the first front, issues identification, we're currently working on two "white papers." The first is aimed at IPMAAC members, focusing upon changes in the social, political, and organizational environments and their impact on the practice of assessment and selection in organizations. It is expected that this broad survey will be followed up by a series of more detailed papers focusing on particular issues in more detail (e.g., effective use of new technologies in assessment). A first outline of this paper has been developed, identifying the topics to be addressed. The second paper will be addressed to HR executives, focusing on how effective selection practice is essential to organizational success. In reading the reinvention and reengineering literature, our profession is at best neglected and at worst severely attacked as overly bureaucratic and a hindrance to effective organizational functioning. We need to market ourselves more effectively, and tell the story we all know is there!

On the second front, Brad Jensen formed the Electronic Communications Network (ECN) group a few years ago to investigate how IPMAAC could best use developing technologies to our advantage. We've made significant progress here, with the IPMAAC Online! site on the World-Wide Web (http://www.bwaldron.com/ipmaac/) and the IPMAAC email discussion list. We (as an informal task group, not a formal subcommittee) plan to continue expanding our electronic presence, with the discussion list serving as a way of communicating in real time with each other about significant professional and legal developments of interest, and the web site as, among other things, a cheap and fast "publishing" medium for the papers noted above, conference papers, ACN articles, and other reports of interest (e.g., the recent Personnel Specialist Job Analysis report).

Membership Opportunities: We'd welcome your involvement! There are really no "ongoing" types of activities for our group; however, we're looking for individuals who would like to help write the white papers noted above, have ideas for other reports, or who have ideas for how to improve our online activities. What we don't need is folks to tell us what we as a committee should be doing - we've gotten plenty of that type of feedback. What we do need is people who are willing to get involved in turning ideas into action!

1996 Chair: Bill Waldron

1997 Chair: Bill Waldron

Training/Workshop Committee

Purpose: to support the professional development of IPMAAC members and other assessment professionals by coordinating the offering of training opportunities in assessment-related topics. Most recently, its emphasis has been on customized training offered at work sites or in connection with professional meetings.

1996 Activities: Completing development of the oral examinations training course and arranging for and conducting training as requested.

Membership Opportunities: Members are needed to participate in any and all of the following: periodic needs assessment, developing course materials, coordination of training offerings with sponsoring organizations or hosts, and acting as a facilitator for training. Membership in the Training Committee offers the opportunity to enhance your own knowledge of assessment topics while making a real contribution to the professional development of your IPMAAC colleagues.

1996 Co-Chairs: Nancy Abrams and Judy Trabert

1997 Chair: Kristine Smith

University Liaison/Student Paper Competition Committee

Purpose: The purposes of the University Liaison/Student Paper Committee are to (1) Increase the awareness of IPMAAC among students who are considering a career in personnel assessment fields by keeping an open dialogue with faculty and students in known university human resources management, industrial and organizational psychology, and measurement programs; and (2) administer the annual student paper competition award at the annual conference in order to encourage students to pursue personnel assessment as their professional career.

1996 Activities: The Committee has completed its annual search and review process for the best student paper. Thanks to reviewers Drs. Mike Aamodt, Donna Denning, Dennis Doverspike, Ilene Gast and Dan Masden for doing such a great and efficient job. Both the winner, Jailza Cader from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the runner-up, Kathryn Carlisle Smith from University of Akron, will be presenting their papers in the upcoming conference in Boston. In addition, the committee plans to continue contacting key universities as well as professional organizations to keep students interested in IPMAAC.

Membership Opportunities: Although all members of IPMAAC are welcome to join this Committee, those who have been the most successful in the past are members who have had a clear understanding of the IPMAAC mission, were willing and able to evaluate a large number of complex and lengthy student papers (some may be technical in nature and more than 150 pages) under pressure of rigid deadlines, and/or had access or interest in contacting local universities to encourage student participation in IPMAAC.

1996 Chair: T.R. Lin

1997 Chair: T.R. Lin

APA Test Standards Revision Committee

Purpose: To provide input to the IPMA committee on the revision of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. The committee chair also serves as a member of the IPMA committee.

