A Message from Your President

Elaine Pulakos

It's hard to imagine that I'm already writing my fourth, and last, SIOP Presidential column. The year has been very busy and productive, thanks to those serving on the Executive Committee and as Committee Chairs. I would like to devote this column to recognizing these hard-working individuals as well as highlighting some of their specific contributions to SIOP.

The Executive Committee and Other Elected Members

First, I want thank to the other "Presidents"—Angelo DeNisi (President Elect) and Kevin Murphy (Past President), who provided helpful advice throughout the year on various matters. Angelo also had the job of chairing the Election Committee which requires a significant amount of time and effort. Bill Macey will complete his third and final year as SIOP Secretary. Having served in this position a few years ago, I know what a demanding job this is, and want to acknowledge Bill for his outstanding service. I also want to recognize the efforts of Jeff McHenry. As our Financial Officer, Jeff has made significant contributions, including the development of a much-improved budgeting process and assisting with financial matters involved in the SIOP Foundation, among others.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to five other elected members, the APA Council Representatives, who not only effectively represent us on APA Council but also serve as advisors to the Executive Committee. Angelo DeNisi's 3-year term ended in January of 1999, and our current representatives are Wayne Camara, Georgia Chao, Neal Schmitt, and Mary Tenopyr.

Nancy Tippins (Member-at-Large and Chair of the Long Range Planning Committee) and our other elected Members-at-Large, Jan Cleveland and Ann Marie Ryan, analyzed and provided recommendations about several key issues including SIOP's pro bono initiative, planning for the future of the Administrative Office, and implementing strategic planning for SIOP committees. Thanks to Nancy, Jan, and Ann Marie for their hard work dealing with these complex issues.

The Standing Committee Chairs

A major achievement this year was getting the SIOP Foundation fully up and running. Under the direction of Irv Goldstein, the Foundation Committee developed operating principles and informational materials. They also initiated a fundraising campaign. I want to thank Irv and his committee for all of their work on this important effort.

Fran Yammarino and Bob Dipboye chaired our two major SIOP recognition committees — the Awards Committee and Fellowship Committee, respectively. A great deal of work is involved in advertising for these programs, orchestrating committee reviews of nominees, and compiling and integrating evaluation data. Thanks to both Bob and Fran for a job well done.

Debbie Major has served two very productive years as chair of the Education and Training Committee. This committee has been responsible for several important initiatives, including the Doctoral Student Consortium, development of an Instructor's Guide for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and work on the development of guidelines for education and training at the doctoral level.

Adrienne Colella has also contributed significantly as chair of the Membership Committee. In recent years, decisions about membership have become less clear-cut, as increased numbers of professionals trained in disciplines other than I-O have sought membership in SIOP. This has made the Membership Committee's work more time consuming and difficult, and I thank Adrienne and her committee for their efforts.

Another productive committee has been the Professional Practice Committee. Under Jeff Schippmann's leadership, this committee has been working on several initiatives. One project is a survey to assess various issues (e.g., preferences for workshops, areas where SIOP should focus attention, etc.) that will help in planning future SIOP activities. Jeff's committee has also led (in collaboration with the Administrative Office) the development of our member referral directory and consulting company directory. This committee also conducted a project investigating the practice of competency modeling.

As chair of Scientific Affairs, Fritz Drasgow has led the development of numerous responses and commentaries on behalf of SIOP. Examples of these include SIOP's comments on the proposed Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and APA's Ethics of Research with Human Participants. This has required considerable work, soliciting reviews of documents from SIOP members and compiling their input into integrated responses.

I also want to extend thanks to Kalen Pieper, Chair of the State Affairs, whose committee performs an important "watchdog" function for SIOP, identifying state laws and statutory restrictions that hinder the ability of I-O psychologists to become licensed. The committee also works to affect state law where needed.

TIP continues to be the envy of professional society newsletters and we have Allan Church to thank for that. Allan became Editor of TIP last year and has continued TIP's tradition of excellence, in addition to putting his own new "marks" on our newsletter (e.g., a new look, some new contributors, new features, etc.). Thanks to Allan for all of his hard work on this demanding job.

