National Opinion Research Center

“Executive committee by a majority vote of the trustees in office, the board of trustees may designate an executive committee consisting of at least three trustees, one of whom shall be the chair of the board of trustees, who shall also be chair of the executive committee. The board of trustees may designate one or more of the trustees as alternate members of the executive committee, who may replace any absent or disqualified member at any meeting of the committee upon the request of the chair of the board of trustees. Except as otherwise required by law or these bylaws, the executive committee shall have such authority as the board of trustees shall grant to it for the management of the corporation, including the authority to attend to and manage the details of the business of the corporation and the power to authorize the seal of the corporation to be affixed to all papers that may require it. The executive committee shall not determine important matters of policy and shall, at all times, be subject to the control and supervision of the board of trustees. Any action by the trustees rescinding or changing any action taken by the executive committee shall not invalidate any acts of the officers or other persons properly taken prior to such rescission or change. The executive committee shall keep regular minutes of its proceedings and shall report the same to the board of trustees at the next required or special meeting of the board of trustees. Vacancies in the executive committee shall be filled by the board of trustees at a regular or special meeting.”

“Members or stockholders who may elect the university of chicago is a related organization of national opinion research center ("norc"). As such, they have the right to appoint greater than 50% of norc's board of trustees.”

“Decisions subject to approval the university of chicago has the right to approve the board of trustee's appointment of members of the governing body.”

“Form 990 review process norc's process for reviewing and approving the form 990 is as follows: upon completion of the return, several layers of review were conducted. The initial review of the completed return was completed by the respective staff within the finance department. Following the initial review, the president and treasurer were provided a copy of the return for comment. Comments were forwarded to grant thornton for incorporation into the return. Following the senior management review, the audit/finance committee members were provided a copy of the return for comment. Comments were forwarded to grant thornton for incorporation into the return. The form 990 filing was made available to all members of the governing body prior to filing.”

“Conflict of interest policy monitoring and enforcement norc has a written conflict of interest policy addressing instances where a third-party relationship of a norc employee or a paid consultant could in some way potentially present or appear to present a compromise related to actions and decisions made on behalf of norc. The policy allows for the president and treasurer to review and evaluate the extent of the conflict of interest for any employee with a potential or real conflict of interest. Management will then develop a mitigation plan to address the specific disclosed conflict of interest. The conflict of interest policy is reviewed and approved on a periodic basis by the norc board of trustees.”

“Process for determining compensation the compensation committee of the norc board of trustees establishes and determines certain senior management employees annual (generally, but not exclusively, the president and his or her direct reports) compensation and bonuses. Recommendations for proposed salary adjustments and bonuses for this group, along with relevant compensation information, are provided to the compensation committee for review using comparable data. All such information is contemporaneously documented. The chair of the compensation committee signs off on any compensation committee approved bonuses and salary changes for highly compensated employees. The compensation of other officers or key employees of norc is reviewed annually by the salary review committee ("src"), which is appointed annually by the president. Src reviews similar positions within and across departments, starting rates, salary range maximums, and discusses market considerations. The src may approve, disapprove, modify or defer increases of compensation.”

“How documents are made available to the public the organization makes its articles of incorporation, by-laws, conflict of interest policy, form 990 and audited financial statements available to the public upon request at the headquarters.”

“Independent contractors norc received federal government grants to conduct social science research that required norc to use subcontractors to complete a significant portion of such research. For purposes of reporting the "five highest compensated independent contractors", norc has not considered these subcontractors.”

“Subcontractor fees: program service expenses 60,889,202. Management and general expenses 3,700,948. Total expenses 64,590,150. Respondent fees: program service expenses 13,999,773. Total expenses 13,999,773. Recruiting and hiring: program service expenses 96,755. Management and general expenses 821,314. Total expenses 918,069.”