1996 Activities: The committee received five draft chapters in December. These were reviewed and comments and suggestions were provided to the IPMA committee which relayed this information to the joint committee members of the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education responsible for the revision. The information was sent to the revision committee under the signature of IPMA President Wayne Etheredge. For more details see Nancy's status report in the April issue of the ACN.

Membership Opportunities: If you have questions or would like to assist in this review process please contact the committee chair.

1996 Chair: Nancy Abrams

1997 Chair: Nancy Abrams

Marketing/Publicity Coordinator

Purpose: To monitor and coordinate the various marketing and publicity strategies of the other committees in order to avoid duplication and ensure timely marketing efforts.

1996 Activities: In addition to more routine annual marketing tasks, this year a new combination of training-membership brochure was developed with the assistance of the Training Committee. This brochure highlights the many training modules available from IPMAAC and will soon be sent to all IPMA agency members. Copies of the brochure will also be available at the IPMAAC Conference in Boston.

Membership Opportunities: This "committee" consists of the marketing coordinator and while it does not have specified members, marketing ideas are encouraged from all IPMAAC members. If you have a marketing idea, please share it with the Marketing Coordinator who just signed on for another year.

1996 Coordinator: Dennis Joiner

1997 Coordinator: Dennis Joiner

IPMAAC Regional Relations Roundtable Representative

Purpose: Serves as IPMAAC's representative at the regional relations roundtable held at the annual IPMAAC conference. Serves as the Board of Director's link to the regional assessment organizations.

1996 Activities: The Representative will be attending the roundtable at this year's conference in Boston. He is trying to maintain an up-to-date listing of contacts with each of the regional assessment organizations. He is encouraged by a couple of the regional groups responding to letters and e-mail. It also appears that Internet home pages which are beginning to spring forth may also serve as a tool for maintaining better contact.

Membership Opportunities: This is a solitary position but all IPMAAC members who are also members of regional assessment organizations can help by providing the Representative with contact information, officers, addresses, etc. Please don't assume that someone else will do it. It is better to get multiple copies of information than not get the information at all.

1996 Representative: Jeff Feuquay

1997 Representative: Ilene Gast

Assessment Council News

Purpose: to produce six issues of IPMAAC's newsletter, the ACN, during the year.

1996 Activities: We have produced three issues of the ACN, the third of which you are currently reading. Three additional issues will be published in August (covering the June IPMAAC conference), October, and December. The format of the ACN was changed and we also changed the dates of the issues to match the publication date instead of the deadline date.

Membership Opportunities: The ACN committee is made up of two components: editorial/production and contributors. The editorial/production component consists of the Editor (appointed by the President); 4 Associate Editors (drafted by the Editor) who are responsible for the sections which appear in each issue of the ACN (Technical -Mike Aamodt, Legal - Jeff Feuquay, Practice Exchange - Ilene Gast, and Council News -Mike Willihnganz); and 2 members of IPMA staff: Daglyn Padilla who handles desktop publishing (making it all fit in an attractive manner) and Marianne Ernesto who makes sure the ACN gets produced and distributed (and helps keep the editor sane).

The other component is the contributors. This is the area where we need your help! Several individuals have generously agreed to make contributions to each ACN issue (Chuck Schultz - Statistics Tips and Enigmas, Brad Jensen - The Mouse Pad, Clyde Lindley - Clyde's Corner, Kaye Evleth - News from the Executive Council, and Marianne Bays - The President's Message). We're sure you appreciate their efforts on your behalf (almost as much as the Editor does) but to have a complete ACN we also need your contributions. These contributions may take a number of forms: technical or informational articles; editorial or commentary on matters of interest/concern to the membership; questions, suggestions, or topics to be covered in one of the sections or regular columns; etc. Issue deadlines are listed on the back page of the ACN - we look forward to hearing from you!

1996 Editor: Beverly Waldron

1997 Editor: Beverly Waldron

Don't forget, we're all counting on you!