REPORT OF THE PRIORITIES TASK FORCE ON THE DIVISION 42 2001 GOVERNANCE RETREAT

APPENDIX C: Report of the Organizational and Structural Issues

Breakout Group Members: Stanley Graham, Sandy Haber, Sally Horwatt (guest), Bonnie Markham (facilitator), Patricia Pitta, Dick Saunders (recorder), Lenore Walker, Karen Zager

There were two overarching perspectives that guided the work of this Break Out Group:

1. Our understanding of the organizational identity must inform all of our goals.

2. The organization will progress most effectively if it can benefit from the wisdom and experience of its long-term leaders and at the same time incorporate new and diverse leadership into its governance structure. We addressed these two principles by writing an identity statement and by proposing the formation of a Past-Presidents Council.

1. IDENTITY: Psychologists in Independent Practice strives to apply the knowledge base of psychology to building and enhancing professional practices in order to advance the well being of psychologists and those that we serve. The identity statement is connected to the purpose of Psychologists in Independent Practice, as written in the Bylaws, quoted below: The purpose of this Division shall be to support and encourage the evolution and development of the independent practice of psychology both in its scientific and professional aspects, to promote the objectives of the American Psychological Association, and to foster collegial relationships among Psychologists in independent practice.

2. PAST-PRESIDENTS COUNCIL: Membership in the Council will be all Past-Presidents of the organization who are not currently holding a voting position on the Board of Directors. The Council is seen as serving in a variety of important capacities that will be elaborated under each of the goals. Specific assignments will be made annually to each Council member. The Break Out Group is recommending a change in the Bylaws to establish the Council. Past-Presidents will not serve as Members-at-Large of the Board in order to use their expertise in other ways and to open the Member-at-Large positions to new leadership. The majority of the Break Out Group was in favor of each Council member having a vote on the Board. An alternative proposal was that the Council as a whole would have one voting seat on the Board and the Council would elect a voting delegate annually from among its current membership. It was recommended that there be a specific budget line, with a cap, to cover Council attendance at Board meetings.

Goals 1 and 2 were not discussed at length but were handled by recommending the creation of task forces to look into the issues more closely than the Break Out Group could do at this meeting.

GOAL1: A. Increase the Division’s capability to advocate for its members regarding issues of importance to the advancement of practice. B. Increase the Division’s sources of non-dues income.

• Strategy: Create a companion organization with an alternative tax structure, e.g., a C-6 organization that will allow political advocacy, solicitation of funds, referral services for our members, and other business-related activities.
  • Action: The formation of a task force to consider the advantages and disadvantages of different alternative tax structures. The task force will make a specific recommendation to the Board at the August 2001 meeting. I.

GOAL 2: A. Support our organizational identity Increase non-dues income Increase collaboration with related groups and diverse members A. Increase student membership

• Strategy: Develop a mid-winter conference in conjunction with all APA practice divisions, assure a strong emphasis on the involvement of diverse groups and graduate students.
  • Action: Form a task force to develop such a conference, invite all the practice divisions, invite participation by diverse members and students, solicit APA financial backing. If such a conference is developed, a program committee for the conference will need to be appointed. The Break Out Group recommends that the program committee be chaired by someone from Division 42 and include representatives from the other constituencies involved. Sponsorship from outside APA should also be sought. Report on progress at August Board meeting.

Suggested member of TF: Stanley Graham

The following five goals were considered at length by the Break Out Group.

GOAL 3: Increase membership by 100% in the next five years (our focus was on fiscal aspects of this goal).

• Strategy: Explore a number of cost-effective approaches to attracting and maintaining members.
  • Action: Link new student and young professional (first five years post-licensure) members to a mentor. For each new member in this category sponsored by a full member mentor, the new member will receive a free one-year membership. It is expected that the mentor will maintain a relationship with the new member and facilitate that person’s moving toward active participation in the programs, products, and governance of the Division.
  • Action: Offer publications to students, young professionals, and academic institutions through our website. By providing our materials online we will save a significant amount of money compared to printing and mailing these materials. Since schools and younger psychologists are all computer literate, this method will be cost-effective for the Division and convenient for the individuals involved.
  • Action: Explore forms of insurance that can be offered to our members, e.g., health insurance, that are not in the portfolio of the APA Insurance Trust. Creating links with insurance providers can have multiple benefits including increasing and maintaining membership, soliciting insurance company sponsorship for our programs. We could offer advertising in the IP and other mailings in exchange for favorable rates and sponsorship.
  • Action: Make the Membership Directory available on the non-member side of our website. This would allow the public to have more information about who we are and what we do. Members would be likely to see this as a benefit.
  • Action: Provide a hyperlink from the Division’s website to members’ websites, link this with their Membership Directory entry.
  • Action: Refer this idea to Marketing Committee: Put Kelly Cunningham’s messages on the public side of the website, include tip sheets, link the messages to our members (from Membership Directory) who have expertise in that area.
  • Action: Target non-APA members who are professional psychologists. These may be members of state and regional associations. They may also be identified through licensing boards and other means. These individuals could become Associate Members of the Division for only the cost of division dues and would be eligible to receive our publications, get member discounts at our convention programs, and for our products.

