Letter from WAPOR President (July 2024)

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.

On our final countdown to Seoul, I want to share one breaking news with all of you! Our membership size has reached another record high! As of July 6, 2024 we have 717 individual members, plus 18 organizational members, plus 59 chapter-only members, plus 9 Friends of WAPOR, giving a total of 803 counts for our WAPOR Community! These figures represent a big jump from what I reported in our WAPOR Annual Report 2023: “by the end of [2023], we hit the record of 641… comfortably beaten our previous record of 604 set in 2012. If we add another 42 people who hold chapter-only membership, the total sum would go up to 683 members of one kind or another.” This means that over the past six months, 641 individual members has become 717, and 683 counts has gone up to 803, and we still have half a year ahead of us!

Focusing on our upcoming Seoul Conference alone, we currently have 372 persons registered, including 292 presenters. This is another significant increment compared to our last conference held in Salzburg. The latest conference program can be downloaded from https://wapor.org/wp-content/uploads/2024-WAPOR-CONFERENCE-PROGRAM-draft-10-July-2024.pdf and we still have room for more sponsors and participants.

In my last President’s Letter, I made a call for video donations on Humanity. We have now collected quite many, but I still feel obliged to make one video myself to illustrate what I have been calling for, and here it is: https://youtu.be/u98Kl3_G0wM?si=uMilWmvhAG3SQE7P.  It is still not too late for any of you to donate, please send an email to admin@wapor.org and our Video Editorial Team will help you make one via an online interview. The team comprises Rico Neumann, Kseniya Kizilova and Isabela Rocha, they have total editorial independence.

When we meet in Seoul, I hope members will spend some time further discussing the different views we have collected in our online Policy Forum held on July 2, attended by more than 20 global and regional leaders. Thanks to Kseniya, we now have a nice set of notes recording all the issues raised and various views collected. Some suggestions have already been implemented by our Executive Council in its meeting held on July 9. Let me highlight some of the discussions and then decisions:

Abstracts from Notes of the Policy Forum

• Policy Forum… replace[s] one of the regular council meetings… to lighten the meeting schedule while still ensuring meaningful engagement… serves as a precursor to the upcoming annual conference in Seoul, where formal networking and decision-making will take place.
• A clear emphasis on enhancing the conference structure, exploring regional and post-conference workshops, and continuing to adapt to the evolving needs of a geographically dispersed membership.
• The discussion was characterized by a forward-thinking approach to expanding membership, strengthening global partnerships, and embracing technological advancements while maintaining methodological integrity. The emphasis on strategic alliances, regional collaboration, and proactive engagement underscored WAPOR’s commitment to advancing the field of public opinion research on a global scale.
• WAPOR members have highlighted various strategies for increasing membership, including training programs, direct outreach, visibility campaigns, demonstrating value, local and global relevance, engaging younger scholars and professionals, targeted awareness strategies, university engagement, public appearances, and addressing membership costs through sponsorships.
• WAPOR members have suggested various strategies for better supporting regional chapters, like inclusion in central committees, promoting achievements… leaders/representatives should be invited to attend WAPOR Council Meetings as observers… the potential establishment of a European chapter… [versus] closer collaboration with existing organizations like ESRA.
• Gary Langer… advocates for increased transparency within WAPOR’s operations… Pablo Paras’ proposal for a Global Report initiative… suggests starting with SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) indicators… to coordinate annual studies conducted by WAPOR members and national representatives.

Abstracts from Draft Minutes of the ExCo Meeting

• All Regional Chapters will be invited to send representatives to attend all WAPOR Council Meetings as observers.
• Proposals [on global studies to be coordinated by WAPOR members] shall be presented to the Council and the Membership in Seoul. Various modes such as in-person presentation, dissemination of leaflets, and so on, shall be undertaken.
• [On the WAPOR Transparency Initiative Proposal]… the Membership in Seoul shall be consulted… A Task Force shall be established in Seoul to develop the policy and guidelines on archiving WAPOR records for open access.

The above abstracts demonstrate how much we respect members’ input, and how committed we are towards transparency and accountability. Please continue to support us moving forward.

To wrap up this letter, let me quote you the first and last parts of my opening remarks written for the Conference Program, and as a prelude to our Seoul Conference, and also as my final persuasion for you to join us in Seoul, in case you are still undecided…

This is my second but also the last time to greet all of you in this way as WAPOR President. I feel so immensely honoured to be able to contribute to the growth of the WAPOR Community in such a way. I am especially delighted to see the materialization of the first Joint WAPOR Global-Regional Conference ever – not a back-to-back event, but a truly joint conference with one uniform conference registration fee riding on different membership systems, total integration of conference programs, full sharing of local and global sponsorships, and most important of all, one single team of organizers fully supported by our global and regional leaderships. This would not have been possible without complete trust among all organizers. I thank all colleagues involved for making this possible!

The theme of this year’s Joint Conference is “The Soul of Public Opinion Research: Liberty, Quality, and Humanity”. As our Chair of Conference Committee Wolfang Aschauer explains so succinctly in his welcome remarks, that as we carry out our duties in this time of crisis and social turbulence, “it is imperative to pause and reflect deeply on our work… [while we] continue our discussions on technological progress and give specific attention to central issues related to humanistic development.” Thanks to the tremendous effort of Jibum [Kim], Chair of our Local Organizing Committee, we are able to continue our soul-searching exercise in Sungkyunkwan University which has a 625-year “tradition of integrating ancient wisdom with modern innovation”, as Jibum puts it.

Hopefully, after Seoul, we will continue our journey with new strengths, new insights, and most important of all, a new sense of purpose and togetherness. I wrote before, “Knowledge grows exponentially. What we have achieved over the past 75 years may well be doubled in another 25 years, if we have the will.” I have become more confident than ever, because colleagues organizing this Joint Conference together has showed me, that where there is a will there is a way.

Humbly yours,

Robert Chung

WAPOR President