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>>NADINE KASLOW: Hello. My name is Dr. Nadine Kaslow and I am APA's 2014 president. It is
my hope that this short video will provide you an informative and helpful update on the
changes that are taking place within the APA governance structure. Thank you very much
for taking a few minutes to learn more about these improvements.
In 2010, APA embarked on an evaluation and potential re-design of its governance. Our
current structure, in place since 1945, was designed for a smaller association and a slower
world. As you may have guessed, the evaluation, called the "Good Governance Project," found
many areas in which APA could be nimbler, more responsive and more effective. The three
year process culminated in the "Good Governance Project" team, a working group of 16 APA members
creating seven recommendations to strengthen the association's governance process and better
align it with the APA strategic plan. Last August, in a historic meeting, the APA
Council of Representatives, that is Council, approved six of those seven recommendations.
The six approved recommendations were to: One, enhance the use of technology to bring
more member voices into governance and to expand communication among governance members
and between governance and the general membership. Two, develop a program that would create a
new pipeline for leadership in APA governance. Three, create a triage system that would enable
governance to work efficiently and nimbly on new issues without duplicative efforts.
Four, expand the Council scope to focus on directing and informing major policy issues
and ensuring policy is aligned with APA's mission and strategic plan. Five, delegate
responsibility for budget and internal policy matters to APA's Board of Directors for a
three year trial period. And six, change the composition of the APA's Board of Directors
to be more representative of APA's membership to include six members-at-large, including
an early career member elected by and drawn from the membership with the candidates selected
based on a needs assessment following an open nominations process.
These recommendations, all endorsed by Council, will allow this governing body to focus its
time and expertise on the mission-focused issues that confront psychology. They will
allow Council to more proactively address the issues and opportunities emerging within
the discipline. Council also created an implementation work
group charged with crafting plans for putting the adopted recommendations into practice.
This work group, chaired by Melba Vasquez and co-chaired by Bill Strickland, has met
twice this winter and will deliver its first report to council in February in 2014.
Concerning the seventh recommendation, one that focused on Council itself, although Council
members agreed that a substantive change in its structure is needed to enhance the body's
effectiveness. In their allocated meeting time, they were unable to decide on what form
that change should take. As a next step for this recommendation, council
asked the implementation work group to further develop two proposed templates.
One template calls for modifying the current constituent base model by providing one unit,
one vote, for each APA division and state, provincial and territorial psychological association
and adding seats for other perspective groups and affiliated organizations.
The second template includes some elements from the first template, including providing
one unit, one vote, for divisions and state, provincial and territorial psychological associations.
It also adds disciplinary, that is mission-based, such as for education, science, public interest,
practice and health, as well as diversity representatives, such as from ethnic-minority
psychological associations, early career psychologists and graduate students.
Both models would result in a smaller council. Currently, the council has 162 members from
APA divisions and state provincial and territorial psychological associations, plus, members
of the Board of Directors. It is anticipated that the new structure would
result in 134-140 members, not including the Board of Directors, a better-sized group for
the think tank and policy formulation work that is envisioned. Many of the adopted changes,
making greater use of technology, for example, can be put into place without any changes
to the association rules or bylaws. Implementation of those changes will start this year.
Any changes to the Board of Directors or Council structure must be approved by the membership
through a bylaws amendment. The bylaws ballot is expected to be sent to members for a vote
this coming fall, once the council has approved any structural changes.
What's particularly exciting about these changes is the way they will position Council to be
more responsive to the changing environment and utilize its time more strategically. A
new structure will allow Council to vote more of its time to issues members are most concerned
about, such as research funding, psychology's role in integrative health care, the future
of psychology education and training and advocacy for the profession.
I'm also extremely encouraged by the ways these approved recommendations will allow
for more participation by rank and file APA members in the association's governance process.
For example, we will make use of "quick polls" to survey the membership on issues before
the governance. We want to hear from you and encourage your
participation. For my part, I will work hard to keep you up-to-date on the coming changes
and improvements and to share the ways in which we incorporate the feedback we receive.
Thank you for your continuing support for our discipline through your membership and
thank you for watching.