GOAL 4: The division will develop multiple sources of income to accomplish its goals with particular emphasis on the development of non-dues income.

• Strategy: Explore a wide variety of outside sources of income and income-generating programs and products, explore relationships with other organizations that would have fiscal advantages for the division. Vigorously market existing products that are revenue producing.
  • Action: Offer continuing education on the web. This could be accomplished by using our existing materials, e.g., the IP, convention programs; creating new materials specifically for this purpose; entering into economically favorable arrangements with established CE providers.
  • Action: Make arrangements with legal associations around the country to offer fifteen minutes of free consulting time to our members; additional time would be charged at the usual rate. The Division would provide advertising in the IP regarding this arrangement. The legal associations would be invited to sponsor our convention programs, e.g., a cocktail party for practice divisions.
  • Action: Flood the market with advertising regarding our existing products whenever possible. Be consistent and persistent in getting the word out about the niche guides, books, and brochures. Send one sample (rotating) of materials with each mailing. Send a Straight Talk brochure with the apportionment ballot.
  • Action: Consider creating "tip sheets" – one page useful how-to guides for common problems and/or service areas in professional practice, perhaps tied to the niche guides. Or send out "newsgrams" on particular topics (linked to Kelly Cunningham’s material perhaps). These could be sold or offered as a marketing tool for the Division. Tip Sheets written for the public could be sold
  • Action: Seek sponsorships, grants, co-sponsorship whenever possible. Look into arrangements with insurance companies, software companies that produce practice-relevant programs, e.g., billing software companies. Obtain more financial support from APA.
  • Action: The Honor Roll program will be expanded to include the opportunity to have a brief article on the website in an area of the donor’s expertise. For a donation of $100 the member can have an article on the website for a period of time. The article would be available both on the member and non-member sides of the website.
  • Action: Consider developing books that are brief, focused: on controversial issues, that address the practitioner’s anxieties, that build skills, that teach about practice management issues such as using software for billing.
  • Action: Explore grant from APF to develop video. Mattie Canter has approached the division on this. Action: Explore two-for-one grant from APA to sponsor a minority member attending our conference as recommended by Rita Dudley-Grant.

GOAL 5: The Division will make optimum use of the talents and contributions of current leadership while developing and empowering the contributions of new members and provide pathways and opportunities for the development of new leaders.

• Strategy: The Division will make organizational changes, including bylaws changes, to maximally facilitate the continuity of leadership contributions and the openness to new and diverse leadership.
  • Action: The Division will create a Past-Presidents Council, alternatively called the Talent Bank. The Council members will serve as honorary co-chairs of committees and task forces and will mentor new leaders.
  • Action: The Division will create Special Interest Groups to encourage diversity and new leadership. Governance mentors (Talent Bank and current Board members) will be assigned to new members. New members will be aided in joining focused task groups around special interests. The Special Interest Groups can also form around specific clinical areas such as rural health and crisis intervention.
  • Action: The Division will create an Ambassador Program to link Psychologists in Independent Practice with graduate programs that train professional psychologists. The members of the Talent Bank will serve as Ambassadors to graduate programs in their geographic area. The Ambassador will offer a lecture, seminar, or workshop for the students and faculty on issues in independent practice and the role of Division 42. The Ambassador will provide samples of our products to the graduate institution and serve as an ongoing consultant to faculty and students regarding professional practice and Division 42. This is seen as important to the development of new membership, as well.
  • Action: In conjunction with the Ambassadors Program, a series of materials, based on the Division’s products (print materials, web materials, and other products) could be sold to graduate programs for their professional issues classes. Other teaching aids could also be developed and sold to programs.
  • Action: Reach out to under-represented groups. For example, be a sponsor and attend Multi-Cultural Conference annually.

