Letter from WAPOR President (April 2024)

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Note: This document was translated from English into many different languages. In case of any discrepancy or inconsistency between the English version and any other translation, the English version shall always prevail.

At the time of writing this letter, registration for our Seoul Annual Conference is wide open. Record shows that our Conference Committee has processed 394 paper submissions, 19 of which were pre-organized panels. All applicants should have been informed of the review result by now, and I hope that all presenters will start to plan for their trip and get registered early. I know it is near, or even has passed, the deadline of early bird registration, but if any members have any trouble handling the system and missed the early bird registration, please contact us at waporoffice@gmail.com as soon as possible.

For those not presenting at the conference, I also hope you will come. Other than speeches and presentations, we also have workshops, meetings, gatherings, exhibitions, as well as special and social events which will make your stay in Seoul memorable.

As of April 11, when we held our last Council Meeting, we had 476 individual members, including chapter-only members, and the count will go up to 490 if we include organizational members and Friends of WAPOR. Among our members, 75 are National Representatives (NatRep), another 30 will become NatReps once they pay their membership fees.

At that same Council Meeting, three important decisions were made:

1. The “WAPOR Conflict of Interest Policy” was adopted “to prevent the personal interest of Council members (Officers and Committee Chairs) and staff members, from interfering with the performance of their duties for WAPOR or result in personal financial, professional, or political gain on the part of such persons at the expense of WAPOR”. The policy will be uploaded onto our website in due course.
2. The “Procedures and Guidelines for WAPOR National Representatives” was revised to clarify and further specify the tasks and duties of NatReps, their terms of service, and their nomination, appointment, and renewal procedures. Please check out our website, click “About WAPOR” then “National Representatives” to read the details.
3. Upon recommendation of our Finance Committee, the Council approved engaging Atlas as WAPOR’s investment advisor after comparing two bids. Atlas was chosen because of its extensive experience working with non-profits and its successful track record in managing investments.

Other than making these important decisions, the Council Meeting also noted that the Professional Standards Committee is collating its maiden annual report of National Representatives, which will be an important addition to our not-so-frequent Freedom to Publish Reports. We are expecting this new report to be presented in our Annual Conference in Seoul. Likewise, we are expecting the presentation of a study report to be compiled by our “Special Committee on the Use of Polls in Candidate Selection” in Seoul.

There are three more months between now and Seoul, and there is no more Council Meeting in between. We will continue to hold our bimonthly ExCo Meetings, and also step up our work and communication in the form of pre-conference committee meetings, ExCo-Chapter meetings, and most important of all, a first-ever “Policy Forum” on June 13 for all members and officers to raise their concerns, or share their wisdom with us, before we meet in person in Seoul. Please mark your diary for this online forum, and we welcome Chapter members as well. More details will be issued in due course.

When I wrote this letter, we had already held our ExCo-SSA and ExCo-LATAM Meetings, and our ExCo-WAP and ExCo-WANA Meetings had been scheduled in May. Because we are heading towards our Annual Conference, I have invited the Presidents of SSA and LATAM to share more of their conference experiences with us here, along with their other developments. I will skip WAP here, since our Seoul Conference will be a Joint Conference between WAPOR Global and WAP, and I have written a lot about the conference in my letters. As for WANA, I look forward to hearing their plan in our forthcoming ExCo-WANA Meeting, and then report to members later.

WAPOR SSA

Founded in August 2022 and headquartered in Nairobi, WAPOR SSA our youngest Regional Chapter. Led by a caretaker executive committee comprising an Interim President, Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer, WAPOR SSA is poised to become the leading voice for public opinion research in Sub-Saharan Africa committed to promoting regional and international cooperation among researchers, media professionals, policymakers, and academics.

WAPOR SSA recently concluded its inaugural regional conference held in Mombasa, Kenya from April 15-18, 2024, marking a significant step in its mission to elevate public opinion research within the diverse landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Mombasa conference brought together over one hundred participants from various African countries and beyond. It transformed into a vibrant forum where ideas and methodologies were energetically exchanged. The support which the organizers received from both national and devolved levels of government in Kenya, an international NGO, and a major mobile telephony company underscores the essential role public opinion research plays across various sectors.

Over two days, more than 30 papers were presented, sparking rich discussions and robust discourse. This not only underscored the strong commitment among attendees but also reaffirmed the relevance and quality of the conference papers shared. The presence of the Mombasa governor as the chief guest, along with keynote speeches from representatives of the Ministries of ICT, Trade, and Education respectively, highlighted the critical need for ongoing interaction and cooperation with governmental bodies.

Following the conference, the organizers are excited about the potential for significant growth within WAPOR SSA and invite all those interested in public opinion research in Africa to join the Chapter. As its first elections in August approaches, the Chapter remains committed to expanding its membership and providing substantial benefits, including networking opportunities, educational resources, and webinars. These initiatives are designed to enhance the skills of its members and keep them at the forefront of research developments.

WAPOR LATAM

Last year, WAPOR LATAM organized its 10th WAPOR Latin America Congress on April 19-21, 2023 in the city of Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico, and became an endearing reunion for public opinion professionals. With the title “Public opinion in Latin America in a time of crisis of democracy”, the Congress hosted nearly 150 researchers, consultants, public opinion and survey specialists, journalists, communicators and students from 14 countries. For WAPOR LATAM, meeting again after the COVID-19 pandemic was a great opportunity to reconnect and talk about the challenges and transformations that public opinion has gone through in recent years, as well as an opportunity to analyze the approaches that have been taken regarding perceptions of societies from different parts of Latin America.

Now, one year later, in preparation for its 11th Congress that will take place in Brazil in April 28-30, 2025, WAPOR LATAM is organizing numerous activities. It ran a joint WAPOR-WAPOR LATAM webinar on polls and elections in Argentina and Chile in late March, a webinar on tracking voters and media coverage of elections in Mexico in May 3, a joint ESOMAR-WAPOR LATAM webinar on the impact of AI in measuring and conceptualizing public opinion in May 21, and a webinar on perceptions and effective communication about climate change in cooperation with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication in June 5.

During the current administration, WAPOR LATAM signed up a successful partnership with media platform Latinoamerica21 to publish experts’ opinion short-notes related to topics of contemporary politics and the contribution of public opinion polls to illustrate trends in society. In about a year of partnership, nearly 40 columns have been published by members and participants in WAPOR LATAM events, thus further projecting the value of insightful and data-based reflections by the community of pollsters, political behavior scholars, and survey research professionals gathered in our association.

Members can take the above two pieces of sharing as an update or supplement to the SSA and LATAM Reports already included in our 2023 WAPOR Report to Membership which I mentioned in my last letter, and which is available in our website. Please take a look at it before we meet in Seoul, a lot of us have taken great effort to compile it.

Humbly yours,

Robert Chung

WAPOR President