Committee Reports: What's Been Going On...

Beverly Waldron

Believe it or not, 1997 is just about half over and we thought we would give you an update on what IPMAAC's committees have been doing. As you will see, many of them have been quite busy. A brief explanation of the purpose of each committee and information on membership opportunities has also been included.

We encourage you to get more actively involved in IPMAAC by joining one (or more) of the committees. The committees are the means by which IPMAAC carries out much of its work and they can not function without your assistance.. If you would like to help, contact the committee chair of your choice. (Since '97 is half over, we have provided the names of the '97 and '98 committee chairs.)

Conference Program Committee

Purpose

To plan and organize IPMAAC's annual conference. Activities include arranging for keynote speakers, preparing the call for proposals, reviewing submitted proposals, creating the conference brochure and conference program, and developing conference promotional materials.

1997 Activities

The 1997 Conference is scheduled for June 22 - 26 in Newport Beach, California. The conference includes a full program of pre-conference training sessions, paper sessions, symposia, forums, and panel discussions. In addition, the program includes a Foundation Track with half-day tutorials on exam item writing, pass point setting, and oral exams. A Managerial Track has been added this year which will address strategies and techniques used to manage the assessment function. Invited speakers at this year's conference include Dr. Ann Howard, Dr. Paul Sackett, Dr. Linda Gottfredson, Dr. Sheldon Zedeck, and George Sinnott.

Membership Opportunities

There are numerous opportunities for member involvement including arranging for conference sessions, evaluating submitted proposals, coordinating conference activities with other professional organizations, and assisting with conference promotion.

1997 Co-Chairs

Mike Willihnganz and David Dye

1998 Chair

Jean Tozer

Conference Host Committee

Purpose

To enhance the overall conference experience by providing opportunities for conference participants to network and to interact on a social basis. Additionally, the committee provides information to help make the stay of participants and their families in the host city more enjoyable.

1997 Activities

A great line-up of events have been put together for this year's conference in Newport Beach. The President's Welcome Reception will be held on Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the hotel's central swimming pool. Monday from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. we have planned a Beach Party at the Newport Dunes. This Beach is walking distance from the hotel and will be a wonderful location to eat, make new friends and reestablish old friendships. The cost of this activity will be $35 per person and will include dinner, a no host bar and MINI OLYMPICS. WRIB has donated colored visors so that the teams can be identified. This should be lots of fun for both those competitive types and observer types. Tuesday there will be a reception from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at our President's villa. This reception will be sponsored by PTC/SC. Wednesday from 6:00-8:00. WRIPAC is sponsoring a reception on the hotel's golf course. There will be food, drinks, music and good company. Sand volleyball will also be available. The committee will also have information available on restaurants and local activities.

1997 Chair

Mabel Miramon

1998 Chair

Renee Jones

Training/Workshop Committee

Purpose

To support the professional development of IPMAAC members and other assessment professionals by coordinating the offering of training opportunities on assessment related topics. Current emphasis has been on customized training offered at work sites or in connection with professional meetings.

1997 Activities

Co-sponsored examination planning workshop with the Mid-Atlantic Personnel Assessment Consortium (MAPAC). Working on completing the development of the oral examinations training workshop for possible co-sponsored course with MAPAC in the fall. Developing a plan to co- sponsor an examination planning workshop with the Western Region Item Bank. Updating current workshop materials for improved and more consistent presentation. Arranging for and conducting training as required.

Membership Opportunities

Members can assist the committee by participating in any of the following areas: Periodic needs assessment, developing or reviewing course materials, coordinating training workshops with sponsoring organizations, and acting as a facilitator for training.

1997 Chair

Kristine Smith

1998 Chair

Kristine Smith

University Liaison/Student Paper Competition Committee

Purpose

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.

1997 Activities

With support of the IPMAAC Board and IPMA Assessment Services staff, we designed and distributed a call-for-student-paper flyer to major university I/O, Human Resources, and Measurement programs as well as close to two thousand student members of SIOP. This action worked very well.

The Committee has completed its annual search and review process for the best student paper from sixteen submissions. Thanks to reviewers Drs. Mike Aamodt, Talya Bauer, Dennis Doverspike, Ilene Gast, Ed Hane, Calvin Hoffman, Larry Jacobson, Elizabeth Kaido, Steve Magel, Sara Murray, Kenneth Shultz for doing such a great and efficient job.

Due to the excellent quality and quantity of the papers submitted, the committee recommended to increase the number of runners-up from one to four in addition to the winner. Authors of these five papers are invited to present their excellent papers. Thus, conference goers this year will have a chance to enjoy all five student papers. The winning paper authors are Gary Greguras and Chet Robie from Bowling Green State University. Authors of the four runner-up papers, in no particular order, are Laura Hamill from Old Dominion University, Robert Hirschfeld from Auburn University, Michelle Donovan and Friz Drasgow from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Seema Thakur from California State University San Bernardino. They will be presenting their papers in two student paper sessions in the upcoming conference in Newport Beach, California. In addition, the committee plans to continue contacting key universities 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.

