Board of Directors News

In response to the specific recommendations of the Membership Services and Benefits break-out group Division 42 will be holding our First Annual Diversity Breakfast on Friday morning at the APA. It is already funded as I am paying for it out of the convention budget since we will not be having the expense of any invited speakers this year. This breakfast will be widely advertised and will seek to help create an opportunity to attract members of diverse backgrounds to the Division and to identify members of diverse backgrounds who may become actively involved in the Division and its leadership. We will also be initiating a leadership mentoring program within the Division for members of diverse backgrounds. We will hope to begin this important program at the breakfast.

Our editor of the Independent Practitioner, Mike Brickey has initiated three new features in the IP that will begin this Summer as a direct result of the recommendations made at the retreat. A "Mentors' Corner" column will be coordinated by Jeff Barnett and Mike Murphy, a students' column will be coordinated by Mike Gallardo, the student representative to the Division 42 Board, and a column that features student members of the Division will be coordinated by Student Committee chair, Pat Pitta.

Members of the Division 42 Board are now each assigned monthly responsibility for monitoring and actively participating on the MENTORS listserv.

Additional important issues discussed by the Membership Services and Benefits group include better communication with members about what the Division is doing on their behalf, increased activities to provide outreach to members, and membership retention efforts. The Membership Appreciation Meeting and Extravaganza, and the newly expanded and improved Division 42 Social Hour at the convention will both attempt to address this. These are scheduled for Sunday, August 26, 2001 in the San Francisco Marriott Hotel from 4:00pm- 4:50pm and from 5:00pm - 6:50pm, respectively.

The new columns in the IP will attempt to do this as well. Finally, on this point, putting out the information from the retreat on the listserv, on the website, and in the IP will be a clear way of doing this.

Other goals agreed to, and recommendations made, by the Membership Services and Benefits group include funding the Division 42 Board's student representative to attend both of the Board's meetings each year, working to create in practitioners a professional identity that includes membership in Division 42, establishing a comprehensive mentoring program within Division 42, increasing membership recruitment and retention efforts, creating linkages with SPPAs and offering programs of value to members of both, creating new means of communicating with the membership, and increasing the role of new members, young professionals, and members of diverse backgrounds in the leadership of the Division.