SIOP Committees
Nancy T. Tippins, Past-President
SIOP encourages all of its members to take an active role in the Society. While there are many ways to participate in SIOP, serving on a standing Committee is one of the best ways to serve the Society and to learn about the issues that confront SIOP as an organization. Committee work will broaden your knowledge of how SIOP functions, give you an opportunity to express your point of view, and introduce you to a wide variety of people in our profession.
SIOP has the following committees: Awards, CE Coordinator, Committee on Ethnic Minorities Affairs, Education and Training, Electronic Communications, Fellowship, History, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Journal, Institutional Research, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (ad hoc), Long Range Planning, Membership, Organizational Frontier Series, Placement, Professional Practice, Professional Practice Series, Program-SIOP, Program-APA, Program-APS, Scientific Affairs, SIOP Conference, State Affairs, TIP, Visibility, and Workshop.
One student representative is also selected for a subset of committees so that the chair of the committee can draw on them whenever a student perspective is needed.
What do these committees do? The work of each committee is described briefly below.
Standing Committees
Awards Committee: The Awards Committee administers the awards, prizes, and other forms of recognition for nine awards: Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, Distinguished Professional Contributions Award, Distinguished Service Contributions Award, Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award, William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award, M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace, S. Rains Wallace Dissertation Research Award, John C. Flanagan Award for Outstanding Student Contribution to the SIOP Conference, and the Robert J. Wherry Award for the Best Paper at the I-O/OB Conference. The Committee proposes and evaluates nominations, and presents them to the Executive Committee for approval. Members develop lists of possible candidates, identify sponsors, and review supporting materials before making a recommendation to the Executive Committee. Because the recommendations are made at the January meeting of the Executive Committee, most work for this committee is done in the fall.
Continuing Education Coordinator: The committee coordinates CE credit activities for SIOP's fall and spring events.
Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs: Members of this committee focus on issues related to ethnic minorities both within SIOP as an organization as well as within the field of industrial-organizational psychology as a whole.
Education and Training Committee: The members on this committee monitor the state of graduate education in industrial and organizational psychology (I-O), encourage and promote the development of the scientific and practitioner skills of the Societys prospective members, prepare and revise the Guidelines for Education and Training at the Doctoral Level in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Guidelines for Education and Training at the Masters Level in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, teaching modules, and contribute to and collaborate with Education and Training Boards of other professional societies (e.g., APA, APS). Special projects are usually focused on the status of graduate education and determining future changes. Time commitments vary according to the project and the role the member plays.
Electronic Communication Committee: The SIOP Committee on Electronic Communications focuses on issues and initiatives involving the use of technology in support of SIOPs overall goals and mission. As a relatively new committee, the role of this committee is still evolving. Example committee activities include (a) facilitating the development of guiding policies on the use of SIOPs technology resources (e.g., SIOP Web site), (b) acting as a resource for the Administrative Office, Web master, and other committees regarding specific SIOP technology initiatives, (c) contributing ideas on how to maximize the effective use of current technology resources (e.g., continuously improving the SIOP Web site), and (d) looking towards emerging technologies and contributing ideas on future endeavors that will benefit SIOPs growing membership.
Fellowship Committee: Members of this committee generate lists of candidates for fellowship and identify sponsors for each candidate. In the fall, each member of the committee must review the file of every candidate. The committee then recommends a slate of candidates to the Executive Committee which presents them to the membership for voting at the annual meeting in the spring. You must be a Fellow of the Society in order to serve on this committee.
History Committee: The primary responsibility of the historian is to insure the preservation of the societys history through the establishment and management of a process for preserving documents. The historian and history committee members actively preserve and maintain the archives and create and document the historical record.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology Journal Committee: The journal takes a focal article–peer commentary–response format.
Institutional Research: The Institutional Research Committee establishes policies regarding SIOP's participation in surveys and third party research including the use and disposition of data. The committee has two objectives. First, to maximize the value to SIOP of the surveys it sponsors (e.g., salary, career, and member practice surveys) by defining how the data are archived, accessed, and used. The second is to guide SIOP interactions with third party researchers who wish to use SIOP data or collect data from SIOP members for research purposes.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Committee (ad hoc): The purpose of establishing this committee was to begin to encourage research on LGBT issues and promote LGBT voice within SIOP. The LGBT committee has a Working Mission Statement, which is To increase favorable attitudes and awareness of LGBT issues within SIOP, to encourage research on LGBT issues, and to promote LGBT voice and support.
Long-Range Planning Committee: The Long-Range Planning committee consists of the 3 members-at-large, the president-elect, and the past president. The committees purpose is to make recommendations regarding issues of concern to meet the Societys purpose. The committee also reviews the purpose of all other standing committees.
Membership Committee: The main function of the membership committee is to evaluate applicants for membership in SIOP. In addition, the committee often initiates special programs to increase membership and participation such as a new member reception at the annual conference. Members of this committee review applications.
Organizational Frontiers Series: This committee produces a series of volumes on scientific developments in industrial and organizational psychology. Members are appointed by the Committee chair with the approval of the SIOP President.