GOAL 6: The Division will develop and maintain an organizational structure that is responsive to its priorities, assures continuity, and assesses, in an ongoing way, its effectiveness.

• Strategy: Maintain those structures that are essential for the continuity of the Division, alter those that are not functioning maximally, eliminate those that no longer serve the priorities of the Division, and add those that are needed to fulfill the mission.
  • Action: Create a Past-Presidents Council.
  • Action: Restructure the position of Member-at-Large such that past-presidents are not eligible to serve in that office.
  • Action: Restructure committees: Committees exist to support the administration of the Division. Under the revised structure the following are standing committees: APA Governance Issues, Awards, Fellows, Finance, Membership, Nominations and Elections, Program, Publication and Communication, Continuing Education, Emerging Patterns of Practice.
  • Action: The Executive Committee shall revise and update the missions of all standing committees.
  • Action: For each standing committee a member of the Past-Presidents Council will serve as honorary co-chair.
  • Action: Restructure task forces: Task Forces will be appointed annually by the President to serve during the presidential term and are expected to serve one year or less. The work of the task force will be defined by a Mission Statement and will have a specified work product that is to be accomplished within a time certain. The Executive Committee will be responsible for task force work assignments.
  • Action: A member of the Past-Presidents Council will serve as honorary co-chair of task forces. The role of the honorary co-chair is to provide consultation and mentoring to the chair.
  • Action: Whenever possible the chair of a task force should be sought from diverse groups and those who have not yet served in a governance capacity in the Division.
  • Action: Members-at-Large will be assigned one or more task forces and will serve as a liaison to that group. Liaisons will track the progress of the work product by regular monthly contact with the chair and honorary co-chair.
  • Action: The Secretary of the Division will maintain a chart of all committees and task forces. The chart will include all of the expected work products, a time-line for completion, and the progress to-date. Honorary Co-chairs will report the status of committee and task force work to the Secretary.
  • Action: The Division will no longer have professional issues committees. These committees are invited to form Special Interest Groups. A professional issues committee may become a task force if it is assigned a mission and a time-certain work product.
  • Action: Special Interest Groups may be formed by petition. The signatures of 200 members of the Division are needed to establish a Special Interest Group. These groups are intended to serve the needs of members for networking and collegiality, to provide learning and exchange among their members, to offer opportunities for mentoring among individuals with shared interest, to increase diversity. While Special Interest Groups are not part of governance, they are an important avenue for communication between members with particular concerns and the voting Board.
  • Action: A member of the Past-Presidents Council will serve as continuity consultant to the President. Continuity Consultants will serve for one year, coincident with the President’s term. Their role is to assist the Division in using the lessons from its history to move forward.
  • Action: Task Forces may request an extension into the term of the next President. The Executive Committee will consider requests for extension that are submitted in concert by the Chair, Honorary Co-chair, and the Board Liaison of the Task Force.
  • Action: Task Forces may request a change of status to Standing Committee if their mission has clearly become an essential part of the ongoing administration of the Division. Agreement by the Chair, Honorary Co-chair, and Board Liaison can be presented in motion form by the Board Liaison. A two-thirds vote of the Board is required.
  • Action: Liaisons to APA Boards and Councils are chosen from those members of the Division Board, Past-Presidents Council, Division Committee Chairs, and Division Editors who also serve in those bodies. In the event that no current member of the Division governance has a seat, a Board member may be appointed by the President to serve a term co-terminus with that of the President. The Division will only reimburse liaisons who attend solely for the purpose of representing Division 42.
  • Action: Liaisons are expected to inform the Board about upcoming meetings and agenda items of relevance to the Division in ample time for the Board to discuss and formulate positions that represent the best interests of the Division. Liaisons are expected to provide a timely written report to the Division Board of Directors about the meetings that they attended.
  • Action: The role of Member-at-Large will be defined to include specific jobs, e.g., serving as liaison to one or more task forces. GOAL 7: The Division develops and implements fiscal policies consistent with its goals and priorities.
• Strategy: The Division has an organizational structure that allows for the ongoing review of its financial health and the relationship of its budget to its priorities.
  • Action: The Finance Committee will review, on a quarterly basis, the budget, expenditures, and investments.
  • Action: The Finance Committee will review the Division’s priorities and their relationship to the allocation of resources and make recommendations regarding the most effective use of the monies available.

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