What is I-O?

Spotlight on Local I-O Organizations

Michelle A. Donovan
Intel Corporation

Welcome to the second official spotlight article! In October we began this column to highlight all the I-O related activities happening at the local level. Thanks to everyone for your positive feedback and offers to have your organization featured in upcoming articlesit seems theres quite a bit of interest in both sharing and learning about what our local organizations are doing these days.

In this article we focus on the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology (or METRO for short). We thought it fitting to spend a little time sharing with SIOP members what the nations oldest and largest local applied psychology organization has been up to! And believe meas Brian and Janis describe below METRO and its members have been busy for the last 63 years! Read on for more details

METRO: The Founding Father (or Mother) of Local I-O Groups

Brian J. Ruggeberg
Aon Consulting

Janis M. Ward

The Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology (or METRO) has the distinction of being the nations oldest and largest local applied psychology organization. METRO was founded in 1939 (hard to believe, isnt it?) as a not-for-profit professional association and has in many ways served as a model for other local professional groups. METROs mission is to promote and maintain high standards among professionals in the applied psychology field, help the advancement of applied psychology as a science and profession, and further educate our members, colleagues in adjacent disciplines, and the public at large. Our organization has a rather impressive pedigree in that many of the leaders of our field have at one time or another served as METRO presidentsFrederick Gaudet, Raymond A. Katzell, Sheldon S. Zalkind, William C, Byham, Virginia Schein, George P. Hollenbeck, the late Patricia J. Dyer, John R. Hinrichs, Richard E. Kopelman, Joel Moses, Robert F. Silzer and Seymour Adler, to name but a few.

Being in the New York metropolitan area means that we have probably the highest concentration of applied psychologists in the country. In turn, this has helped us build a membership roster of nearly 400 members (including student, associate, and full members). On the other hand, considerably fewer are highly active and regularly attend meetings and eventsthis is one of our current challenges.

While there are certainly some similarities between METRO and other local organizations like BAAP (which was highlighted in the last issue of TIP), there are also several differences. One key difference is that we operate on an academic calendar and hold monthly (rather than quarterly) meetings from September to June. Typically, we invite noted members of the profession to speak on a topic of interest, but we continue to explore alternate formats as well, including facilitated discussions, panel discussions, and debates. In fact, our first meeting for the 20022003 year was a facilitated discussion of ethics in todays business environment, and last year we held a well-received town meeting to discuss the impact of the events of 9/11 on our clients and our field. Some of the questions we tackled in the town meeting included (a) What role can/should we play in helping organizations recover from the attacks?, (b) How will organizations change the way they do business as a result of the attacks?, and (c) What best practices do we have to share with managers so they can effectively motivate and manage their employees in this uncertain environment? Topics have varied widely in the past and continue to this year with presentations planned on I-O visibility, measurement issues and fairness in selection, virtual teams, executive coaching, and leadership development.

In addition to our regular monthly meetings, METRO also hosts a number of special events including a half-day professional workshop on a particularly hot topic (e.g., executive coaching), a career-day event aimed at providing career development and job opportunities for students and those in midcareer transition, and our very popular and historic Groundhogs Day dinner meeting where we have an eminent speaker and a sit-down dinner (We dont serve groundhog, its just held in early February!).

One unique feature of our group is that each of the groups officers is initially elected as secretary by the membership and then serves a tour of duty ascending through the positions of secretary, treasurer, vice-president, and president. This is our version of succession planning and greatly simplifies the election process. This years METRO officers include Brian Ruggeberg, President; Janis Ward, Vice-President; Robin Cohen, Treasurer; and Christopher Rotolo, Secretary/Webmaster. In addition to the officers, however, we have a number of standing committees and positions that must be staffed by volunteers each year to ensure all of our services and activities are provided in an effective manner. Finding volunteers is certainly one of our regular and on-going challenges. Among the committees and positions critical to the operation of the association are the Newsletter Editor, Webmaster, Placement Director, Workshop Committee Chair, Career Day Chair, and various content and column authors.

As we learned at the last SIOP conference in meeting with our other local organization counterparts, we are embracing some similar issues and challenges as our colleagues and facing some unique challenges of our own as a very mature organization. For instance, we have recently made a move from a paper distribution of our monthly newsletters, meeting announcements, and job classified listings to an e-mail-based system of notification. Our reasons for doing so were manifold, yet primarily driven by costs. Our printing costs had become so great with a 350+ member mailing list we were faced with the quandary of raising our dues or finding an alternative to paper. We had a few rough months of our then secretary (Janis Ward) trying to send out e-mails with attachments from a home computer (not fun or efficient!) while we considered proposals for Web-page upgrades and improvements. Our members were really very patient with us as we finally got our technology act together, and now we have a wonderful, state-of-the-art, dynamic Web page that, not only posts our monthly meeting announcements, but is also a means of communicating with our officers and posting job opportunities and information about our organization and our events. We will also post our membership directory on the Web site for the first time this year and continue to post archival articles and information that even the worst paper pack rat would envy. Many of our cohort local organizations have decided to and successfully transitioned to this means of communication but probably didnt have our long history (and legacy issues) to deal with. It aint easy being old! For a glimpse into the organization, check out our fabulous Web site at http://www.MetroAppPsych.com.

One of our biggest challenges that is fairly unique to us in our mature stage, is how to maintain and grow such a mature and diverse organization. We have recently noticed a steady and somewhat rapid decline in our paid membership roster and meeting attendance. There are many possible explanations for this, such as the less-than-vibrant state of the economy, events of last September 11, continued diversification of our field, the increasing workload/travel demands on our members, and a steady exporting and relocating of corporate headquarters from our most awesome city to the surrounding suburbs even prior to 9/11. We have also witnessed the dissolution/reorganization of some of our prominent graduate school programs, which has always been our source of faculty involvement and new graduate student members. Finally, we have strived to strike a balance between the industry and consulting contingent of our membership and the purely academic and researched based (and those us who do all of the above). Yet that balancing act can result in trying to be all things to all people and satisfying none; this has been one of our greatest fears.

In an effort to better understand why membership had been declining and to determine what was valued, liked, and disliked by the membership, we recently implemented a member survey. The survey was presented via the Web as well as paper for those members without valid e-mail addresses. With a respectable response rate, we were able to determine that what we were doing, both in terms of what is changing and what is staying the same, was positively perceived by the majority of respondents. This was certainly good news to those of us at the helm, but we also got some great recommendations on what else could be done to further enhance METRO. In particular, we are looking at ways to more aggressively recruit new members, arrange top name speakers on topics members have suggested, enhance our networking/social opportunities, and ensure technological efficiency and timely announcements/reminders/communications. So with this information in hand, we boldly strive to move this historic association forward and look to subsequent officers to continue to redefine METRO for the next 60 years.

If you find yourself traveling to New York, check out our Web site and see if we are having a meeting during your stay; if so, come and join us as a guest. Also, if you have any questions or comments about METRO, please contact us through the Web site.

Future Spotlights on Local Organizations

Stay tuned for the April issue of TIP when we profile the Gateway Industrial-Organizational Psychologists, a local group of I-O psychologists in the St. Louis area. With two articles under our beltone focusing on a West coast organization (Bay Area Applied Psychologists) and this article spotlighting an East coast organization (METRO)we think its time to focus on the heartland to see what our Midwestern colleagues are up to!

To learn more about local I-O organizations, see http://www.siop.org/IOGroups.aspx for a list of Web sites. If you have questions about this article or are interested in including your local I-O psychology group in a future Spotlight column, please send an e-mail to Michelle Donovan at michelle.a.donovan@intel.com.