1997 Chair

T.R. Lin

1998 Chair

T.R. Lin

Nominations and By-laws Committee

While this isn't a very visible committee, as IPMAAC committees go, it's a very important one, with major impact on continuity and the organization's ability to accomplish great things in the future. The committee's purpose is twofold: 1) to propose candidates for IPMAAC President-Elect and the Board of Directors; and 2) to research, formulate and propose changes to the IPMAAC by-laws.

No by-laws changes have been proposed this year, so 1997 activities of the committee focused on preparing nominations for the positions of President- Elect and two seats on the Board of Directors. We searched for candidates with strong leadership skills, who show continuing interest and commitment to IPMAAC and who represent the varied interests and concerns of the IPMAAC membership. You should already have seen the outcome of our work, since your election ballot should have already arrived and been returned by the time you read this. Election winners will be announced at the conference in Newport Beach.

While the work of the 1997 committee is essentially done, there are membership opportunities on next year's committee. If you have suggestions for changes/additions to the by-laws or wish to participate as a member of the nominations committee or want to nominate yourself or another for office, contact Paul Kaiser, next year's nominations committee chair.

1997 Chair

Marianne Bays

1998 Chair

Past-President (Paul Kaiser)

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 present a short list of nominees to the IPMAAC Board of Directors for final selection of the IPMAAC nominee for the award.

1997 Activities

The members of the committee, Anne Soileau, Marianne Bays, Bruce Davey, and Ted Darany, issued the call for nominations within IPMAAC, submitted a nominee to the Board, and prepared the Board's nomination and submitted it to the Bemis Board and Selection Committee in March.

Membership Opportunities

Anyone who is interested in helping select the IPMAAC Bemis Nominee is encouraged to join this committee. In addition, you should contact the committee if you have a suggested nominee for next year's award.

1997 Chair

Anne Soileau

1998 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.

1997 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.

1997 IPMAAC Representative:

Harry Brull

1998 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

Jeff has almost completed his budget and strategic plan. In addition, he has been busy at work lining up committee chairs for 1998.

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.

1997 Chair

Jeff Feuquay

1998 Chair

President-elect (David Dye)

Professional and Scientific Affairs

Purpose

To provide timely information, useful documents, related resources, and opportunities for discussion among IPMAAC members about professional and scientific issues. The ECN is the primary medium used for getting this information out to the membership.

1997 Activities

Our major focus was on expanding our presence on the Internet. We've made significant progress here, with the IPMAAC Online site on the World-Wide Web obtaining its own domain name (http://www.ipmaac.org/) and both this site and the IPMAAC email discussion list growing in participation and content.

IPMAAC Online!

Launched several years ago as the Electronic Communications Network (ECN) and guided by a "steering committee," IPMAAC's web site has matured to become the primary medium through which the PSA committee provides information to members and others in our field. The web site is available to anyone with a computer at home and a modem, or at a work setting which provides internet access. It is accessed by a "web browser" such as Netscape or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The address of the web site is http://www.IPMAAC.org. Just type the above "address" on your WWW browser, and you're there.

IPMAAC-List

The committee also created a means of almost instant communication which enables "list members" to raise questions, debate issues, respond to questions, or even tell jokes. It is essentially an automated email system. An email sent to the "list" is automatically emailed to everyone who is a member of the list . Rather than telephoning colleagues for advice or the practices of others, for example, it is possible to post the question and receive responses (either on the list or through private email). Fortunately, in contrast to many other lists on the internet, debates have been on topic, "commercials" almost non-existent (and not acceptable), and we believe that it will become and increasingly useful means of communication. The easiest way to join the list is through a form which you can fill out using your web browser at IPMAAC Online. An archive of past messages on the list is also available at IPMAAC Online, which can be browsed and searched with your browser.

What's Available at IPMAAC Online?

The content changes constantly, and is re-organized from time to time to help members obtain the information they need. To fulfill our primary role, you will find current "hot issues" in the field of assessment. Current examples:

The Nassau County Police Examination. This debate concerns the development and validation of an examination for police officers in Nassau County, New York. Using both ability and personality measures, highly-respected psychologists were retained to provide advice about the conduct and conclusions of this multi-million dollar project. Triggered by a letter by Dr. Linda Gottfredson to the Wall Street Journal which criticized both the psychologists responsible and the Department of Justice, you'll find documents prepared by proponents on both sides of the issue, which is now among the most frequently visited parts of IPMAAC Online.