Speaking of editors, I have two other "editors" to thank—Ed Salas (Chair of the Professional Practice Series) and Neal Schmitt (Chair of the Frontiers Series). Both Ed and Neal spend significant time developing new volumes for our two SIOP series, as well as reading and commenting on the chapters produced for the Professional Practice Series and Frontiers Series books.

I also want to recognize Murray Barrick, chair of the APA Program Committee and his committee who have developed an outstanding program for this year's convention. Program sessions cover a variety of topics, including personality, organizational justice, feedback interventions, integrity in corporate America, and research methods, among others. So, be sure to check out the APA Program this year!

In order to function properly, the committees rely on a large number of volunteer members. In fact, over 600 SIOP members participated in committees this year. I want to thank everyone who served for their efforts and contributions. Helping to put all of these committees together was Bernardo Ferdman, Chair of the Committee on Committees. Bernardo also developed an improved process for placing volunteers on committees.

The SIOP Conference Committee Chairs

I want to recognize the committee chairs involved in the annual SIOP Conference. Our conference continues to grow each year, and the commitment and hard work of the committee chairs involved in this effort is unsurpassed. Specifically, I wish to thank Ron Johnson, Chair of the SIOP Conference Committee. Being chair of this committee is a huge job that takes countless hours — not to mention that Ron is in his "second tour" as chair of this committee.

I also wish to thank Angie McDermott, who once again chaired the Continuing Education and Workshop Committee, and put together a "sellout" set of outstanding workshop offerings. Also, Mike Burke, did an exceptional job as SIOP Program Chair. I recall how difficult I thought it was to deal with 300+ program submissions when I was SIOP Program Chair a few years ago. I can't imagine how Mike dealt with more than double that number this year.

Another committee that has contributed significantly is the Placement Committee, chaired by Linda Sawin. Since its inception only a few years ago, SIOP's job placement service at the Conference has grown exponentially, and our members want more and more placement services. Towards this end, Linda has developed a plan to implement a year-round placement service which we anticipate will be starting soon.

The Ad-Hoc Committee Chairs

Now, I'd like to turn my attention to our ad hoc committees. First, I want to acknowledge Beth Chung, Chair of the Task Force on Ethnic Minorities. This committee has undertaken several initiatives, one of which was establishing a mentoring program for minority members of SIOP.

Next, I want to thank Phil Craiger who served as chair of the Electronic Communications ad hoc committee. In this position, Phil led and contributed significantly to development of the SIOP web page, as well as served as an expert advisor on other electronic communications matters.

I also want to recognize Laura Koppes, our historian, who is instrumental in ensuring that our history as a society is documented and our records are well maintained.

In addition to chairing the Frontiers Series Committee, Neal Schmitt also chaired the Principles Task Force. This task force was charged with (a) determining what scientific bases exist for statements made in the Principles and providing citations for these, and (b) making suggestions for potential revisions. The committee delivered a very well-done and thorough report earlier this year, and I thank them for their efforts.

A new ad-hoc committee, the Public Policy Committee, was initiated this year. The focus of this committee, led by Katherine Klein, was to explore how SIOP can become more visible and influential in the public policy arena around issues that are our areas of expertise. Katherine and her committee have made very good progress in identifying options that will best suit SIOP's needs. We are presently collecting more information and further studying these options.

Two other new ad hoc committees formed this year were the Academically oriented Workshop Committee, chaired by David Hofmann, and the Professional Development Workshop Committee, chaired by Jack Kennedy. David and Jack have been exploring what would be involved in providing academically oriented workshops at the SIOP Conference and providing additional continuing education opportunities for SIOP members. Look for more information on these initiatives in the future.

The Administrative Office

I also want to extent a very special thanks to Lee Hakel and the staff of the SIOP Administrative Office. I am not sure if everyone realizes what an important and central role the Administrative Office has come to play in our operations, or how efficiently SIOP is run as a result of Lee and her staff. I can't say enough about what a great job the Administrative Office does, but all of us who are close to SIOP's operations can't imagine how we would survive without them.

Finally, Thanks to You...

Last but not least, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your President this year. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to do so.