Secretary's Report
Janet Barnes-Farrell
The Winter meeting of SIOP's Executive Committee and Committee Chairs was
held on January 15 and 16, 2000 in Arlington, Virginia. Highlights of decisions
and topics of discussion at the meeting follow.
- The Society has contracted with a consultant in Bowling Green, Ohio to
develop a public relations system for SIOP, including the development of
media contacts and media skills training for the Administrative Office and
SIOP members who may be asked to interact with the media.
- Angelo DeNisi reported that a letter signed by several members of
the Executive Committee was published in a recent issue of the APA Monitor.
The letter was a response to an article in the Monitor that
uncritically advocated clinician movement into organizational settings
without any recognition of the need for appropriate training.
- A motion was approved to recommend a bylaws amendment to the membership
that would change the status of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (EMA)
from an ad hoc committee to a standing committee of the Society.
- Dave Dorsey described his plans and goals for the Electronic
Communications Committee, which include updating the design of the current
SIOP web site. Another high-priority item for the committee is development
of a policy for accepting material and links for inclusion on the site.
- A motion was approved that an amendment to the bylaws regarding fellowship
be recommended to the membership. The amendment would change the bylaws
language to make it clear that Society Foreign Affiliates are eligible for
fellowship in the Society.
- Members of the Foundation Committee met with the Long Range Planning
Committee on January 14 to discuss goals for the use of the Advancement Fund
of the SIOP Foundation and strategies for generating proposed projects to be
funded. The Foundation is planning a special recognition event at the spring
SIOP Conference.
- The Education and Training Committee was given the go-ahead to begin
gathering information from master's and doctoral programs to update the
guide to graduate programs in I-O psychology.
- Jan Cleveland provided an overview of several topics discussed
during the January 14 meeting of the Long Range Planning Committee and
recommendations that emerged from those discussions. The LRP committee
recommends the formation of an ad hoc committee whose charge would be to
identify sources of support for our activities within APA, communicating
SIOP activities to APA via appropriate APA channels, monitoring APA
activities of relevance to SIOP, and raising APA members' awareness of SIOP
members' skills and activities. Problems relating to the growth of the
annual conference were also discussed; LRP directed some recommendations to
the problem of arranging sufficient hotel accommodations for people who
attend the annual conference.
- Fritz Drasgow reported that the revised Standards document
produced by APA was responsive to the concerns of SIOP members, but it is
highly academic in orientation. There is a need for a document that outlines
the applied implications of this document for practitioners. The Scientific
Affairs committee will investigate the feasibility of drafting a users'
guide to the Standards.
- Angelo DeNisi described a proposal that the Society has received
for an affiliated student organization, SIOPSA, and considerable discussion
of student concerns ensued. Although there was not support for the proposed
organization, there was general consensus that the Society should identify
vehicles to integrate students and their concerns more completely into SIOP.
Toward this end, the Executive Committee will sponsor a conversation hour at
the Spring conference aimed at identifying students' concerns and gathering
student input.
- Dave Hofmann reported that three expanded tutorials will be offered
at the Spring 2000 annual conference. The ad hoc committee formed to develop
this initiative has accomplished its task and will be disbanded.
- Time during the meeting was devoted to breakout group discussions of three
important issues facing the Society: (a) the future of the annual
conference; (b) threats and opportunities for the future of the field of I-O
psychology; (c) improving the effectiveness of APA/SIOP relations. Several
suggestions that emerged from the breakout discussions will be pursued by
appropriate committees.
Also noted during the meeting:
- Membership figures for the Society currently stand at 3,500 full members
(a 7.5% increase from last year) and a total of 5,571 paid members.
- Implementation of the new placement service will be in place by the time
of the Conference in April.
- The Professional Practice Committee is making final revisions to a member
survey that it will administer to a sample of SIOP members and student
affiliates; the committee's goal is to have the results available for the
Spring meeting of the Executive Committee.
- A State Affairs web page will be posted on the SIOP web site by the end of
January.
If you have questions or comments, I encourage you to contact me directly by
e-mail, Janet.Barnes-Farrell@uconn.edu;
or phone, (860) 486-5929.
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