Test Taker Rights and Responsibilities. Another hot issue is a document being developed by the Joint Committee on Testing Practices, a committee representing the American Psychological Association and other professional organizations. In cooperation with the Science Directorate of the APA, you'll find the documents and selected critiques at IPMAAC Online, as well as a special form you can complete online to provide comments which we will pass on to the Science Directorate. Note that Dr. Heather Roberts, from the Science Directorate, will chair a panel discussion on this topic at our Conference - you can obtain the information needed to participate more thoughtfully.

By the time you read this, there may be other "hot issues" identified in the "Latest News" announcements at the top of the cover page of IPMAAC Online.

You'll also find the "Library," which contains not only electronic versions of Assessment Council News, but also the ability to search for articles of potential interest using "keywords." A very popular section here is the "journal" section, which allows you to browse or search for articles of potential interest in dozens of journals relevant to our field. This capability is one of the reasons IPMAAC Online won an "Editor's Choice" Award from LookSmart.

A very important part of the "Library" is documents contributed by IPMAAC members, either articles/technical reports they have written or have recommended. Several former editors of prominent journals in our field, such as John P. Campbell (Journal of Applied Psychology), have noted that much research and commentary of high quality occurs in the public sector is unavailable to practitioners and researchers because it is not accessible - it is not published in widely-circulated journals, nor usually anywhere else. We'd like to fill this gap and expand this area considerably. Importantly, we're making plans to publish the proceedings of the upcoming annual conference here in electronic form.

Perhaps the most useful role our committee serves is connecting members to sources of information from other locations throughout the world. At IPMAAC Online, you'll find information about what's going on at regional assessment groups (MAPAC, PTC-SC, PTC-MW, and WRIPAC, at this writing). In the section called "Other Sites," you'll find links to hundreds of other resources throughout the world.

Membership Opportunities

You become a member by being a member. It's easy. Contribute to the professional and scientific affairs of our organization, and you become a member. Join the IPMAAC-List, contribute to IPMAAC Online!

1997 Chair

Bill Waldron

1998 Chair

Bill Waldron

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.

1997 Activities

This committee has been merged with the IPMA Committee. Nancy provided the following progress report on the joint IPMA/IPMAAC Committee on the revisions to the Joint Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests.

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests published jointly by the American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association and the National Council on Measurement in Education are in the process of being revised. A joint IPMA/IPMAAC committee has been established to provide comments to the President of IPMA to use in formulating the Association's comments. In 1996, we provided comments on five draft chapters.

Late in March, our Committee received copies of newly revised second draft chapters, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. The newly revised chapters reflected some changes which were responses to the earlier IPMA comments. Each of the individual committee members has provided comments to IPMA staff and our Committee Chair, Arch Pounian, on the new versions of Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. A compilation of all of our comments was circulated to us for comments. Dr. Pounian will prepare a draft set of comments and circulate those to the committee members for further reactions later this summer. We anticipate that the final letter from the IPMA President will be shared with the IPMAAC membership in a future issue of the ACN.

In late March we also received new Chapters 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15. Each of the individual committee members is in the process of providing comments to IPMA staff and our Committee Chair, Arch Pounian, on these chapters as well. Comments on these chapters will also be incorporated in the IPMA response.

At the 1997 IPMAAC Annual Conference in Newport Beach, there will be several sessions on this endeavor. I encourage you to attend to become fully informed on the issues at hand. If you wish to review a copy of these draft standards, copies may be obtained from the American Psychological Association. Be forewarned, they are voluminous!

Membership Opportunities

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

1997 Chair

Nancy Abrams

1998 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.

1997 Activities

Getting the word out on IPMAAC membership and the annual IPMAAC conference.

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.

1997 Coordinator

Dennis Joiner

1998 Coordinator

Déonda Scott

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 Directors' link to the regional assessment organizations.

1997 Activities

The Representative will be attending the roundtable at this year's conference in Newport Beach. Also working with the ECN to provide internet presence for those associations who may not have the resources to do so themselves.

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.

1997 Representative

Donna Denning

1998 Representative

Donna Denning

Assessment Council News

Purpose

To produce six issues of IPMAAC's newsletter, the ACN, during the year.

1997 Activities

With this issue, three issues of the ACN have been compiled, published, and distributed. Three down - three to go (August, October, and December).

Membership Opportunities

The ACN committee is made up of two components: editorial/production and contributors

Editorial/Production

The President appoints the Editor who then selects four Associate Editors who will be 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 - Déonda Scott). Production is taken care of by 2 members of IPMA staff: Daglyn Padilla who handles desktop publishing and Marianne Ernesto who makes sure the ACN gets produced and distributed.

Contributors

Contributors make up the other necessary component. We have several individuals who have committed to providing us with regular contributions. There generosity is greatly appreciated: Chuck Schultz - Statistics Tips and Enigmas, Clyde Lindley - Clyde's Corner, Doris Maye - News from the Executive Council, and Paul Kaiser - The President's Message. We also need your contributions. They 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 hope to hear from you!

1997 Editor

Beverly Waldron

1997 Editor

Beverly Waldron