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Section
IV Report - MARCH 2004 meeting
Barry
Dauphin, Ph.D., MSPP Section IV Representative
Editor’s
Note: Section IV is the section of local chapters within
Division 39. The Section IV Senate, consisting of
representatives from each local chapter, meets each year at
the Spring Meeting and at the APA Convention.
Dr. Dauphin is MSPP’s representative to the Section
IV Senate; he currently also serves as Treasurer of Section
IV.
The Section IV Senate met on
Friday March 19, 2004
and the Section IV Open Meeting
was held on
Saturday
March 20, 2004
at the 24th annual Division 39 Spring
Meeting in
Miami
,
Florida
.
Attendance at the meetings was good, as approximately
20 local chapters were represented.
The minutes from the August 2003 meeting were
approved. Because
of a shipping delay, the President did not have the agenda
distributed to the Senate by the time of the meeting.
Treasury.
Section IV is currently in good shape financially.
We took in about $270 more than we spent in 2003.
The 2004 Budget was reviewed and approved.
We should continue to have over $10,000 on hand after
this year’s expenses are met. Section
IV has plenty of room to extend seed grants to any chapters
that form over the next year.
There is one potential chapter (
Louisville
)
and a couple of other groups involved in very preliminary
efforts to establish chapters (
Portland
and
Phoenix).
Elections and Appointments.
David Downing, Ph.D. (Chicago Open Chapter),
was elected President-elect.
He will serve for a second year.
The bylaw change to have presidents serve for two
years was approved. Linda
Rudy, Ph.D. (Chicago Association for Psychoanalytic
Psychology), was elected Secretary.
This year Section IV will be electing a
President-elect and a Treasurer.
Bill MacGillivray, Ph.D. (Appalachian Society for
Psychoanalytic Psychology) was appointed by the president to
an ad hoc position which will cover various loose ends,
including keeping up with the directory, etc.
The past President, Marsha McCary, Ph.D. (Austin
Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology) will form an
elections committee. Although
the Treasurer (myself) usually serves on this committee, he
will not do so this this year as he will be running for
office (for President-elect).
Information about number of votes per chapter will be
updated in advance. Information
about the status of local chapter dues payments was
distributed with the budget and financial report.
Student Program.
Two students were recipients of Section IV grants
this year (Florida Orlando chapter and Chicago Open
chapter). The
Austin
chapter gave a grant to one of its student members of its
own accord. Selection
for next year’s grants will take place at the August
meeting. The
Graduate Student group had scheduled meetings which
conflicted with the Section IV Senate and Open Meetings,
resulting in conflicts for our graduate students.
The President will discuss this with Division
planning so that doesn’t happen in future.
Presidential Initiative.
Dr. Downing will continue to focus on presentations
concerning psychoanalytic work with psychotics. The
presentation for this meeting focused on the work of a
Canadian group, GIFRIC, which operates a program for
psychotic patients. The
program is psychoanalytically oriented and was nearly
eliminated from the Canadian system until they were able to
demonstrate that the program was actually cost effective (as
measured by reduced need for medicine, reduced inpatient
hospitalization, greater work productivity amongst its
patients which resulted in patients paying taxes back into
Canadian system, etc.). The Section IV presentation has been
arranged for August meeting.
The speakers’ bureau was discussed.
Efforts will be made to update list and continue to
try to promote interest.
So far, it has been little used by chapters.
The President will continue to assist in local
chapter development. We
discussed ideas concerning fostering improved communication
among local chapters.
Chapter Development.
Louisville
has already begun having programs.
They have been sent a copy of our bylaws and
discussion has begun to assist them in formalizing
development and drafting their own bylaws.
We reviewed the process of local chapter acceptance.
The
Southern
California
chapter is now dormant.
Its status has been changed to corresponding chapter.
They had no programs in 2003 and collected no dues.
They have no plans to revive at the present time.
Division 39 President-Elect.
David Ramirez, Ph.D. addressed the Senate meeting. He
discussed his past involvement in Section IV. He is invested
in continuing the Division 39 involvement in the
Multicultural Conference.
Division 39 will plan to have its January board
meeting in
California
just before the multicultural conference.
The division approved a $5000 sponsorship status for
next year’s conference.
Division 39 Board.
Andrea Corn, Ph.D. (SEFAPP), reported on the Division
39 board meeting. Ron
Levant, Ph.D. (President-elect of APA and a Division 39
member), attended. He
addressed his concerns about the push in APA for evidence
based treatment (EBT) and discussed the APA accepting a
broad definition of evidence which has been favored by
Division 39. Division
39 president Jane Darwin, Ph.D., appointed an ad hoc
committee on EBT. They
have nothing to report at this point but will be working
with other Divisions who share concerns about the narrowness
of definition of evidence and concerns about flexibility of
treatment. Thirteen
Divisions have formed a task force on EBT.
Andrea will send out a full report to the Section IV
representatives in about a month.
We had little time for Division 39 board information
this year. The
Division 39 treasury appears to be in good shape.
There was discussion about the need to improve the
Division 39 website, especially Section IV’s presence on
the website. Division
39 membership appears to be down but some of this is unclear
because of delays in APA tabulating Division membership for
all the Divisions. Next
year is the 25th anniversary of Division 39.
The spring conference will be in
New
York City
at the Waldorf Astoria.
Local Chapters.
We spent a significant amount of time going around
the room discussing what’s been happening in local
chapters. There is a wide variety of experiences.
Each of the local chapters has its own way of
organizing activities and all exist in different
psychoanalytic environments.
Curiously, there has been a lot of development of
some chapters where there is little, if any, other
psychoanalytic “competition” in the area.
Vermont
had been a very small chapter for a while.
Its total membership is now approaching 100, with 10
Division 39 members. Although they have been
bureaucratically disorganized, they have brought in various
out of town speakers and have developed a reputation.
New
Mexico
also has about 100 members,
although very little Division 39 involvement.
In fact one question which has been coming from many
local chapters is :why should they be involved with Division
39? We discussed
this briefly at the meeting, and it seems clear that Section
IV will need to address this question regularly.
Many psychologists do not want to
join APA for the purpose of joining Division 39. The level
of Division 39 involvement varies greatly from one local
chapter to another. Those
local chapters most disconnected from Division 39 have more
members who raise questions about the need for the tie-in.
Addressed during the meeting was being in a position
to have a psychoanalytic voice within APA and the
possibility to influence APA policy on matters such as EBT,
especially given that APA represents a very powerful force
in psychology and its policies can affect all psychologists
whether they are members of APA or not.
Also addressed was the ability to network with others
from across the country, which can help one to examine
whether provincialism could be creeping into the local
organization’s view.
Many local chapters complained of difficulty with board
development. The
current president of the Dallas chapter indicated that she was
recruited to be president because she generally came to the
meetings and helped out setting up chairs, refreshments, etc.
Another chapter indicated that the president agreed to remain
in office at the end of his term because no one had run for
president. The
theme of difficulty recruiting board members appeared true for
a third to half of the chapters.
Chapters which have strong psychoanalytic institutes
nearby tend to have the greatest difficulty, while chapters
which have no psychoanalytic institutes in their vicinity
tended to have the most active participation.
The two largest local chapters have somewhat
“symbiotic” relationships with nearby institutes.
The Massachusetts chapter uses its proximity to Harvard
and various institutes to its advantage.
For example, they often schedule speakers who are
already coming to Harvard, MIT, etc. or to an institute
nearby. The
university or institute is picking up the tab for travel and
accommodations (sort of like pilot fish to whale).
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