42 Online

SUMMARY OF APA COUNCIL MEETING FEB 2008

By Josephine Johnson, Ph.D.
Div 42 APA Council Representative

 

As your newest Council Rep, I have the privilege to give the report on the February 2008 Council Meeting.  It is a challenge to capture the substance of a full and exciting weekend in a brief report.  I’ll take a cue from Sgt. Friday and give “Just the facts.”  Here are the bullet points:

  1. APA has a new CFO, Archie Turner.  He was recruited by our revered outgoing CFO (Jack McKay)
  2. CEO Norman Anderson and select representatives are working on a Strategic Plan for the Association.  Council members participated in a presentation on the plan conducted by McKinley Marketing Consultants.

MOTIONS AND ADOPTED POLICIES

The highly controversial APA Resolution against “Torture” has been revised.  A newly adopted paragraph now provides specific guidelines regarding what psychologists may or may not do but it does not hold psychologists responsible for everything that happens in the prisons.   (The list of banned activities is not exhaustive but coincides with what is currently specified in international law).

  1. Adopted as APA policy the Blueprint for Change:  Achieving Integrated Health Care for an Aging Population.
  2. An 11th priority will be added to the list of APA priorities to be addressed when proposing resolutions or motions: Promote and support the advancement of psychology as a scientific discipline.
  3. Adopted as APA policy the revised Principles for the Recognition of Specialties in Professional Psychology.  The revision designates that the Commission shall: (a) facilitate the development, implementation and review of effective and coordinated policies and procedures to improve quality and process in recognition of specialties and proficiencies in professional psychology; (d) make recommendations regarding consistency in the use of the terms “specialty” and “proficiency” by the Association
  4. Adopted as APA policy the following Resolution on the Americans with Disabilities Act.  (In brief, the Resolution reaffirms APA’s opposition to discrimination based on disability status, and promotes full implementation of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973)
  5. Adopted as APA policy the Report of the Task Force on the Implementation of the Multicultural Guidelines.  Specific recommendations with fiscal implications must be presented to Council as main motions with the requisite information attendant to such motions.  (This author chaired that Task Force and applauds adoption of the Report.)
  6. Adopted as APA policy the Resolution Against Genocide.  In Summary, APA condemns genocide wherever it occurs across the globe and confirms that all people have the right to survival and safety.
  7. Adding “Territorial Psychological Association” language to the APA Bylaws and Association Rules, i.e., “State, Provincial, and Territorial Psychological Associations”
  8. Motion requesting the establishment of the Division for Qualitative Inquiry as a candidate division failed to achieve the necessary 2/3 vote.
  9. Approved the Division of Trauma Psychology, Division 56 of APA, as a permanent division.

AMENDMENTS COMING YOUR WAY

  1. Council voted to send back to the membership for a vote the Bylaw amendment that provides voting seats on Council for the four national ethnic minority psychological associations.  Council enthusiastically and almost unanimously approved the by-laws change.  It hopes that additional information about how increasing Council seats meets APA’s priority of increased diversity in governance will secure passage.  The current allocation of apportionment votes will not be affected by inclusion.
  2. Amendment to grant voting rights to the APAGS representative to the Board of Directors.  There was almost unanimous support on Council for this amendment.

FINANCIAL MATTERS

  1. Council voted to approve the 2007 year-end probable deficit of $698,400 and a projected 2008 Final Budget surplus of $332,600.  
  2. Council approved that “it shall be the goal to present a surplus budget annually (after consideration of the cash flow from building operations) of  between 1% and 2% of budget revenues in order to provide a basis for orderly expansion of operations and services and to provide a margin of safety against contingencies”.
  3. Council also voted to request that the cash flow from building operations be increased from $2.5M to $3.5M beginning in 2009.
  4. 12 projects have received funding for 2008.  The Board and Council each have $75,000 in discretionary funds for 2008. 

Total Board allocations thus far =    $71,300; Remaining Board funds    = $3,700

Total Council allocations thus far = $71,000; Remaining Council funds = $4,000

COUNCIL ACTIVITIES

  1. Break out groups focused on how Council members can better communicate with APA members and their own constituencies. Members participated in diversity training on LGBT issues; heard a presentation on the American Psychological Foundation

President Elect James Bray held a luncheon meeting on his Presidential Initiative on “The Future of Psychology Practice”; a Practice Summit is a part of the Initiative.  Co-chairs are Carol Goodheart, PhD and Paul Craig, PhD.

 

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