Placement Committee: The purpose of this committee is to provide SIOP members with a means of identifying available I-O job openings. Currently, this is done through sponsoring the Job Placement center at the annual conference. JobNet, an online year-round placement service has been developed and has operated online since December 11, 2000. Committee composition varies according to the needs of the committee. At present, the committee consists of only a chair.
Professional Practice Committee: Members on this committee are involved with matters of professional practice, ethics, and state and national legislation. Recently the committee wrote Competency Modeling, which will be published in Personnel Psychology. Members time commitment vary according to the issues confronting this committee.
Professional Practice Series Committee: This Committee produces a series of volumes on practice issues in industrial and organizational psychology. This committees membership is appointed by the editor of the series.
Program-APA Committee: The APA Program Committee is responsible for developing SIOPs program for the annual APA Convention. Program committee members have two responsibilities: a) developing program proposals and/or soliciting proposals from others; and b) reviewing and evaluating proposals submitted to SIOP. Typically, it takes 1-2 days to prepare a proposal that is due in early December and 1 day in January to review proposals submitted by other SIOP members.
Program-APS Committee: The APS Program Committee is responsible for developing SIOPs program for the annual APS convention.
Program-SIOP Committee: The members of the SIOP Program Committee have responsibilities similar to the duties of the APA Program Committee members.
These members develop and solicit program ideas as well as evaluate proposals submitted by other members. The deadline for submission of proposals for the SIOP meeting is usually in mid-September and proposal reviews take place in October. Because of the volume of proposals submitted for SIOP, the time commitment is about 10-12 hours in a tight time window of 2 to 3 weeks. Each year a deadline is set for adding volunteers to the Program Review Committee.
Scientific Affairs Committee: This committee is concerned with all aspects of industrial and organizational psychology as a science. Its members encourage, promote, and facilitate greater contributions of a scientific and technical nature. For example, members of this committee work on projects such as providing input to the APA committee that wrote the Standards. The workload of this committee is variable and depends on the issues that arise during the year. The work is both sporadic and short fuse. The committee chair often has little notice of the need to feed information to another organization, and members must respond quickly if SIOPs voice is to be heard.
Society Conference Committee: This committee is responsible for planning and organizing the annual meeting. The current steering committee includes the chair of the Conference Committee, the current SIOP president, the past president, the Local Arrangements chair, the chairs for Workshops, the chair for Job Placement, the chair for Registration, and the chair for the Program.
State Affairs Committee: This committee promotes the interests of the Society and its membership by concerning itself with matters affecting the practice of psychology as governed by state laws and licensing boards. Committee members are particularly concerned with monitoring and influencing developments and changes to state licensing laws. In addition, the committee seeks to educate SIOP members about Psychologically Healthy Workplace award offered by APA and encourage them to nominate organizations and serve as site visitors for the award. The success of this committee depends on its members’ willingness to make contacts outside of SIOP in the state psychological associations and the state boards.
TIP Committee: Committee members participate by developing and submitting material for publication. Regular columns may be developed if there is a widespread ongoing interest (e.g., Practice Network). Some committee members may undertake special projects; time demands are greatest in the weeks before material for publication.Regular columns may be developed if there is a widespread ongoing interest(e.g., Practice Network). Some committee members may undertake special projects; time demands are greatest in the weeks before TIP publication deadlines (2/l, 5/1, 8/1, 11/1). All members of this committee are appointed by the editor.
Visibility Committee: The role of the ad hoc Visibility Committee is to increase the visibility of SIOP, SIOP members, and I-O psychology to business leaders, public policy officials, and the general public. Activities currently being performed by committee members, or planned, include preparing and coordinating the distribution of press releases describing the work of SIOP members, helping to generate positive press associated with the annual SIOP Conference, and working with the SIOP Administrative Office to establish and maintain a database, called Media Resources, containing information about the SIOP members who are willing to share their research and expertise with the press. Committee members also contribute to a regular TIP column, SIOP Members in the News.
Workshop Committee: The primary objectives of the Continuing Education and Workshop Committee are planning, coordinating and ensuring the high quality of SIOP pre-conference workshops. The Committee ensures that the workshops comply with APA Continuing Education criteria and address topics salient to a broad range of SIOP members. Each member coordinates a workshop. Specific member roles include participation in program planning, workshop coordination, and various workshop evaluation activities. The annual workshop planning meeting is held at the conference site the day prior to the current years conference workshops.
So how do you serve on a committee?
To sign up to become a committee volunteer, click here.
The Administrative Office gives each committee chair a list of the self-nominating members first choice. Each chair then decides how many members of the current committee are eligible to return and how many new members can be placed. The chair of each committee also works to make sure the membership of SIOP is fully represented. In the event a chair does not need all the self-nominated members, every attempt is made to place them on their second or third choice committees. Infrequently, the number of volunteers exceeds the need for committee members. Every attempt is made to place the self-nominating members the following year.
The requirements for serving on a SIOP Committee are usually simple. You must be a member of SIOP and want to serve. There is a 3-year limit of service for most committees. Only a few committees (e.g., Workshops, Fellowship, IOP Journal, TIP, Organizational Frontier Series, Professional Practice Series, and Society Conference) have additional criteria for its membership. Self-nominations are generally not solicited for these committees.
Executive Committee and Committee Chairs
|